Want to save the world? Play videogames more. That’s what director of game R&D at the Institute for the Future Jane McGonigal is saying you need to do.
In a speech given at TED 2010, a conference where smart people spread smart ideas, she argues that if humanity played 21 billion hours of games every week we would pick up the skills required to solve all the world’s problems. She even calls gamers “super-empowered hopeful individuals” because when gaming we have an actual drive to overcome challenges and a belief that we can accomplish anything. It is when we switch to reality that we lose these beliefs.
The solution? Achievements for reality. If you apply the reward system of games to reality people start changing the world in order to get to what she awesomely calls an “epic win.” The complete strategy to unlocking world peace is revealed in the video below.
Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world [TED]
[Thanks, Jonathan C.]
