Gaming Can Change The World

On March 18 2010 08:45 Emon_ wrote:
"If we want to end world hunger we need to play more games online. We need to play at least 21 billion hours a week worldwide, as opposed to todays 3 billion hrs/week." It's an interesting and inspirational video. Worth a watch - though doesn't deliver in the evidence department.

We need to reestructure our society so that everything we do is measured in hours, like experience.

And these relationship sites should be all integrated into one big system, where you can take a bunch of tests, and the site would show off your stats.

edit: so if you are going to be hired by someone, he can check your profile and see if you are high level
lol

On March 18 2010 10:40 Rothbardian wrote:
Games are a laughingstock of their former selves. Also, did she really say if you want to end world hunger play more video games? Did she?

Gaming is a leisure activity. Some get paid professionaly to play, just like the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc., but to go beyond that is hilarious. Gaming cannot change the world. I know we are all nerdy biased about this, but do you really think the power elites give a shit if you play some video games? Revolutions are the only things that change the world. Ideas, and philosophy change the world. Video games, do not. You can't have a revolution sitting on your ass :p

Sorry to throw the wrench into everyones dreams

On March 18 2010 10:40 Sere wrote:
A thread that involves a female talking about gaming, and nobody has mentioned anything sexual? I'm impressed. Or maybe I just came into the thread too soon...

Either way, the link in the OP is just a blank page for me. Is there a mirror for this interview, or a transcript somebody could copy/paste?

On March 18 2010 10:58 unsoundlogic wrote:
Here's a link if the page is blank, which it is for me
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dE1DuBesGYM

On March 18 2010 11:10 Halfpastnoob wrote:
Ok so not eat for one day and play games,and the next day the other way around?
Come on you just can't have faith in people to do this.Lady fails pretty hard.

On March 18 2010 11:54 Tenryu wrote:


She was mearly explaining a strategy those people(forgot who they were and dont feel like looking it up) used in desperate times to save themselves which involved games. Obviously nothing like that would happen these days.

Anyways i agree with alot what she says but i also would've loved to hear more about how to corporate the skills us gamers learn from games into real life. And maybe instead of making their own games, try to work out a plan with a large and famous company like Blizzard.

I also didnt like how she left out alot of the stats on their 3 games and the amount of users/time was put into it. She did mention like 8000 people at once for one game though then said look up the stats on google? Doesnt sound too promising =\

In the end she pulled an Obama. All talk and no results =\

On March 18 2010 13:00 StRyKeR wrote:
I don't agree with everything she says, but she brought out a very good point.

If you reward people with the right incentives, they'll spend hours "wasting" their lives on it. If you can just take a real world problem and turn it into Starcraft, people all over the world will spend 21 billion hours a week trying to solve it. The challenge is to find a compromise between complete reality (which gamers often shun) and complete fiction (which doesn't help the world at all).

I just thought of this now, but I think a great example = math competitions. For math nerds like me, it is incredibly satisfying to solve tricky puzzles. I wasn't caring about the world. I wasn't trying to help anyone. Nonetheless, the training I got from those puzzles is helping me solve real world problems, get a job, etc. etc. If anyone viewed math competitions the way I did, they would be addicted to it as well. It just happens that having those skills helps in real life.

On March 18 2010 12:23 tyreek wrote:
"We've been playing Warcraft since 1994, that was the first real time strategy game from the World of Warcraft series"

15:04

So the only game this girl has played is WoW.

And what the fuck is an epic win?

+ Show Spoiler +

On March 19 2010 06:10 Alou wrote:
They can teach you communication, management, and team work. You can learn to communicate better say in Modern Warfare 2 when you're telling a stranger where an enemy is. You can learn how to manage things in Starcraft, figuring out what is more important and what you need now versus later. And you learn team work in just about any co-op/multiplayer game. Games can definitely help you learn some valuable skills.

On March 18 2010 13:20 Cloud wrote:


You mean like adding a tv news show? Or placing a starving african child on the back of your teen magazine? Or a satirical novel?

It has been done over and over and it hasn't worked for shit. People just don't like facing reality. They are only rational when they're playing a game, reading a novel or drowning in a gallon of whisky. Yet they turn into some kind of blind, dumb, deaf and mature zombie when facing reality.

On March 19 2010 06:18 Hawk wrote:
All of the benefits discussed by her are more readily obtained by plenty of other activities, specifically ones that don't lend itself to a sedentary lifestyle like video games. Not to mention, they're probably more applicable to every day life.



You can learn to communicate by playing lacrosse, talking with teammates to play better. You can learn management by playing quarterback. These basic elements can be found in a ton of things. It's a really, really abstract way to get all these skills she talks about and somehow change the world.

On March 19 2010 06:31 neVern wrote:
I quit listening right when this liberal brought up climate change.

On March 19 2010 06:40 muta_micro wrote:
And because they are using those skills in WoW only, those people running those intense guilds will never use any of that organizing ability in RL. WoW is a bad game

On March 19 2010 06:34 eMbrace wrote:


If only people realized just how crazy a job running a guild in WoW can be. Not just a casual guild, I'm talking top 10 on the server.

Meetings, scheduling, treating people fairly, making sure people don't feel left out, dealing with drama, resolving arguments, making big decisions, merging, deciding who gets cut and who gets recruited, loot systems etc...

On March 19 2010 06:49 muta_micro wrote:
I meant generally. If you say it benefitted you then I believe you, but most people playing at that level don't really have any administrative positions that use those skills in RL.

On March 19 2010 06:50 Hawk wrote:


Yeah, but it's still a really, really abstract set of skills. More than any gaming community, WoW has a bunch of socially inept weirdos. There's a HUGE difference in running a guild online and sitting in an office, trying to do all that same shit with a room of 40 people who are right in your face. Like it's really not even comparable.

There's many more practical ways to get those skills, in areas that would be more applicable to whatever the hell you're trying to accomplish. Coordinating meetings between a bunch of people who probably never move 10 feet from their computer and resolving disputes between two angry nerds ain't gonna help you change the world.

On March 19 2010 06:55 eMbrace wrote:


That's not what I was really getting at. Most employers love leadership experience (because I guess it shows responsibility), regardless of the position in question.

I'll agree that the majority of WoW players are borderline retarded and that 95% of guild leaders do their jobs terribly. But I think if you can make a case about your experience, and explain everything that you've learned to deal with in a game -- then that should be just as impressive as "uh yeah I was captain of my soccer team."

I love sports but what they do for kids is extremely over exaggerated in today's culture. More often then not it brings out the worst sides of them.

On March 19 2010 06:59 eMbrace wrote:


My theory may sound nuts here and by all means ignore it -- but I've always had this theory that my WoW buddies found really interesting.

Great WoW end-game players (the leaders, the contributors, the people who get shit done), when you meet them in real life, are some of the more social people you will meet in your life time. And it only makes sense because you need those social skills to herd the rest of the WoW sheep together to get things done efficiently.

Best WoW players I've talked to are incredibly down to earth people with organized lives. And yet the people who spent 60 hours a week in the game are strangely terrible players with poor attitude and a self centered outlook on the game. That stereotypical, socially awkward guy who thinks he's a god in his MMO?

Yeah, he's terrible.

On March 19 2010 07:00 muta_micro wrote:


I don't think any employer would ever seriously consider being a guild leader in WoW as leadership experience, unless you have charisma boosting items on you then you may have a chance to convince him.
...Is charisma even in WoW???

On March 19 2010 07:07 muta_micro wrote:


And I refuse to believe that the "best" WoW end gamers are as you describe them, since they are the ones who are logging like 60 hours a week. (the very best log 60 hours a day its true) WoW "success" is only gained by logging a huge amount of hours a week, so consequently the very "best" are the least social in real life.

On March 19 2010 07:08 eMbrace wrote:


Very much so as oral communication is key in getting things done efficiently. Listen, I know there's the heavy negative bias towards gaming and most players of games like WoW really aren't very special at all and I wouldn't hire them either.

But the fact remains that if you really feel something has given you the edge over other applicants, you should put it on there. And let's be honest, most of the stuff people put on there is bullshit like, "Being the leader of my school's cultural club as been a gateway for me to learn about the world's problems and how we can accept each others differences in order to solve then."

When you know full well all you did was throw pizza parties after school and put "culturally relevant" posters up around the hallways.

I've put gaming experience on applications and resumes before, not just to tack things on but because if they honestly wanted to question me about them I'd be ready to blow them away. It never had to come up in the interviews but I've gotten part times jobs and positions in school organizations that I've wanted with that stuff on there.

On March 19 2010 07:10 eMbrace wrote:


Then you clearly have no experience with the game, as I've led a top guild and cleared all content on a weekly basis in under 15 hours a week. People who spend 60 just don't have lives or don't know what they're doing.

lol

Really, you'd be surprised on how easy the game is when you have a guild that knows what its doing.

On March 19 2010 07:16 muta_micro wrote:


You would spend 60 hours a week looking for people who knew what they were doing.

On March 19 2010 07:22 eMbrace wrote:


while building the guild is indeed a challenging part of the process -- it's called multitasking.

really though, why are you trying to rip on a game you have limited experience with?

On March 19 2010 07:27 muta_micro wrote:


Because WoW isn't something to be taken seriously. Honestly how can one not rip on it?

On March 19 2010 06:18 Hawk wrote:
All of the benefits discussed by her are more readily obtained by plenty of other activities, specifically ones that don't lend itself to a sedentary lifestyle like video games. Not to mention, they're probably more applicable to every day life.



You can learn to communicate by playing lacrosse, talking with teammates to play better. You can learn management by playing quarterback. These basic elements can be found in a ton of things. It's a really, really abstract way to get all these skills she talks about and somehow change the world.

On March 19 2010 07:34 eMbrace wrote:


Right so lets treat highschool soccer captains like business men.

This is about leisure activities helping you with areas in life. If you want real experience -- get a job.

On March 19 2010 07:34 eMbrace wrote:


Right so lets treat highschool soccer captains like business men.

This is about leisure activities helping you with areas in life. If you want real experience -- get a job.

On March 19 2010 08:06 muta_micro wrote:


lol when did I ever say physical sports are superior?? ppl who play games are definetly superior because we're smarter generally. But i definetly have to say soccer players>WoW players, and SC players are the ubermensch.

On March 19 2010 08:08 Hawk wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

When did anyone advocate doing this? The closest anyone said was me, saying that sports are better because there's actual social interaction, but even still it's terribly abstract in terms of turning those skills into saving the world or whatever..... Tiger Woods is going to fuck you wife, not cure cancer.

On March 19 2010 08:06 muta_micro wrote:
+ Show Spoiler +

lol when did I ever say physical sports are superior?? ppl who play games are definetly superior because we're smarter generally. But i definetly have to say soccer players>WoW players, and SC players are the ubermensch.

On March 19 2010 08:12 Alou wrote:
Games have social interaction. Do people not talk and strategize on TeamSpeak or Ventrilo? It may not be face to face, but you don't need to see someone to interact with them. Interaction through a computer is still interaction.

On March 19 2010 08:12 Alou wrote:
Games have social interaction. Do people not talk and strategize on TeamSpeak or Ventrilo? It may not be face to face, but you don't need to see someone to interact with them. Interaction through a computer is still interaction.

On March 19 2010 08:22 CommanderFluffy wrote:


The social interaction through a computer screen, a microphone are all very different from interacting with someone face to face. You miss out on a huge part of human interaction that is body language.

On March 19 2010 08:21 RosaParksStoleMySeat wrote:
I am more interested in the effect that games have on cognitive development. I'd like to hear about some neurobiology studies on left and right hemisphere involvement in the playing of certain games. I'd like to see the levels of brain activity while playing games compared to activity levels involved in other activities such as watching television, surfing the Internet casually, and studying.

One issue that I have with her work is that these in-game attitudes do not necessarily apply to real-life. If there is research indicating that they do, then she has a real slam dunk of an argument. If not, then she needs to go back to the drawing board.

On March 19 2010 08:30 Manifesto7 wrote:


You might be interested in part of the sarcraft progaming documentary done by national geographic (which is on youtube, and was done by the member "The Storyteller" on TL). It goes into the brain activity of progamers.

On March 18 2010 13:20 Cloud wrote:


You mean like adding a tv news show? Or placing a starving african child on the back of your teen magazine? Or a satirical novel?

It has been done over and over and it hasn't worked for shit. People just don't like facing reality. They are only rational when they're playing a game, reading a novel or drowning in a gallon of whisky. Yet they turn into some kind of blind, dumb, deaf and mature zombie when facing reality.

On March 19 2010 08:22 anch wrote:
The lady puts too much positive effect on playing WoW.
I understand WoW does give coordination and social skills but that's only if you are top of the management. Underlings follow order because they want to stay in the guild, just as a employee follow his order to keep his job. I dont see how playing 1 more hour per day can change anything.
Games are still games, it cant just teach kids algebra and reasoning of the real world. Its not like "hey if we screw up this financial project (raid) we can always try again tomorrow".

I know my arguement are weak, just want to point it out.

On March 19 2010 12:36 Judicator wrote:


I don't think she does; she more or less emphasis points that are often ignored by critics of WoW and when the "positives" of WoW/gaming are explored it more often than not leads to the success of the game in terms of player base, profits, or how it changed the field. In other words, there's a clear distinction that is drawn between the gaming world and real world when in fact the distinction hasn't been as clear for I would guess the last 20 years. She's in essence making that argument in an exaggerated way.

Going along with WoW, individuals in the (average) raiding guilds quickly learn a few things; not everyone tries their best, not everyone has the best intentions of the guild in mind , not everyone respect and/or like you based on their opinion regardless of how trivial or senseless it maybe, and etc. On the other hand, it's hardly an accurate portrayal of the real world (whatever you want to define that as), but it certainly shares some parallels that are very similar.

Also, there is the danger of over-extrapolating/overstating of the apparent facts in a situation like this.

Lastly, there are a few studies now that show certain video games improve some aspects of cognitive functions like memory and spatial learning as well as teamwork, organization, and etc. So its not all games are just games. Tetris has been used for neurological studies more frequently this past decade.

On March 19 2010 23:43 GGTeMpLaR wrote:
I would have turned it off after 5-10 minutes if I didn't think she was a cutie

pretty sure this is like a speech project or something related to public speaking (after seeing the end logo, it IS basically some public speaking program/school) and she just happened to pick what she thought would be an "easy topic/easy A" or "something she would enjoy working on"

she made as many logical fallacies as a politician

On March 20 2010 04:43 Railxp wrote:
She used some far-fetched exaggerations to make her point, but we are all gamers here and have all seen those starcraft-applied-to-girl-problems threads.

On March 20 2010 05:32 tissue wrote:
Gaming has lots of transferable skills... if you are 9 years old, or lack a logically functioning mind.

Also failure in a game has less impact, you just dust yourself off and try again - it's just a game, after all. Failure in real life can have huge social, economic, and emotional consequences. For every epic win achieved, don't forget the endless amounts of epic fail.

On March 19 2010 23:59 Alou wrote:


It's TED. It's a convention where people go and talk about whatever they want. Tons of brilliant people are invited and you only get in with an invitation. And she isn't a student. She's been designing games for years. I've played one and they are pretty interesting.

On March 20 2010 05:41 CharlieMurphy wrote:

I thought some of the people had to pay thousands of dollars to go to events and even more if they were doing a speech.

On March 19 2010 08:14 Manifesto7 wrote:
Stuff like this is pretty tepid. It is interaction, but so is buying my gas, working on a school project, or organizing a family dinner. There is only so much stock you can put in these types of "learning situations".

On March 20 2010 17:14 BladeRunner wrote:
Wow I'm surprised no one else had the same impression I did.. I don't think the idea is to transfer skills from games to real life, the point is to change the world. Change behavior, change real life by introducing a smidge more virtual.

On March 21 2010 02:57 Neivler wrote:


It is not so much about that. It is more about how we can take the focus and the fealing as she descibed as "feeling that there is nothing you cant do, and never giving up". Take those to toghether (the focus and the never giving up mentalety) and steer them towards something usefull. That is what she want to do. And since there are so many that are good at this, she wants to use these ppl as a rescurce to help the world.