Jane McGonigal

One thing that I do not like about Jane McGonigal’s theory is that she cannot explain how this will happen. She believes that people can take the feeling of an epic win in a game and use that motivation to go out and change the world. I don’t agree with this. For one thing, people don’t like to put in effort into anything; everyone wants to take the easy road. Making a difference in the world takes effort. Also, people get so wrapped up in virtual video game worlds; not at all like the reality. People get a false sense of accomplishment, but outside of their gaming system, they don’t have any impact on the world. A gamer is not going to go from fiction to the real world and take the same chances. In a video game, people aren’t afraid because they can always start over, pause, use another life. In everyday life, you don’t get to do that. People know this, so they are not going to take the chances in real life because in some cases it may be actual life or death.

McGonigal says she has a plan, but she doesn’t ever say how someone can change the world from video game accomplishments. She also wants people to spend more time playing video games. All this would do is result in more wasted time; time that could otherwise be spent making a difference in tackling the problems in real life. I just don’t think that video games hold the answers to real life situations.