Video gaming to solve world problems?

            Jane McGonigal makes the claim that video gaming can change the world.  I found the article “Wii Shall Overcome,” an interesting one without a doubt. But then hearing Jane do a TED talk over this idea had me come out with more questions than more answers.

            I commend Jane McGonigal for coming up with such a bold statement, although I do not necessarily agree with everything she had to say, I do think that this was an approach no one has attempted to make and she made some very valid points.  Video games has been taking over our culture for many years now.  With our generation and the upcoming generations being scolded for spending too much time playing video games, rather than playing and being active outside.  I myself am not a gamer, so my view on this may be a little bias, but listening to Jane in class gave me another perspective.  I think that the overall thought to bring another culture/environment of gamers to help solve world problems has the right idea in mind, in the sense that these people spend ample amount of hours playing video games.  With that being said, why not use that time to shift towards something more productive such as solving a serious issue.  But, I think the reality is that people play video games to escape from reality, separating themselves from the real world and the gaming world, in order to play an alternate persona in an alternate world.  I think that gamers would not be able to separate real life and virtual life.  I think that we would be wasting even more time and more money by attempting to do something like this.

            Ultimately, Jane had an original idea with the best intentions, but I think that at the end of the day it is unrealistic to try and mesh the gaming world with real life, in order to solve major problems.