Games

I don’t know if I can honestly say that I have been addicted to a video game. I played Rayman for a good three days back in middle school and had the occasional Pokémon game glued to my hands for a while.  I just don’t see the allure in spending hours of my day pretending to be someone else. That is my thought process when I think about video games and changing the world. I do not understand how using a system that hurts social skills and encourages seclusion can ever really benefit the world as a whole.

I understand that playing video games can help us with certain skills. That makes perfect sense to me. What I don’t understand is how these skills are better than the skills we learn from socializing with the actual world. I also thought it was funny that Mcgonigal mentioned how 10,000 hours makes you a master of a certain skill. I see how this applies to video games, but what about the people who have dedicated 10,000 hours to clean water, or HIV research. Are we saying the video gamers are more qualified than these people to solve these problems? I call shenanigans.

I just don’t think gamers have the right mindset to solve these problems. They aren’t super geniuses with the ability to change the world; they are addicts with a visible problem.  I don’t think the answer is encouraging addicting behavior. I think we should leave these problems to the people who are qualified to solve them.