Games Can Change Your Life

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Jane McGonigal, game designer and all around fantastic person, asked this question during a keynote speech, "When we are on our deathbeds, will we regret the hours we spent playing games?" The entire speech is good but the remarks in question start at the 8 minute mark.
 
No, I would have never been able to do some of the things I had done in a game, although i would love to go motor racing, the missus won't let me go for that dream, so if anything I will still regret not doing the things I dreamed of doing.
 
Games inspire young people to purchase the next new game version(s). After four years of sitting in front of my MS Flight Simulator, I realized how many years I was wasting improving my pilot abilities... fact I will never own an aircraft nor actually fly one. :eek: Duh! I was an addict and in need of rehab, cold turkey, uninstalled the software, removed the yoke and throttle quadrant... gave it to a younger person. Hee-hee! :D Today, I spend most of my quality time outdoors doing photography and I have even made money selling my prints! ;) Games didn't make me happy, being outdoors made me very happy and I'm in better health for it too! :)
 
Since I usually only played popular, competitive games, I would say no. All that time spent mastering build orders in Starcraft, building teamwork in Counterstrike, playing footsies in Street Fighter, was not a waste.

Besides building up specific gaming knowledge, I learned applicable problem solving skills, optimization techniques, etc., and a "play to win" mentality that can pretty much be applied to anything.

Oh and of course I learned to be a part of a community with people who share the same interests and goals, since the games I played were meant to be played with others.
 
If there's one thing I'll regret doing with my time when I'm dying, it's probably watching a 40+ minute video in which someone is attempting to be profound who just isn't that good at it.
 
No chit...

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I attended one of her speeches at a Cerner (health care software) conference. It was fantastic!
 
Brilliant presentation.

Agree with about 90% of what she says.

Games bridge gaps just like any other form of
entertainment. Sharing and incorporating others
is what gives them staying power, just like books
and watching / sharing a TV show or a movie with someone
does.
 
She stated the obvious things we already knew. The fact that it had a pro-gaming slant, which is rare, is what I think is catching attention and praise, perhaps in excess over what it deserves.
 
SkribbelKat said:
She stated the obvious things we already knew. The fact that it had a pro-gaming slant, which is rare, is what I think is catching attention and praise, perhaps in excess over what it deserves.
Click to expand...

She's also doing the research and connecting the dots in a professional and peer-reviewable manner, which is a major step towards legitimizing what most cognitive gamers already sense to be true. I certainly appreciate her work to define and understand the tangible benefits offered by video games.
 
:cool:Life is just a game.
:rolleyes:Plus, “Games can Change” rhymes, so it might make a good keyword gimmick for selling you some crap.
 
SkribbelKat said:
She stated the obvious things we already knew. The fact that it had a pro-gaming slant, which is rare, is what I think is catching attention and praise, perhaps in excess over what it deserves.
Click to expand...

I had a pro game slant starting out in life , got my first system when I was 5. I've always had video games in my life and its only enhanced it. It's introduced me to hundreds of interesting people and dozens I keep in touch with regularly and it's even stretched into more personal parts of my life. Honestly , people claiming that games are a waste of time are just indoctrinated into believing as such because a peer or parent has drilled it into there head. I feel pity for people like that , games are an very healthy way to tap into your own psyche and grow as a human being in the process.

I think people who deprive themselves of that fantasy aspect of gaming , being able to personify an inner fantasy in the form of a digital avatar , tend to be miserable people. I'm not implying that people who don't game are therefore dysfunctional but are in fact not using the brain effectively to deal with issues that can cause some of the worst emotions in life.

I remember reading recently that the US Army has discovered in studies done vet's with heavy PTS that if they play a certain amount of Tetris per day that there PTS symptoms are drastically reduced over time cutting there episodes in some cases by as much as 95 percent. I believe the average was around 70-75 percent. To me that is just one case out of many that show even the simplest of games can truly benefit some of the most inflicted people out there.
 
I'm not at all saying she's presenting invalid information or has a valueless presentation. I'm just saying that we (me included even though I consider myself a "lite" gamer at best) should be mindful that our opinions are influenced by our stronger feelings toward gaming in general as beneficial and useful.

Honestly though, almost everyone out there plays games of some sort either on a PC, console, or phone. It's not the basement dweller nerds only thing it used to be thanks to the widespread nature of electronics in our daily lives. When I was growing up, I loved my consoles and later the PC for its games, but most of my friends wouldn't have understood my interest. I can credit games for making me want to tinker with computers and getting me into the career I'm in now. That doesn't mean I'm going to fall all over myself to nod like a bobblehead stuck to the dashboard of a car that's speeding over a dirt road because someone else is putting my own thoughts into their words.
 
to answer her question, i'll be logged into some mmo probably world of warcraft IV running around killing horde on my deathbed
 
SkribbelKat said:
Honestly though, almost everyone out there plays games of some sort either on a PC, console, or phone.
Click to expand...

Yep, and even those who don't play games are still "wasting" time on other stuff. People wasting time is nothing new, we have always found amusements/entertainment to enjoy (TV, radio, novels, sports, etc) in our down time. Videogames are just a relatively new form of this.

Too much of anything can be bad of course, but that applies to everything. Even working too much reduces productivity (as numerous studies have shown), as counter-intuitive as it may seem.
 
SkribbelKat said:
If there's one thing I'll regret doing with my time when I'm dying, it's probably watching a 40+ minute video in which someone is attempting to be profound who just isn't that good at it.
Click to expand...

ZZZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZ. Wha? Oh, too long, didn't watch...
 
MR._PUNKINHEAD said:
ZZZZZZZzzzzzZZZZZzzzzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzZZZ. Wha? Oh, too long, didn't watch...
Click to expand...

It wasn't really that great. At the end, there's a comment about 'Oh the circle is in the wrong place. I guess that's what happens tee-hee-hee when you go from a MAC to a PC'.

....Mac....Looks at presenators rather odd clothing style that seems to be the opposite of the professional image she's trying to project. Yes. Mac.
 
Blah blah blah, everyone needs to stand up and act all profound at some point. I know some people who read books wasting time at a rate 10 times what I put into games. And the type of books they read are pure garbage.
And lets face it everybody will have regrets on their deathbed. They may not be from games, hell maybe games actually prevented some people from having greater regrets.

That being said if you feel convicted about this speech and throw away any decent gaming hardware please PM me.
 
Can anyone give a nice quick summary? I watched about half. I got that "games can help you" and "i made the game that does help you"..... but not a whole lot else.

I think the only reason I made it half way was because my co worker was behind me complaining about it while making fun of it... and I just wondered how long til he tells me to shut it off. I gave up before he did >.>
 
It's not the games, it's all the pointless benchmarking some folks do.

Oh thats such a waste of life and power.
 
Along the same lines... The research being done on a neurological level on the effects of gaming, texting & general internet use and how these (re)shape the brain is quite fascinating.
 
The money quote "Jane McGonigal, game designer and all around fantastic person."

Translation: I find her hot and I fapped, fapped, fapped to this video.
 
Wow, I had to try to watch this because someone said she was hot. Not much in my humble opinion but worse than that, I could not listen to that miserable drivel that she was spewing....and I realized something.
I refused to listen to it because I knew it was BS. Because I don't waste time on BS I have a little extra time to game. People who do not game consume a lot more BS than I do. I am therefore better off.
 
Sorry. But it is a load of over intellectualized crap.
And the notions are misguided.
There is NO NEED to seek to legitimize game playing or being a "gaming buff"; no different from a movie buff, or someone who likes fishing or astronomy.
Gaming is a legitimate form of entertainment because there are $$$ in it for the enterprising persons. Just like movies, just like any other pastime for you to market a product to.
Any stigma carried for watching movies often? What about watching TV often?
But a gamer carries the label as a "loser" in many people's mind. This is because it has the stigma of being a waste of time.
Honestly how is it anymore a 'waste of time' than any other hobby?
In my opinion this stigma is ginned up by the mass media and the movie industry.
Games playing that eats up discretionary income and time takes away from movie watching and butt time in front of the TV watching ads. I watch one of Hollywood's highest acclaimed films the other night with great anticipation because it was so greatly hyped, winning many awards. I'm glad I got it on Blu-Ray from NetFlix and didn't shell out $$$ and watched it in the theater. I would have really felt ripped off then! That film was War Horse and that film was awful!! I need to see Hollywood making the cause that the film industry as it is today is legitimate to one's life.

N'uff Said
 
So I was curious and looked he up on wiki. Jane's made a dozen or so games and I could not find them on metacritic.
 
Why must one wait until they're on their death beds? Why must it also be about video games? The same can be applied to video games, sleeping in, reading books, working hard to make a career, masturbation, whatever... as they say grass is always greener on the other side.

It always seems more appealing to do something that you're not doing, I'm sure the guy who regrets playing video games instead of chasing girls in high school also has someone who regrets chasing girls in high school and wishes he had more time for personal fun.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Why must one wait until they're on their death beds? Why must it also be about video games? The same can be applied to video games, sleeping in, reading books, working hard to make a career, masturbation, whatever... as they say grass is always greener on the other side.

It always seems more appealing to do something that you're not doing, I'm sure the guy who regrets playing video games instead of chasing girls in high school also has someone who regrets chasing girls in high school and wishes he had more time for personal fun.
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Man, when you list them all out like that I am starting to feel really bad. Life is nothing but regrets isn't it?
The Buddha said the meaning of life is suffering. Not too far off is he?
Perhaps Jane's video is thinly veiled philosophy?
 
I'd just like to note: her hidden goal was to increase everyone in the room's life by 7.5 minutes.


Her talk was an hour long.
 
Phoenix333 said:
I'm immortal so it's not a concern to me.
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Oh sure, keep rubbing the whole "reborn from ashes thing to rise up upon a pillar of fire" thing in our faces. :( Just don't forget that SOMEONE has to clean your bird cage sooner or later and it won't be you because we all know that a phoenix doesn't have opposable thumbs!
 
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