Throughout the course of my life, and throughout the many years of enjoyment I have had in online gaming communities, I have always felt a driving need to make a difference in the world. I've always wondered how my passion for gaming and virtual fantasy worlds could be useful for something more than gathering "epics," attaining myriads of online "achievements," crafting virtual armor and helping my guild mates with enchants and various crafted items, going along in groups to heal or dps, and all the other things I have done in virtual worlds to carve out a niche for myself in those virtual societies.
Recently I ran across a lecture on TED by Jane McGonigal, entitled, "Gaming Can Make a Better World." Watching this video led me on an internet search for games (and gamers) that wanted to use their unique games and gaming skills for something good...for something that makes a difference in the real world.
At first, the entire idea seemed laughable, even to me, and I'm pretty open-minded. In the first moments I was listening to Ms. McGonigal speak, I thought, "No. No way. How can anyone that plays GAMES possibly make a difference in this real world we have to live in the rest of the time?" You see...people who play MMOs, massive multi-player online games, generally spend what others might consider to be an unusual amount of time on the internet "in" these games. They can be time consuming for those of us that aren't casual players, but rather more "hardcore" in our time investment.
As I continued to listen, read, and even sign up to play EVOKE, one of McGonigal's games, I began to see that it wasn't a laughable or ludicrous idea at all, but rather a brilliant realization of what a massive and predominantly untapped source of real world and virtual skills we gamers represent. My mind flooded with ideas that had never crossed my mind before in all of my years gaming. For instance, here are a couple of ways gamers can impact the real world through skills they have amassed in virtual worlds:
Idea #1: What if we could get a game developer or publisher like Blizzard to sponsor a game event such as donating to a worthy world cause, let's say a dollar, for every friend that we get to sign up to play World of Warcraft for one month? Or....
Idea #2: What if we could inspire a developer or publisher to run a resource gathering event, that for all of the ore, lumber (in some games), or cookable food items each player harvested over a set course of time, those REAL world items (or a percentage of the actual amount harvested in game) would be donated to a worthy cause?
NOTE:
My son and his best friend happened to walk in while I was blogging and asked what I was blogging about. My son isn't really a gamer, but his best friend, Garrett is....and when I shared Ms. McGonigal's video lecture with him and told him what I was blogging about....he got very excited.
You see, gamers are not all the slackers that many assume them to be. Many of them are bright articulate people. As a matter of fact, over the years, I have played online games with several doctors and attorneys. The online gaming population is much more diverse than many realize.
I am personally very excited about the unique untapped potential I see in online games and the inhabitants of those virtual worlds. This blog is, for now, going to serve as a journal of sorts, to share my experiences playing EVOKE. Why not come join me?
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