Connections of Gaming - Blog 8
One reason why people play games that was discussed in the week's article, "Why We Play" by Rusel De Maria, was the want for social contact. Social contact was discussed as a psychological factor in the reading based on peoples want to created a social fabric and bonds with other individuals or a group. In Jane McGonigal's Ted talk, she also discussed social contact. She explained it as an assisting factor towards the effort of saving the world. Jane told us that it would assist that by using peoples want of social contact to collaborate, cooperate, and get many people to work together for one goal, to eventually achieve an epic win. Like the article, Jane explained that the trust we gain from spending time playing games produced strong social relationships.
Another reason why people play games is because of the aspect of story telling. The article explained that this meant to not only be involved in game play, but to be in control of an outcome. People like the story telling aspect because of role it had in in human evolution (i.e. the teaching of history and moral values to future generations). Jane McGonigal brings this up in her ted talk by showing us how it could help take action in the real world. Jane explains the in our current state of story telling gaming with a direct influence on the outcome of a story-game, we could transform this into a real-world use by applying it to real-world issues that could assist in making gamers realize a more epic meaning to games while also encouraging urgent optimism towards those real-world issues.
Another reason why people play games is because of the aspect of story telling. The article explained that this meant to not only be involved in game play, but to be in control of an outcome. People like the story telling aspect because of role it had in in human evolution (i.e. the teaching of history and moral values to future generations). Jane McGonigal brings this up in her ted talk by showing us how it could help take action in the real world. Jane explains the in our current state of story telling gaming with a direct influence on the outcome of a story-game, we could transform this into a real-world use by applying it to real-world issues that could assist in making gamers realize a more epic meaning to games while also encouraging urgent optimism towards those real-world issues.
I think that social contact is an important aspect of playing games. Not only is gaming a social group activity, but it can lead to much more. It can give people a sense of belonging, uniting them with a group of others with the same interest. Playing games also presents the opportunity to meet other people, as well, through the game. People are brought closer through the common goal of winning.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that story telling is an important aspect, I think all humans like knowing that they have the power to decide how their story gets told. I totally think that using video games that tell a meaningful story can help create real change in the world, not a monumental change but it would get people to start having discussions on what we can change in the real world.
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