Jane McGonigal: Did she make a good argument?

Dr. Jane McGonigal has devoted her work to try and solve real world problems through virtual gaming.  She finished her PhD and has created games with real life situations in order to build a main goal for everyone to work together to achieve.  She made a convincing argument as to how gaming can help escape real world problems like hunger, obesity, poverty, climate change, and global conflict.  Dr. McGonigal states that 3 billion hours a week are spent playing games, and that number needs to increase to 21 billion hours.  Gamers put trust into people they have never met in order to work together to achieve a main goal. People that play games are motivated to do something that matters.  They have intense concentration and deep focus which results in motivation to tackle their problems.  Gamers experience what is called an “epic win” which is an outcome in which they had no idea it was possible until they achieve it.  Dr. McGonigal goes off of the idea of an epic win, and believes that we can experience this in real life to solve actual problems.  Game makers never give you a challenge that is impossible to achieve, which is why the population of gamers spends so much time gaming. There is no “unemployment” phase in gaming, and she thinks that this helps people set their goals high and not be shut down by society.  I believe that Dr. McGonigal has made a very convincing argument about how gaming can help to solve real world problems.  She backed up her arguments with facts, and made very valid points.  Although she made a persuasive argument, I don’t necessarily agree with it.  I like her idea of trying to change the world through gaming, but I think it’s far-fetched.  When an oil shortage actually occurs in the world, the population won’t be prepared for it just by playing a game that is along the same lines.  The world will have to face it’s problems as they come, and not try so hard to prepare for them when they don’t know exactly what is coming.