waffle

Jane McGonigal talks about the useful values of gaming. Jane might be a rare case of someone who can talk about this without making it into a goofy spectacle.

There’s something else interesting going on. Jane took what most people think of as a waste of time, and what some people justify as useful relaxation and turned it into the development of skills and resources. I’ve never been a cynic, but I’ve always been able to sympathize with them on occasion. Right now, it doesn’t take a cynic to cast “people sitting literally playing games all day long” as throwing their time and money away. Even those who are involved in it see that side of it, and weigh it up with personal satisfaction; most of us have gotten used to it, but very few people have seen value in it. I’ll confess that I didn’t.

I’ve been involved knee-deep with online communities, and mostly I’ve come away with a negative net experience and a promise to myself that I wouldn’t go back. But it stands to reason that anything that can scar you that bad can also be used in the opposite direction. There’s a lot of leverage to be used. Improving at tasks and learning new skills doesn’t have to end at winning in the pretend world.

I’m not a cynic. I’m not an optimist either. But I do believe that we owe it to ourselves, whatever it is we’re doing, to not put up walls, to not assume failure. People will rise to a challenge if that’s what’s expected of them. You will learn how to do what you do better if that’s what you expect of yourself. This doesn’t have to do with tricking an invisible system or the Universe or karma; it doesn’t have to do with subscribing to a theory or a newsletter, buying a book or hiring a speaker. It has to do with ambition and hard work.