kathleen johnson's List: gaming and games

• Q: What is Superstruct?
    A: Superstruct is the world's first massively multiplayer forecasting game. By playing the game, you'll help us chronicle the world of 2019--and imagine how we might solve the problems we'll face. Because this is about more than just envisioning the future. It's about making the future, inventing new ways to organize the human race and augment our collective human potential.

• Right now we spend three billion hours a week       playing online games
• according to my research,       at The Institute For The Future,       it's actually the opposite is true.       Three billion hours a week is not nearly enough       game play to solve the world's most urgent problems.
• In fact, I believe that if we want to survive       the next century
• we need       at 21 billion hours of game play every week.
• This is what I call the "I'm Not Good At Life" face.       And this is actually me making it. Can you see? Yes. Good.       This is actually me making the "I'm Not Good At Life" face.       This is a piece of graffiti in my old neighborhood       in Berkeley, California, where I did my PhD       on why we're better in games than we are in real life.       And this is a problem that a lot of gamers have.       We feel that we are not as good in reality as we are in games.
• We do achieve more in game worlds. But I also       but I also mean good as in       motivated to do something that matters,       inspired to collaborate and to cooperate.       And when we're in game worlds       I believe that many of us become       the best version of ourselves, the most likely to help at a moment's notice,       the most likely to stick with a problem       as long at it takes, to get up after failure and try again.       And in real life, when we face failure,       when we confront obstacles, we often don't feel that way.       We feel overcome.       We feel overwhelmed.       We feel anxious, maybe depressed, frustrated or cynical.       We never have those feelings when we're playing games,       they just don't exist in games.       So, that's what I wanted to study       when I was a graduate student.
• So, the first thing is, whenever you show up in one of these online games       especially in World of Warcraft,       there are lots and lots of different characters       who are willing to trust you with a world-saving mission, right away.
• there is no unemployment in World of Warcraft.
• Now, the problem with collaborative online environments       like World of Warcraft       is that it's so satisfying       to be on the verge of an epic win all the time,       that we decide to spend all our time in these game worlds.       It's just better than reality.       So, so far, collectively all the World of Warcraft gamers       have spent 5.93 million years       solving the virtual problems of Azeroth
• .93 million years ago       was when our earliest primate human ancestors stood up.       That was the first upright primate.
• Okay, so when we talk about how much time we're currently investing       in playing games, the only way it makes sense       to even think about it, is to talk about time       at the magnitude of human evolution,       which is an extraordinary thing.       But it's also apt. Because it turns out       that by spending all this time playing games,       we are actually changing what we       are capable of as human beings.       We are evolving to be a more collaborative and hearty species.
• The average young person today       in a country with a strong gamer culture       will have spent 10,000 hours playing online games,       by the age of 21
• 10,080 hours is the exact amount of time       you will spend in school       from fifth grade to high school graduation       if you have perfect attendance
• if we can master 10,000 hours       at effortful study, at anything       by the age of 21, we will be virtuosos at it.
• So, the big question is,       "What exactly are gamers getting so good at?"       Because if we could figure that out       we would have a virtually unprecedented       human resource on our hands.
• first is urgent optimism.
• build stronger social relationships
• Blissful productivity
• Finally, epic meaning.
• So, you all know Wikipedia, biggest wiki in the world.       Second biggest wiki, in the world, with nearly 80,000 articles       is the World of Warcraft wiki.
• Gamers are super-empowered hopeful individuals
• They can have stronger social relationships       in games than they can have in real life.       They get better feedback and feel more rewarded       in games than they do in real life.
• But in our game, instead of just having five people       on the dream team, we said everybody is on the dream team,       and it's your job to invent the future of energy,       the future of food, the future of health,       the future of security and the future of the social safety net.       We had 8,000 people play that game for eight weeks.       They came up with 500 insanely creative solutions       that you can go online, if you Google "Superstruct"
• This is a game done with the World Bank Institute.       If you complete the game you will be certified       by the World Bank Institute,       as a Social Innovator, class of 2010.       Working with universities all over sub-Saharan Africa,       And we are inviting them to learn social innovation skills.       We've got a graphic novel. We've got leveling up       in skills like local insight, knowledge networking,       sustainability, vision, and resourcefulness.       I would like to invite all of you       to please share this game with young people,       anywhere in the world, particularly in developing areas,       who might benefit from coming together       to try to start to imagine their own       social enterprises to save the world.
• Well I hope that you will agree with me       that gamers are a human resource       that we can use to do real-world work,       that games are a powerful platform for change.       We have all these amazing superpowers,       blissful productivity, the ability       to weave a tight social fabric,       this feeling of urgent optimism, and the desire for epic meaning.

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