RIB 9&10 (Wogan)
I strongly disagree with McGonigal’s “Fix #9” in chapter 9 of Reality is Broken. McGonigal declares that: “Compared with games reality is lonely and isolating. Games help us band together and create powerful communities from scratch.” In the context of the chapter given the emphasis on more social games, I can understand why McGonigal would make such a claim. The games she describes in this chapter, Comfort of Strangers, Ghosts of a Chance, and Bounce, all emphasize social interaction in their own ways. Comfort of Strangers allows for players to interact in person in a large, urban settings but on a very limited level with superficial questions like “Are you a dancer or a lover?” Ghosts of chance revolved around the creation of new Smithsonian exhibit and the vast majority of social interaction for it occurred in online chat forums. Out of the three games, Bounce is probably the most interactive. In Bounce, players are connected on the phone to a person whose age is at least 20 years from their own. However, conversation is prompted by different questions generated by a computer program and points are tallied at the end based on your responses; I believe this gamifies conversation and removes authenticity from the interaction. While these games may be effective tools for overcoming isolation for others, I think that using technology as a crutch to interact with only those who are using the same crutch is isolating unto itself.
I found McGonigal’s concept of “Happiness Hacking” in chapter 10 to be a poor attempt at rebranding what most would call “common sense.” For example, McGonigal lists random acts of kindness for strangers, reflecting on the importance of our lives, and dancing as “hacks” for happiness, but I wholeheartedly think that just about anyone that has stepped outside of their house for any modicum of time and has interacted with a handful of people could synthesize the same information (no Ph. D needed). However, I do concede that I agree with McGonigal when she says that “anyone can dream up and share new solutions to the happiness challenges of everyday life. I maintain that there is little to nothing unique about McGonigal’s strategies to hack happiness; happiness is subject to the eye of the beholder.
I agree with Wogan on his hesitation towards completely relying on games. I think if people become too dependent on games, as an escape from reality, the effects could be negative. In looking for a solution to this issue, I think people should look in reality for answers to our problems and use games as a supplement.