RIB 13-14

Ten thousand hours. 10,000. That is a ridiculous amount of hours spent gaming. I can’t comprehend playing that many hours total, but I can’t say I’d be surprised if I have either reached or surpassed that milestone. This number is only bound to increase as the years progress as technology continues to have a bigger impact on everyday life. Collaboration in gaming has continued to increase as well, through MMO’s and strategic shooters such as, and taken as the example from the book, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (the best COD). Although I beg to differ that the Battlefield franchise requires more collaboration for victory, MW2 was the main game I played with my friends and with certain game modes (ex. Capture The Flag, Domination, Search & Destroy) we did need to collaborate in order to complete the objectives of the game.

Now of course we can not thoroughly translate the real world into games. However we can make an effort to show different scenarios, such as that of World Without Oil. Depicting what would happen if the world was to run out of a sustainable supply of oil, there’s no question that it would end in disaster and chaos. Games like these depict what could happen. It can be seen as a wake up call to seek out solutions for the future. It’s a smart way to get people thinking of possible future dystopias and bring attention to such situations. Gaming could, in fact, save the world.

Posted on by Carson Clark
Categories: Uncategorized

3 Responses

  1. Micaela Willoughby says:
    October 7, 2018 at 11:56 pm

    I seriously doubt that I’ve surpassed 10,000 hours of gameplay, but I know I’ve probably spent more time with a controller in my hand than I’d expect. It’s really interesting that McGonigal connected the Gladwell’s 10,000 hours rule to gaming. And while teamwork/collaboration are big skills to have, I felt she was sweeping over a lot and… assuming a bit much.

  2. Rachel Helbling says:
    October 8, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    Thinking about spending 10,000 hours on anything seems crazy and i don’t know if i can think of something that I have practiced for 10,000 hours. While reading about Gladwell’s ten-thousand hours theory and the people he talks about in the book the outliers, it is clear that those people have put in ten thousand meaningful hours and are an expert on the topic. There people are experts in meaningful fields and have a lot of skill. At first I was skeptical, thinking what good could come from spending over 10,000 hours gaming. But after reading some of McGonigal’s arguments I found it quite interesting and it made sense.

  3. Ahsan Ahmad says:
    October 8, 2018 at 1:38 pm

    While 10,000 hours is indeed a massive number to comprehend, I would not be surprised if most gamers can exceed that over a couple of years, as you mentioned. I like that McGonigal drops stat facts every now and then that really put into perspective how big the gaming world is. Most people, including gamers, really underestimate how big the vibe is right now and thanks to the increasingly-modern games that are being developed right now, the vibe is only going to get better in my opinion. The idea of using games to convey messages (like what would happen if we ran out of oil) could work in that case since it would reach out to a huge audience.