RIB Chapter 13 and 14

McGonagall first opens chapter thirteen by talking about how trying to master something takes 10,000 hours. She emphasizes that most successful people in their fields were masters at the skill that made them successful by the age of twenty one, referencing Bill Gates. Then she digresses into talking about collaboration and how it entails three things, cooperation, coordination, and co creation. I never thought of collaboration like this before and thought it was very interesting. I thought of collaboration as just working together (just cooperation). McGonigal made a much deeper analysis what collaboration is and it transitioned well into “reciprocal rewards”. Mcgonigal makes the point that every gamer makes an effort “collective commitment” win or lose to finish the game they are in. The reciprocal rewards ties in because by doing this gamers give real meaning to outcomes. A shift is occurring though because players want to play with and not against other opponents. She mentions “collaborative creation systems” and how these are making players want to play Co Op mode more often. Minecraft is a perfect example of this in my opinion I never played it, but it took off when it was released on consoles. The ability for players to do/build and thing they please was an amazing idea. Minecraft even had horrible graphics and it was still insanely popular. This ties back to her main point and she thinks that games that Co Op games will allow players to become master of the collaboration.

 

The three fundamental skills that make up collaboration are crucial for people to be successful and even make society better, however, I think that if the case is made that becoming great at cooperation soley that may not be the best solution to the problems we have in this world. Also I think that games that divide players can also bring those players closer together as well except in smaller groups. I think that people’s competitive nature isn’t always dividing people and it can actual produce respect.

 

McGonigal in the chapter fourteen talks about planet craft which is people trying to make a better ecosystem. She discussed how it can be done/tested through three different ways. There is the Longview (lookin at a larger scale), Ecosystem thinking (look at the world as a bunch of many connected parts), and pilot experimentation (run small tests using different strategies). These are interesting and different kinds of people use different ways.Then she starts to talk about the game World Without Oil and how this game was a good example of how developers can make people become better people by the theme and goals of a game. I do think that McGonigal has some valid points about trying to make the world a better place but I still think that it is hard to get ideas in video games to translate to real life.

Posted on by Alexander Clinton
Categories: Uncategorized

6 Responses

  1. James Bachmann says:
    October 7, 2018 at 3:25 pm

    I agree with you, in that McGonigal does bring up good ideas, but seems to always fall short in how to translate between reality and games. I do not fully agree with the statement that every gamer, win or lose, will make the commitment to finish the game. A lot of gamers, including myself, have given into rage quitting because it just is not fun to be trashed on an entire game, so why stick through it. Again, she does bring up great points, but I think I have a grudge against McGonigal, so she falls flat again in my mind.

  2. Joseph Sterling says:
    October 7, 2018 at 10:15 pm

    The major theme of McGonigal’s book is close to the french saying, “That sounds good in theory, but how does it work in practice?” She bring up wonderful ideas, full of optimism, but always fails on the follow through. Her concept of how player want to play with and not against each other falls flat at almost every level of competitive play, be it a 1v1 fighting game, a card game tournament, or competitive tag, the main objective is to squash the other players on your way to the top.

    McGonigal also has an unprecedented belief in the cooperativeness of the human race, a trait which we see in RPS, humans are HORRIBLE at. I don’t know where she gets this optimism, but I cannot see myself feeling the same way.

    This expands to her Long Game about the “planet craft”, it would need to have every culture agreeing with one another and striving for a common goal, which WILL NEVER, EVER HAPPEN.

    sorry, I get a bit angry at blind optimism.

  3. Rachel Helbling says:
    October 8, 2018 at 12:38 pm

    Once again in this chapter, McGonigal brings up interesting ideas that sound great and could be beneficial but they are very unrealistic. For example, the game World Without Oil has a great idea but is unrealistic to think everyone will play. I think it is important to remember that gaming isn’t the only way to accomplish the ideas she brings up. Some of them can be accomplished in reality. Reality can be looked at in different ways and could be very useful, reality isn’t all bad.

  4. Josephine Bossidy says:
    October 8, 2018 at 1:01 pm

    In your first paragraph, you mention how McGonigal spoke of collaboration. The way she addressed this concept was similar to her ideas in chapter 6 of Reality is Broken. I think collaboration and working with others to see a benefit goes along with the impression that you are part of something bigger. I have noticed that a lot of McGonigal’s “Fixes” have seemed to share similar ideas.

  5. Hyewon Hong says:
    October 8, 2018 at 2:12 pm

    I think one of the reasons that Mcgonigal points about 10,000 hours fails so miserably is that performing an action in real life and an action in a video game are fundamentally different. Some concepts are still applicable, like the concept of neutral which is ever building and can always get better, but actions like fluid movement become engraved in muscle memory much faster then 10,000 attempts. Performing a kick in tekken requires far far far less effort then performing a kick in martial arts. For one, there is no real physical exertion (save pressing a button), and more importantly the player of tekken is able to perform a perfect kick from the beginning while a martial artist may well require those 10,000 hours to hone his skills. Video games are fundamentally different systems than our world, especially in regards to physical actions and physics and I feel like the passage of time in game is very different than outside of one.

  6. Shanay Amin says:
    October 8, 2018 at 2:50 pm

    I agree with McGonigal that practice makes perfect but I don’t agree with how she gives a definite time stamp on it. I think that everything needs practice to get better but giving a specific amount of time is wrong. Another thing that I disagree with is her idea that gaming is the only thing that can solve things. there are many things that could help the world change for the better.