Using Video Games to Change the World

Every week, I get more fascinated with the powers of virtual worlds, video game culture and social gaming to help change the world. Examples like Zynga selling $1.5 million in virtual goods for Haiti in five days, for example, demonstrate the power these new economies have. And now, Jane McConigal is trying to use the power of games to change the world on a whole new level.

Jane is a game designer who believes that the powerful experience gamers have with virtual worlds -- like the World of Warcraft -- have a radical potential to translate to the real world. Why?

Think about it. When a gamer joins a site, they're immediately give a mission to complete. That mission is matched with their particular skills, which pushes them to achieve. They have hundreds of potential collaborators around with whom they can team up to better accomplish those missions. There's a constant feedback loop that's adding information about what the player can accomplish, and what type of missions they should be working on.

And, importantly, when gamers game, they experience a level of 'blissful productivity.' In other words, they're more satisfied and happy when they're working hard. That feeling helps establish a social fabric. Gamers who have played together establish layers of trust, even when they've lost. Most of all, they have a story connect to, a mission.

They are searching for, as Jane puts it, an "epic win." In other words, they're searching for a win that stretches the bounds of what seemed possible.

Are gamers are perfectly suited to change the world? Jane thinks so. But the problem is that the worlds they change are virtual worlds -- for now, anyway.

Accordingly, Jane's mission in life is to create games that manufacture real-life conditions, with challenges that actually mirror those of the real world. For example, her company has created a game about what happens if we run out of oil, one about how to preserve life if the earth was given a death sentence in 23 years, and is continuing to work on other concepts grounded in current problems.

It's a unique approach, and one that shows the kind of wide-ranging vision that we need. From Jane's Avant Game company to Zynga's virtual goods for charity, games and the gamers who love them all need to have a place in our social innovation tent.

Photo Credit: TED / James Duncan Davidson