HOW TO SAVE THE WORLD | A VERY CAREFULLY THOUGHT OUT STRATEGY BY EMMA DIXIE

INTRODUCTION
Its no small secret that video games have taken the world by storm. Everywhere you look, you
can find games and the people who play them: from the kids who get home from school, turn
on their consoles, and zone out; to their adult counterparts who never really bid farewell to
their inner children; to the stay-at-home mothers who are looking for a little entertainment to
brighten up their days; to the hardworking fathers whose jobs are interspersed with frequent
gaming breaks. Its not an exaggeration to proclaim that almost everyone these days is a
gamer. But what does this pattern say about our culture? When children and adults alike are
retreating in droves to alternate worlds such as those found in video games, what does that
indicate about our own world? The answer, it seems, is that we are not getting what we want
out of it. The world that we live in, and everything we do in it, is not enough to maintain the
continuous stimulation we require in order to consider ourselves to be living truly fulfilled lives.
And so we are attempting to find it elsewhere.
This is a problem. A big one. Edward Castronova, economist and author, refers to it as a mass
exodus to the virtual world and cautions that if things dont change, the trend will lead to a
large upset in the overall well-being of the globe: The exodus of people from the real world,
from our normal daily life, will create a change in social climate that makes global warming look
like a tempest in a teacup (Castronova, 2007). But where do we begin? Are video games the
issue? Will doing away with them solve everything? Or are they merely a temporary antidote to
a very dangerous disease, one that requires a much more powerful cure?
What if I proposed that games, often mistaken as a symptom of this disease, could actually be
that cure? If were so quick to dismiss reality in favor of games, then isnt it possible that they
hold the answer to what it is were looking for in real life? My answer, as you may have already
predicted, is a resounding YES! It is my belief that our gaming habits are a window into what
exactly weve been missing. And if we can harness the power of games in just the right way, I
believe they have the potential to change our lives, and our world, for the better.

WHAT DO GAMES PROVIDE US WITH THAT REAL LIFE DOES NOT?

I am not the first person to suggest that games have this potential. There are many individuals
who have paved the way to this kind of thinking. Positive psychologist Jane McGonigal is one
such individual. In her book, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can
Change the World, McGonigal claims that compared with games, reality is easy, depressing,
unproductive, hopeless, disconnected, trivial, hard to get into, pointless and unrewarding,
lonely and isolating, hard to swallow, unsustainable, unambitious, disorganized and divided,

and stuck in the present (McGonigal, 2011). These are fairly harsh words to describe the world
in which we live, but when we compare our world to the game world, its no surprise that
people might feel this way.
In the game world, were consistently provided with work that is the polar opposite of all these
negatives. Were challenged and uplifted by it. We feel productive and hopeful. It keeps us
connected. What were doing seems important and we become easily engaged. Its meaningful
and rewarding. It encourages relationships. Were not afraid of it. Resources are endless. Our
ambitions carry us. We feel organized and united. And there are no limits on where or when we
can go.
Arent these things what were ultimately searching for in life? If so, then no wonder were
experiencing a mass exodus. If we can get them in the game world, then theres no reason we
need them in the real world, right? The problem, however, is that if were not careful, were not
going to have a real world to escape from for much longer. The more people there are that
need to retreat from reality, the fewer people there will be to hold reality together. In
Castronovas words, While we are playing, things we used to do on the outside, in reality,
wont be happening anymore, or wont be happening in the same way. You cant pull millions of
person-hours out of a society without creating an atmospheric-level event (Castronova, 2007).
The alternative, of course, is to reverse the trend by reshaping our world such that we dont
need to escape from it. And by understanding what it is we love about games, what it is that
keeps us coming back for more, we may actually stand a chance of doing that.

HOW CAN THE GAMIFICATION OF OUR LIVES IMPROVE THEM FOR THE BETTER?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines gamification as the application of typical elements of
game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of
activity (Gamification, 2014). And it is this process of gamification that I believe needs to
take place in the real world if we are ever going to lead lives of genuine fulfillment. But how do
we make this happen?
Game developers and other creative individuals who are aware of the rift between reality and
games have been attempting to close the gap for quite some time. In his self-help book The
Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life), author and comedian Chris Hardwick
makes the distinction between a Nerd and a Nerdist: A Nerdist is, more specifically, an
artful Nerd. He or she doesnt just consume, he or she creates and innovates (Hardwick, 2011).
Hardwick then paves the way for people to do just that by showing the how to RPG their lives
to encourage improvement in various areas. He has his readers assess their various attributes
and skills, and then organize them in the same way they would if they were a character in a
table-top roleplaying game. They are taught how to keep track of their progress as they level
up and get closer and closer to their goals.

 Fig. 1 Character Sheet, The Nerdist Way

Jane McGonigal does something very similar with her alternate reality game SuperBetter.
According to the website, SuperBetter helps you achieve your health goals --- or recover from
an illness or injury --- by increasing your personal resilience. But SuperBetter isnt just for the
health-conscious. Its for anybody with a goal they want to reach. The game uses a series of
quests that you create for yourself in order to gain epic wins in areas such as physical, mental,
emotional, and social health.

Fig. 2 How SuperBetter Works

Both of these examples, The Nerdist Way and SuperBetter, employ gamification to our lives
in ways that invigorate us. But many developers today are creating games that are, in a way, a
hybrid between these types of games and traditional games. Zombies, Run!, for instance, is a
self-described immersive running game. Players download the application onto their mobile
phones and then utilize the post-apocalyptic storyline as incentive to exercise. GPS-based
technology allows the game to spawn zombies at various locations along an individuals
route, which they must then try to escape from. Missions include collecting various resources
throughout the community that may then be used to fortify a players home base.

Fig. 3 Zombies, Run!

The reason that games like these are so important is that they differ from traditional games in
that they further immerse us in reality, as opposed to cutting us off from it. When people play
these types of games, they are actively improving their lives. This is a relatively new subfield of
the industry that is really just beginning to make a splash. And I would argue that if we continue
to promote it, it will eventually create waves within our culture that have been unparalleled to
date. However, we have a long way to go before we reach that point.

WHY HAVE MOST OF THE ATTEMPTS AT GAMIFICATION FAILED SO FAR?

One of the essential questions we can ask ourselves is, If games have so much to offer us that
real life doesnt, then how come we havent gamified our lives already? The answer to this
question is rather complex. To an extent, we have gamified our lives --- as shown in the
examples above. But the fan bases for games like SuperBetter are miniscule when compared
to the followings for mainstream games such as Call of Duty or World of Warcraft. So why is
it that they havent caught on in the same way?
In a Gamasutra opinion piece, designer and producer Tadhg Kelly theorizes that its because
meta-games dont scale. He goes on to elaborate: They dont tend to acquire enough users
on a regular basis to remain viable (Kelly, 2011). On the surface, Kelly seems to be saying that
the answer to why games likes SuperBetter dont have enough fans is because they dont
have enough fans. Very meta. But what Kelly really means is that they have a tendency to be
really interesting novelties that become very exciting for only a short period, but then quickly
shed most of their players. He reasons that this is because the core fantasy that meta-games
try to achieve is actually pretty flimsy (Kelly, 2011). Theres no depth to the storyline and no
substance to the gameplay!
Kelly also conjectures that the key driving force behind meta-games is marketing, and that the
reason most games of this kind dont get funded (and thus, never get made) is because most
developers arent doing it for marketing reasons. Gamification works great if youre trying to
get someone to buy a product, especially if you include real-world rewards. But who would
fund an ARG with no intention of monetizing it via corporate marketing when ARGs dont have
a stable consumer base? The problem is self-perpetuating.

Fig. 4 Marketing in Meta-Games

WHAT CAN WE DO TO ENSURE THAT GAMIFICATION LEAVES A LASTING IMPRESSION?

The answer as to why games like SuperBetter havent taken off is simply that theyre just not
fun to play. Theres no backstory to engross the player and the game dynamics are virtually
nonexistent. This is less of a problem for the ones that are used for marketing purposes, as they
have rewards to compensate for the lack of engaging design (in fact, one could argue that the
rewards are a facet of engaging design). So what can we do to gamify our lives without
becoming drones to some corporate agenda? How do we fund the games that can change our
world?
We start by making them good! In order for something new like this to get off the ground,
investors need to know that theres a market for them. But theres no market for games that
arent fun to play. They need to be engaging. Zombies, Run! was one of the top-selling mobile
games of 2012. And it wasnt because the developers had made a game that could get people
off the couch and moving. It was because they had made a game that was enjoyable to play. It
had a storyline, it had missions, it had a clear end goal that was challenging but achievable, and
it had a feedback system that showed players their progress and kept them on the edge of their
abilities.
If we want these games to begin making waves, then we need to ensure that the priority is that
they will be enjoyed by people. Changing peoples lives for the better is a great priority to have,
but it must always be secondary to fun, because people only change when they want to. And
what better way to get them to want to than to show them how enjoyable it can be?

CONCLUSION
One day, we may live in a world where everything we do is gamified. An important question
we need to ask ourselves is Would we want to live in a world like that? If it means
experiencing all of the positive emotions we feel while playing video games and as long as its
for the right reasons (i.e. as long as its enticing us out of the virtual world and into the real
world, and not just trying to sell us a product), then Im all for it.
Theres still a mountain of work to be done in this field and were nowhere close to
accomplishing everything we could with the power of games. But the more we realize that
power, and the harder we try to harness it for the sake of improving our everyday lives, the
more possible it seems that one day we may live to see an exodus from the virtual world back
into reality. That is the day I live for.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Castronova, E. (2007). Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.
Gamification. (n.d.). Retrieved December 8, 2014, from
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gamification
Hardwick, C. (2011). The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life). New York: Berkley
Books.
Kelly, T. (2011, February 24). Opinion: Gamification And Avoiding The Fate of ARGs. Retrieved December
8, 2014, from
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/123459/Opinion_Gamification_And_Avoiding_The_Fate_of_AR
Gs.php
McGonigal, J. (2011). Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the
World. New York: Penguin Press.