Gaming Solves Oil Crisis

Or something like that. I had this video sent to me today and I was really stunned watching it. (Almost anything from Ted is stunning though)

At TED Jane McGonigal talks about how modern video games are affecting society- and the notion of what that means. The social training and collaboration that is occurring for individuals to always be on the verge of an “epic win”, and how they look at the digital world with optimism. While I’m no fan of socially engineering our youth to believe in someone’s ideals before they develop their own, I loved the reference to Gladwell’s book, Outliers and the 10,000 hour number. Very powerful stuff- it makes me want to jump back into gaming, but cautious to what those games may be. I wonder if there is any government sponsorship of first-person shooters…. hmmm.

From a marketing perspective- what does this mean? Social games are here to stay! Hello Farmville, cha-ching. Outsider of building a viral game yourself, I’m not sure of the leverage point- anyone have a thought?

– Mike