Just thought you should know: we WoWer's are saving the world!

[JFrankA]

Here's an interesting talk from Ted.com. Her theory is that virtual games can give a person talents that could help the real world.

http://on.ted.com/8DQv

To be honest, I don't completely agree with her. I think her theory is missing a big, important factor which is, in a game, there is no real physical pain and absolutely no death. There always is another chance or later in a virtual world, not so in real life. That makes enough of a difference to not quite pan out her theories, I think.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Wowbagger]

The ability to "always have another chance" gives someone the freedom to experiment with many different social ideas, and usually without much consequence in the real world.

Once you hone your talents there, you can apply them more efficiently in the real world.

Maybe.

 

[Wowbagger]

Having seen the video:

I think the games she is producing have a lot of merit. I wish she spent more time on them. But, each one seems to be designed specifically for developing problem solving talents, under somewhat realistic scenarios.

She's not really claiming WoW is saving the world, but that WoW could be transformed into something that could help us save the world.