10/24 Reading Response 5.0

Chapter 6 – Becoming a Part of Something Bigger Than Ourselves
Chapter 7 – The Benefits of Alternate Realities

Chapter 6 brings us Fix #6: Epic Scale. “Compared with games, reality is trivial. Games make us a part of something bigger and give epic meaning to our actions.” (McGonigal, Pg 98)

This whole chapter focuses on the importance of the epic factor in game construction. The word “Epic” is used to define something that far surpasses the ordinary, with emphasis on size, scale and intensity. Is that all it is though? People, not just gamers, use that term often to describe or define something that is amazing or awe-inspiring.

The fact is, people are drawn in by things that inspire awe and wonder. Games are powerful tools that create incredible interactive fantasies that we wouldn’t otherwise find in our daily lives. That is part of the hook. Reality, in a way has become all too mundane. There are simply precious few opportunities for people to be a part of something that is truly overwhelming.

Games however, allow for people to constantly be a part of something greater. No longer just another member of the human race, gamers participate in these immersive epic environments and set themselves apart by their efforts. With each day, something new is accomplished and the players can observe the progress that they have made for themselves and for their faction/team etc. The feelings and experiences that we want to get from life we can now get from games. Now if only we could turn life into a game so that it was a appealing and satisfying as it should be. But that’s impossible right?

In actuality, steps have already been taken to try and make life as appealing and satisfying as it should be. Turning life into a game seems like an impossible venture but that is what is being attempted. An example of this is the game called Chore Wars. In essence, the game has a person create an online avatar that gains experience points and levels up depending on how many chores the player has done. Different amounts of XP are dealt out based on the difficulty and time spent on the chore completed. Many people have displayed an interest in this game as it takes care of a tedious part of daily life while providing satisfaction for the person at the same time. Chore Wars clearly proves that people can be just as enthusiastic about the tedious repetition of a daily life cycle as they can about an epic adventure in a video game.

This example is only one of many experiments in making reality game-like. Which brings us to Fix #7: Wholehearted Participation: “Compared with games, reality is hard to get into. Games motivate us to participate more fully in whatever we’re doing” (McGonigal, Pg 125)

Chore Wars is a prime example of an Alternate Reality Game.
Alternate reality games (ARGs) are games that are played in real life, meant to be just as satisfying as other video games, but with the added bonus that they aren’t about escaping your real life for a more pleasing virtual one. The primary goal of these games is to try to provide entertainment while going about the same tasks as one would in a normal day. This encompasses everything from work and school to life at home. At this point, it would seem like the challenge is in finding which alternate reality games best raise our overall happiness and quality of life. If the games end up being a hindrance or distraction rather than help, then we really are back where we started.