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设计师McGonigal发表演讲阐述游戏对现实生活的益处

发布时间:2011-03-18 13:50:05 Tags:,,

3月11日,游戏设计师Jane McGonigal在波士顿举行的第二届PAX East游戏节上发表主题演讲,阐述游戏的价值。PAX East吸引将近6.95万来自全美各地的与会者齐聚波士顿会议中心,参加这个为期两天的桌游、电脑和视频游戏庆祝会。

McGonigal演讲的听众大部分是20多岁的男性,也有家庭和青少年,有些人身着游戏角色的装束。她问听众:“我们长久以来被告知游戏是有害的,但游戏是否也能够带来积极的影响呢?游戏是否能够为达成现实目标添砖加瓦呢?”依其所见,游戏能够做到这一点。根据McGonigal的描述,玩游戏能够使人充满干劲并积极参与其中,唤起潜藏的创意,给玩家带来成就感、社会归属感和欢乐,这些情感都可以引导人们实现真实生活中的追求。

游戏邦认为,她提出此等言论正是时候。纵然McGonigal已为捍卫游戏奔走数年,但直到最近游戏动力学和游戏化方才引起人们的关注,游戏成为今年SXSW的主题便是例证。设计师将生活的方方面面游戏化,从鼓励有益健康的行为举止到提高儿童的安全意识。随着手机和社交网络的普及,诸如《愤怒的小鸟》和《Farmville》等休闲游戏的玩家数量不断增长。

Jane McGonigal

McGonigal继续说道:“许多关注游戏玩家的人感到担心,他们害怕这种离奇恐怖的环境会让玩家脱离现实生活。”但随后她辩解道,游戏玩家通常更具创造性及合作性,他们不但适应能力强且较为乐观,这些感觉会使他们的日常生活更加愉快。

McGonigal是加州Institute for the Future的游戏研究与发展总监,她用实例阐述游戏对玩家的积极影响。经常玩《吉他英雄》和《Rock Band》的玩家与常人相比更易学会使用新乐器,玩过《阳光马里奥》等合作类游戏的孩子会更积极参加合作活动。斯坦福大学研究表明,角色扮演游戏的玩家对现实生活更有信心,每天玩3至4小时《光晕》或《使命召唤》的驻阿富汗士兵回国后压抑、暴力行为和自杀的几率也较低。

McGonigal在其所著的《纽约时报》最新畅销书《破碎的现实:游戏何以改变世界》中写道,游戏就是个充满各种障碍的无偿任务,参与其中的玩家必须尽力达成某些目标。她在演讲中说道:“游戏将最终成为工作,这是我们自己选择的工作,是我们希望能够激发自我并与朋友加强联系的工作。”尽管如此,游戏邦了解到McGonigal也提出些许警告。比如,她认为如果玩家每周游戏时间超过28个小时,那么游戏便会失去其积极作用。

有记者在McGonigal签名售书期间问她游戏对生活哪个方面影响最大。她说道:“应该是卫生保健。”在主题演讲中,她探讨了游戏如何帮助其度过患脑震荡的困难时期。她认为,康复性游戏能够帮助改善人体健康,也能使玩家对自己的前景保持积极态度。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,转载请注明来源:游戏邦)

Are Games Good for You?

Jane McGonigal has a message: games are good.

Last Friday, the computer game designer defended the merits of gaming in her keynote at the second annual Penny Arcade Exchange (PAX) East games festival in Boston. PAX East drew some 69,500 attendees from across the country to the Boston Convention Center for the sold-out, weekend-long celebration of board, computer and video games.

“For years, we’ve been told that games bring out the worst in us. But could it actually be that games bring out the best in us?” she asked her audience—which seemed to be mainly men in their twenties, but also families and teens, some sporting costumes based on game characters. “Is it possible that rather than distracting us from real goals, that games can be a springboard to real-life goals?” The answer, she went on, is yes. Games evoke feelings of motivation, engagement, creativity, achievement, social belonging, and ultimately happiness, emotions that can be channeled into real-world pursuits, according to McGonigal.

Her keynote comes at an apt time. While McGonigal has been championing games for years, only recently have game dynamics and “gamificiation” become buzzwords beyond enthusiasts (games provided the theme of this year’s SXSW keynote, for example). Designers are using gamification for everything from encouraging healthy behavior to teaching safety awareness to kids. And with the boom in smart phones and social networking, the number of people who play casual games like Angry Birds or Farmville continues to grow.

“There are a lot of people who look at gamers and they worry,” McGonigal continued. “There’s this weird, horrible stereotype about gamers that we’re not good at life.” But people who play games, she argues, regularly experience productivity, cooperation, optimism, and resilience–feelings which can lead to genuine happiness in their everyday lives.

McGonigal, who is the Director of Games Research & Development at the California-based Institute for the Future, went on to illustrate the positive effects of gaming: people who regularly played Guitar Hero and Rock Band were inclined to pick up an instrument they didn’t know how to play; children, after playing a cooperative game like Super Mario Sunshine, were more likely to engage in cooperative behavior. The list goes on: a study out of Stanford University showed that people who controlled avatars that they felt were socially confident became more confident in real life, while soldiers who spent 3-4 hours a day playing Halo or Call of Duty in Afghanistan had low rates of post-traumatic stress, domestic violence and suicide after returning home.

A game is a voluntary task ridden with obstacles where participants must achieve some goal, McGonigal writes in her recent New York Times bestseller, “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.” “Gaming is the ultimate work,” she said during the keynote. “It’s work we chose for ourselves; it’s work we want to do that motivates us and brings us together with our friends.” There are, however, some caveats. For example, she said that the positive benefits of gaming don’t work if gamers play more than 28 hours a week.

I caught up with McGonigal during her book signing and asked where she thought games would have the biggest impact. “Definitely healthcare,” she told me. During her keynote, she had discussed how coming up with a game had helped her through a difficult time recovering from a bad concussion. Rehabilitation games that help a person get healthier and keep a positive outlook will be big, she suggested. (Source: Technology Review)


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