Can Games Truly Bring Happiness?

Many people tend to not think of games as a catalyst for happiness, but McGonigal seems to claim otherwise. She states that part of the key to happiness is to practice random acts of kindness and to dance more. (McGonigal 183) Well, what exactly would these things have to do with happiness? McGonigal elaborates by saying "they're like the daily multivitamins of positive psychology: they've been clinically tested and proven to boost our well-being in small doses, and they're designed to fit easily into our everyday lives." (McGonigal 184) There are also lots of other ways that happiness can be achieved. However, it might not be as easy as it sounds. Part of the problem here is that in order to be happy, we have to do more than just know what makes us happy, we have to act on that knowledge, which incorporating into our daily lives could prove very difficult. For example, what if one day you just decide to not be nice to people or to make a simple gesture of kindness? This is just one of a few examples of why many people might not throw themselves out there to participate in such activities. These acts of kindness, however, don't necessarily need to be intentional.  Being spontaneous and out of the blue can very much help to find happiness in games.




My hunter character spontaneously dancing with fellow Guardians in the Tower.



For one last time (since this is my final blog post), I'll be returning to Destiny. Here, I take my trip to the Tower, the playable social area where people can pick up bounties, buy new legendary and exotic gear, and communicate. Usually, whenever I visit the Tower, I'll pick up bounties and whatever gear I might need for my next endeavor into the expansive universe of the game. However, this time, I found a couple guardians on my way out, standing by the Postmaster vendor, dancing. I, of course, decided to join them.

Going back to what I said at the beginning of my post, this moment and particular captures what McGonigal was trying to say perfectly. The "dancing" emoticon brought plenty of laughs into the situation, and sparked a communal bond between these players that I didn't even know. All in all, random acts of kindness don't need to always be performed, but when they can, will bring you an endless amount of joy to your gameplay and in real life.

My final question is: When have you performed a random act of kindness? How often do you do them?

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

How Can Alternate Realities Benefit You?

In my last post I talked about how games can feel truly epic. Many people tend to believe that alternate realities or video games in general tend to be a tremendous waste of time. However, that belief is not necessarily true. There are principles in alternate realities that can be present in real life situations. For example, she references the game Chore Wars, which is a game where you play in your real life to enjoy it more. (McGonigal 120). You might be asking, how can you make a game out of life? The game is specifically designed for people to "track how much housework people are doing - and to inspire everyone to do more housework, more cheerfully, than you would otherwise." (McGonigal 120) Whenever you complete one of your chores, you go online and report on it through the game. Every chore is described to give you a specific amount of experience points, virtual gold, etc. You can also customize the game the way you want to, by adding modifiers to make the least desirable chores worth more experience points. McGonigal also states that "as an added bonus, [her] place is cleaner now." (McGonigal 121) This proves that the virtual reality created through Chore Wars can be an efficient and fun way to get work done.




Me looking at my review packet, reluctant to start it





Though McGonigal used Chore Wars to demonstrate how these alternate realities can benefit us, I used the same basic principle to use in real life situations. Recently, we've all been stressed out when it comes to finals, and we've all been bombarded with review packet after review packet. Having felt overwhelmed myself, I used these same principles in Chore Wars to help me complete my math packet. Going into it, I knew this was something I needed to do rather than something I wanted to do, so I did something similar to McGonigal. She rewarded herself with an abundance of experience points, whereas I rewarded myself with my favorite snack, Doritos whenever I completed a page of problems. It might sound silly, but these simple motivators, as present in Chore Wars, can be very effective when it comes to getting work done that you need to complete.

Overall, these concepts and principles of alternate realities have benefited me in real life by giving me the motivation and drive to complete my review packet. This, in turn, will enable me to score higher on the final exam. How do you incorporate some form of game principle/motivation into your everyday life?

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

How Can Games Feel More Epic?

Welcome back to my blog! It's been a while since I made my last post, that being on how failure in games can lead to enjoyment. Today I'll be focusing on a much broader topic covered a little bit later on in the book: How we can be a part of something greater through video games. What that means is through our collective gaming culture, becoming a community of gamers all focused on one universal goal. McGonigal talks about how "In April 2009, Halo 3 players celebrated a collective spine-tingling milestone: 10 billion kills against their virtual enemy, the Covenant. That's roughly one and a half times the total number of every man, woman, and child on earth" (McGonigal 95). Why does something like this matter, you may ask. The 10 million enemy defeats was a symbol for the dedication of the fans. Sure, fans knew there wasn't any real importance or consequence to saving the human race in a science fiction video game, but even though there was no realistic value, there was meaning. This meaning was the feeling that we were all a part of something much larger than ourselves. McGonigal quotes philosopher Martin Seligman: "The self is a very poor site for meaning...the larger the entity you can attach yourself to, the more meaning you can derive." (McGonigal 97) This being said, it wasn't the Covenant kills in Halo 3 that gave it value, rather it was the massive communal goal that made it seem meaningful. Thus proving that something doesn't need to be real for it to have real meaning.


In "The Tower" with friends celebrating after a collaborative effort to complete the raid.

Likewise, in the game Destiny (which I referenced two posts ago), has a very similar concept. In the game, you are stopping the alien forces known as the Fallen, Hive, Vex, Cabal, and Taken. Though as an active player of the game I've defeated many a foe, it's not always about my individual efforts. Everyone I've played with has helped to contribute to the ever growing number to the expansive, epic universe created around the game. Another way Destiny is similar to Halo 3 in this way is the environmental design in the game. McGonigal describes the development of Halo 3, stating that it took Bungie three years to craft this gaming cathedral, with a team of more than 250 artists, designers, writers, programmers, and engineers collaborating together. (McGonigal 105). Destiny, having also been developed by Bungie, had this same care, attention to detail, and intricacy put into it as Halo 3. The Moon, one of the planets in particular, is very beautifully designed and well thought out, proving that good environmental design can make the experience all the more epic.

My question for this post is:

How does a larger community of players or environmental design help to change the experience in your eyes? Does it make it more or less epic to you?



 

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

How Can Failure Lead to Enjoyment in Games?

In my previous blog post, I talked about why I play games and briefly mentioned that challenges/difficulty can be a good incentive to playing them. To elaborate more on this idea, Reality is Broken states that failure in games can lead to player happiness. This seems crazy, doesn't it? It actually isn't as far-fetched as it seems. An experiment done by the M.I.N.D. Lab, a psychophysiology research center, in 2005 found 32 test subjects playing Super Monkey Ball 2, a frustrating game that tasks players to navigate gutter balls down crooked lanes without railings. (McGonigal 65) According to McGonigal, scientists expected that these test subjects would "exhibit the strongest positive emotion when they earned high scores or when they completed levels - in other words, during the triumphant fiero moments." (McGonigal 65) Their expectations, however, were false, and it turned out that the most positive emotions were attributed by the moments of failure. When applying this logic to real life, it seems quite odd, because in our modern society we are typically discouraged and disappointed by failure, which seems to be the opposite reaction than what is being presented with the test subjects. So what is the main difference between failure in a video game and failure in real life? In the case of Super Monkey Ball 2, a lot of it has to do with the failing animation. "Whenever a player made a mistake in Super Monkey Ball 2, something very interesting happened, and it happened immediately: the monkey went whirling and wailing over the edge and off into space." (McGonigal 66) This animation played a big part in this, and since the failure was more interesting, players seemed to be less discouraged by their mistakes, furthering their sense of enjoyment.


Recently, my friends and I have been revisiting the game Halo: Reach, something that I have not picked up off my shelf in quite a while. One of the first things that we decided to do was to attempt the Campaign mode on Legendary difficulty with all 13 active modifiers, or skulls, which disable players in one way or another.

Me adding modifiers and preparing the game

Going into it, none of us actually expected us to win, which made the event of failure a lot more enjoyable and entertaining, much like the test subjects with Super Monkey Ball 2.

Our catastrophic attempt at completing the first mission actually made things more enjoyable and interesting

My friends and I also found that failure made the entire experience much more enjoyable, despite the fact that with enough effort, just like Super Monkey Ball 2, we would be able to succeed. Through our multiple failures, the game also gives us the optimism to continue on. McGonigal further states that "as long as our failure is interesting, we will keep trying - and remain hopeful that we will succeed eventually." (McGonigal 67) Games, in this way, have taught me that despite many failures that we should always keep pushing forward and not be discouraged by them. How do you approach failure in games? After reading this, has your view on failure in games or failure in general changed?


McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print. 

Why Do We Game?

Video gaming, ever since I was about 6 years old, has been an important part of my life and continues to be, as it is how I spend the majority of my free time. However, I had never really stopped to think about why exactly I was playing games, I just thought it was a fun past time. Jane McGonigal, the author of Reality is Broken, has made me rethink my analysis on the fundamentals of gaming and why I actually do it.


McGonigal believes that "all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation." (McGonigal 21) Through her explanation she shares that goals in games provides players with purpose, the rules help the player to be more strategic, and the feedback system helps to motivate players. This kind of motivation is what justifies players to come back for more. Voluntary participation is described as willingly accepting the goal, rules, and the feedback system. (McGonigal 22) These, in turn, all help to evoke a positive mindset and experience for the player. Besides, we play games to be entertained, to be immersed, or to have fun in our virtual reality. When we play games, "we are actively pushing ourselves to the positive end of the emotional spectrum." (McGonigal 28) We want to be challenged, and we want our skills to be utilized, unlike how it can often feel in the real world. In a game, we feel the direct result of our positive actions, which rewards gamers and allows them to feel free. Many of this can be directly applied to my gaming.


One of the video games that I've been playing most recently is Destiny: The Taken King. Below is a picture of my Warlock, one of the 3 main classes in the game.

My character represents the "rules" portion Jane McGonigal was explaining, as through my subclass setups and different pieces of armor, I'm restricted to doing certain activities and playing in certain ways until I find more powerful armor. This forces and challenges me to become more strategic as I play.

My current quests (as shown above) represent the goals explained my McGonigal as it shows me what I have to work towards to make my Warlock more powerful.

This quest (as shown above) rewards me with one of the exotic-tier swords named "Bolt-Caster." A Sword Reforged is quite a long quest, and it represents the motivation aspect because though the process to receive said sword can be quite long and tedious, the reward at the end is what keeps players like me challenged and wanting to go back for more. All in all, the reasons I play games are to challenge myself through exciting means with positive reinforcement.

If you're a fan of video games, why do you play them? Also, did this analysis help you to understand more about why people do play games?

McGonigal, Jane. Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. New York: Penguin Group, 2011. Print.