My evaluation of Jane McGonigal's presentation on TED Talks

1. Jane McGonigal:
Gaming Can Make A Better World

2. Jane McGonigal is an American world renowned game designer of alternate
reality games, a New York Times Bestseller author, and founder of Gameful,
“a secret headquarters for world changing game developers.”

3. In her talk, “Gaming Can Make A Better World” McGonigal
states gaming could find solutions to real world problems.

4. She believes if the incentives to better the real world, were like an online
game, then people would be more willing to take action.

5. Jane McGonigal’s observations come from watching the hours players spent playing
World of Warcraft, and determined that by the time of her presentation, players have
spent the equivalent of nearly 6 years saving the land of Azeroth.

6. In a society with a strong gaming culture, a young gamer will
spend:
That is the same amount of time spent in school from the 5th grade to High
School graduation with perfect attendance. So why are gamers so willing to put
in that amount of time, effort and money? McGonigal suggests that online
gaming offers players a sense of belonging the do not have in the real world.

7. Online gamers feel more productive, and feel deeper bonds with their fellow
gamers, all towards epic or heroic goals that are not present in the real world.

8. In gaming people feel they have accomplished something, that there is someone
willing to trust us with a world saving task, appropriate to our level, but not without a
challenge.
The real world is not like this, so people get discouraged, and feel they’re not good at
life

9. Solving problems with gaming
• Online gamers spend at least Three Billion hours
a week in their virtual worlds.
• McGonigal believes if we want to survive the next
century, and solve problems like world hunger
poverty, global warming, global conflicts; that
number needs to increase to 21 Billion hours a
week.
I have to agree because unlike just computer
simulations, online gaming has the human factor,
that shows what humanity can do in the real world
if they feel it was possible just like an online game.

10. Dynamism Rating: 4/5
• I rated Ms. McGonigal a 4. She did have great anecdotes, but I feel that she could
have connected with her audience better with personal stories. She also went over
in the time in her presentation. I feel the key to being a good public speaker is
knowing what information to include within the time provided. Despite these two
issues I did think that Ms. McGonigal did an excellent job. She was passionate for
her cause, and presented information that showed that online gaming could bring
solutions to world problems.

11. Comparison
• Comparing Jane McGonigal to Sir Ken Robinson is difficult. Both are
passionate towards their causes, and both speeches reflected that
passion. Both had reasonable goals, and information to back up their
arguments. Jane McGonigal’s idea was more long term, and while the
urgency was not immediate, she still proved that online gaming could
help solve real world problems, with simply more people playing at least
one hour of online gaming.
• Sir Ken Robinson’s goal of restructuring the education system to
promote creativity and collaboration, had a sense of greater urgency,
and even implied less immediate investment, compared to Jane
McGonigal’s proposal.

12. Sir Ken Robinson was the stronger
speaker
I feel Sir Robinson present his
cause with more passion
than Jane McGonigal. The
goals of restructuring the
American education system
seems more feasible, and
effects can last for
generations.
Sir Robinson kept my
attention better, and
connected better with the
audience. Even though I
connected better with Jane
McGonigal’s topic better.

13. Bibliography
• Slide Images:
• http://www.cloudapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/jane-ted.png
• http://saitoutloud.blogspot.com/2011/08/10000-hours-to-produce-expert-virtuoso.html
• http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3529193&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=2
• http://blog.playmob.com/playmobs-heroes-jane-mcgonigal-gaming-can-make-a-better-world/
• http://blog.ted.com/2012/06/28/a-game-that-heals-jane-mcgonigal-at-tedglobal-2012/
• http://antidoteblog.wordpress.com/category/social-media/
• http://www.ted.com/speakers/sir_ken_robinson.html
• http://phys.org/news/2010-12-gamers-gaming.html
• Biographical Information:
• http://janemcgonigal.com/meet-me/
• TED Talks: Jane McGonigal:
• http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

14. Thank you for your time, and I look
forward to your comments, and
questions

15. Best Wishes
Matt Connell