My mind is still wrapped around the story of Anda's Game. It reminds me of a story I read when I was younger called Heir Apparent, which was about a girl who won a free pass to play a virtual reality game at a local arcade. While in the game the machine malfunctions and she has to beat the game to get out - a very Tron-esque story. Except the message at the end of that story was to stop playing video games, even though I thought the entire story promoted game play.
Anda's Game also reminds me of what Jane McGonigal's tedtalks and book talk about, which is that gamers have the ability to change the world when put to the task through extensive collaboration and commitment to "unnecessary obstacles".
The link I see between what Jane has to say and Anda's experience is that there are ways to change the world if we allow ourselves to collaborate and work together on important issues such as the gold farmers who are worried about their next meal.
I think it's amazing at what games can do for people, and find it disappointing when people don't look at the possibilities of the player's potential when it's applied to the same level of enjoyment. As a DTC major, I want work in the future to not feel like "work" but like passion, and perhaps like a game. To see how far I can go with creating something and having people experience my vision.
I totally agree with you about the future to not feel like work but as a passion, in this case as a video game. But some of Jane McGonigal's list of games can be very weird. Maybe with her as a reference we can create work as a game by creating things that should and shouldn't be. Because I read her book and some of the games she listed to make work fun is very very awkward. Yes, there are ways to change the world and I wonder what kind of ideas that could change the world with using the mechanics of video games. I totally would want to be apart of this new form of productivity but the idea of it can be complex.
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