Gaming a way of the future

I believe that Dr. Jane McGonigal creates a good argument for the idea that people should be spending a good amount of their life in online gaming. She first brings up a good point that she just finished up her doctorate in this study that makes he a very credible source. And I know from experience that TED doesn’t let something really crazy on to the show. Her credibility increases when she states she has been working with the Institute for the Future. She uses major studies done by other places such as Berkley. She does a great job of getting to the audiences emotion. She has you believing that you yourself can and will be able to solve the nations and even the world’s greatest problems. The idea that you can save the world from hunger, poverty, and the oil crisis. Now who doesn’t want to do that? She states that online gaming creates a strong social structure where people can collaborate, because great minds think alike why not try to get all of the greatest minds together to solve a world crisis. This can be done by gaming first off to create the great minds, and not just great minds but super empowered minds. If given a fake scenario in a game and told to fix the problem people will work for hours to fix that and when they do they feel empowered and ready to move on to the next problem. If in the real world you start with little achievable goals it is the same way these people through online games want to continue on to the next problem. In online games it really is a blissful productivity meaning you are being productive but you’re also happy doing it so you want to keep on doing it. 5.93 million years have been put into WoW (World of Warcraft) sense it came out. Imagine if that many years would have been put to a more practical game that would possible help solve the problems of the real world. Dr. Jane McGonigal make really good points and I agree with her mostly because I am a gamer myself and someone telling me that I need to play more is great to me.

Writers on writing

The article by Kent Haruf suggests that it is good to find your place and routine so that you are able to write well. He first states some other writers and what they do such as Maya Angelou would rent a hotel room and be in there for days. However Kent Haruf prefers to be in his basement using a typewriter and writing on yellow paper that you can’t even get anymore. Did I mention he does it all with a blindfold over his eyes so he can’t see. That way he can’t get distracted from the story and keep the creative juices flowing. In order to keep the main idea of the story the same when he is editing he often edits the piece and then never goes back to it. I think that he is writing for anyone that is writing anytime soon because he is to find your way to get the juices flowing and some were that you can work without interruption preferably.

Introduction

The introduction of this book talks about how anyone can be a good writer. That to be a good writer it is not a matter of talent but a matter of hard work and wanting to better yourself as a writer. The audience that the author is addressing is first to second year college students that are there first English class in college. The author makes himself credible by relating it to real world scenario like being in an office and having to send off an e-mail, you have to make sure it is well written so people believe you are a professional.