I just watched a pretty wild talk by game designer and PhD researcher Jane McGonigal who has plans to enable gamers to change the real world.

Drawing examples predominantly from World of WarCraft, she claims that gamers generally possess four characteristics that give them great potential to be agents of change:

1. Urgent Optimism to dive into huge challenges without hesitation
2. Social Fabric where trust and bonds of cooperation are built rapidly through play
3. Blissful Productivity because, in our games, we work hard and we enjoy it, and
4. we desire Epic Meaning to be attributed to our actions

She goes on to talk about three online games she has worked on that pilot her ideas for how games can start to blend over into changing the real world. I haven't tried them yet, but I am intrigued and I will definitely give them a look:

1. World Without Oil (this link doesn't appear to be working at the time of writing)
2. Super Struct
3. Evoke

Here's a link to the 20-minute talk by Jane McGonigal on TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design): http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

After watching the talk, I'm not 100% convinced by her ideas, but I sure would like to be. I plan to give the games a try and I will keep a close eye on Jane's work in the future. (Oh, and here's a link to her website: http://www.avantgame.com/)

This reminds me, in a similar-but-different way, of the online quiz game Free Rice. Every correct answer you provide results in 10 grains of rice being donated through the United Nations World Food Program. (Yes, 10 grains is nothing, but consider the fact that, with all play on the site combined to date, almost eighty billion (80,000,000,000) grains of rice have been donated.)

Here's a link: Free Rice

Playing games and changing the world for the better = Awesome.