Summary: World of Warcraft users have played the online game for a total of 285,000 years!
Why it's a Mind Blow: In his book Tipping Point, social scientist Malcolm Gladwell explores how long it takes for one to become an expert in a particular discipline or activity. His research suggests it takes about ten thousand hours to become a true master, which is about how long we're in a classroom from the fifth grade through high school graduation. Incidentally, this is also the average number of hours an American kid will play video games before they turn eighteen.
Now I was pretty good at Duck Hunt, but game play at this scale is hard to comprehend. What does this level of commitment really mean, why does it happen, and how will it effect the future?
The why part is fascinating, and researchers believe it has to do with positive rewards. The developers of World of Warcraft, for example, have made a science out of understanding and leveraging human motivation. They've collected, on average, over a billion points of data on each of their users, and complex algorithms determine exactly how hard people will work before receiving some positive reinforcement - leveling up or receiving a new power, for example. The more time people spend with the game, the longer these intervals become. The data is applied in order to cultivate a user's willingness to work harder and harder. It's incredibly effective, and it's changing the function and structure of the human brain.
So what does all this mean? Well, that depends. It's thrilling to think what millions of people working for 285,000 years might accomplish together in pursuit of a common goal, but what good is it when it's all only virtual, only a game?
Then again, what if the results of that game had a real world impact? What if the fruits of our labors in Farmville actually fed people in the developing world or Warcraft's motivational algorithms were applied to our educational paradigms. The potential is limitless, and I believe the games we play can change the world - the real one. All we have to do is find that warp zone and walk through!
Sources: Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Wow. I was shocked to read the time involved in the video game world. My own personal video game obsessions were King's Quest, Starflight, Jumper, Cosmic Crusader, Double Dribble, Contra, and a few Civil War Strategy games. The last gasp of my online gaming came in my mid twenties and that was the first two Warcraft games. I have played only Madden since, and that only occasionally.
ReplyDeleteJames is right, though. The amount of time we spend doing "meaningless" things is pretty sad.