The Wii is good for democracy?

[leunas]

42 Entertainment">Jane McGonigal, Lead Designer for 42 Entertainment, the group responsible for I Love Bees, has a very entertaining interview up on ZDnet news. Everything from Reality TV, to MMORPGS, to Alternate-Reality Games (ARGs) were discussed.

Since this is a Wii blog, we'll cut out all the other stuff, and just give you guys, what McGonigal had to say about the Wii, and how it could save democracy. No I'm not kidding. Trust me, it will make sense. Here are her words:

Is Nintendo's Wii good for democracy?
McGonigal: Yes. What I like about the Wii is that it appeals to non-gamers. And so it's increasing the pool of people who interact with game systems, giving them a pleasurable and positive experience of interacting with a video game machine. Why is this good for democracy? Well, such participation is really satisfying. You see your impact immediately in the games.

With Wii, other people are often there--an audience for your impact on the game state. Once you are used to having a visible impact on a game system, you are going to want a similar impact on other systems, say our political system.

So in the next 10 years, especially as more people become gamers, we'll see a demand for political participation to be more like a game state: more visible impact from my participation. That will encourage and enable more people to be engaged. Real world, you are going to have to let us game you.

See? It makes sense. Gamers want results. Gamers are used to seeing immediate results, not just in games, but in other systems. Since the Wii is a nice medium to turn non-gamers into gamers, more people will be used to seeing immediate results. And the need to see results will encompass even non-gaming things, like politics. Hence, the Wii is good for democracy.

Pretty out there, but reasonable. One hand-painted star-spangled NES please.


feeds.feedburner.com/~r/qj/wii/~3/68796705/77757