{"id":802,"date":"2017-04-08T07:00:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-08T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=802"},"modified":"2017-04-07T23:07:20","modified_gmt":"2017-04-08T03:07:20","slug":"g-game-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=802","title":{"rendered":"G – Game On!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What if Games impacted real-life decisions? <\/b><\/p>\n

Games play an important part of our lives. When we are young they teach us how to follow instructions. How to cooperate with others. Hopefully how to accept defeat as well as victory. Games get us to improve our bodies as well as our minds. There are many examples of positive gameplay and how games influence us. And for all you skeptics out there, that includes video games. If you doubt me, check out the TED Talk by Daphne Bavelier on your brain on video games: <\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ted.com\/talks\/daphne_bavelier_your_brain_on_video_games<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Games clearly have a benefit for us all. As with anything though, they can be played to excess and have negative influences as well. There is plenty of research on that too.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

But let\u2019s step away from the discussion of playing games and their present impact on our well-being and let\u2019s jump into the realm of What ifs\u2026? What if games we played impacted our real-life decisions?<\/span><\/p>\n

In Fiction, I\u2019m reminded of the movie, \u201cThe Last Starfighter\u201d (1984) where a teenager who excels at playing a particular video game, discovers that this game was actually produced to screen candidates as fighters in a galactic war. \u00a0He gets recruited and\u2026 well\u2026 go watch the movie. I thought it was good.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the book \u00a0<\/span>Ender\u2019s Game<\/span> by Orson Scott Card, a boy is being trained on computer battle simulations, to command a battle fleet fighting an enemy that once attacked Earth. (Or so he thought).<\/span><\/p>\n

These fictional characters were making real life decisions as part of their gameplay.<\/span><\/p>\n

In real life, organizations like NASA, the Armed Forces, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), to name a few, use simulation games to train people to do their jobs. Their game decisions don\u2019t impact what they do at the moment of play, but do impact the experiences they have for when the real decisions need to be made. <\/span><\/p>\n

All this is well and good but it\u2019s time to get a little different. Let\u2019s look at some of the games we play now or played as a kid, and see what decisions we have made in our adult life are possibly based on them. I\u2019ll do this in the form of questions. \u00a0Think back to how you played and what you do now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did Monopoly impact how you choose to purchase things? Did you strive to purchase as many things as you could? Did you buy a lot of cheap things, or wait to buy expensive items, knowing that you\u2019d make more money in the long run. Out of curiosity, how did all our present billionaires fare in Monopoly as kids? <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How about our great war heroes? How did playing games like Risk and Stratego impact how they deploy their troops and where they chose to attack or defend? How did they secure their own flag or country? Or use spies?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>And the Game of Life? Did it influence your path? What career you chose? Go to college? How many kids you had? \u00a0Did you become that millionaire?<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Think of other games we played, not only board games. Hop Scotch? \u00a0Tag? \u00a0Hide and Seek? Jump rope? Kick the Can? Cops and Robbers? Hounds and Hares? <\/span><\/p>\n

What would be the real life decisions we gleaned from those activities? <\/span><\/p>\n

In reality, I don\u2019t think playing those games had any influence on our lives in terms of life choices. But how close to our games is our reality?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For now, I want you to picture yourself as if they did influence you. Which game(s) would have been the most influential in your life and where would it have taken you? <\/span><\/p>\n

Or <\/span>What if<\/span><\/span> it were the other way around and the world we are living in is just somebody else\u2019s game? <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What if Games impacted real-life decisions? Games play an important part of our lives. When we are young they teach us how to follow instructions. How to cooperate with others. Hopefully how to accept defeat as well as victory. Games … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,7],"tags":[70,80],"class_list":["post-802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-to-z-blog-challenge-2017","category-story-writing","tag-a-to-z-blog-challenge","tag-gameplay"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}