The final part of the book for me was the best. Or I guess my favorite. In this part of the book she first talks about getting people involved and what it takes. There is a game that was played in England called Investigate Your MP's Expenses. (page 197) The game was created in 2009 when a bunch of the MP's in England were abusing their monetary privileges and overspending by almost double their salaries. This is a kind of game that I think should be in all countries and played all the time to watch everyone. While I may be a Democrat I know that both parties in this country have their bad eggs and it would be nice to be able to keep them all in check.
In that same section it also talks about games such as Free Rice at FreeRice.com. This game is a game where you answer trivia on a page with ads and then for each answer that you get right you get 10 grains of rice to be donated to starving families across the world. The first time I played I got to 1000 grains before I messed up. (I was very lucky!) After awhile it does get a little boring, but I now go on for about 5 mins a day and feel like I'm helping. And that is NOT boring.
She also talks about a game called Folding on page 210. This game is a game designed to help scientists to figure out how to fold all these different proteins in different ways so that they can learn the solution to all the illnesses that are out there. The cool thing about this game is that you can set your Playstation3 (if you have one) to do all the folding while you're not playing anything so that good things can be done while you're at work.
In the next part of Part 3 on page 220 she talks about an app for your phone called the Extraordinaries. The app is designed to help you help others by mapping out areas or doing quick tasks while waiting for a friend. Sadly I loaded the app to my iPhone and it doesn't work. (This is what I saw on many reviews. Hopefully it will be fixed soon, because like Free Rice it seems like the perfect game for me.) I get to do superhero things while I have free time, but I won't feel stressed if I don't have the time.
In the next section she talks about how Co-Op games are a favorite among people. This has been true for me since the dawn of time. I used to play a board game called Hero Quest and you could play with up to 5 players. 4 against 1. It was like Dungeons and Dragons light. One player is the quest master who knows where everything is in the dungeon and then the 4 other players search around to clear it out and complete the quest. We also took turns being the bad guy and getting to play with others. It was a perfect way to learn cooperation and teamwork growing up.
I also really loved the game that she created for the Olympics and how it brought people together. The Lost Ring (pg. 246) was a really creative way to get everyone around the world back into the sport of the Olympics rather then just watching it on the sidelines.
The final part of the book where Jane talks about World Without Oil and other games like that which are designed to plan ahead for the future and to figure out what you would do are a great idea. I just moved to LA and in California we're known for having earthquakes. Now I know what to do if there is a blizzard or a hurricane, or even a tornado. But when it comes to earthquakes? Not so much. I looked online and found a helpful guide to let me know what to get incase of any earthquakes and what could come of it. I then found myself acting as if I was on a quest to get everything. I was able to make finding the supplies to keep myself safe and alive during an earthquake fun and also made the idea of it happening less scary.
The book is wonderful and really should be read by everyone. Have you read it yet? What do you think? Should we find a way to spend more time playing games? I think so, but then again I'm a gamer and I can see the potential for me with a game!
Jason
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