Games Can Be More Than Just Entertainment

July 15, 2012

Working on a triple-A game is a lot of effort, taking my attention away from blogging. Sometimes I wonder if it is worth it. Games are just entertainment, right? It’s not like we’re doing something to change the world. I was so delighted to see Jane McGonigal‘s talk: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life on TED.com. I love how she explains how games can actually lead to having less regrets in life. I was also impressed with how she created SuperBetter to recover from a crippling concussion.

The TED website also recommended watching Brenda Brathwaite’s talk: Gaming for Understanding. I got to see a version of this talk at the Montreal International Game Summit in 2009 and was completely inspired. Watching it along with Jane’s talk will definitely give you a different perspective on the value of games.

My project is a regular video game – one that we hope will be something we’re proud of and that gamers will find entertaining. Still, it’s nice to know that what my colleagues and I do can be more than just entertainment.

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postaweek2012, TED, videos, women in games, working in video games

About Liza Wood

After a dozen years leading video game development projects in a variety of roles, I decided to pursue a Master of Data Science at the University of British Columbia. Studying data science doesn’t mean I’m moving away from leading people. Growing data science teams need collaborative, pragmatic, Agile leadership to connect data to all areas of the business. I would like to share that point of view, along with my experiences, on this blog.

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