Encouraging Optimism

The recent video we watched about video games and creating a better world to live in gave an encouraging outlook.  Perhaps not just through video games that this experiment may work, but it is an interesting concept to encourage video game developers into creating games that cater to real life events.  I mention "not just through video games" because this experiment may need more exposure to our reality, even with how popular games are today.  But that is beside the point, what I really took away from her speech was encouragement.  There were numerous themes that I could relate to not just as a gamer but also as what makes up my core being and personality.  I feel like I am one of the few that still holds hope for a better future when my world around me is cynical, so goddamn cynical (pardon the language).   I would love to see a world that promotes epic wins much more and a body of humans that can work together much more extensively and intensively than what we are at now.  Just through Ball State alone in the past year I have noticed courses being more proactive with group work; of course it brings up a lot of growling and unrest from our students but that is our Western mentality struggling with change.  This class has shown how individualized we have become, I will not go into much detail because my last blog was nearly exclusively about individualism in America and I would like to avoid repeating myself.

But the whole thing about relating the gamer mentality of limitless optimism, coordination and collaboration and the drive for an epic win to real world situations filled me with hope.  I'm an anthropology major with a great amount of hope and optimism to learn about other cultures and seeing if, as a whole world, can collaborate and coexist and much more peace than what we are at the moment.  Pretty gigantic dream, right?   Well, it seems like I am not the only one that is willing to fight for this change and I greatly approve of it.  From other anthropological studies, I could only imagine that Asian countries, especially Japan, may be at the forefront of this change (not because of the gaming stereotype) but because of the strength they have and the roles they play in group work.  Westerners reluctantly deal in groups, so it seems and so it is to be believed in our studies and living day by day, keying into how humans behave.  And with group work not being incredibly prolific in America but games are...we may see some advancement in these ideological changes.  This could be a fantastic portal for future development and experiments that can create new generations of less apathetic and overly critical thinkers, hopeful and extremely mindful of the future.  Critical thinking is great, but I notice so much biased thoughts and generally uneducated, spontaneous reactions to today's world.  Makes sense with what we have been studying; instant access, instant reaction.  A gaming mentality that emphasizes strategy, planning and collaboration may allow us to bite our tongue more often and cause for longer, more critical thinking before we take that big step forward.