Can games make the world better?

• Reflect on Jane's 4 things that games do to make us "virtuosos": Urgent Optimism, Social Fabric, Blissful Productivity, Epic Meaning.

I really enjoyed listening to Jane, I thought her topic was interesting and her humor was entertaining. However, I think her ideas are a pretty far stretch. I am not convinced the lessons learned in gaming by the "average" gamer can be applied to real life. It is much easier to save a virtual world, there are no real sacrfiices, only buttons to click. I think some of the lessons are real and ideally we should be able to cross from virtual to reality, but to ask someone to give up life style habits in real life is much more difficult than to give them up in a virtual world.

The 4 things that make us virtuosos are not compatible from virtual to real, in my opinion. I believe they require a different make-up of a person to be a virtuoso in real life. I think about virtual basketball. To sit and play may take decision making, but a real professional basketball player has to sweat and work hard physically as well as mentally to be successful. You take the physical hard work and practice out of basketball and you don't end up with the same result.

Larry Bird is one of my basketball heroes, but my son can play Wii basketball and can win a championship, but in real life, my money is on Larry Bird on a real basketball court. I don't think you can take real life lessons and teach them to be effective in a virtual world and visa versa.