Since Sweetwater High’s academic year ended last week, I have been spending this week relaxing and preparing to start my internship at Qualcomm next week. I am pretty nervous because I will be living in company-provided housing away from my husband to limit the commute and to be immersed in the internship. I have been battling agoraphobia for about 10 years, and this is the first time I will be away from home for such an extended period. But, I know it is important for both my personal and professional growth.

This week, we discussed Jane McGonigal’s 2012 TEDTalk on how “Gaming Can Make a Better World”.

In it, McGonical claims that people need to play more video games in order to exact the positive changes that will save the world, such as solving world poverty and hunger and reversing climate change. However, it is unclear if her studies she uses to back up her claims are biased towards subjects that already have a sense of collaboration, common goals, and positivity. She speaks mostly of MMORPGs in her examples; are the factors she is investigating confounded by the personality characteristics found typically among MMORPG players? Still, her idea is interesting and warrants further investigation.