What Gaming Brings

Last year, I attended OTC's first d5 Conference.  It's goal is to pull knowledge from outside the industry to help spark innovation within the offshore businesses.  There has been plenty of reliance on 3D gaming technology for operator simulations, so I wanted to share other ways gaming might help industry based on what I heard at one d5 session in 2015. Dr. Jane McGonigal (janemcgonigal.com), author of "Reality is Broken," discussed the benefits that computer games have for business. Based on her research, 81 percent of the workforce is effectively unengaged and 52 percent of Americans have no direct way to solve problems in their communities or impact the larger society. Games fill the engagement gap. As such, she premised that there is a large opportunity to redirect this energy to solving problems. As an example, she mentioned that the effort it took to create and populate Wikipedia took the equivalent of what the population puts into three days of Candy Crush Saga. So what could society focus gamers on to benefit all? Dr. McGonigal presented an example from the World of Warcraft game in which a bug was discovered that simulated a highly infectious disease. The behavior of the players caused the CDC to rethink its contagion models to include "reporters, gawkers, and looters" among others.  Another "game" she mentioned was World Without Oil.  The game asked players to imagine a world reeling from a sudden oil shortage, describe how the crisis is unfolding where they live, and work together on simple and practical ways to adapt. By playing it out in a serious way, the game aimed to apply collective intelligence and imagination to the problem in advance and create a record that has value for educators, policymakers, and the general public to help anticipate the future and prevent its worst outcomes. This engaged gamers in scenarios of what the gamers would do if there suddenly was no more oil. As a side note, Dr. McGonigal recommends limiting your game play to less than twenty hours per week to keep the positive benefits. Perhaps the Oil Industry should fund a "World at $30 Oil game?"  I'm expecting great sessions at the 2016 event as well.