Fix 13

My time spent with the Settlers game has shown me the collaborative efforts of the players to reach a common goal. In order to succeed, one must cooperatively coordinate or synchronize with other players to identify a common goal in order to co-create a desired outcome, one that no one player could have accomplished on their own. My last adventure, The Dark Priests, required the collaboration of one other player. Neither of us knew what we were doing and as a result, we did not succeed, but we sure did learn a lot. I look forward to more combined adventures now that I know a little more of what to expect.

As McGonigal notes (pg. 271), “We have a hardwired desire and capacity to cooperate and coordinate our actions with others, to actively immerse ourselves in groups and to actively cocreate positive shared experiences.” This is certainly borne out in my personal experience with cooperative learning groups in my classroom. Translation of skills learned in cooperative learning or gaming environments, amounting to the 10,000+ hours of practice required for extraordinary status, to real world situations that require these Collaboration Superpowers that McGonigal refers to, should make for a much better prepared group of problem solvers we will need in the future.

McGonigal refers to a definition of “shared intentionality” as “the ability to participate with others in collaborative activities with shared goals and intentions” (pg. 270). I do not believe that this is solely a “distinctly human capacity” (pg. 260). She refers to the research, stating that no other intelligent species is capable of this quality. From bees and ants to African Wild Dogs and coyotes, all cooperate and learn from each other for their common good. Perhaps, we are the only species cognizant of our intent to cooperate, but I do not believe we are alone in its application.

A few years ago, a friend was telling me about his gaming experiences and I was convinced that this was something I wanted to try. I bought the Xbox w/Kinect and a number of games to go along with it, including the newest Call of Duty. This was an expensive lesson for me as I did not have the requisite coordination skills to operate the controller and did not enjoy these games and now they sit here unused. I get more pleasure watching my nephews play these games than I ever got playing them myself. I think that as soon as I get the okay from their mother, I will transfer the whole thing to them. My younger nephew, who is nine, is very adept at the online aspect of the games and is fearless when it comes time to “ping” another player for help or just chat. I look forward to seeing how these experiences will affect his behavior in the future in terms of cooperation and collaboration.