Sunday, June 03, 2012

Stealth Social Innovation

I just finished reading Jane McGonigal's book on Gaming.  I will be blogging about it much more in the coming week or so because there were a lot of concepts hidden in her pages that evoked a lot of ideas in me.  I say hidden because I am not sure that I agree with her main point.  But more of that for next week.

For now, I want to discuss one concept that she discusses near the end of the book.  It is stealth social innovation.  The idea is to create platforms (innovation) that help individuals find ways to help someone in need (social) without them even knowing about it (stealth).

The happiness research shows that this should have a strong benefit for both the user and the recipient.  And according to McGonigal, it is also fun if it set up according to the gaming structure she uses in the book. 

This seems like a win-win if ever there was one.  I'm in. 

2 comments:

Elle DCoda said...

I'm fascinated by the very same idea and its built into our serious learning game at The Herbal Coaching Community as part of The House of Quests. I think its a powerful experience to receive help without knowing where it came from, plus it removes "ego" from the game play.

R.F. Bright said...

I've been involved in these games and they work. They're very subtle, compared to football or hockey, but the players are actually engaged.

It's better to be the worst player, than the best viewer.

McGonigal is genius.

Ray Bright