What is important about games?

I am a female gamer.  I received my first computer at 11 years old, and I saved my money and bought my first Gameboy at the age of 12.  As I was growing up, I did not know what a gamer was, I just knew I was different from other girls. I played water polo, and once I went to college I took my love of the strategy of sports and started playing Counterstrike, Half-Life and Warcraft II and III.  Once World of Warcraft came out in 2004, I had embraced my identity as a gamer, but I was afraid as so many people are that a game of that magnitude would encompass my life.  I started playing a year later, when the gamer inside of me could no longer be held inside.  Now, I have three characters that I play on a regular basis as I go to school, work and write my thesis.  However, I would say that I have “gamified” my life as on one single character I have spent over 57 days playing.  1,300 hours spent playing on one character means that gaming is a part of my life, not just an unimportant pastime.  If nothing else, playing World of Warcraft has changed the way that I think about what the world and how I function within that world.

The way that I have come to view games is that they have potential. Part of what makes games fun and interesting is that they challenge the mind or body in ways that are not monotonous, and that are not so hard that players become discouraged. The average player spends an average of 13 hours a week, with hardcore gamers spending up to 45 hours a week in virtual worlds (McGonigal, 2011, pp. 3-4). I feel that if we can harness the power that games have into a classroom setting, we can change education for the next generation.