John Seely Brown on New Ways of Learning
What I found interesting in John Seely Brown’s video is his mention of World of Warcraft and how it was not the game itself that fascinates him but the players and the community that were behind it. John mentioned that people want to become better and in the World of Warcraft community they were able to build and learn from one another based on wanting to get better in the game. I believe what most people neglect about video games is that gaming is a culture and with that comes community. Community influences the individuals inside of it and pushes people to become better either through collaboration or competition. Humans are naturally social and wanting to fit in they influence one another in many different ways. I believe community to be so strong in a maker’s culture because it is individuals in the community that share the instructions for others to see in the first place and why did they put the instructions for others to see? They do it because they are simply part of that community and want to contribute in one way or another. An example I use for how powerful a community can become especially a gaming one is actually one I am a part of. I play a game called Guild Wars 2 where you do the typical things such as questing or exploring but over the summer I was touched and amazed. I found my community not only helping each other in the game but helping others outside the game as well. Many “guilds” from the game came together to host a “toga party”, the toga party was just an event where players across the game would come together to play with one another. However, this event was just not about bringing the players together but also to raise money for multiple sclerosis and in doing so the community was able to raiser over a few thousand dollars for the cause. The power to influence others is one of the greatest strengths to change someone and communities have the power to do so!
