Analysis Of Jane Mcgonigal's Ted Talk

In Jane McGonigal’s Ted Talk, “The game that can give you ten extra years of life” explains how she created a game called “Jane the Concussion Slayer” to help her overcome a concussion that didn’t heal properly. McGonigal describes to her audience the different levels and power-ups she created to make herself feel better. In doing so, she believed it helped her tackle challenges with more creativity, determination, and optimism. McGonigal then concludes her speech and challenges her audience to create their own game to add years to their lives. Taking away from this video, I have decided to create my own game so I can have a good and productive fall semester by creating “Power Points” to help me stay an organized and determined college student.

Since McGonigal is gamer, she convinces her audience that playing games can help them through tough times and regrets by sharing to the audience the game she created for her concussion. In the game, she adopted a secret identity, recruited allies, battled the bad guys, activated the power-ups. While playing this game, in just a few days, McGonigal noticed the fog of depression and anxiety went away (McGonigal 8:21 – 8:53). In response to McGonigal’s conclusion, I have decided to take upon the idea of creating a game for myself so I can have a good fall semester. In this game that I have created, there are two different types of power points. The first type of power point are Health Points. Health Points can be obtained by: taking thirty minutes to three hour naps after team lifting at seven thirty in the morning (every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), exercising, eating five small meals a day, maintaining an organized room, and keeping a daily planner up-to-date. The other type of power points are Magic Points. Magic Points can be obtained by: having a good connection with professors (meeting with them during their office hours), using school resources (such as the library, writing center, math lab, etc.), and completing and turning in homework assignments on time. The reason why you want to gain

Those three missions are: attending all classes, finishing the appropriate homework that is due, and building a connection/network with one new person every day. Attending all classes is an important mission because new material is being taught every day and it is a good habit to be present in class because you will gain a better connection with not only your peers but also your professor. Attending class daily is an important factor in how one will approach their homework. For example, if you attend class every day, you will have a better understanding of what is expected and when things are due. Whereas, if you were to skip class regularly, you wouldn’t know what is expected and lack of effort is shown to not only to your professors but also your peers; causing them to disassociate with you. Building a network with people from different backgrounds is one of the game’s top three daily missions because it can help me in the long run, in terms of career and personal needs. McGonigal states, “It turns out that people who regularly boost these four types of resilience – physical, mental, emotional, and social – live ten years longer than everyone else… If you are regularly achieving the three-to-one positive emotion ratio,… you will live ten years longer than everyone else…”. That being said, I believe setting those three things are my top missions are a great way