Reality is broken, can the virtual world fix it?

Not a new idea but have heard quite a bit of buzz recently about using online gaming to help solve problems in the real world. John Robb at Global Guerrillas said he wants to create a "real world company that operates like a massive multiplayer online (MMO) game". His reason is that MMOs "have proven an ability to incentivize tens of millions of players to do billions of hours of work....without a real world economic incentive." People do the work for things like status and virtual reward.

"Game designer Jane McGonigal thinks games can change the world and that game developers have a responsibility to make it happen. Instead of just inviting gamers to escape into a game world that is more attractive than the real world, game developers have a responsibility to steer gamers toward improving the real world."

"Games — particularly alternate reality games — inspire large groups of people to pool their knowledge and skills to overcome obstacles, and this is precisely what’s needed to tackle global social issues, such as poverty, hunger, disease and climate change, McGonigal says."

She is talking at TED2010 and interviewed in Wired