Why We Play

In the reading two motivations that caught my attention were emotional and social motivation. To better understand these two motivations, I will provide a definition for both of them. Emotional motivation is that feelings that emerges from the action we desire to achieve or we have achieved/failed. On the other hand, social motivation is that need to interact with others and to feel accepted. These two motivation can be observed in the video "Gaming Can Make a Better World" in several occasions but I will be addressing two. The game World of Warcraft is a great example of social motivation since it involves interactions with other players, this game is not the only one with this motivation, in fact, most games nowadays involve social motivation either to compete or socialize. Emotional motivation can be observed by the proposed idea of playing more games to achieve a better world, not only will the participants feel that emotion but Jane McGonigal portrays emotional motivation throughout the presentation.