14 DAY TRIAL // Al Gore is best known for having invented the Internet during the '80's (a statement which is not factually correct) but after tackling important subjects like climate change the former vice president and almost president of the United States of America is now talking about video games and about how they can create significant change in the real world.
He recently spoke at the Games for Change event at the New York University and moved quickly to talk about legendary designer Will Wright, who worked on the show Bar Karma for Current TV, which is owned by Gore in part.
He said, “Games have clearly arrived as a mass medium. This is a very large, extremely significant industry with a wildly diverse and rapidly-growing audience of players on all kinds of platforms. We already know the immense power of popular media to illuminate issues that can seem intractable and overly-complex, but can be illuminated and presented to general audiences in a way that invites people to become involved in trying to solve the problems that our society has to solve.”
Gore says that he is not much of a player himself but that he is seeing gaming more and more around him in new space like on Facebook and on mobile devices but also in old areas like PC and console gaming.
This means that more and more people can play video games, a lot of the time for free, which makes them a good means of sending out information and even crowdsourcing solutions to some of the problems that affect out world.
Al Gore says that he would like to see someone create “Farmville for policy” a way for a big number of players that also have interest in the real world to work and play together while offering advice on how the future should be molded, both by governments and by individuals.
He added, “I have faith in people and in human nature. During the time they are spending in the game, if there are constructive, valuable lessons, I think that's a good thing.”