The motivation through gaming apps not only touches children but also adults. Three Korean-made apps are especially drawing attention. (image credit: Tree Planet)
SEOUL, Korea, August 06 (Korea Bizwire) – Why are children so into petty, simple video games, when they are not rewarded with anything but useless virtual coins for playing them? It’s quite a show to watch little ones so obsessed with their cute characters obtaining an equally cute alien spaceship. We adore these little beings but we do not understand why they are dying to play another round to obtain that virtual prize. Well, we adults do play games on our smart phones, at least in South Korea where it is socially acceptable for adults to indulge into a cute animal game in metro, but we are not dying to get any virtual prize. We play them just to kill time. That’s the big difference between children’s gaming and ours. Adults don’t expect rewards from gaming; we expect rewards from doing other productive things.
We read books and are rewarded with knowledge. We learn exotic yoga moves and are rewarded with nice bodies. These rewards seem real enough to motivate us to spend our precious time and money. Children’s gaming does not seem productive at all. However, children do gain some productive prize from gaming. Contrary to common beliefs, video games can make children more ethical and more responsive to problem solving. Dr. Kathy Sanford, who conducted a five-year research on children’s relationship with gaming, told in an interview with The Globe and Mail (Jun. 5, 2013) that children “are doing a lot of problem solving and strategizing” and learning to be more aware of their decisions and the following consequences while playing video games.
Thus however petty those virtual coins might seem, the act itself of setting goals and planning strategies to win them can be a valuable lesson for children. To be balanced, successful social beings, we all need right strategies to achieve our own goals and reward systems of gaming can help to do so. Some app makers have already taken this notion of ‘motivating children with video games to do good’ into their mobile applications. A Wall Street Journal (July 9, 2013) article has introduced various apps that encourage children to do house works. Children get to play a character that gets upgraded and rewarded with virtual coins redeemable in prizes like ice cream or a zoo trip.
The motivation through gaming apps not only touches children but also adults. Three Korean-made apps are especially drawing attention in this regard. With ‘Tree Planet,’ you can grow cute virtual forests on your smartphones. While nurturing a forest, you can choose various virtual items like fertilizers which work as sponsors’ advertisements. When a virtual forest is complete, sponsoring companies pay advertising expenses by building actual forests. ‘Tree Planet’ also collaborates with celebrities like 2NE1 and builds ‘Star Forests.’ In this way ‘Tree Planet’ cleverly attracts fans to grow their own virtual forests following their stars. According to their website, about 800,000 ‘virtual’ trees have been made and about 340,000 ‘real’ trees have been planted in five countries.
‘Big Walk’ is another popular app that lures adults into a ‘walk game.’ You just activate the app and walk around a bit to lose some weight. One won per 10 meters is to be saved and sent to neighbors in need. ‘Cityminer’ is a newcomer. The app enables people to recycle faster and easier and to make money from it. With one click on ‘Cityminer,’ everyone can send their unwanted clothes to recycling centers and earn small cash. You can also scan a barcode of a beverage can to save cash.
For some people, virtual coins and rewards of these three apps might not really seem that productive and worth their while. Who will walk 10 kilometers a day to donate 1,000 won, which is about a dollar? Why don’t we just donate generous sum to tree-planting NGOs? So here comes again the problem of productivity. Those apps by no means are productive enough to earn some money and save the green planet. Will ‘Tree Planet’ save the world? No. But no other NGOs and world organizations have been completely successful either. What is important is to build some principles in our own lives for doing good, like recycling, by motivating ourselves with something accessible.
And come to think about it, are our constructive behaviors really productive? You won’t get any smarter or wiser by reading a few books. Plus, most of us buy books and never read them. How many of us have been successful in losing weight? Do people in the yoga class actually look like Guess models? Some succeed and some fail, which means that our productive behaviors often fail to meet rewards. At least little children are happy to seize an alien spaceship and, unlike adults often failing to reach goals, children while gaming actually reach their goals on digital screens and learn to live with strategies and principles that are earned with cute little virtual coins. Whatever those strategies and principles may be and wherever they can be earned, no one can succeed without those two.
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