Gaming Can Make a Better World is a TED talk given in February 2010 by Jane McGonigal.  McGonigal is a game designer who graduated from Fordham University and received her PhD from Berkely.  Throughout her talk McGonigal brings up the usage of video games.  McGonogal states that the world plays 3 billion hours of video games a week.  The audience thinks that this is a large number, but McGonogal actually advocates for people to play 21 billion hours of video games a week.  The reason she found this to be a good number of hours is because it gives the users the opportunity to make them a better person.  Users are becoming better people because they are gaining skills such as wanting to act upon a challenge, learning social skills, and giving real life things a better meaning.  The way McGonigal displays video game players gaining schools to her viewers is by using techniques such as relating to her audience, using evidence to back up her claims, and being a well-respected game designer.

McGonigal connecting to her audience is a very important factor in her TED talk.  The reason for this is because she knows that many people aren't in tune or may think she is crazy when talking about video games making a world better.  The audience not having faith in what she is talking about shows that McGonigal is lacking ethos.  Having said this, she always makes sure she is looking at the audience.  Right from the beginning of her talk she is making eye contact with the crowd.  This is very important because she shows she is confident in what she is talking about.  Therefore, it makes her audience believe her when she says gaming helps people gain important skills because she is confident when she speaks and truly believes what she is saying.  Having said this, the audience is gaining a lot of trust in her from the ways she is showing she cares passionately about her topic.  This expresses ethos because she is gaining trust from her audience.  Another way she connects to the audience is by responding to their reactions.  For example, when the audience laughs at her when she says, "The world needs to play 21 billion hours of video games a week" she laughs along and says "No I'm serious."  After joking around she proceeds to tell them why.  Doing this makes McGonigal get on a personal level with the audience and draws them in more.  Just like making eye contact, McGonigal makes her audience believe her when she says gaming helps people gain important skills because she is connecting to the audience.  Once again this is displaying ethos because she is on a personal level with the audience which gains trust.  On top of connecting with her audience to show video game users are becoming better people because they are gaining skills such as wanting to act upon a challenge, learning social skills, and giving real life things a better meaning, she also uses a vast amount of evidence to back up her claims.

Something McGonigal does a lot throughout her presentation is provide evidence to her audience in many forms.  One form she uses that is very effective is diagrams.  Diagrams are very effective in her piece because she shows the amount of video games being played.  This is important because it shows where games are being played the most.  As a result of this, she is able to show how many people are capable of helping the world and how wide spread it is.  This information really relates to her point that people are gaining social skills.  The audience can see they are gaining social skills with this method because so many people are connecting around the world. Having evidence that connects to her point is displaying logos.  Having diagrams provides logos because she has proof to back up what she is saying.  On top of displaying logos through diagrams she also displays ethos.  This is because she is displaying factual evidence which in return gains credibility and trust from the audience.  Another technique she uses to have evidence in her talk is historical facts.  In her talk she says that the world has spent 5.93 years playing World of War Craft.  McGonigal then goes on to say that the first human ancestors stood up 5.93 billion years ago.  She then proceeds to talk about how the human race is evolving from putting this much time into video games.  This relates to the first human ancestors evolving because it means that development is occurring.  With development occurring it proves her point that humans are gaining skills such as wanting to act upon a challenge, learning social skills, and giving real life things a better meaning.  McGonigal talking about the development of ancestors and gamers also provides ethos and logos.  On top of using evidence and interacting with her audience, McGonigal is a well- respected game designer.

After researching McGonigal I discovered she is a highly respected game designer.  According to JaneMcGonigal.com, McGonigal is one of the best game designers in the world who specializes in designing games that improve real lives and solve real problems.  This relates to her points of people gaining skills such as wanting to act upon a challenge, learning social skills, and giving real life things a better meaning because there are informational games that aren't just for entertainment.  During her time making these informational games McGonigal has also gained a countless number of achievements.  Some of her achievements include having the number one social impact game of the year, having one of the 10 breakthrough ideas in science, top 100 creative people in business, and more.  All of these achievements McGonigal earned over her life time help her gain credibility.  Gaining credibility is very important with a TED Talk because it will make the audience believe in you more.  Being very credible shows the ethos in your work.  On top of gaining credibility it also allows her to bring emotion into her talk.  The reason why McGonigal has a lot of emotion when talking about this stuff is because she is very passionate for it.  For example she is very passionate when she talks about the games she has come with.  The reason she is so passionate is because she truly believes that the games she has made can change the world.  Being so passionate and emotional toward her projects and goal is an example of pathos.  McGonigal bringing in pathos, logos, and ethos into her TED talk through so many different forms allows her to get her point across that video game users are becoming better people because they are gaining skills such as wanting to act upon a challenge, learning social skills, and giving real life things a better meaning.

If it wasn't for logos, pathos, and ethos that she incorporates,  McGonigal wouldn't have had an effective TED talk.  The reason for this is because logos, pathos, and ethos make the audience believe what the speaker is saying.  Logos means having logic, reason, and proof behind what you're saying, pathos means having emotion and values behind what you're saying, and ethos means having credibility and trust.  McGonigal incorporates all three of these things throughout her talk numerous times.  For example for logos she uses diagrams and historical evidence, for pathos she connects with the audience on a personal level, and lastly for ethos she is a well-known game designer.  Having all three of these things in McGonigal's talk gives her the ability to have the audience to believe everything she is saying.  If she only had part of these or didn't have any of the three McGonigal would struggle to have the audience believe in what she is saying.  Having said this, McGonigal incorporating connecting to the audience, using evidence to back up her claims, and being a well-respected game designer she is able to display logos, pathos, and ethos.  This than leads to her final goal of making the audience believe video game users are becoming better people because they are gaining skills such as wanting to act upon a challenge, learning social skills, and giving real life things a better meaning.

