Jane Mcgonigal's Reality Is Broken

The author begins building his or her credibility by putting rhetorical questions, putting a study example that has been done, and the author successfully employs logic appeals but lacks pathos, which makes her purpose unclear.

She gives many points to appear credible and trustworthy towards her readers. This strategy is called the author’s use of ethos. She uses this approach to support her claim that the number of law students who passed the bar exam has fallen due to law schools admitting students with very weak LSAT scores, a glitch in the exam software, and an additional subject added to the bar. Merritt addresses in the article that the N.C.B.E. claims they have no role in the lowering bar passage. She states, “The N.C.B.E. insists that last year’s decline stems solely from weaker LSAT scores -- even though its own data shows otherwise” (Merritt). Merritt clearly has data, charts that the N.C.B.E. posted, which shows that they do have a role in lowering bar passage. The N.C.B.E. was trying to blame just the LSAT scores, but they also had to do with it, shown from their own data Merritt found. By Merritt finding her own data, she looks more credible. It would be harder to have confidence in a writer if they did not seem credible or have a good reputation. Merritt does both of these things by arguing back to the N.C.B.E. that she has data to prove her points. She is also a chair in law member at a university which shows good character, a good reputation, and that she knows a lot of information about law

Video games have become as pervasive an aspect of our society as television, with many people spending more time playing video games than watching television. There are many perspectives with which to gauge videos games’ effect on society, from a functionalist, conflict or interactionist perspective. (Schaefer, 2011) Each of these sociological theories can provide a different view of video games, how they affect society and the subcultures that develop around them.

To make her next point, she uses an outdated quote from the sociologist, James Coleman, which is an appeal to authority because people may give him more credit due to him being a sociologist, than they would

In April of 2009, Halo 3 players finally achieved the staggering milestone of 10 billion kills that had taken them over 565 days to accomplish. Halo is one of the first virtual games that was massively multiplayer; which, helped it foster an online community greater than any game before it. Jane McGonigal uses the game as a case study in her book Reality is Broken: Why Games Makes Us Better and How They Can Change the World. McGonigal’s Halo study is but one of the many tools that help her identify the communal capabilities of virtual gaming, as well as the many other ways gaming can improve the interaction between humans and reality. Another tool that McGonigal implements is the digital image on the front cover of her book.

Caroline Bird starts by building her credibility through her own personal research and other credible sources as well as appealing to readers through logical reasoning using numerous statistics but fails to convince readers and discredits her ultimate goal through a disconnect in her use of analogies.

The video games and zombies industries are dominating. Everyone, children and adults are enjoying them, weather it is on a computer, cell phones, internet, tablets, magazine, comics, or game consoles. Video games give people freedom from the world filled with responsibilities and hard work. As Jane McGonigal convey in her article “Reality is Broken” that how virtual world is fulfilling human needs. In reality people are not being themselves, they are not doing what they want to do; they are doing what they are told to do. To people to make their lives better and healthy they need to forget the world around them for a while and play video games an d watch zombie movies. It is a way of relaxing your mind. As Max Brooks tells in his article “The movies that rose from the grave” how zombie genera is entertaining people. Stress and hardships are part of

Shouldn’t this generation be required to play Pac-Man, Asteroids, Galaga, Centipede Pit Fall or Frogger before they get to play Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto or Halo? The games these days have real life graphics and by some can be considered offensive and too graphic, having an (EC) early childhood to (AO) an adult only rating (Entertainment Software Rating Board). Games went from being a nice hobby to a young kid to the average gamer now being an average age of 34 years old. The popularity of game usage is detrimental to the American society, changing our nation to

Have you ever wondered how so many people can play video games for hours? Or how gamers can connect to people in the “virtual world” and learn life lessons? In the book, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and the article “Becoming Part of Something Bigger Than ourselves” by Jane McGonigal says “the single best way to add meaning to our lives is to connect our daily actions to something bigger than ourselves and the bigger, the better” (446). In 2009, McGonigal’s best video game, SuperBetter, went viral. The popularity from the video game increased gamers to battle health challenges like depression and anxiety. Mcgonigal's video game also increased better communication skills between friends, family,

According to the article “Be a Gamer, save the world” by Jane McGonigal, in the world, we are living in, games are able to be the main element in answering to the challenges of the real world. Although, there are some people who think that playing a game is the waste of time and make mind to not work normally. There are quite a lot of people in the world that they are spending a lot of money and time for playing video games. It doesn’t mean those people who are playing games don’t care about real life and they don’t have any work to do, but they have jobs, children, parents and they are students in schools. Also, they have other life responsibilities to care about. There are some great points in the games that are beneficial for players.

In Chapter 11, Sherry Turkle claims that the online words and massive multiplayer online role-playing games, gives virtuosity and fantasy- and something more; your performances put you at the center of a new community with virtual best friends and a sense of belonging. Most people that play the virtual game “A Second Life,” feel like their avatars are used as “practice” for real life. Their lives on screen may be play, but they are serious play.

She relies heavily on the reader’s ability to form his or her own conclusion based on the evidence given. In one instance, she anticipates a possible objection that one could make and partially agrees with it (par. 3). She asks a question that an opponent would ask to set herself up to respond to another viewpoint. Her strategy continues to work after she starts to contest the opposing viewpoint with situational examples that the reader can relate to.

Carr’s repeated references to his colleagues helps to strengthen his argument as well. These stories provide some insight into the issue. It would appear that Carr’s suspicions hold weight due to the testimonies of his peers, and this allows him to

James Anderson’s short essay “Just One More Game…: Angry Birds, Farmville, and Other Hyperaddictive Stupid Games” claims that society is addicted to digital games and since the technological advancement in the last decade or so, games are so much easier to distribute to every individual who owns a smartphone. He also stated the iPhone has filled our free time with mindless games as well as a way of gamification. Before reading this essay, I would have never considered the overall view of the gaming industries and the effect on society. James Anderson captures the reader’s attention by examining many of the unfortunate side of games from Tetris to Angry Birds, only to contradict his own thesis. Anderson also uses history, facts, statistics,

Many young children and teenagers have heard their mother’s incessant plead to get away from the screen and to go outside or pick up a book for once instead. The urge to play “just one more level” before starting that homework or doing those chores can be quite distracting. But are video games really as awful as Mom exclaims or as brutal as those TV ads depict? It turns out that video games can have a strong impact on participants’ lives in both positive as well as negative ways.