Respected TED 2010 speaker Jane McGonigal believes that mankind can accomplish absolutely any world challenge, by shifting valuable skills learned in video games, and using them to solve important problems in today’s society.

In his recent U.S. Bestseller Outliers, Award Winning author Malcolm Gladwell talks about what it takes to be an expert in any given field. The basis of his study concluded that any person must spend a minimum of 10,000 hours learning and mastering a certain skill in order to reach the highest “expert” level.

Studies @ Carnegie Mellon University say that “in a country with a high gamer culture, the average young person will have spent 10,000 hours playing video games by the age of 21. This means, gamers are developing real-world skills at an expert level and not applying it.

Gamers today think they can only change the VIRTUAL world, and not the REAL world. This assumption is perfectly logical in every aspect: Gamers can accomplish much more in a game than in real life, they receive instant feedback about that accomplishment, all while collaborating with millions of other players from around the world.

The real problem here, is the world itself. We haven’t caught up to the productivity level, mass collaboration and teamwork that’s being achieved in the game world. Yet… Therefore, gamers fill that void by spending countless hours in front of the tv.

Here are the most important skills gamers acquire, that I believe to be the biggest contributors to the way we interact and evolve as human beings. More detailed explanations of these skills are discussed in McGonigal’s TED speech below.

1. Concentration

2. Productivity

3. Optimism

4. Co-Operation / Teamwork

5. Persistence

I highly recommend watching this video, if you’ve seen it, watch it again. It always gives me some inspiration to fire up the xbox and start saving the world.