Reality is Broken (2011) (edit title/settings)

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• “Game developers know better than anyone else how to inspire extreme effort and reward hard work. They know how to facilitate cooperation and collaboration at previously unimaginable scales. And they are continuously innovating new ways to motivate players to stick with harder challenges, for longer, and in much bigger groups. These crucial twenty-first-century skills can help all of us find new ways to make a deep and lasting impact on the world around us.”

  Jane Mcgonigal

• “Game design isn't just a technological craft. It's a twenty-first-century way of thinking and leading. And gameplay isn't just a pastime. It's a twenty-first-century way of working together to accomplish real change.”

  Jane Mcgonigal

• “It used to be that we were spoon-fed the goal and the rules, and we would then seek feedback on our progress. But increasingly, the feedback systems are what we learn first. They guide us toward the goal and help us decode the rules. And that's as powerful a motivation to play as any: discovering exactly what is possible in this brand-new virtual world.”

  Jane McGonigal

• “When we choose hard work, we enjoy the stimulation and activation...And this optmistic invigoration is way more mood-boosting than relaxing. As long as we feel capable of meeting the challenge, we report being highly motivated, extremely interested, and positively engaged by stressful situations...Hard fun leaves us feeling measurably better than when we started...The research proves what gamers already know: within the limits of our own endurance, we would rather work hard than be entertained. Perhapsthat's why gamers spend less time watching television than anyone else on the planet. As Harvard professor and happiness expert Tal Ben-Shahar puts it, "We're much happier enlivening time rather than killing time.”

  Jane McGonigal

• “As long as we're focused on intrinsic and extrinsic reward, we never run out of the raw materials for making our own happiness. We're hardwired with neurochemical systems to make all the happiness we need. We just have to work hard at things that activate us and immerse ourselves in challenging activities we enjoy for their own sake.”

• “So which intrinsic rewards, exactly, are most essential to our happiness?...My analysis of significant positive-psychology findings from the past decade suggests that intrinsic rewards fall into four major categories. First and foremost, we crave satisfying work, every single day...clearly defined, demanding activities that allow us to see the direct impace of our efforts. Second, we crave the experience, or at least the hope, of being successful. Third, we crave social connection. Fourth, and finally, we crave meaning, or the chance to be a part of something larger than ourselves.”

• “Fix #14: Massively Multiplayer Foresight ~ Reality is stuck in the present. Games help us imagine and invent the future together.”

  Jane McGonigal

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.

  Highlighted by 489 Kindle customers

• Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.1

  Highlighted by 397 Kindle customers

• Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out that almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work.

  Highlighted by 382 Kindle customers

• Satisfying work always starts with two things: a clear goal and actionable next steps toward achieving that goal.

  Highlighted by 318 Kindle customers

• The truth is this: in today’s society, computer and video games are fulfilling genuine human needs that the real world is currently unable to satisfy. Games are providing rewards that reality is not. They are teaching and inspiring and engaging us in ways that reality is not. They are bringing us together in ways that reality is not.

  Highlighted by 284 Kindle customers

• That’s because there is virtually nothing as engaging as this state of working at the very limits of your ability—or what both game designers and psychologists call “flow.”4 When you are in a state of flow, you want to stay there: both quitting and winning are equally unsatisfying outcomes.

  Highlighted by 261 Kindle customers

• Freedom to work in the most logical and efficient way possible is the very opposite of gameplay.

  Highlighted by 261 Kindle customers

• The research proves what gamers already know: within the limits of our own endurance, we would rather work hard than be entertained.

  Highlighted by 231 Kindle customers

• “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”6

  Highlighted by 169 Kindle customers

• there are many ways to be happy, but we cannot find happiness. No object, no event, no outcome or life circumstance can deliver real happiness to us. We have to make our own happiness—by working hard at activities that provide their own reward.15

  Highlighted by 147 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• The real world

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Games: Describe this theme.
• Finding happiness

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jane McGonigal (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: GV1201.38 .M34 2011
• Dewey: 306.487

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Computers & Internet › Games & Strategy Guides › Video Games
• Books › Computers & Internet › Business & Culture › Culture
• Books › Professional & Technical › Engineering
• Books › Science › History & Philosophy
• Books › Entertainment › Puzzles & Games
• Books › Nonfiction › Social Sciences