Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

by Jane McGonigal

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

These are the four defining traits that need to get incorporated into all motivational designs.

Real-time feedback serves as a promise to the players that the goal is definitely achievable, and it provides motivation to keep playing.

MOTIVATION AND REASONABLY assured progress: this is the start of satisfying work. But to be truly satisfied, we have to be able to finish our work as clearly as we started it. To finish work in a satisfying way, we must be able to see the results of our efforts as directly, immediately, and vividly as possible. Visible results are satisfying because they mirror back to us a positive sense of our own capabilities. When we can see what we’ve accomplished, we build our sense of self-worth. As Martin Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology, argues, “The most important resource-building human trait is productivity at work.”12 The key here is resource building: we like productive work because it makes us feel that we are developing our personal resources.

Games eliminate our fear of failure and improve our chances for success.

Scientists have found that optimism is closely correlated to a higher quality of life in pretty much every way imaginable: better health, a longer life, less stress and anxiety, more successful careers, better relationships, more creativity, and more resilience in the face of adversity.