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

by Jane McGonigal

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.

Herodotus invented history as we know it, and he has described the goal of history as uncovering moral problems and moral truths in the concrete data of experience.

What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what’s wrong with reality? What if we started to live our real lives like gamers, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists?

If you are a gamer, it’s time to get over any regret you might feel about spending so much time playing games. You have not been wasting your time. You have been building up a wealth of virtual experience that, as the first half of this book will show you, can teach you about your true self: what your core strengths are, what really motivates you, and what make you happiest. As you’ll see, you have also developed world-changing ways of thinking, organizing, and acting. And, as this book reveals, there are already plenty of opportunities for you to start using them for real-world good.

gaming the system, what I mean is that you’re exploiting it for your own personal gain.

“playing the game” in this way, we’re really talking about potentially abandoning our own morals and ethics in favor of someone else’s rules.

The Four Defining Traits of a Game

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

goal provides players with a sense of purpose.

rules place limitations on how players can achieve the goal.

rules push players to explore previously uncharted possibility spaces. They unleash creativity an...

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

voluntary participation

ensures that intentionally stressful and challenging work is experienced as safe and pleasurable activity.

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

FIX # 1 : UNNECESSARY OBSTACLES

working harder and harder until you lose?

in a good computer or video game you’re always playing on the very edge of your skill level, always on the brink of falling off. When you do fall off, you feel the urge to climb back on. 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.

Many gamers would rather keep playing than win—thereby ending the game. In high-feedback games, the state of being intensely engaged may ultimately be more pleasurable than even the satisfaction of winning.

You might reasonably guess that your first goal is to get out of the sealed room, but you can’t really be sure. It would seem that the main obstacle you face is that you have no idea what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re going to have to learn how to advance in this world on your own.

Players begin each game by tackling the obstacle of not knowing what to do and not knowing how to play.

We learn how to play by carefully observing what the game allows us to do and how it responds to our input. As a result, most gamers never read game manuals.

Any well-designed game—digital or not—is an invitation to tackle an unnecessary obstacle.

Why do unnecessary obstacles make us happy?

How Games Provoke Positive Emotion

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

things: a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity.

concentrated state of optimistic engagement, it suddenly becomes biologically more possible for us to think positive thoughts, to make social connections, and to build personal strengths. We are actively conditioning our minds and bodies to be happier.

It’s hard work that we enjoy and choose for ourselves. And when we do hard work that we care about, we are priming our minds for happiness.

possibility not only of success but also of spectacular failure.

busywork,

focused activity that produces a clear result.

mental work,

a rush of accomplishment when we put our brains to good use.

physical work,

discovery work,

teamwork,

creative work.

make meaningful decisions and feel proud of something we’ve made.

For every creative effort we make, we feel more capable than when we started.

experience sampling method, or ESM,

Subjects are interrupted at random intervals with a pager or by text message and asked to report two pieces of information: what they’re doing and how they feel.7 One of the most common findings of ESM research is that what we think is “fun” is actually mildly depressing.

In fact, we consistently report feeling worse afterward than when we started “having fun”: less motivated, less confident, and less engaged overall.

We certainly have a strong intuitive sense of what makes us feel bad, and negative stress and anxiety are usually at the top of the list.

boredom and depression.

eustress (a combination of the Greek eu, for “well-being,” and stress).

When we’re afraid of failure or danger, or when the pressure is coming from an external source, extreme neurochemical activation doesn’t make us happy. It makes us angry and combative, or it makes us want to escape and shut down emotionally. It can also trigger avoidance behaviors, like eating, smoking, or taking drugs.

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

Fiero is the Italian word for “pride,”

Scientists have recently documented that fiero is one of the most powerful neurochemical highs we can experience. It involves three different structures of the reward circuitry of the brain, including the mesocorticolimbic center, which is most typically associated with reward and addiction. Fiero is a rush unlike any other rush, and the more challenging the obstacle we overcome, the more intense the fiero.