Jane McGonigal Quotes

“Reality is broken. Game designers can fix it.”

— Jane McGonigal

“When you strip away the genre differences and the technological complexities, all games share four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation.' page 21”

— Jane McGonigal

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

— Jane McGonigal

“It's a bit counter-intuitive to think about the future in terms of the past. But ... I've learned an important trick: to develop foresight, you need to practice hindsight. Technologies, cultures, and climates may change, but our basic human needs and desires - to survive, to care for our families, and to lead happy, purposeful lives - remain the same.' p 5”

— Jane McGonigal

“The real world just doesn't offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn't motivate us as effectively. Reality isn't engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn't designed from the bottom up to make us happy.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Today, I look forward and I see a future in which games once again are explicitly designed to improve quality of life, to prevent suffering, and to create real, widespread happiness.”

— Jane McGonigal

Gamers always believe that an epic win is possible and that it's always worth trying, and trying now. Gamers don't sit around.

— Jane McGonigal

“Positive health means becoming whole-heartedly engaged with our own health care. It means not outsourcing our health to the health care system. It means getting rid of the fear and paralysis we too often feel, and instead cultivating a sense of agency.”

— Jane McGonigal

We've been playing games since humanity had civilization - there is something primal about our desire and our ability to play games. It's so deep-seated that it can bypass latter-day cultural norms and biases.

— Jane McGonigal

“Urgent optimism is the desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle, combined with the belief that we have a reasonable hope of success.”

— Jane McGonigal

“The idea of the 'lone gamer' is really not true anymore. Up to 65 percent of gaming now is social, played either online or in the same room with people we know in real life.”

— Jane McGonigal

“There are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.”

— Jane McGonigal

Game designers are obsessed with emotion. How do we create the emotions that we want gamers to feel, and how can we really make it this intense, emotional experience?

— Jane McGonigal

“Evidence shows that having even weak social connections in a stressful situation is really good for your health and your ability to handle that situation.”

— Jane McGonigal

When my life is stressful, my favorite game is called 'Pop It,' where you pop balloons and prizes fall out. It's a five-minute game that focuses my mind and gives me extra attention when I'm stressed.

— Jane McGonigal

“Game developers know that people have more fun when they're in large groups. They feel more fired up when the challenges are more epic.”

— Jane McGonigal

“I ran through most of college and ran through most of grad school. When I was writing my dissertation for my Ph.D., it was literally the only hour of the day that I wasn't working. It was nine months of torture, but I made sure I got out to run.”

— Jane McGonigal

“The single biggest misconception about games is that they're an escapist waste of time.”

— Jane McGonigal

Scientists have demonstrated that dramatic, positive changes can occur in our lives as a direct result of facing an extreme challenge - whether it's coping with a serious illness, daring to quit smoking, or dealing with depression. Researchers call this 'post-traumatic growth.'

— Jane McGonigal

Clinically speaking, depression is a pessimistic sense of your own capabilities, and despondent lack of energy.

— Jane McGonigal

“We can boost our immune systems by strengthening our social networks and decreasing stress.”

— Jane McGonigal

“'SuperBetter' is fundamentally about a mind shift. It's about claiming your power to be in charge of how you spend your time and energy, and focusing it on the things that matter the most to you. Focusing on things that will bring real happiness, real well-being.”

— Jane McGonigal

In the future, I think it's pretty plausible that collective intelligence tools and skills will be important in order to be a part of global dialog, global business, and global creativity. People who know how to negotiate collective intelligence networks are going to be in a good position to contribute to global society.

— Jane McGonigal

“The Gamifaction Movement is trying to help companies engage their audience and community by using game mechanics and wrapping them around shopping or achievements, so you get achievements for coming to a store or purchasing things, like rewarding activities.”

— Jane McGonigal

I'm not a fan of simulations. Where, 'Oh, we'll go play a simulation of world peace and figure out how to make peace' and then somehow magically that will get translated into the real world. No, that's not the kind of games that I make.

— Jane McGonigal

“Even if you never increase your physical or social resilience, seeking out more positive emotions every day alone can add a full decade to your life.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Over the next generation or two, ever larger numbers of people, hundreds of millions, will become immersed in virtual worlds and online games. While we are playing, things we used to do on the outside, in "reality," won't be happening anymore, or won't be happening in the same way. You can't pull millions of person-hours out of a society without creating an atmospheric-level event.”

— Jane McGonigal

“A dramatic decrease in oil availability is not at all far-fetched.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Every game designer should make one explicitly world-changing game. Lawyers do pro bono work, why can't we?”

— Jane McGonigal

“Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.”

— Jane McGonigal

“There's no reason why the 'Lost' alternate reality game had to be officially made by the 'Lost' production crew.”

— Jane McGonigal

“I don't do 'gamification,' and I'm not prepared to stand up and say, 'I think it works.'”

— Jane McGonigal

“I'm always thinking about whatever game I'm working on. My brain works subconsciously on design pretty much every hour I'm awake.”

— Jane McGonigal

“I remember the first year at the Game Developers Conference I wore these big red giant knee-high boots. Nobody cared. You can wear anything you love, because that's what you do in games. You make yourself who you want to be.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Compared with games, reality is disconnected.”

— Jane McGonigal

Games that make you feel good about yourself are good games to be playing.

— Jane McGonigal

“In entertainment, we have a comfort level with crisis.”

— Jane McGonigal

“My favorite part of running is the thinking time.”

— Jane McGonigal

“My mom is a public school teacher and works with third grade students.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Whenever I do talks around the country, I map out my run. Gives me something fun to do and to look forward to doing.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Research shows that when we're under stress or facing a major obstacle, we tend to focus on our weaknesses and what we're afraid of.”

— Jane McGonigal

“If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion ... you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you're facing.”

— Jane McGonigal

When we know our strengths, we're more likely to use them.

— Jane McGonigal

“My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.”

— Jane McGonigal

The more we consume, acquire, and elevate our status, the harder it is to stay happy.

— Jane McGonigal

“A traumatic event doesn't doom us to suffer indefinitely. Instead, we can use it as a springboard to unleash our best qualities and lead happier lives.”

— Jane McGonigal

“I want gaming to be something that everybody does, because they understand that games can be a real solution to problems and a real source of happiness. I want games to be something everybody learns how to design and develop, because they understand that games are a real platform for change and getting things done. And I want families, schools, companies, industries, cities, countries, and the whole world to come together to play them, because we're finally making games that tackle real dilemmas and improve real lives.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Games are unnecessary obstacles we volunteer to tackle.”

— Jane McGonigal

“Game design isn't just a technological craft. It's a twenty-first-century way of thinking and leading.”

— Jane McGonigal

Games are providing rewards that reality is not.

— Jane McGonigal