“McGonigal is a clear, methodical writer, and her ideas are well argued. Assertions are backed by countless psychological studies.” —The Boston Globe “Powerful and provocative . . . McGonigal makes a persuasive case that games have a lot to teach us about how to make our lives, and the world, better.” —San Jose Mercury News “Jane McGonigal's insights have the elegant, compact, deadly simplicity of plutonium, and the same explosive force.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother A visionary game designer reveals how we can harness the power of games to boost global happiness. With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world-from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change-and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality Is Broken shows that the future will belong to those who can understand, design, and play games. Jane McGonigal is also the author of SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient.

An innovative guide to living gamefully, based on the program that has already helped nearly half a million people achieve remarkable personal growth In 2009, internationally renowned game designer Jane McGonigal suffered a severe concussion. Unable to think clearly or work or even get out of bed, she became anxious and depressed, even suicidal. But rather than let herself sink further, she decided to get better by doing what she does best: she turned her recovery process into a resilience-building game. What started as a simple motivational exercise quickly became a set of rules for “post-traumatic growth” that she shared on her blog. These rules led to a digital game and a major research study with the National Institutes of Health. Today nearly half a million people have played SuperBetter to get stronger, happier, and healthier. But the life-changing ideas behind SuperBetter are much bigger than just one game. In this book, McGonigal reveals a decade’s worth of scientific research into the ways all games—including videogames, sports, and puzzles—change how we respond to stress, challenge, and pain. She explains how we can cultivate new powers of recovery and resilience in everyday life simply by adopting a more “gameful” mind-set. Being gameful means bringing the same psychological strengths we naturally display when we play games—such as optimism, creativity, courage, and determination—to real-world goals. Drawing on hundreds of studies, McGonigal shows that getting superbetter is as simple as tapping into the three core psychological strengths that games help you build: • Your ability to control your attention, and therefore your thoughts and feelings • Your power to turn anyone into a potential ally, and to strengthen your existing relationships • Your natural capacity to motivate yourself and super-charge your heroic qualities, like willpower, compassion, and determination SuperBetter contains nearly 100 playful challenges anyone can undertake in order to build these gameful strengths. It includes stories and data from people who have used the SuperBetter method to get stronger in the face of illness, injury, and other major setbacks, as well as to achieve goals like losing weight, running a marathon, and finding a new job. As inspiring as it is down to earth, and grounded in rigorous research, SuperBetter is a proven game plan for a better life. You’ll never say that something is “just a game” again.

A revolutionary new self-help book by top flight game designer Jane McGonigal. After suffering a brain injury, Jane McGonigal came up with a game to help aid her recovery and battle the ensuing depression she experienced. Half a million people have now played this game to astonishing results: depression gone in 6 weeks in some cases and even terminal cancer patients reporting that playing the game gives them a sense of control over their own health. The book shows readers how to use these techniques to find strength and create positivity: readers can look to their own 'power-ups' which are little things they can do to feel better and tackle the hurdles in their own lives. This book provides simple step-by-step ideas that can be carried out in day-to-day life, helping you transform your life with a new flexible and reenergised mindset. In this book McGonigal uses her own story and those of others to expertly demonstrate how simple changes can result in dramatic life-affirming effects. And what's more, she tells you how you yourself can lead a more "gameful" life.

A renowned game designer describes how she recovered from a debilitating concussion by turning her therapeutic process into a digital game that became the subject of a major NIH research study.

A dynamic, optimistic, science-driven work by a futurist and renowned gamer that trains us to see the future as a futurist does--and prepares us to thrive in that future when it arrives (sooner than we think), by the New York Times bestselling writer and designer of alternate reality games. After living through the massive global shock and trauma of Covid-19, one of the most disruptive events in human history, we need to find a way to face the future with optimism. But how can we plan for a better future when it feels impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or in the next decade? What we need are new tools to help us recover our confidence, creativity, and hope in the face of an uncertain future. In Imaginable, world-renowned future forecaster and game designer Jane McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our brains to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable. Using gaming strategies and fun, thought-provoking challenges that she designed specifically for this book, she helps us build our collective imagination to dive into the future before we live it and envision, in surprising detail, what our lives will look like ten years out. She is the perfect person to lead the way: In 2008 and 2010, with teams at the Institute for the Future and the World Bank, she designed two future simulations with nearly 30,000 participants that predicted a devastating respiratory pandemic in 2020 and the surprising human responses to it: · When social distancing would work and when it would fail · Where super-spreader events would most likely occur · The rise of pods and bubbles · The resistance to mask wearing · The outbreak of misinformation and conspiracy theories · And the complicating effects of climate-change weather events. Not only were these future forecasts shockingly accurate, those who took part in her exercises felt better prepared for Covid-19 when it did arrive. In Imaginable, McGonigal teaches us to identify the challenges that lie ahead in the next decade--big and small, personal and global; shape a better future that solves for those challenges; and access "urgent optimism," an unstoppable motivational force that inspires us to be fearless, resilient, and bold in realizing a world we can only imagine.

World-renowned future forecaster, game designer and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Jane McGonigal gives us the tools to imagine the future without fear."Reading this book is like sitting down with a creative, optimistic friend--and getting up as a new version of yourself." - Daniel H. Pink, New York Times bestselling author of WhenWar in Ukraine, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasingly frequent climate disasters--events we might have called "unimaginable" or "unthinkable" in the past are now reality. Today it feels more challenging than ever to feel unafraid, hopeful, and equipped to face the future with optimism. How do we map out our lives when it seems impossible to predict what the world will be like next week, let alone next year or next decade? What we need now are strategies to help us recover our confidence and creativity in facing uncertain futures.In Imaginable, Jane McGonigal draws on the latest scientific research in psychology and neuroscience to show us how to train our minds to think the unthinkable and imagine the unimaginable. She invites us to play with the provocative thought experiments and future simulations she's designed exclusively for this book, with the goal to: Build our collective imagination so that we can dive into the future and envision, in surprising detail, what our lives will look like ten years from nowDevelop the courage and vision to solve problems creativelyTake actions and make decisions that will help shape the future we desireAccess "urgent optimism," an unstoppable force within each of us that activates our sense of agencyImaginable teaches us to be fearless, resilient, and bold in realizing a world with possibilities we cannot yet imagine--until reading this transformative, inspiring, and necessary book

Nesse fascinante estudo sobre jogos de videogame e comportamento humano, Jane McGonigal defende uma controversa teoria: a de que os games atraem cada vez mais pessoas porque fazem um trabalho melhor do que a realidade para atender aos verdadeiros desejos da humanidade. Escrito tanto para jogadores quanto para não jogadores, A realidade em jogo mostra que o uso desses jogos não precisa ser voltado apenas para o entretenimento solitário e que o futuro pertence àqueles que conseguem entender, criar e jogar videogames.

Phương pháp cách mạng giúp bạn vượt qua những căng thẳng tột cùng hay các trở ngại của bản thân Cuốn sách nói về SuperBetter – phương pháp mang tính cách mạng giúp con người trở nên mạnh mẽ hơn, bền bỉ hơn. Trong cuốn sách này, McGonigal tiết lộ về quá trình nghiên cứu khoa học về cách các trò chơi, bao gồm cả trò chơi điện tử, thể thao và trò chơi giải đố thay đổi cách chúng ta đối phó với căng thẳng, thử thách và nỗi đau. Cô giải thích cách chúng ta có thể trau dồi sức mạnh mới của việc phục hồi và sức bền trong cuộc sống hằng ngày chỉ bằng cách áp dụng tư duy “mang tính trò chơi”. Mang tính trò chơi có nghĩa là mang những sức mạnh tâm lý bạn thường thể hiện rất tự nhiên khi chơi trò chơi – ví dụ như sự lạc quan, sáng tạo, lòng dũng cảm và quyết tâm – tới cuộc sống thực tế. Cuốn Siêu Năng Lực chứa gần 100 nhiệm vụ vui nhộn mà bất cứ ai cũng có thể thực hiện để xây dựng những thế mạng mang tính trò chơi này. Nó bao gồm các câu chuyện và dữ liệu từ những người đã sử dụng phương pháp SuperBetter để trở nên mạnh mẽ hơn khi đối mặt với bệnh tật, chấn thương và những thất bại lớn khác, cũng như để đạt được các mục tiêu như giảm cân, chạy marathon và tìm công việc mới. +ĐÁNH GIÁ CỦA CHUYÊN GIA: "Đối với những người tìm kiếm một chế độ tự lực (self-help) mới, ‘SuperBetter’ có thể là câu trả lời. Nghiên cứu y học và nhân chứng trực tiếp cung cấp bằng chứng cho thấy chơi trò chơi có thể giúp bạn trở thành một người khỏe mạnh hơn, hạnh phúc hơn, tự tin hơn." – Kirkus. “Trọng tâm của SuperBetter – Siêu năng lực là một ý tưởng đơn giản và có khả năng biến đổi: Chúng ta có thể sử dụng cùng một sức mạnh tâm lý mà chúng ta thể hiện khi chơi trò chơi để đối mặt với những thách thức trong đời thực, cho dù đó là bệnh tật, chấn thương hay chỉ đơn giản là thay đổi thói quen của chúng ta trở nên tốt hơn. Căn cứ vào nghiên cứu và được thông báo bởi những trải nghiệm của McGonigal, cuốn sách này sẽ khiến bạn dừng lại và suy nghĩ, sau đó khiến bạn hành động.” – Daniel H. Pink, tác giả cuốn Động lực chèo lái hành vi.

Hoy en el mundo se juegan alrededor de 3000 millones de horas de videojuegos por semana. El interés y los afectos de jóvenes y también de adultos migraron hacia el mundo virtual. ¿Qué hacer con un hijo que se pasa horas frente a la pantalla construyendo aldeas y personajes o embarcándose en aventuras fantásticas junto con desconocidos? ¿Hay que resignarse a la idea de que los videojuegos son sólo formas de escapismo que condenan a la alienación y la pasividad, y que el tiempo de jugar no sirve para nada? Jane McGonigal, una de las más reconocidas especialistas en diseño y desarrollo de juegos, prueba que los gritos de alarma no tienen ningún sentido. Este libro ofrece una perspectiva revolucionaria: los jugadores son expertos en buscar soluciones, esforzarse por una meta y alimentar un sentido de comunidad, y todas estas habilidades contribuyen a "remendar" una realidad repleta de dificultades, en la que faltan las motivaciones y sobran los problemas. Juegos de realidad alternativa, sistemas de creación colectiva, juegos de pronóstico, para computadoras, consolas, teléfonos: todo lo que se aprende entre pantallas y teclas sirve para hacernos más flexibles, más creativos, más capaces de trazarnos objetivos y mejor dispuestos a colaborar para alcanzarlos. Contra todos los prejuicios, McGonigal nos convence de que es posible aprovechar el poder de los juegos para reinventarlo todo, desde el gobierno, el cuidado de la salud, la educación, hasta los medios de comunicación tradicionales, el marketing e incluso la paz mundial. Este libro provocador y genial, pensado para jugadores empedernidos, para los recién iniciados, para los padres y maestros más escépticos, demuestra que los videojuegos pueden mejorar nuestras vidas y cambiar el mundo, además de prepararnos para las formas de liderazgo propias del siglo XXI.