Name: Reality is Broken
Rating: 4.3 (35 reviews)
Author: Jane McGonigal

Introduction

What’s in it for me? Learn why playing games can actually improve your life – and everyone else’s.

Games, especially video games, are time and time again the topic of media curiosity, where their focus is often drawn to the realistic violence and gore found in many video games.

However, the spectrum of games today extends far beyond obscene violence, and of the millions and millions of us who game, virtually none will confuse fiction for reality and engage in acts of violence.

Quite the contrary: games offer us immense value, helping us to develop essential skills that easily translate into the “real world.” In fact, the benefits of gaming are so strong that we should all spend more time engaged with them and outfit our daily routines in accordance to gaming principles.

Even things as mundane as doing chores can be turned into an exciting and engaging game!

But gaming principles aren’t just a way to make mundane tasks bearable – with a little creativity, we can use them to reach loftier goals centered around furthering human development and solving serious worldwide problems.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

why the myth of the “lone gamer” is so bogus;
why people are drawn to games;
why the author considered hiding the toilet brush from her husband; and
how one game developer was able to coax its players into trying to help solve a major world problem.

Key idea 1 of 8

Games provide more motivation and rewards than “real life” does.

Today, video games are more popular than ever before. Across the world, millions of us use our phones, PCs, or various consoles to play.

In fact, a whopping 97 percent of youths play one game or another. But, what draws us to video games in the first place?

Many experts believe their popularity is the result of mere escapism, a chance for us to distract ourselves from the pressures of reality for a few hours.

However, this view is too simplistic. The real reason why people are playing more video games is that games can provide people with important social needs that might not be available in “real life”.

For example, chat rooms, wikis (websites and games developed by users), and communities of gamers provide gamers with a level of social bonding that reality isn’t offering them.

Games also provide people with a degree of justifiable optimism: players feel good because they know that they can win – that the game can be beat. Every game is solvable by design, which gives people hope.

And even if they do fail, they can take solace in having fun trying. Reality, in contrast, does not provide them with anything similar.

In addition, games provide people with a genuine happiness.

Indeed, a world without fun or excitement leaves people deflated and depressed. Games, with their missions, secrets and “easter eggs,” can augment our otherwise dull lives with a bit of excitement, thus helping to prevent us from becoming unhappy.

What’s more, games also can provide us with fiero, that wonderful feeling of triumph over adversity.

You’ve surely experienced this rush yourself after beating a boss or completing a difficult mission in a game – it’s that moment when you jump from your chair throw your arms over your head and let out a celebratory scream!

Key idea 2 of 8

Playing games is a sustainable way of providing ourselves with better lives.

Imagine this scenario: Every day, you work for hours in a job you hate. If that wasn’t bad enough, your life is made even more miserable by a daily commute for two hours along the busiest highway in the city. Sounds like fun, right?

Of course not. That kind of life would make anyone depressed!

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Key idea 3 of 8

Multiplayer games help build important social bonds between players.

The popular image of a video game fanatic is that of a lonely, sexless youth, living a life of exile in a dark bedroom. The only time he sees another human being is as he passes his mom as he creeps from his room to the refrigerator to warm up another microwavable meal.

Yet, this perception of gamers as isolated and lonely is far from accurate. In fact, since the development of the internet and online multiplayer games, video games are increasingly becoming an important tool for social bonding.

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Key idea 4 of 8

Even the most mundane routines can be turned into an epic experience through gaming.

Earlier we discussed how tedious and hollow real life can be. But it’s not always because something is actively getting you down. There are some things about real life that, while neutral, are just boring. How often do you get excited about going to the grocery store or pharmacy?

Games, however, are very different. Games are not mundane at all! In fact, playing a game is an epic experience, i.e., one that eclipses our everyday experiences in terms of intensity or size.

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Key idea 5 of 8

We can use gaming principles to “hack” our happiness.

The next time you’re at a bookstore, have a look at the “self-help” section. Chances are it will be enormous. Thousands of authors have written exhaustively on the secret to happiness, many of them even drawing on extensive medical research.

Nevertheless, as a society, we are growing more depressed. In fact, the World Health Organization has called depression the greatest threat to global health.

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Key idea 6 of 8

Long-time gamers develop a number of skills as a result of gaming.

Did you know that, by the time they have reached the age of 21, the average US American will have spent over 10,000 hours playing video games?

It is a generally accepted approximation that if you practice a skill for that long, you eventually become truly extraordinary at it! So what abilities have gamers mastered in their 10,000 hours?

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Key idea 7 of 8

Gaming principles can broaden collective knowledge and help us find solutions to global problems.

You’ve probably spent some time scrolling through articles on Wikipedia. You might have even contributed to an article or two.

In fact, these small contributions add up: one estimate suggests that Wikipedia is the product of 100 million hours of work.

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Key idea 8 of 8

We must try to get everyone involved in games, since they are a mechanism of world prosperity.

Because games can change our perceptions and skills, we can use them to create a better future.

For starters, the collaborative nature of games help us define lofty goals and tackle seemingly impossible social missions together.

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Reality is Broken summary