Reality Is Broken - Jane McGonigal (2011)

Jane McGonigal is an author and researcher on game theory and gaming for the Institute of the Future.  She has been featured in the Economist, Wired and the New York Times.  Business Week named McGonigal one of the 10 top innovators to watch in 2009.  McGonigal received her PhD in Performance Studies from the University of California - Berkley.

The premise of Reality Is Broken is that the skills and attitudes that games evoke could and should be applied to real world endeavors.  McGonigal contends that games reflect what people want out of life: more satisfying work, better hope of success, stronger social connectivity, and the chance to be part of something bigger than themselves.

Through a series of fourteen "Fixes," McGonigal demonstrates how the principles of game design could be applied to solve real world problems.  This, she suggests, would lead to greater focus, optimism and "flow."  The author notes that game designers know how to "inspire extreme effort and reward hard work."  They can "facilitate cooperation and collaboration at previously unimaginable scales."

The first half of the book describes game design principles and compares these to how society and the contemporary work place approach problems and productivity issues. McGonigal then provides a fix for reality that incorporates the game design principles and explains how these could enhance life and work.

The second half of the book provides examples of games that have been developed to address  pressing social issues.  These include "Free Rice," a casual game developed to help end world hunger and  "Fold It," an online program that uses game design principles to engage people to solve protein folding puzzles. This, in turn, could speed up medical research that may some day  cure Alzheimers, cancer and other  diseases. 

Many of the games that McGonigal highlights are Alternate Reality Games or ARGs. These games bridge the gap between the game world and the real world.  They are being used extensively in the entertainment and marketing industries.  McGonigal suggests ways that they could also enhance learning and could be brought to bear on the most challenging problems facing the world today.

McGonigal discusses the "Engagement Economy."  Today, she states, it is not enough to simply acquire people's attention.  People now want to be engaged.  This is consistent with Tapscott's "Participatory" culture.  Game designers are experts at engaging players by providing voluntary epic challenges, feedback and opportunities for mass collaboration.  The author points out that game designers provide "sustainable" engagement opportunities because they rely on intrinsic, rather than extrinsic motivation and rewards.  This, she feels, is far superior to the extrinsic reward systems generally used to solicit effort and commitment in the "Real World."

Who plays games?  A demographic breakdown:

*69% of heads of households,
*97% of youth,
*40% of gamers are women,
*25% are over the age of 50,
*Average age is 35,
*Most gamers expect to continue playing for the rest of their lives.