Book Review: Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal

Reality Is Broken – Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change the World is written by Jane McGonigal, a well known game designer. She’s a strong proponent of using games to solve real world problems which is what this book mostly talks about. I first heard about her when I was reading up on Gamification while during our ground work for XPlore. Her TED talk garnered a lot of attention and got me interested in what she had to say. The book is well researched and has plenty of references to positive psychology and games. If you’re a hardcore gamer, a casual gamer or just interested in solving real world problems, then this is a must read.

Jane talks about the history of games and why they are such a powerful form of recreation and have been played for centuries. To understand the why, you need to look past your biases against video games and games in general. Most of us consider them as “time pass” and not being productive. In fact some even consider them to be harmful, which of course is true for anything done in excess, not just games. Most games have four basic traits – a goal which gives you a specific purpose, rules that set limitations, a feedback system that is real-time and voluntary participation. If you think about it, these four traits can be applied to so many fields – education, work or any task. So what makes games fun and work boring? Voluntary participation perhaps?

Games can be defined as a voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles. You put challenging obstacles in front of you, set rules, and have a specific goal and the whole activity becomes much more interesting to the human mind. Well designed games push you to the edge of your ability and when you’re performing at your peak, a win, or an epic win in gaming terminology, leads to what Jane calls a “fiero” moment (Fiero is an emotional high you feel when you triumph over adversity). Games induce stress, not the kind of stress that weighs you down, but positive stress called ustress (positive emotion). And that’s why, when you fail in games you are motivated to try again as opposed to feeling terribly demotivated when failing in your exam or at work.

Now combine this with concepts like flow, happiness and intrinsic rewards from positive psychology and you have a powerful combination for motivating people, making boring environments more fun and productive. There are four categories of intrinsic rewards that she talks about in the book. Satisfying work – work that is clearly defined with demanding activities and visible results. It turns out that to be happy at work we actually need activities that challenge us. Less or no work actually makes Jack a dull boy. The craving for success is something we all aspire for and is a strong intrinsic motivator. Social connections we build through sharing experiences contributes to our happiness. And when the work we do or tasks we take part in has a context, a larger meaning, or is part of something bigger, or epic scale in gaming terminology, we feel motivated and happy to be doing it. And this is what games do. Playing games is actually very challenging and demanding and yet we seem to enjoy them.

Games can be looked at as a form of escapism. To run away from reality. To switch off from the real world and immerse yourself in the virtual world. But there are a new category of games that have emerged called ARGs – Alternate Reality Games. They don’t just exist in the virtual world. They connect the virtual world with real world activities. They combine what we love about games and what we want from our real life. There are many kinds of ARGs as well – Life Management ARG, Organizational ARG, Conceptual ARG, Live ARG and Narrative ARG. ARGs are being used my marketers, educators, and NGOs to create awareness about a product, or create collaboration projects on an epic scale. Check out the following games, some of which were designed by Jane McGonigal, that empowers individuals all over the world to work together and collaborate on real world issues. World Without Oil, Superstruct and Evoke were designed by Jane McGonigal. More information on them can be found on her website.

The book was an inspiring read for me. Using games to solve real world problems is a great idea. It’s an entirely new way of looking at solving some of the teething problems we face today like poverty, diseases and conservation. If you’re still skeptical about games and gamers, you should read about Foldit. What took scientists and supercomputers ages  to decode, gamers with the help of the Foldit game were able to decode complex protein structures in months.