Jane McGonigal Thinks Reality is Broken, and She Wants to Fix It, according to this story by Michael Anderson in the Wired magazine. He says:"McGonigal’s new book, Reality is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can Change the World, hits bookstores (in the US) on Jan. 20, and expands upon the central point of her presentations: reality is broken, because games do a better job of making us happy. Rather than attacking games as an escapist outlet for avoiding real-world troubles, why don’t we subvert those game mechanics to make the world a better place?"
I am not a 'gamer' in the hardcore sense of the word. I play Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja, Bubble Ball on my iPad and iPod Touch for a few minutes daily. I am not obsessed with them, although winning a 'level' does make me feel good. I don't like to tax my brain too much after a long day, nor do I care much for 'bang-bang-bang', 'shoot-shoot-shoot' games. To each his own, I guess. Building cities and farms and what-have-you, don't excite me either. I cannot see the point.
Anderson says: " The book is structured in three sections: The first delves into what makes us happy, the second embraces the notion of entering alternate realities, and the third addresses the challenges and potential embodied in massive collaborative projects."
Fiction makes me happy. It embraces the notion of alternate reality like nothing else does. But I am still grappling with the part about, 'addresses the challenges and potential embodied in massive collaborative projects.' Sometimes I see it, sometimes I don't. For me, fiction is the greatest game of all. I would love get my hands on that book, though.
Wired magazine
