Jane McGonigal is a Game designer and also a Director of Game Research at the Institute for the Future. In her book, “Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Change the World” she claims that games have the aptitude to change the world positively. Through the theories of cognitive science, positive psychology, philosophy, and sociology, McGonigal explicates how playing games may us happier and productive. Notably, science fiction has typically envisioned three probable futures for brilliant species: the exponential, the stable, as well as the solipsistic (Chatfield, 2011). Precisely, an exponential future implies development at an ever-increasing speed while a stable future indicates attaining equilibrium. On the other hand, a solipsistic future is very intriguing since it means a comprehensive getaway from the universe into another constructed realm. Solipsism answers to the famous question of the physicist Enrico Fermi, “Where are all the aliens?” using a simplistic proposal: they are all playing games using computers. Jane McGonigal asserts that a related question is starting to face humanity. Internationally, over 3bn hours of video games are played every week. Therefore, a mass storage of individual effort, attention, relationships and details towards synthetic worlds are apparent, which is designed exclusively to enliven humankind.
Contrary to the common misinterpretation that playing games is a substitute to work, the author portrays playing games as laboring for a good reason, whereby we willingly handle needless challenges (McGonigal, 2011). She makes use of a quotation from a play psychologist, Brian Sutton-Smith, to express what video games can do. She writes that the opposite of play is not work but despair (Gonzalez, 2011). Despite thetitle “Reality is Broken,” the book does not call for digital emigration. McGonagall claims that what is broken is more than this physical world that we live in but the interpersonal constructions layered over it. Today most people are battling great and primal hunger (Gonzalez, 2011). However, it is not food starvation but a hunger for more and greater involvement. As such, this hunger for playing games cannot be satisfied by working or engaging in any other kind of activity. McGonigal believes that games have considerably more to give than a solipsistic getaway.
The essential ideas of the book, then, are not so much scientific as psychological. No event, object, outcomes or even life instances can certainly deliver real joy to us. Therefore, the author proves that we must to make our happiness – through hardwork at activities that deliver their individual reward. Therefore, games provide the proposed happiness and are potent engines for creation and enhancement of sentimental experience and bettering our lives. Nonetheless, the word “better” in the book begs the question whether we are ethically superior people when we are happier (McGonigal, 2011). McGonigal is persuasive and precise when describing the way games can change how we approach the things we are bound to do. She also argues that games help us crave “satisfying work,” which enhances our optimism towards success. Hence, this craving surpasses simple explanations of joy. Moreover: it helps us to work jointly, to remain optimistic against any odds. Her emphasis on a solipsistic future is very intriguing since it means a comprehensive getaway from our normal life into another realm.
McGonigal’s authorship consists of amazing projects like Foldit, which is a game that utilizes the reasoning of players to design the three solid configurations of proteins. “World without oil” is also one of the author’s games that have been included. It builds collective answers to the collapse of fossil energy (McGonigal, 2011). However, the description of how we can create self-happiness is as much an unrealistic petition as it is a practical one- it shouldn’t be astonishing given that the people who design games are not the only ones who attempted to alternate the world through motivating stories and enticements (Chatfield, 2011). The author is also proficient at displaying how games uncover the daily experiences of life. The task performed within fundamental worlds normally has essential significance as compared to what qualifies for effort in the present world. From human friendship to the innovation of products, games make us delighted with life experiences because it is one of the most engaging and genuine activities in our lives(McGonigal, 2011). Most of the famous games raise increase our broadmindedness – because we labor while playing different games as we would do in real life experiences. For instance, people gain different skills and abilities, not to mention courage and confidence.
While considering the description of depression in clinical terms, “a gloomy condition of insufficiency and a downcast lack of physical exercise,” we start to comprehend the way games can convert that (Gonzalez, 2011). Based on the author’s description, gaming brings about an extension of our potential and participatory involvement in the activity. While focusing on gaming, conditioning of the neurology and physiology tends to take place at the same time. Hence, gaming allows individuals to have a positive mind in their thoughts (Chatfield, 2011). However, this might be challenging in an actual sense when it comes to teaching, whereby it involves criticism from individuals who have no regard for your class, not to mention the bitter truth of hardworking with limited rewards (Mochocki, 2011). Therefore, the emphasis that an exponential future implies development at an ever-increasing speed makes much sense. Gaming is one way of achieving that kind of future whereby we see the world from a different perspective.
