Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

· Sold by Penguin
4.4
27 reviews
Ebook
416
Pages
Eligible

About this ebook

“McGonigal is a clear, methodical writer, and her ideas are well argued. Assertions are backed by countless psychological studies.” —The Boston Globe

“Powerful and provocative . . . McGonigal makes a persuasive case that games have a lot to teach us about how to make our lives, and the world, better.” —San Jose Mercury News 

“Jane McGonigal's insights have the elegant, compact, deadly simplicity of plutonium, and the same explosive force.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother 

A visionary game designer reveals how we can harness the power of games to boost global happiness.

With 174 million gamers in the United States alone, we now live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. But why, Jane McGonigal asks, should games be used for escapist entertainment alone? In this groundbreaking book, she shows how we can leverage the power of games to fix what is wrong with the real world-from social problems like depression and obesity to global issues like poverty and climate change-and introduces us to cutting-edge games that are already changing the business, education, and nonprofit worlds. Written for gamers and non-gamers alike, Reality Is Broken shows that the future will belong to those who can understand, design, and play games.

Jane McGonigal is also the author of SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient.

Ratings and reviews

4.4
27 reviews
Peter Gravelle
May 21, 2015
The book was enjoyable, but it seemed that almost all of the examples were projects that the author worked on. If this stuff is so important (and I think it is) then where are the others doing this?
10 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
Nick Pettyjohn
January 16, 2020
I really enjoyed the insights Jane shared in this book. She opened my eyes to different applications of games, a medium I thought was purely for escapism. I look forward to exploring the resources provided!
1 person found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?
Agent M83
May 1, 2013
This book articulates many of the reasons I play, and have spent much of my life before recently being a videogame apologist (call me CS Lewis for interactive art and entertainment)
9 people found this review helpful
Did you find this helpful?

About the author

Jane McGonigal, Ph.D., is the Director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Wired, and The New York Times and on MTV, CNN, and NPR. She has been called one of the top ten innovators to watch (BusinessWeek), one of the one hundred most creative people in business (Fast Company), and one of the fifty most important people in gaming (Game Developers Magazine). She has given keynote addresses at TED, South by Southwest Interactive, and the Gave Developers Conference, and foresight and strategic advice to companies such as Microsoft, Nintendo, Nike, SAP, Wells Fargo, and Disney.

Rate this ebook

Tell us what you think.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.