Jane McGonigal Quotes

Games are unnecessary obstacles we volunteer to tackle.

We can boost our immune systems by strengthening our social networks and decreasing stress.

In entertainment, we have a comfort level with crisis.

I'm always thinking about whatever game I'm working on. My brain works subconsciously on design pretty much every hour I'm awake.

When we play games, our brains respond differently to stress and obstacles. We're better able to control our attention and ignore distractions.

Games are work. There are economies popping up in games now because people value them.

The more we consume, acquire, and elevate our status, the harder it is to stay happy.

My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.

There is so much more knowledge than most people realize about how to maximize the benefits of play and minimize the potential harms.

When parents or gamers ask me, 'What's the best game to play?' I say that playing face-to-face is more beneficial than playing online.

We are moving towards a new form of collective intelligence.

I don't want a gamer to feel like they have to commit their whole life to changing the world.

Research shows that when we're under stress or facing a major obstacle, we tend to focus on our weaknesses and what we're afraid of.

I don't do 'gamification,' and I'm not prepared to stand up and say, 'I think it works.'

Things like depression and obesity are global challenges.

You can't play the same game every day for years. New games are key.

My favorite part of running is the thinking time.

You need to develop mental habits that allow you to activate the same brain patterns we activate during gameplay.

Every game designer should make one explicitly world-changing game. Lawyers do pro bono work, why can't we?

When we know our strengths, we're more likely to use them.

If you make it a game, gamers will play it no matter what your motivation is in making it.

We have to accept as a society that games are not escapist. They really do change us.

Whenever I do talks around the country, I map out my run. Gives me something fun to do and to look forward to doing.

A dramatic decrease in oil availability is not at all far-fetched.

I didn't accomplish what I set out to do, but I realized I had set out to do the wrong things

I've been running since high school. My boyfriend was on the track team, and I'd run with him.

Game developers know that people have more fun when they're in large groups. They feel more fired up when the challenges are more epic.

Compared with games, reality is disconnected.

Urgent optimism is the desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle, combined with the belief that we have a reasonable hope of success.

There's no reason why the 'Lost' alternate reality game had to be officially made by the 'Lost' production crew.

There are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.

Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.

Clinically speaking, depression is a pessimistic sense of your own capabilities, and despondent lack of energy.

Gamers always believe that an epic win is possible and that it's always worth trying, and trying now. Gamers don't sit around.

My mom is a public school teacher and works with third grade students.

Avatars are a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we might become.

Every game we play activates our brain, and it's the same brain we have in real life as we have in the game.

Reality is broken. Game designers can fix it.

Games are providing rewards that reality is not.

The opposite of play isn't work. It's depression.

I worry a lot about people using games just for marketing, to get people to buy more stuff, which I think would be the worst possible use.

What's really amazing about games is how they change our emotional response to challenges

I want to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Prize.

Game design isn't just a technological craft. It's a twenty-first-century way of thinking and leading.

Over time, the games we play can change how we think and what we're capable of. And it's easy to maximize the benefits so the changes are positive.

Games that make you feel good about yourself are good games to be playing.

The single biggest misconception about games is that they're an escapist waste of time.

Even if you never increase your physical or social resilience, seeking out more positive emotions every day alone can add a full decade to your life.