Video Book Review: Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken

This is just a quick look at Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken. It likely won't come as a surprise to anyone, but I got carried away trying to do something really cool to do for my video book review and ended up just splicing a few clips together for lack of time. One day, I'll figure out Windows Movie Maker and be able to import .MOV files successfully without spending an hour and a half. Anyway, without further ado, here's the review.

Book Review for Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken

Image by Library Girl

If you are expecting Reality is Broken to instill within you an empowering cynicism toward real life and humanity, I would recommend reading a different book, because you will be sorely disappointed. McGonigal instead presents the case for video games as a meaningful way of influencing the real world and realizing our most grand human objectives. While she acknowledges that millions of people are "opting out of reality" in favor of digital worlds, she notes that that is only the case because we have failed to implement the lessons that video game designers have learned: that people want interaction and meaning and relevance, that humans like a good challenge, and that society as a whole can be transformed for good as we harness the untapped potential of millions of gamers throughout the United States and the world as a whole. Video games and other virtual realms are in fact fulfilling real human needs, and those who are able to see past the stigmas attached to video games currently will be armed with the tools necessary to effect powerful positive change in the world around them.

We the People: Digital Civilizations

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By Greg Bayles, graphic remixed from Luc Legay

I've been getting more and more interested in the idea of digital civilizations, so I wanted to throw out some of the thoughts that I've had over the past couple of days. Earlier in the week, I completed a book preview on Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken, and while I found a lot of really useful information, I think the most influential for me has been just a couple lines from a NYT book review. William Saletan remarks, "The Internet isn’t heaven. It isn’t hell, either. It’s just another new world. Like other worlds, it can be civilized." Now obviously my interest in digital civilizations predisposed me to be way more excited about this than perhaps the average person, but for me, Saletan's words came as a powerful reminder about a concept that I've held dear for years: we are the creators of our realities.

Understanding the Digital Exodus with Jane McGonigal's Reality is Broken

As somewhat of a social critic and one who at various times has been thoroughly involved in video games, I couldn't resist Jane McGonigal's title: Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. It seems like McGonigal has a lot of great videos online about video games and virtual reality, so I see her work as key in understanding the 'exodus' to digital worlds.

Book Preview

After spending ten minutes previewing McGonigal's book, it looks like McGonigal's central question is this: "What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what’s wrong with reality?" In addressing this topic, it looks like McGonigal will cover how video games can help us to be happier, more successful, and more productive. I really found her reference to Heroditus's concept of games to be compelling and grounding in a sense, and I think I'd like to look more at the sociological and historical foundations of video games.