{"id":2303,"date":"2012-05-04T12:00:47","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com.php5-21.dfw1-1.websitetestlink.com\/wordpress\/?p=2303"},"modified":"2012-05-04T12:00:47","modified_gmt":"2012-05-04T19:00:47","slug":"book-review-reality-is-broken-by-jane-mcgonigal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rayivey.com\/wordpress\/book-review-reality-is-broken-by-jane-mcgonigal\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"rss\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>

The author just comes right out and says it:\u00a0 Games are better than reality.<\/em>\u00a0 But this book isn\u2019t an exhortation to drop out of real life:\u00a0 it\u2019s a recipe for remaking reality based on what we\u2019ve learned from games.\u00a0 We\u2019re only five months into 2012 and I\u2019ve already read two books this year that blew my mind.\u00a0 The first one was Ready Player One<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 This is the other one.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been a gamer for many years.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always felt luckier than my non-gamer friends, who I think seriously don\u2019t know what they\u2019re missing.\u00a0 I feel gaming is far superior to passive pastimes like watching television.<\/p>\n

Jane McGonigal is a game designer and researcher, and her amazing new book makes me prouder than ever to be a gamer.\u00a0 In her beautifully written book, she describes why we love games, why games are better than reality, and how we can use games to make reality better.<\/p>\n

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Jane McGonigal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The book is broken up into three parts.\u00a0 In the first part, McGonigal explores just what it is about games that makes them such effective engines for happiness.\u00a0 Reading this section was pure joy, because it made me feel like someone much smarter than me had reached into my head and then sat me down to patiently explain to me all the reasons I love my favorite pastime so much.\u00a0 Every single thing she asserts \u2013 that games provide a better work\/reward feedback loop, that games make failure fun and educational, that games can improve our social connections, and many more \u2013 rang utterly true.<\/p>\n

As fun as that portion of the book was, it was all stuff that I already knew intuitively, even if I\u2019d never managed to articulate it as well as the author did.<\/p>\n

But my brain really started to go crazy with the second portion of the book, which deals with how games can begin to make our real lives better.\u00a0 She educated me about the concept of alternate reality games<\/em>, which are just as fun as they sound.<\/p>\n

\"Playing<\/a>
Playing Tombstone Hold'em<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

McGonigal describes two new games that help the unpleasant experience of commercial flight more bearable.\u00a0 A game that helps facilitate physical therapy and recovery.\u00a0 Schools using games as a way to create more effective education.\u00a0 Games played in graveyards that make us happier even as we think about death.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the third part of the book that really blew my mind.\u00a0 In it, McGonigal explores how really large games played by large groups of people can change the world.<\/p>\n

Remember that notorious scandal involving the Members of Parliament in the UK abusing their expense accounts?\u00a0 The newspaper The Guardian<\/em><\/strong> was covering the story and wanted a full accounting of all of the MP\u2019s expenses, so it could investigate just how serious the corruption was.<\/p>\n

Under intense pressure, the government grudgingly agreed to release four years\u2019 worth of records, but they made sure that they provided the data in the most unhelpful format possible:\u00a0 558, 832 separate pdf documents.\u00a0 The Guardian<\/em><\/strong> knew it didn\u2019t have the personpower to scan and evaluate all of those images.\u00a0 So it decided to crowdsource<\/em> the problem.\u00a0 It invited the public to get involved.\u00a0 It launched the first-ever Massively Multiplayer Investigative Journalism Project, which it called Investigate Your MP\u2019s Expenses.<\/p>\n

Did it work?\u00a0 It worked staggeringly well.\u00a0 Just three days into the contest, 170, 000 of the documents had been studied!!\u00a0 When the project was over, the resulting scandal led to resignations, indictments, and changed rules and laws.<\/p>\n

Because The Guardian<\/em><\/strong> decided to make it into a game.<\/p>\n

The book is rife with energizing examples of harnessing the power of online social networking and using games to make the world better.<\/p>\n

Many people think crowdsourcing<\/em> could be a way that we could solve enormous, dangerous problems, like global warming, water shortages, or why George Takei doesn\u2019t get better roles in major films.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember another book that prompted me to join so many different websites!\u00a0 I am eager to participate in these worthy and exciting projects.<\/p>\n

Reality is Broken<\/em><\/strong> isn\u2019t billed as a self-help book, but I think it\u2019s the best self-help book I\u2019ve ever read.\u00a0 I heartily recommend it to anyone who is interested in how play and technology can make our lives more happy and fun, and how we can use games together to make the world a better place.<\/p>\n

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http:\/\/realityisbroken.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Average Rating: 4.7<\/span> out of 5<\/span> based on 194<\/span> user reviews.<\/span><\/div><\/p>

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