Top 83 Quotes & Sayings by Jane McGonigal

Compared with games, reality is disconnected.

I ran through most of college and ran through most of grad school. When I was writing my dissertation for my Ph.D., it was literally the only hour of the day that I wasn't working. It was nine months of torture, but I made sure I got out to run.

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

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

I remember the first year at the Game Developers Conference I wore these big red giant knee-high boots. Nobody cared. You can wear anything you love, because that's what you do in games. You make yourself who you want to be.

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

For most people, an hour a day playing our favorite games will power up our ability to engage whole-heartedly with difficult challenges, strengthen our relationships with the people we care about most - while still letting us notice when it's time to stop playing in virtual worlds and bring our gamer strengths back to real life.

'SuperBetter' is fundamentally about a mind shift. It's about claiming your power to be in charge of how you spend your time and energy, and focusing it on the things that matter the most to you. Focusing on things that will bring real happiness, real well-being.

Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.

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

I'm not a fan of simulations. Where, 'Oh, we'll go play a simulation of world peace and figure out how to make peace' and then somehow magically that will get translated into the real world. No, that's not the kind of games that I make.

It seems like what happens when we play games is that we go into a psychological state called eustress, or positive stress. It's basically the same as negative stress in the sense that we get our adrenaline up, you know, our breathing rate quickens, our pulse quickens.

Positive health means becoming whole-heartedly engaged with our own health care. It means not outsourcing our health to the health care system. It means getting rid of the fear and paralysis we too often feel, and instead cultivating a sense of agency.

Surveys of thousands of gamers have shown that they're more likely to play real music if they play a music videogame. So it's an interesting relationship where the games aren't replacing something we do in real life, they're serving as a springboard to a goal we might have in real life, like learning to play an instrument.

My favorite part of running is the thinking time.

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

Although I'm perceived as very optimistic and upbeat, it comes out of being the opposite of that - feeling isolated or lonely, looking for meaning and the kinds of things that ease that suffering in life, and finding them in large-scale social interaction, like theater and games.

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

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

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

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

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

The Gamifaction Movement is trying to help companies engage their audience and community by using game mechanics and wrapping them around shopping or achievements, so you get achievements for coming to a store or purchasing things, like rewarding activities.

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.

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.

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

Evidence shows that having even weak social connections in a stressful situation is really good for your health and your ability to handle that situation.

In the future, I think it's pretty plausible that collective intelligence tools and skills will be important in order to be a part of global dialog, global business, and global creativity. People who know how to negotiate collective intelligence networks are going to be in a good position to contribute to global society.

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

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

We've been playing games since humanity had civilization - there is something primal about our desire and our ability to play games. It's so deep-seated that it can bypass latter-day cultural norms and biases.

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

When my life is stressful, my favorite game is called 'Pop It,' where you pop balloons and prizes fall out. It's a five-minute game that focuses my mind and gives me extra attention when I'm stressed.

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

Scientists have demonstrated that dramatic, positive changes can occur in our lives as a direct result of facing an extreme challenge - whether it's coping with a serious illness, daring to quit smoking, or dealing with depression. Researchers call this 'post-traumatic growth.'

When we're in game worlds, I believe that many of us become the best version of ourselves: the most likely to help at a moment's notice. The most likely to stick with a problem as long as it takes. To get up after failure and try again.

Game designers are obsessed with emotion. How do we create the emotions that we want gamers to feel, and how can we really make it this intense, emotional experience?

There is no problem that doesn't have some underlying need for more optimism, stamina, resilience and collaboration. And games are, I believe, the best platform we have for providing that.

In entertainment, we have a comfort level with crisis.

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.

The idea of the 'lone gamer' is really not true anymore. Up to 65 percent of gaming now is social, played either online or in the same room with people we know in real life.

We are moving towards a new form of collective intelligence.

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

'Superbetter' looks more like a social media platform or a social network than a typical video game. You know, there aren't any 3-d spaces to explore. You don't have this avatar that you're building up. It's more about thinking like a gamer.

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

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

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

Things like depression and obesity are global challenges.

When we play a game, we tackle tough challenges with more creativity, more determination, more optimism, and we're more likely to reach out to others for help.

I see a future in which games once again are explicitly designed to improve quality of life, to prevent suffering, and to create real, widespread happiness.

Reality is broken and we need to make it work more like a game.

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.

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

When we're in game worlds, I believe that many of us become the best version of ourselves - the most likely to help at a moment's notice, the most likely to stick with a problem as long at it takes, to get up after failure and try again.

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

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

A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.

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

Gamers always believe that an epic win is possible and that it's always worth trying and trying now.

I want gaming to be something that everybody does, because they understand that games can be a real solution to problems and a real source of happiness. I want games to be something everybody learns how to design and develop, because they understand that games are a real platform for change and getting things done. And I want families, schools, companies, industries, cities, countries, and the whole world to come together to play them, because we’re finally making games that tackle real dilemmas and improve real lives.