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

Jane McGonigal

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Jane McGonigal
Age: 47
Born: 1977
Born: October 21
Author
Game Designer
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Waste
Single
Games
Time
Escapists
Escapist
Misconception
Biggest

More quotes by Jane McGonigal

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You can't play the same game every day for years. New games are key.
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There are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.
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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.
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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.
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When we know our strengths, we're more likely to use them.
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The real world just doesn’t offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn’t motivate us as effectively. Reality isn’t engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn’t designed from the bottom up to make us happy.
Jane McGonigal
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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.'
Jane McGonigal
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There is so much more knowledge than most people realize about how to maximize the benefits of play and minimize the potential harms.
Jane McGonigal
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Any time I consider a new project, I ask myself, is this pushing the state of gaming toward Nobel Prizes? If it's not, then it's not doing anything important enough to spend my time.
Jane McGonigal
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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.
Jane McGonigal
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It may have once been true that computer games encouraged us to interact more with machines than with each other. But if you still think of gamers as loners, then you’re not playing games.
Jane McGonigal
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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.
Jane McGonigal
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Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.
Jane McGonigal
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I want to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Prize.
Jane McGonigal
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Reality is broken and we need to make it work more like a game.
Jane McGonigal
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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.
Jane McGonigal
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You need to develop mental habits that allow you to activate the same brain patterns we activate during gameplay.
Jane McGonigal
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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.
Jane McGonigal
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If you can manage to experience three positive emotions for every one negative emotion … you dramatically improve your health and your ability to successfully tackle any problem you're facing.
Jane McGonigal
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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.
Jane McGonigal