Quote

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.

Jane McGonigal

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Jane McGonigal
Age: 47
Born: 1977
Born: October 21
Author
Game Designer
Writer
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
Good
Games
Optimism
Getting
Depression
Opportunity
Opposite
Enjoy
Opposites
Words
Direct
Energy
Emotional
Better
Game
Something
Focus
Relentless

More quotes by 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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Games that make you feel good about yourself are good games to be playing.
Jane McGonigal
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If you make it a game, gamers will play it no matter what your motivation is in making it.
Jane McGonigal
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We have to accept as a society that games are not escapist. They really do change us.
Jane McGonigal
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When we know our strengths, we're more likely to use them.
Jane McGonigal
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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.
Jane McGonigal
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Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.
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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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.
Jane McGonigal
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There are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.
Jane McGonigal
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I've been running since high school. My boyfriend was on the track team, and I'd run with him.
Jane McGonigal
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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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Reality is broken and we need to make it work more like a game.
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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Every game designer should make one explicitly world-changing game. Lawyers do pro bono work, why can't we?
Jane McGonigal
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My mom is a public school teacher and works with third grade students.
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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We can boost our immune systems by strengthening our social networks and decreasing stress.
Jane McGonigal
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Clinically speaking, depression is a pessimistic sense of your own capabilities, and despondent lack of energy.
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