McGonigal - reality is broken

Wow, she covers a ton of information in this reading and it was all interesting! She really is trying to understand games on a deeper level, so we can apply what's so great about them to make our "real lives" for satisfying. She always comes back to this idea that games give us a "sense of being fully alive, focused, and engaged in every moment". To be honest, I like here arguments, but I feel like some of them are a bit exaggerated. Yes, some games do and can make players feel alive, focused, and engaged, but not every game, and not for everyone. Each person has their own way of playing and interpreting games, so I could agree that games and game designers are heading in that direction where the games we create and play are becoming more and more social, engaging, and fulfilling, but not all of them, not for anyone who sits down and plays a game for an hour a day. I like her ideas that "we should try to use what we can know and understand about video games to 'fix' what's wrong with reality", but it seems like such an impossible feat, I can't quite see it actually happening.

She gives a great definition of a game. Games she says "have four defining traits: a goal, rules, a feedback system, and voluntary participation." I'm not going into detail on what those traits entail, but I think her main argument is that if you fully understand those four core traits of games and how they affect players' interaction with games, you can start to apply it to real life.

I was looking at one of her more recent games called "SuperBetter" and you can see exactly how she's trying to get people to do that. In this game, you pick your challenge/problem you what to solve and set your goals, obesity/to lose weight for example, and the game or other people you can network with gives you various quests to help you reach your goals, along with "future boosts:, "power ups", and
bad guys" to watch out for. It's a great example of how it's possible to sole real life problems by applying gaming knowledge or game characteristics to the situation.

Overall, I like where McGongal's trying to go with her ideas.