Review
'If the world of gaming seems alien to you, this book will crack it wide open. For experienced gamers, it will likely inspire you to play - or even invent - better more meaningful games. Despite her expertise, McGonigal's book is never overly technical, and as with a good computer game, anyone, regardless of gaming experience, is likely to get sucked in.'
--New Scientist
`An intriguing and thought-provoking book. And if the worst thing you can say about McGonigal's vision of the future is that she underestimates the human race's obsession with sex and fondness for puerile humour, that's pretty good.'
--New Statesman
`The book serves as an ambitious call to arms to games designers to make the real world as satisfying as the virtual world of gaming'...`There are a number of astute observations here, with lots of big ideas that will undoubtedly come into focus over the coming years, and it will serve as a n effective anecdote to the relentless dismissal of gaming culture' --Irish Times
`Reality is broken is the most powerful justification yet for computer games as part of our central literacies - parallel to literature or movies in the way they connect our motivations and energies within the challenges of understanding and intervening in our social worlds' --Independent
`she brilliantly links the growing scholarship on happiness to the gimmicks and tricks that commercial game designers devise to engage their febrile audiences' --The Belfast Telegraph
`McGonigal is an inspiring and engaging speaker and what she had to say was fascinating' --The Telegraph
`her central idea-that games hold lessons for the real world as well as vice versa- is interesting, and worth taking seriously' --The Economist
`I found as I read through her book I had already begun to feel empowered and make notes on the games I'd like to look into. Gamers can change reality - McGonigal proves that.' --Engineering & Technology, Keri Allan
`McGonigal is persuasive and precise in explaining how games can transform our approach to those things we know we should do. McGonigal is also adept at showing how good games expose the alarming insubstantiality of much everyday experience. McGonigal is a passionate advocate... Given the power and the darker potentials of the tools she describes, we must hope that the world us listening.'
--The Observer, Tom Chatfield
`McGonigal brilliantly deconstructs the components of good game design before parlaying them into a recipe for changing the offline, "real" world' --Literary Review
--New Scientist
`An intriguing and thought-provoking book. And if the worst thing you can say about McGonigal's vision of the future is that she underestimates the human race's obsession with sex and fondness for puerile humour, that's pretty good.'
--New Statesman
`The book serves as an ambitious call to arms to games designers to make the real world as satisfying as the virtual world of gaming'...`There are a number of astute observations here, with lots of big ideas that will undoubtedly come into focus over the coming years, and it will serve as a n effective anecdote to the relentless dismissal of gaming culture' --Irish Times
`Reality is broken is the most powerful justification yet for computer games as part of our central literacies - parallel to literature or movies in the way they connect our motivations and energies within the challenges of understanding and intervening in our social worlds' --Independent
`she brilliantly links the growing scholarship on happiness to the gimmicks and tricks that commercial game designers devise to engage their febrile audiences' --The Belfast Telegraph
`McGonigal is an inspiring and engaging speaker and what she had to say was fascinating' --The Telegraph
`her central idea-that games hold lessons for the real world as well as vice versa- is interesting, and worth taking seriously' --The Economist
`I found as I read through her book I had already begun to feel empowered and make notes on the games I'd like to look into. Gamers can change reality - McGonigal proves that.' --Engineering & Technology, Keri Allan
`McGonigal is persuasive and precise in explaining how games can transform our approach to those things we know we should do. McGonigal is also adept at showing how good games expose the alarming insubstantiality of much everyday experience. McGonigal is a passionate advocate... Given the power and the darker potentials of the tools she describes, we must hope that the world us listening.'
--The Observer, Tom Chatfield
`McGonigal brilliantly deconstructs the components of good game design before parlaying them into a recipe for changing the offline, "real" world' --Literary Review
Book Description
How we can harness the power of games to solve real world problems and improve our lives
