Jane McGonigal Quotes

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Jane McGonigal

Profession : Designer

Birth : October 21, 1977

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

Jane McGonigal

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

Jane McGonigal

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.

Jane McGonigal

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

Jane McGonigal

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.

Jane McGonigal

We are moving towards a new form of collective intelligence.

Jane McGonigal

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

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

Jane McGonigal

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

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

Jane McGonigal

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

Jane McGonigal

'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.

Jane McGonigal

Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.

Jane McGonigal

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.

Jane McGonigal

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.

Jane McGonigal

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.

Jane McGonigal

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

Jane McGonigal

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.

Jane McGonigal

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

Jane McGonigal

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

Jane McGonigal