This post isn't completely congruent with the theme of /r/outside, but I think it's incredibly relevant, especially in light of some people coming here for support and advice recently as the playful atmosphere makes it easier to face things. This is a TED talk from the designer behind SuperBetter.
AskScience AMA Series: I'm Jane McGonigal, PhD, world-renowned game researcher and inventor of SuperBetter, helping 1 mil+ people use game skills to recover from depression, anxiety, and traumatic brain injury. Ask me about how games can increase our resilience during this time of uncertainty, AMA!
Hi! I'm Jane McGonigal. I'm the Director of Game Research and Development for the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. I believe game designers are on a humanitarian mission - and my #1 goal in life is to see a game developer win a Nobel Peace Prize. I've written two New York Times bestselling books: Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World and SuperBetter: The Power of Living Gamefully. I'm also a lifelong game designer (I programmed my first computer game at age 10 - thanks, BASIC!). You might know me from my TED talks on how games can make a better world and the game that can give you 10 extra years of life, which have more than 15 million views. I'm also the inventor of SuperBetter, a game that has helped more than a million players tackle real-life health challenges such as depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and traumatic brain injury. SuperBetter's effectiveness in treating depression and concussion recovery has been validated in clinical trial and randomized controlled studies. It's currently used by professional athletes, children's hospitals, substance recovery clinics and campus health centers worldwide. Since 2018, the SuperBetter app has been evaluated independently in multiple peer-reviewed scientific articles as the most effective app currently in the app store for treating depression and anxiety, and chronic pain, and for having the best evidence-based design for health behavior change. I'm giving an Innovation Talk on "Games to Prepare You for the Future" at IBM's Think 2020. Register here to watch: https://ibm.co/2LciBHn Proof: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EW9s-74UMAAt1lO.jpg I'll be on at 1pm ET (17 UT), AMA! Username: janemcgonigal
SuperBetter is a self-help "game" kind of like the apps Habitica or Do it Now: RPG To Do List. It uses gaming ideas like power-ups, allies, and quests to motivate you to get "super better" at whatever - weight loss, depression, willpower, etc. You can see Jane McGonigal's TED talk here I've done it before to help with depression, but it occurred to me that I might try it again with TTC. A lot of the power packs are things I could use help with, like emotional resilience, keeping active, keeping positive, etc. Does anyone else play? Or, would anyone like to be my ally?
Hey you guys! A new month. Did you do anything for Halloween? We went trick or treating with the cousins and then we came home and gave out candy to kids coming by our house. By the time we were home it was all the older kids/teens out and about and that's cool. I like to see the older kids having fun too. I gave each one a ton of candy because there weren't very many of them. I gave candy to 3, and idk if Danger gave any out. We had a staff meeting this morning and I had to take the minutes. I took some damn good minutes. I'm good at taking notes. We watched a Ted talk with the lady who created (helped create?) Superbetter. It sounded like something I could get into so I checked it out and there is an app for both iOS and android, plus the website, and it's free to play. It's a health & resilience game/app and it looks pretty good. So I'll be playing with that. We had a poetry reading with 4 local authors who have all published books and had poems published in poetry magazines and collections and whatnot. It was really good. One of the authors is Taiwanese so of course now I'm like "I'm not Taiwanese enough she probably thinks I'm stupid" and then "She is a mom! She's probably a better mom than me!" which are fucking stupid thoughts because who the fuck cares and life is not a competition. I've just spent so many years not fitting in anywhere. Not in Taiwan, not in this town. I fit in when I lived in San Francisco. But you know what? I fit in at the library. I belong there. I'm good at what I do. People like me. I saw a guy today and said hi and he said "Hey! It's my favorite librarian!!!" All of this reminds me, I've gotta stop putting my thoughts into other people's heads. I mean I tell myself they think this and that about me when they don't, but because I think they do I assume they don't like me or they're judging me or don't like me or whatever and then I feel awkward around them. But they always prove me wrong and I'm surprised. Hello, I should know better than to believe the stupid shit in my brain. My brain is full of stupid shit. When I got home there was a new pie on my part of the dinner table. I didn't notice until a bit later that there was a plastic bag on my chair. I was like "why are people leaving bags all over the place?!" but when I looked inside- Danger got me a white Sharks jersey! So now I have a teal, a black, and a white jersey. I'm wearing it now and watching the game. He's so thoughtful. I know I get frustrated with him and I'm like "Omg husbands amirite?!" with my coworkers but really, he's a good guy. I forget that his love language (that he shows towards me) is gifts. And I'm aways getting flowers or candy bars, pies, clothes, spaghetti, etc. I had salad and garlic bread for dinner. Oh something funny, Bub decided to mix water, chocolate milk, almond milk, and orange juice together and now he's determined to say it tastes good despite his face saying otherwise.
I am game designer + researcher Jane McGonigal AMA!
My short bio: I’m a game designer and researcher, author of the New York Times bestseller Reality is Broken Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World. For the past 13 years, I’ve focused on how games can improve our real lives and help us solve real problems. For example: my most recent game, SuperBetter (www.superbetter.com), helps you tackle real-life health challenges with gaming strengths like curiosity, creativity, determination and allies. I like to study the impact of games scientifically, and a randomized controlled trial by the University of Pennsylvania recently showed that SuperBetter eliminates six symptoms of depression in six weeks for the typical player. I’ve created games for the New York Public Library, the American Heart Association, the World Bank, the International Olympics Committee, among others. I’ve given four TED talks about games making a better world and I once made Stephen Colbert blush. I’m looking forward to the Games for Change (http://gamesforchange.org) festival in New York City next month where we’ll get to give awards to lots of groundbreaking games that are helping players learn more, feel better, and mobilize for good. My Proof:https://twitter.com/avantgame/status/449253521179693056 ** My Secret Fun That I'm Having ** My husband and I made bingo cards based on what we thought I might get asked here. :) He and I are competing to see who fills our board fastest! I'll keep you posted when I win :) TIME WENT SO FAST! THANKS FOR JOINING ME. I win AMA bingo with 13 squares vs Kiyash's 10. I'll post photos of our boards on Twitter at @avantgame! _^ Here they are: https://twitter.com/avantgame/status/449300069917798400https://twitter.com/avantgame/status/449300206689849345
10 years of bonus life? Yea, there's an app for that.
I'm an Australian Indie iPhone developer and my new iPhone App Seven More Minutes was just approved on the app store. It is based on Jane McGonigal's TED talk where she said that if you complete four challenges every hour (a social, a mental, a physical and an emotional challenge) then you can extend your lifespan by 7 minutes and 35 seconds every time you do that. So by increasing your 4 resistances every hour of your life you'll end up living for 10 more years. Essentially I watched that video and the next day started making this app. In the app you get given challenges in the four categories each hour that give you bonus life in real life if you complete them. It's free this week to celebrate the launch. I'd really appreciate any feedback you have. I'm thinking of making it cost a dollar or I might just leave it free. Note: Jane also has a free app called 'Superbetter'. The premise is a little different but definitely check hers out too.
My daughter is 9 1/2 months and I am a first timer on this one. Not that I expected it to be, but it hasn't been easy. She hasn't slept for anything longer than a 3 hour stretch since her teething symptoms began at 3 months. That means, Mommy hasn't slept either. Problem #1 Problem #2 I have suffered from depression and anxiety for, probably, my whole life. I had a bad stint back in the late 2000s and have been pretty good (off meds) since. Naturally, I had a regression after the baby was born. It doesn't help that I have a few negative Nancys in my life that I can't cut out of my life because they have a legal right to my daughter (grandparents' rights, my tushie). Sometimes I can just turn my translator on and take their "well meaning" criticisms and transform them into crickets and fluffy classical music, but with the ongoing sleep deprivation, this is becoming more difficult. Problem #3 Hubs and I are not doing well. Not that we are going to get a divorce, because we've talked about that and it's clear to both of us that our problems are not worth a divorce etc. plus love blah blah, but we are generally not hand-holdy and loving family esque right now. Lack of sleep, feelings of inadequacy as parents/spouses, plus the crush of money troubles with one income has taken a toll on our bungee cord of togetherness. We still love eachother and we actually feel like our relationship has never been stronger because we are constantly touching base and helping eachother out, but we don't feel, you know, couply. So THAT'S a problem. So, most things tend to make me frustrated and think "I don't think I can do this anymore". The big culprit is putting the baby down for sleep/nap. As you can imagine, this is problematic because this happens 2-3 times a day. The baby resists it because she's one of those that needs to be in the thick of things, but is very clearly tired, so putting her to sleep is a 1-2 hour battle every time. Often including bruises, cuts and bite marks (head bonks, fingernail scraping while nursing and she's cutting tooth 5 and 6). But today, with the help of some sort of strength deep down inside of me and a website I've been using to goadguilt help me overcome my depression called SuperBetter (www.superbetter.com, or youtube the TED talk about it), I talked myself into a victory. While she flailed in my arms shifting her 20 lbs precariously from my forearms to my elbows, I repeated to myself, out loud "this will not go on forever. It will feel like forever, but this, like all of the other phases will pass. Other phases will be easier, others will be harder, but you don't have to endure this one forever. She will sleep. One day. You can do this, you are more stubborn than her. She doesn't even know which end of the lollipop is the good end, so she isn't doing this maliciously. She just loves you so much that she wants to be with you all the time." etc. Then, after whispering this out loud to myself for some time, the flailing subsided, the thumb was firmly placed in the mouth and the breathing regulated. I felt like I had just arrived to the top of a mountain. I raised my chin in the air and I smiled and I mouthed "I did it!". Then I placed her down on her mattress (she hates the crib now, don't ask), and she stirred. Instead of despairing, I kept at it. Now, I post this victory with the monitor beside me, prepared to accept any nap, be it 15 minutes or 2 hours, as a resounding victory because one day my mommy muscles will be well-toned enough that I will be better able to handle anything. Depression doesn't have to rule you. You just have to turn your brain around on itself and change the can't to a can. And if you still can't, you need to just understand that one day you will and that the only way you'll get there is keep trying. TL;DR Successfully putting the baby to sleep is a shot across depression's bow. Edit: To be clear, "the monster" is Depression, NOT my daughter. She's an angel.
Finally becoming the boss of my anxiety. Slowly but surely. No medication, just an app/website and lots of self talk.
Hey reddit, So I've posted here many times before, and usually I'm whinging about how horrible my anxiety has been and how I just can't control it. But today, I excited. I'm excited because I'm beginning to understand my mind, what triggers my anxiety, to spot when anxiety is approaching and deal with it, and just get a better quality of life in general. So it's all started with this TED talk. I'll post the link down the bottom for anyone interested in a very heartening talk. Basically in a nutshell, this woman had a head injury, was horribly depressed and on the brink of suicide, but created 'a game to heal her brain'. It works on the 4 types of resilience, scientifically proven to lengthen our lifespans. And she talks about this game she created, and I decided to give it a go. (it's called Superbetter. You can play online at superbetter.com, or download the app on iPhone) And within a week, I have been feeling better than I've felt in so long. I had seriously forgotten what it felt like to enjoy a day. I'd forgotten what it felt like to not give so much of my time and energy to those anxious thoughts. I now tell them, "I know you're anxiety making these palptitations, or whatever else it may be at the time, and I'm in control here, it's my life, and I'm going to run it. BECAUSE I am awesome. I sweat and breathe awesome. And I tell that anxiety that it has no room next to my awesomeness. This is just one lesson this app has taught me. It has taught me so much more but I think this would become an essay! However, this app is designed to help people with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and even things that arent so serious...and its even for people who just want a better quality out of life, to notice the little things and feel good about them, rather than all the huge big bad things. So, everyday, I do my 3 power-ups (small things like walking around the block, or calling my aunty to say hi), I do my 3 quests (similar to power-ups but a little more involved) and I battle one bad-guy (your big issue). Need I mention who my bad guy is? But seriously, I think give this a shot. If you ever need an ally, I'm more than willing to help get you started :) TL;DR. Found an app/website, superbetter.com, mentioned in this TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html, and it's amazing. Good luck guys! :)
Does anyone on here play Super Better? Anyone need allies?
Recently, I discovered Super Better after watching the TED talk here: http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html In my struggles with clinical depression (which I've had most of my life) and PTSD, I found that for me personally my biggest hurdle became how to actually practice using good mental tools and rewiring my thinking. I've read countless books, articles, been to therapy with about 4 therapists, 5 if you count group therapy, and felt myself becoming more and more frustrated. I know the ideas and theory behind CBT. I know the strategies as well as recognize the negative behaviors when interacting with other people. But for some reason I just couldn't get into putting those theories and ideas into practice. I also just couldn't think of ways I could convincingly learn how to love myself. This summer, I hit another low point where I really felt tempted to give up and accept that I will never get better, that depression was something inherent in me, and that there was no hope. When I told therapists about my frustration in not keeping up with the work in cognitive behavioral therapy and lacking in motivation or hope over the years, they were pretty stumped and at best I got referred to more books or sympathy, which didn't feel very constructive to me personally. It's pretty fun to think that discovering a game might make a big difference. I just snapped and said to myself a few weeks ago, "I am so sick and tired of hating myself." And I looked for TED talks on depression. And I found this. And although I've only been at it for a couple of weeks, I already feel a difference. I am actually reminding myself every day to take care of myself. I'm actually practicing all of the techniques that I read/heard over and over again that I should do. And I feel pretty damn good about it. :) It's not magical, it's science and science that I can see and feel in control of. And it's one small step at a time, not a magical cure all or a new drug. It might not work for everyone, and I'm curious to see how I feel in the long term, but I had a lot of success physically with MyFitnessPal and Fitocracy when working out, so why not use the same idea (online gaming) emotionally? Anywho, I'm lacking allies. Anyone want to play? The e-mail address I am playing under is [email protected] (not a personally identifying e-mail, mods, no worries) if anyone wants to go ahead and send an invite.
Jane McGonigal's Superbetter was a response to post-concussion syndrome
Jane McGonigal is a game designer who had a concussion and found that her post-concussion syndrome was really debilitating. Being who she is, she created a game to help herself get better. Originally called "Jane the Concussion Slayer" she renamed it "Superbetter" and wrote a book about it. I haven't read the book, but found the Ted talk she gave on it worth listening to. There's a link to both at the game's site: https://www.superbetter.com/ You might find it doubly interesting, because one of the main topics (besides recovering from a concussion) is about becoming and remaining motivated.
I started porn six years ago in 2009. I quit on Tuesday March 3. In the past sixteen days, I totally forgot why. It is difficult, and I am losing momentum. Maybe my mind is playing tricks on myself. Or maybe quitting was just as fruitless as ear candling. It would mean a lot if you would remind me why I am quitting. Especially if you can support it with evidence or faith. Help me convince myself of the superpowers. If there is a miracle, I don't want to quit before it happens. Some of you say you are so much more productive. I am a student, and I have a project and a paper, and they seem totally overwhelming. I know I have to do them, but I can't start. Maybe I need a career change. Some of you say that you are healthier. I was puking a couple of days ago. It was probably unrelated, but it was the only time that I wasn't constantly thinking about sex. I remember telling myself that this wasn't about girls, but now it totally is. Alcoholics Anonymous says, "It works if you work it." I am eating healthy, exercising, getting sunlight, hanging out with friends, sleeping regularly, and going to therapy. I did all of that before I quit too. Some of you talk about the placebo effect. The gold standard of medicine is the double-blind placebo-controlled trial. But in a literal sense, porn simply does not have a placebo. To quote Justice Potter Stewart, "I know it when I see it." If you are masturbating, how can you not know? Sex can make people go crazy. Elliot Rodger was so frustrated that he shot up a sorority house. Helen of Troy's face launched a thousand ships. When you see a guy reach for stars in the sky, you can bet that he's doing it for some doll.
[Advice] THE POWER OF HABITS - useful tricks that will help you to form new good habits and make them stick
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act but a habit — Aristotle. Extremely successful people of all times have one thing in common – they give great importance to their daily routines and habits. Empirical research estimates that up to 45% of our daily actions are based on habits. It does not matter if we are talking about getting more things done at work, leading a healthier lifestyle or mastering a new skill, – those who manage to control and optimize their habits tend to achieve higher results with less effort. This post will highlight several useful tricks that will help you to form new good habits and make them stick. How to form a habit? • Analyze your potential Before introducing any new habits into your daily routine, you need to do your homework – find out your current habits and understand how you can improve them. It can be done simply by observing your own behavior for several days and writing down your actions during each hour of the day. Consider using apps like Moment, Break Free or Rescue Time to track your phone/computer usage. After several days, you will identify some patterns of your behavior that you might not necessarily like. Spending the first 20 minutes after waking up checking your phone; listening to the radio for 3 hours per day while commuting; or getting snacks from a vending machine downstairs when you feel tired? If it sounds familiar, you have just identified a high-potential improvement area to introduce new habits. This is a place to start. • Start slow Do not try to change all your habits at once. Overnight success never happens when we speak about habit change. True results can be achieved only step by step. One possible way is to focus first on habits that disturb you the most. You can also divide all your habits into smaller groups associated with different parts of the day and work only with one group at the same time. • Keep it small Undoubtedly it is very important to have big goals. However, to achieve them we need to work with small daily habits. An author of famous book “Mini habits” – Stephen Guise – introduces the concept of tiny objectives that require little effort to achieve but still make some progress towards your big goal. He calls them mini habits The greatest hurdle we face is going from inertia to mobility. Mini habits make this important step much easier, which increases the overall likelihood of success. If you are studying a foreign language – commit to learning 3 new words a day and not 30; If you want to add morning exercises to your daily routine – start with a 15 min early work-out and not 45. Moreover, when you are already in motion, you need less willpower to continue your actions. It means that you can always overwork your mini habit threshold: learn 30 new foreign words a day instead of 3 and do a 45 min morning workout instead of 15. • Adjust your environment One more way to make the first step easier is to adjust your external environment. Make sure that you can reach your goal with the least possible effort required and otherwise, introduce additional barriers to overcome to follow temptation. Do you want to read daily news regularly? Set Bloomberg as your home page so you would see it every day when you open a browser. Are you trying to stop checking your Whatsapp notifications every 5 minutes while working? Put your phone away in your bag so you would not see it at all. Do you want to work out more often? Keep your sports clothes in your car so you would be always ready to hit the gym. • Use if-then planning Have you heard about “if-then planning”? This technique is uniquely useful when it comes to resisting temptation and building good habits because it can introduce two crucial concepts of any habit – reminder and routine – at the same time. It was found that 91% of people who used if-then planning stuck to their exercise program opposed to 39% who didn’t Moreover, this technique works great for all spheres of our life because it affects our subconscious mind. When we form if-then statements, our brain will unconsciously scan our environment for “if” cases. When “if” case actually happens, “then” case will be triggered automatically without requiring much willpower If X happens, then I will do Y. X can be a time (Monday at 9 a.m)/ a place (at work)/ an event (Friends’ birthday) / an emotional condition (feeling stressed) / a company (colleagues). Y is the specific action you will take whenever X occurs. If it’s Saturday morning, I go to the swimming pool; If I am on the train, I read a book; • Mix your habits Try to connect your desired habits with other habits or routines that you already have. The power of so-called habit stacking or piggybacking s is well-known by psychologists for a long time. If it is morning, you go for a run; If you are running, you are listening to flashcard to learn new foreign words. Therefore, if it is morning, you go for a run & listen to flashcards to learn new foreign words • Have a plan for obstacles Think about the obstacles that might prevent you from your new habit and take preventative actions to overcome them. Use If-Then approach for this purpose. The most common obstacles to consider are: time, pain, weather, space, costs, self-consciousness. If I overslept and I do not have enough time to see a TED lecture during my breakfast, I do it during my lunch. If it is raining and I do not feel like running outside, I go to the university gym and run there. • Track your progress A simple chain method forms a rhythmic philosophy that helps significantly to master your desired habit. Get a big calendar, hang it on a wall and start crossing days when you made it work. You see your chain growing and soon it becomes a game. You start to compete with yourself. The only rule is not to break the chain Otherwise, you can simply use a notebook / excel file or one of existing habit tracking apps: my favourite ones – Coach.me and Productive. Some apps (Habitica, Superbetter) even prototype a real game experience to make the process more fun. Check out more habit tracking apps here. • Share your progress Normally we are more adhere and committed to our decisions when other people hold us accountable for our behaviors. Therefore, seeking an accountability partner who will help you stick to your commitments might be a great idea. Also, you can always join online communities / forums/ groups related to a certain habit change. Some people might feel even more committed if they report and share their success/failure results daily with a big social group (blog, Twitter, Facebook, email, or friends at work). • Reward yourself Another interesting behavioral tendency connected with habits is waiting for the reward. Since we are used to the certain activity and we know the expected result, our mind starts to anticipate the reward even before receiving it. Rewarding positive habits and redirecting rewards from negative habits will make it easier to achieve progress. Every week when you finally manage to go to the swimming-pool, treat yourself with a tasty smoothie right after. Commit to staying in all Friday evening, if you smoked a cigarette when you were not supposed to do so. If you succeed with reading 4 pages every day for 30 days in a raw, make it a rule to go shopping. • Eliminate “What the Hell Effect” Be aware of “What the Hell Effect” and do not let it happen. In psychology “What the Hell Effect” helps to explain habit failure and how seemingly a small setback often leads to giving up on all the progress achieved. The “what the hell effect” can be applied to any sort of goal-setting or willpower task, but it’s most commonly associated with dieting/smoking/gambling. Setting mini goals that are realistic enough and easy to achieve will definitely help you to avoid “What the Hell Effect”. However, it is even more important to change your mindset and focus on how often you succeed rather than on the fact of failure. The original post can be found: https://resultize.com/2016/06/16/better-habits-better-you/
Any redditor trying SuperBetter as a way to lose weight?
It looks to be a cool idea, have been looking at it for the past hour or so, it was made by Jane McGonigal, who gave this ted talk. Anyone here been using it for weight loss? If so, do you think it helps? https://www.superbetter.com/
Okay, so I am at a much better place with my depression in general (well looking at the "big picture"). It has recently taken a dip, and then I was let go from my job last week. Meds only do so much. Rejection sucks, not feeling like I'm good enough is such a crappy feeling on . I get really freaked out when my depression gets bad, I never know how long it lasts and that is the worst part. At this point I have had enough counseling to recognize cognitive distortions and I try not to get into my head too much. I also hate telling people when I struggle, 99% of them will try to help, making things awkward or uncomfortable. Personally it is as simple as acknowledgement and then just sitting with me watching paint dry. I am trying to build my self esteem and be a better person, but it is hard. Lately I have been watching TED talks about depression and self esteem. I think learning about the unknown makes things less scary, and I take comfort in that. I stumbled across a talk called "The game that can give you 10 extra years of life", this video game designer created this app called "Superbetter" you go on "quests" (small tasks in real life) and it has other video game elements like that. At the end of the day it gets me out of my head. It's not just for depression, but personally it has helped with mine. Part of it for me is that it is an app telling me what to do. Not my friends, not my parents, just this objective concept giving me directions, getting me out of my destructive, circular thoughts. It can't give me a worried look, it isn't judging me. The other part is where I am at. At the height of my depression I was ready to punch the next person who said "It gets better", I didn't want to talk in therapy and if that girl was here today she would probably say "that is complete bullshit". And for some people it will be. There are a million different avenues to take, but each one is terribly difficult to get on, and sometimes they are only detours. This is currently helping me and the last time it was posted here was three years ago.
SuperBetter: A very positive game ACONs can really benefit from.
It's called SuperBetter, and I believe it's available on Android and iPhone for free. What it is, is it's like a real life quest log, with little activities you can do to build up your core strengths. I love the psychology that goes into it. Please check out this TED talk by the creator that goes into more detail for why the game was created, and what it can do to help you live ten years longer: https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life?language=en Even better, I challenge you to do the challenges she has for the audience later in the video, as you watch the video. Get those seven and a half bonus minutes, then use them playing SuperBetter to earn even more :)
Yes of course videogames can have negative impacts -- but it is NOT the kind of game or the game itself, it's how you play. The most important thing we've learned from studies is that playing very aggressive, competitive games against strangers online (think call of duty) can boost your testosterone levels way too high for your own good -- it can make you more aggressive and more of a jerk to people for hours after you play. It's better to play competitive violent games against people you know in real-life -- your testosterone actually goes down after you beat them, the opposite impact of beating strangers online. Or play co-op with strangers or play single-player violent games or don't play violent games... just don't spend all your time trying to beat strangers online. It won't make you violent but it could turn you into a jerk for awhile.
I'm a big fan of Erin's work and Nevermind, and I enjoyed throwing a truck with my mind, it was a very intense and interesting experience :) I think biofeedback and neurofeedback games are extremely useful for teaching us to pay attention and learn to control our thoughts and feelings and physiological responses -- we should look at them as training, but not as something we would play consistently forever. I don't think I would always want to play a horror game that gets scarier and scarier if I'm too calm, for example. I don't think we need that level of feedback -- more interesting to me as something you might play for a week to develop a new real-life superpower, e.g. more control over your thoughts/feelings.
My biggest advice is to make games and share them. In any format. iOS is easy to learn and you can ship fast -- that makes it a great platform for just getting the hang of a game design cycle from idea to prototyping to iteration and playtesting to polishing. I'm not a developer, I'm a designer, so I don't code my own stuff anymore -- so my advice on software is probably terribly unhelpful. But the best advice is to make and share, make and share -- even if you start with board games or card games (which are making a huge comeback!) or text games like the kind you can create on Twine (twinery.org) just get your creative work out there and get feedback on your ideas. I remember one of my first games that got a lot of attention was built on Blogger, and another on Flickr. Those aren't even game platforms. :)
A PhD was absolutely crucial to doing this work -- particularly being at a university like UC Berkeley where interdisciplinary research was so encouraged. I wouldn't be able to do the peer-reviewed research I'm doing now to investigate the positive impacts of games without my grad school research training, and I met so many great collaborators through grad school. It is important to make a profile for yourself at the same time doing high-impact work -- as MIT Media lab's director Joi Ito now says "deploy or die"... put your stuff in the real world, as often as possible!
Hmmm... good question. UC Berkeley was very much into theory while I was there (in the social sciences and humanities anyway) and every PhD Program is like a game where you have to figure out how to win, using theory helped me win with many of the faculty and advisors :) Some of the theorists I still find useful are Geertz, Goffman, Schechner, and Victor Turner. Not so much the post-modern stuff :)
Through the various stages of my life different games have been important, here is an off-the-top-of-my-head autobiography in videogames (which by the way I think everyone should write one of these! such a good way to understand each other)
I think collective intelligence has to be balanced against breakthrough ideas. One person might have a genius solution or strategy that is not going to be valued or bubble up through collective intelligence. So we can't let the crowd vote on everything and take the crowd's word for it... but we can give voices to more diverse people and look in the crowd for breakthrough solutions.
Yes, 2023 still seems feasible! We have to measure impact more, however -- use science or longitudinal studies of people who play games for change. I think the most likely candidates are a citizen science game that solves a major problem, could get a Nobel for medicine or biology, or we could see a massively co-op videogame get a prize in economics for a new kind of game theory!
Interesting question -- I'm obsessed with efficacy, and the most effective games for health tend to treat very specific conditions, like Snow World VR treating pain in severe burn victims more effectively than morphine. I haven't played that game but that kind of research gets me really excited. I am a big supporter of Zombies Run because it does a great job of infusing physical activity with narrative and amazing aesthetic experience (Through the audio design especially) I've always said that Nike+ is for me my favorite game to play because it's helped me motivate to run faster and further for almost 4000 miles since I started playing in 2007 :)
Of course! having an engineering background gives you a crucial advantage in that you understand how systems work and can likely bridge between creative ideas and practical implementation. I recommend reading design articles on gamasutra.com as often as possible and going to the annual Game Design Jam in January to get practical experience. And hang out at your local International Game Developers Association events if you are neain a city with an IGDA.org chapter.
The author Lee Sheldon's online work -- you can search for it -- should be helpful! Also, everything they are doing at the PlayMaker school is AMAZING!! Link to www.playmaker.org
I feel like you are effectively gamifying ME right now by asking me about something I love to talk about (running) before asking me about something I hate (corporate gamification), ha ha, well played. Favorite home town run is across the Golden Gate Bridge, and other favorite parks are Central Park in NYC, Holyrood in Edinburgh and Stanley Park in Vancouver! Are companies trying to gamify too much now? Yes! Of course they are! Any gamification at all is too much if you ask me, because gamification typically in a corporate environment means trying to manipulate people into doing something they don't already want to do -- buy more, tweet more, work for free, etc. That's why I only make games that empower people to do something they already want to do -- like recover from a brain injury, or become an published author, or dance more without being embarrassed :)
I think it's important to experiment with any systems that can help improve quality of social experience in game communities, and reputation systems -- although certainly not perfect -- are definitely one way to do that. I think it would be cool to have the ability to develop different kinds of reputations, of course. on ebay, everyone wants to have a good and trustworthy reputation, but maybe I might want to develop a supervillian reputation in a game community. :) Of course that doesn't necessarily inspire a nicer social community all-around -- but it would allow people who don't want to play with supervillains to avoid them at least.
Positives: 1) It's gotten a lot of people talking about the next-generation of VR (good). 2) Facebook will give it a lot of resources probably to help them innovate faster (good). 3) Valve is going to do amazing things with VR so if Facebook screws it up, that's okay. ON THE OTHER HAND... What would make me more excited: A commitment from Facebook to fund LOTS of scientific research on the impact of VR on mental health, physical health and social well-being. Specifically we need best practices to avoid inching our way to a world of escapism without purpose, and head instead toward a world of playing with purpose in VR -- to ease pain, to cure depression, to learn faster and more effectively, to provoke positive emotions like awe and wonder and curiosity when we need them most, but not to live in a VR world, we need to connect the benefits of VR to our everyday physical environments and face to face social relationships.
I think the more interesting question is how do we see K-12 evolving in general, and will that make games more or less relevant? I am optimistic that we are going to see a move away from industrialized classroom learning to models of project-based, challenge-based, self-paced learning -- like the School in the Cloud model. In this case, games will help kids self-learn new skills (like DragonBox) or contribute to real science (like any of these games Link to www.the-scientist.com or start their own real-world projects like we did with EVOKE for the world bank (urgentevoke.com)
I usually start with a real-world impact I'm trying to achieve, which is different from designers focused on art or entertainment. I try to imagine an "epic win" for the player -- for example, in my NYPL game Find the Future the first thing I decided was that I wanted playing the game successfully to mean you've written a book which you can print on demand and have included in the library's catalog. So, playing the game turns you into a published author. For the game CryptoZoo I made for the American Heart Association, I started with the goal of inventing a form of parkour for clumsy people scared of jumping off buildings (like me!) that would make us see every street as an opportunity for play and physical activity. I decided if I could get a non-runner to run more than a mile every time they played that would be an epic win. So that's my primary rule -- what goal and challenge can I give players to help them achieve something real and awesome, and then what support and superpowers do I need to give them to help them do it?
I didn't coin the word fun-gineers! Edward Castranova did. Go complain to him. :) I have used the word happiness engineers in my book, which is closer to what I want people to be. If you know my recent work, SuperBetter, you know in recent years I've switched more to personal development than global problem-solving (e.g. the EVOKE style game).
I think it's probably helpful to everyone who cares about games to see games well-regarded as works of art. Of course, I think the gamers and what gamers do are at least as interesting as the game itself -- so I think galleries should not be presenting the game as object per se, but the game being played as the artwork itself. The videogame itself is a can of soup. The game being played by someone is art. To make a Warhol reference if that makes sense :)
What a sweet question, thank you Sade :) I wrestled with the question in grad school, because I thought theater might be the medium I would work in instead of games! Here's what changed my mind: When I told fellow grad students and professors about the work I was doing in theater (with physicists, which was cool!), they were maybe mildly curious or had no idea what I was talking about. When I started working in games that bridged to reality, everyone flipped out. Professors invited me to their office to tell them more. Students in my seminars from six different departmetns followed me back to my department's grad student lounge to sit next to me for hours as I showed them the kinds of games I was talking about. Basically, I saw that everyone was interested and excited about one topic and the other topic would have been me talking to myself for the next decade. I think this is a great way to make decisions -- not to let other people decide for you what is interesting (you have to trust your gut!) but to see what people respond to most in your work and your efforts and focus on building those strengths rather than trying to convince other people that you are good at something you're not, or that your work is massively appealing or interesting when it might have a more limited audience. When the world loves what you are doing, amplify that!
EyeWire, to help science! I'm not ashamed to say Candy Crush, because it's the first videogame my mom has ever played and I love racing with her to try to get to level 400 (she's around 85 and I'm 240-something). Broken Age is next on my list when my husband and I have enough time to sit and play it together. And of course MINECRAFT IS THE BEST.
THANK YOU!! Believe it or not we have 3 Hogwarts professors in the family, me my mom and my twin sister, so we do Harry Potter proud. Only my sister Kelly can turn into a cat though. Thank you for the kind comments :)
It's a new challenge that is similar enough to previous games that we can understand it while still needing to work hard to master it... our happiest brain state is when we're goal-oriented (I want to figure this out!) and learning as we go (developing mastery, improving skills). 2048 seems to be tapping into that perfectly.
Thanks for asking about that project! It will always be one of the coolest things I ever got to be a part of. The team was huge in some regards -- the production of the Audio assets required dozens of actors and an amazing post-production team in LA -- and we had payphone scouts traveling all over the country getting GPS coordinates for payphones that still accepted phone calls. There were 4 of us who didn't sleep for six months which I think of as the core engine of the running the live game. Leading that team was Elan Lee and Sean Stewart, whose previous game the Beast I was already writing about in my PhD work at Berkeley. This is a true story: I stalked them for interviews for my research, and then was able to start ongoing conversations with them about ideas for bringing online games into reality... after a year of these conversations, Elan called me up and said, "Do you want to play our next game, or help work on it?" I always use this experience to encourage aspiring game designers to write interesting and positive things about the work you admire, evangelize for people you want to work with, offer to help them for free, and use that as a bridge to potentially collaborating with them! I always wind up hiring enthusiastic players of my games for future projects.
There's a lot of effort in both directions right now, which is probably good. VCs are investing a lot of money in for-profit educational game ventures, but lots of foundation money too. I prefer to go the free for non-commercial route myself because I want to avoid barriers to use and I personally don't really enjoy business development of business models! but I have learned that projects can definitely be more sustainable and scalable with an actual revenue model :)
YES! I love her research. I have experienced this impact but only when I'm spending more time playing first-person shooters which is not something I have done in a few years. I think the first-person POV makes a big difference.
Here are some links for people not familiar with the term eudaimonia: Link to www.positivepsychology.org.ukLink to www.natureworldnews.com Okay, so I think games are actually quite relevant to developing the skills to lead a purposeful, meaningful, virtuous life -- particularly in terms of the virtues of determination, teamwork, citizenship, creativity, love of learning, curiosity, etc. The key is to not use games as an escape -- to avoid real-life problems, but rather to challenge yourself. Playing games that are difficult for you builds mental and emotional resilience that makes it possible for you to transfer that determination and optimism to real-life challenges -- particularly if you're building and strengthening that neural circuitry, not like brain training games, but simply the ability to self-motivate towards goals and learn from failure. Research suggests if you play games to suppress negative feelings, however, you won't get these positive effects. You can't play to escape. You have to play with purpose -- to build your relationships with the friends and family you play with, to build leadership skills, to relax so that you can focus on your studies or work. etc.
She is awesome. She is brave. She is making space for more girls to become interested in playing and making game... her work is very important. There are so many important things to say about making games and game dev more inclusive but the biggest on my list would be: 1) more representations of girls and women as the primary heroes in games, not just to be rescued or given a helping hand 2) we have to stop discounting certain genres of games as being "not real games" -- the discounted genres are usually genres that women are very active in 3) co-op, co-op, co-op; social, social, social -- all research shows these are game styles that are more appealing to girls than strictly competitive or single-player.
Game Star Mechanic is awesome!! I'm not sure if 5 years old is quite developmentally ready for it unless you're willing to help, which would be awesome, and I know many young parents-and-kids who use Gamestar together Link to gamestarmechanic.com
I've probably been most influenced by designer Elan Lee. I love Tom and David Kelley at IDEO's new book Creative Confidence. People should learn about Chelsea Howe's videogame work, she is amazing! But mostly I am inspired by psychology research and that's what I spend most of my time reading. Barbara Fredrickson,Todd Kashdan, Kelly McGonigal, Marty Seligman, Angela Duckworth...
I love this question. I don't know if there is a depository of games that have never been played but I love the idea of creating a massive installation that we pretend is a depository of games that have never been played that we just rediscovered (and invent a bunch of new games for it) :)
I have not played it yet! I did back that project though so I have hope I will one day put my rewards to good use. I am mostly interesting in LARPing in extreme physical environments, like doing the Dance and the Dawn at the sand dunes at Fort Funston after dark!
I gave a talk about this at GDC! Link to janemcgonigal.com It's very important to educate the world about the benefits of games so we can all play with purpose, not to supress bad feelings but to make ourselves better, stronger.
I recently watched this TED talk, and the speaker made mention of a 'game' she created to help better achieve your goals. Or at least help motivate people in the right direction. I've been poking around on it, and it's a lot of fun so far! The leveling system and community really motivates me. Hope you guys/gals find it helpful too. Click here for site. Have fun achieving your goals!
Amazing TED Talk about how Games can make us live longer.
What the heck is a thread about games doing here in /vegan? Well I'll tell you. This talk is amazing and I decided to take a look at their app and website. Lo and behold after messing with the app one of the goals in the game was to become vegan! I've been playing around with it and the whole concept seems like something admirable. Caring about animals, staying healthy, or even helping the environment can have a toll that it takes on us. Enjoying ourselves even with silly little games/goals I think is an awesome idea. Check out the Talk and let me know what you think!
[xpost from /r/anxiety, very relevant for depression too] Finally becoming the boss of my anxiety. Slowly but surely. No medication, just an app/website and lots of self talk.
Hey reddit, So I've posted here many times before, and usually I'm whinging about how horrible my anxiety has been and how I just can't control it. But today, I excited. I'm excited because I'm beginning to understand my mind, what triggers my anxiety, to spot when anxiety is approaching and deal with it, and just get a better quality of life in general. So it's all started with this TED talk. I'll post the link down the bottom for anyone interested in a very heartening talk. Basically in a nutshell, this woman had a head injury, was horribly depressed and on the brink of suicide, but created 'a game to heal her brain'. It works on the 4 types of resilience, scientifically proven to lengthen our lifespans. And she talks about this game she created, and I decided to give it a go. (it's called Superbetter. You can play online at superbetter.com, or download the app on iPhone) And within a week, I have been feeling better than I've felt in so long. I had seriously forgotten what it felt like to enjoy a day. I'd forgotten what it felt like to not give so much of my time and energy to those anxious thoughts. I now tell them, "I know you're anxiety making these palptitations, or whatever else it may be at the time, and I'm in control here, it's my life, and I'm going to run it. BECAUSE I am awesome. I sweat and breathe awesome. And I tell that anxiety that it has no room next to my awesomeness. This is just one lesson this app has taught me. It has taught me so much more but I think this would become an essay! However, this app is designed to help people with anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and even things that arent so serious...and its even for people who just want a better quality out of life, to notice the little things and feel good about them, rather than all the huge big bad things. So, everyday, I do my 3 power-ups (small things like walking around the block, or calling my aunty to say hi), I do my 3 quests (similar to power-ups but a little more involved) and I battle one bad-guy (your big issue). Need I mention who my bad guy is? But seriously, I think give this a shot. If you ever need an ally, I'm more than willing to help get you started :) TL;DR. Found an app/website, superbetter.com, mentioned in this TED talk http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_the_game_that_can_give_you_10_extra_years_of_life.html, and it's amazing. Good luck guys! :)
SuperBetter builds resilience - the ability to stay strong, motivated and optimistic even in the face of difficult obstacles. Playing SuperBetter unlocks heroic potential to overcome tough situations and achieve goals that matter most. Resilience training reimagined. When game designer Jane McGonigal found herself bedridden and suicidal following a severe concussion, she had a fascinating idea for how to get better. She dove into the scientific research and created the healing game, SuperBetter. In this moving talk, McGonigal explains how a game can boost resilience -- and promises to add 7.5 minutes to your life. Researcher, game designer and inventor of SuperBetter. Her #1 goal in life is to see a game developer win a Nobel Peace Prize. In her first TED Talk, Jane discusses the power of a gameful mindset to make a better world. Watch Jane’s First TED Talk here: Gaming can make a better world . Of course we love Jane’s second TED Talk too. That’s the one where where she shares her inspiring story that led to SuperBetter: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life. Together these talks have 15 million views on TED and YouTube. The story of how SuperBetter went from an idea to an app with half a million users begins with the inspiring experience of Jane McGonigal overcoming her own traumatic brain injury and depression to not just get better, but to get SuperBetter. If you haven’t seen Jane’s TED Talk yet, here’s the link. Watch Jane’s First TED Talk here: Gaming can make a better world . Of course we love Jane’s second TED Talk too. That’s the one where where she shares her inspiring story that led to SuperBetter: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life. Together these talks have 15 million views on TED and YouTube. This Ted Talk takes awhile to get to the juicy details but the story of this preternatural study on happiness illustrates the lengths the researchers have gone through to get this invaluable data Jane is a researcher, world-renowned game designer and global thought leader for using the science of games to improve real lives. Jane’s SuperBetter TED Talk has over 7 million views. SuperBetter, The Power of Living Gamefully, is a NY Times best seller. SuperBetter is even better and there's also a great TED Talk to introduce it. Or rather, if Reality Is Broken gave readers a well-researched argument for why gaming is an important part of our human nature, SuperBetter gives us the guide on how to actually make life more like a game and improve mental, emotional, physical, and social health. When game designer Jane McGonigal found herself bedridden and suicidal following a severe concussion, she had a fascinating idea for how to get better. She dove into the scientific research and created the healing game, SuperBetter. In this moving talk, McGonigal explains how a game can boost resilience -- and promises to add 7.5 minutes to your...
How to Master the Art of Being Alone Thuy-vy Nguyen ...
Maria is a contributing writer for The New Yorker online, where she writes a weekly column with a focus on psychology and science, and is currently working ... Do you want to make a difference? Use your imagination. To make a change, you must be able to imagine a completely different world. The imagination allows us... We recently used a video game to create a guided meditation,so this fit our mood. Jane McGonigal,world-renowned game designer is such an inspiration - and it... Solitude takes up 30% of an adult's life. In this TEDx talk, Thuy-vy Nguyen talks about how solitude influences our daily experiences and its role in emotion... Game developer and researcher Jane McGonigal is among 155 million Americans who play video games, but it's more than a hobby. In her new book, "SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting ... Jane explains the role-playing recovery game she invented in order to heal herself after suffering a debilitating concussion. Distributed by Tubemogul. What if playing a visually stimulating game could help alleviate brain injuries or the symptoms of PTSD? That is what game designer Jane McGonigal, proposes ...
