Jane McGonigal

The opposite of play isn__ work. It__ depression.

A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at something we__e good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.

Over time, even the tiniest meaningful actions add up, each one bringing you closer to a life that is truer to your dreams and free of regret.

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

Scientists have demonstrated that dramatic, positive changes can occur in our lives as a direct result of facing an extreme challenge - whether it's coping with a serious illness, daring to quit smoking, or dealing with depression. Researchers call this 'post-traumatic growth.'

Positive health means becoming whole-heartedly engaged with our own health care. It means not outsourcing our health to the health care system. It means getting rid of the fear and paralysis we too often feel, and instead cultivating a sense of agency.

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.

We are moving towards a new form of collective intelligence.

In the future, I think it's pretty plausible that collective intelligence tools and skills will be important in order to be a part of global dialog, global business, and global creativity. People who know how to negotiate collective intelligence networks are going to be in a good position to contribute to global society.

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

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.

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

The research proves what gamers already know: within the limits of our own endurance, we would rather work hard than be entertained. Perhaps that__ why gamers spend less time watching television than anyone else on the planet.

Today, I look forward and 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.

The real world just doesn__ offer up as easily the carefully designed pleasures, the thrilling challenges, and the powerful social bonding afforded by virtual environments. Reality doesn__ motivate us as effectively. Reality isn__ engineered to maximize our potential. Reality wasn__ designed from the bottom up to make us happy.

Nesse__ research focuses on the evolutionary origins of depression. Why does depression exist at all? If it__ stayed in our gene pool for so long, he argues, there must be some evolutionary benefit. Nesse believes that depression may be an adaptive mechanism meant to prevent us from falling victim to blind optimism__nd squandering resources on the wrong goals.11 It__ to our evolutionary advantage not to waste time and energy on goals we can__ realistically achieve. And so when we have no clear way to make productive progress, our neurological systems default to a state of low energy...

No object, no event, no outcome or life circumstance can deliver real happiness to us. We have to make our own happiness__y working hard at activities that provide their own reward.15