Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal

Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better And How They Can Change the World by Jane McGonigal is a book that was not even on my radar screen. If you had asked me a month ago if I would have even been interested in the book's subject, I would have said NO. But when I was approached to be part of the book tour and actually read the summary about the book I was instantly compelled. I've seen my teenage son be riveted by his video games and become quite animated when he's talking to me about them. Of course as a voracious reader I'd much prefer he be excited about a book but you can't have everything, can you? In any case I was fascinated to learn how games could be beneficial to society. I've also thought of my son's playing video games as detrimental to him and never considered any other point of view. Jane McGonigal's book has absolutely floored me in the best possible way. My whole opinion of games and gaming has been flipped on it's head.

Check out the following staggering statistics that are in the book and then tell me that any of us can afford to ignore the potential of the gaming community and games in general:

"Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are opting out of reality for larger and larger chunks of time. In the United States alone, there are 183 million active gamers (individuals who, in surveys, report that they play computer or video games "regularly" - on average, thirteen hours a week). Globally, the online gamer community - including console, PC, and mobile phone gaming - counts more than 4 million games in the Middle East, 10 million in Russia, 105 million in India, 10 million in Vietnam, 10 million in Mexico, 13 million in Central and South America, 15 million in Australia, 17 million in South Korea, 100 million in Europe, and 200 million in China." I must have read this paragraph 20 times. I kept thinking I had to be reading it wrong. I couldn't imagine this many people being active games but the statistics are there and show how pervasive this pasttime is on a global scale.

In the book, the author poses the question, "What if we decided to use everything we know about game design to fix what's wrong with reality? What if we started to live our real lives like games, lead our real businesses and communities like game designers, and think about solving real-world problems like computer and video game theorists?" Rather than fight against the propensity for people to enjoy games, why not work with that and harness that power and energy for the greater good? Ms. McGonigal does a wonderful job of convincing me that it could really happen. We could really solve problems through games.

If you are skeptical, please read the book. If you are already a gamer and believe in the power of games, read the book and find out how what you are doing could become even more powerful. There are many examples of how games have already been utilized to do some really cool things. For instance, who can't get excited about helping with world hunger? Free Rice is a game that asks you to answer some multiple choice vocabulary questions. If you get the answer right you earn virtual grains of rice. Those grains of rice are then converted into real rice that is donated to the United Nations Food Programme. So people who love games are happy to play and see how many answers they can get right. Earning those virtual grains of rice are like points and who doesn't want to earn points or win prizes, even if they are virtual? Advertisers donate the money to buy the rice. They pay for ads that appear on each of the quiz pages. So who knew that a virtual game could help solve world hunger? This is just one way that our propensity for playing games has been put to good use.

There are so many great examples in the book about how the power of gaming has already been used for the betterment of society or to help solve a specific problem. You will be blown away by some of the uses of games that you have probably never heard of before. The author made the whole subject so accessible for me. I felt like she was in the room talking to me and sharing all of her knowledge on the subject. Consider this, according to McGonigal "by age 21 the average young American has spent ten thousand hours playing computer and video games. This is the same amount of time an average American student spends in the classroom from fifth grade and high school graduation." Why not harness all of that time, all of that power for something good?

The publisher of Reality is Broken has been kind enough to offer a giveaway that is open to all of my readers that reside in the U.S and Canada. To enter to win a copy of the book, simply leave a comment with your email address. I will pick one winner at random and notify you via email. If you don't respond within 48 hours to my email notification, I will pick another winner. Good luck everyone!

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for offering me this book for review. Please go and visit their website to read all of the other reviews of this book. I'm quite sure there will be many interesting opinions about this one. I'm only the second stop on the tour so I'm looking forward to reading what everyone else has to say too!