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The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Free Literature Study Guides
The Great Gatsby
Hamlet

Jane McGonigal Quotes

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

– Jane McGonigal

When parents or gamers ask me, ‘What’s the best game to play?’ I say that playing face-to-face is more beneficial than playing online.

– 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

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

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

– Jane McGonigal

Evidence shows that having even weak social connections in a stressful situation is really good for your health and your ability to handle that situation.

– Jane McGonigal

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

– Jane McGonigal

Game designers are obsessed with emotion. How do we create the emotions that we want gamers to feel, and how can we really make it this intense, emotional experience?

– Jane McGonigal

We can boost our immune systems by strengthening our social networks and decreasing stress.

– Jane McGonigal

If you make it a game, gamers will play it no matter what your motivation is in making it.

– Jane McGonigal

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

– 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

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

– 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

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

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.

– 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

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.’

– Jane McGonigal

Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.

– 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 are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.

– Jane McGonigal

When my life is stressful, my favorite game is called ‘Pop It,’ where you pop balloons and prizes fall out. It’s a five-minute game that focuses my mind and gives me extra attention when I’m stressed.

– Jane McGonigal

I don’t want a gamer to feel like they have to commit their whole life to changing the world.

– 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

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

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