Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

by Jane McGonigal

  It was the institution of daily gameplay that united the kingdom and made it possible to put in so strong an effort over such a long period of time. Increasingly, we, too, are using games to create better rules of engagement and to broaden our circle of cooperation. More and more, we recognize the unrivaled power of gameplay to create common ground, to concentrate our collective attention, and to inspire long-term efforts.

  Games are a way of creating new civic and social infrastructure. They are the scaffold for coordinated effort. And we can apply that effort toward any kind of change we want to make, in any community, anywhere in the world.

  Games help us work together to achieve massively more.

  AND FINALLY, as the Lydians were so quick to realize, games do not rely on scarce or finite resources.

  We can play games endlessly, no matter how limited our resources.

  Moreover, when we play games, we consume less.

  This is perhaps the most overlooked lesson of the story that Herodotus told. For the ancient Lydians, games were actually a way to introduce and support a more sustainable way of life. It was impossible for them to consume their natural resources at the old rate, so new games enabled them to adopt more sustainable habits.

  We are just starting to realize this possibility for ourselves today. We are starting to question material wealth as a source of authentic happiness. We are starting to look for ways to avoid exhausting the planet, and each other, with our escalating need for more stuff. We are looking to increase our wealth of experiences, relationships, and positive emotions instead.

  The closer we pay attention to the real and completely renewable rewards we get from games, the better we understand: games are a sustainable way of life.

  WE SHARE with the ancient Lydians these three timeless truths about games: Good games can play an important role in improving our real quality of life. They support social cooperation and civic participation at very big scales. And they help us lead more sustainable lives and become a more resilient species.

  But we are also different from the ancient Lydians, in one crucial way, when it comes to the games we play.

  Their dice games did many things, but what they did not do, as far as we know from Herodotus, is actually solve the problem of famine itself. The games eased the problem of individual suffering. They solved the problem of social disorganization. They solved the problem of how to consume fewer scarce resources. But they did not solve the problem of the collapse of the food supply itself. They did not bring the greatest minds together to test and develop new ways of getting or making food.

  Today, games have sufficiently evolved to support this fourth crucial function. Games today often have content—serious content—that directs our attention to real and urgent problems at hand. We are wrapping real problems inside of games: scientific problems, social problems, economic problems, environmental problems. And through our games, we are inventing new solutions to some of our most pressing human challenges.

  The ancient Lydians just had dice games. Today, we are developing a much more powerful kind of game. We are making world-changing games, in order to solve real problems and drive real collective action.

  SO WHAT ever happened to the ancient Lydians?

  If Herodotus is to be believed, their story has a surprise happy ending.

  After eighteen years of dice games, Herodotus writes, the Lydians saw that there still was no end to the famine in sight. They realized that they couldn’t simply survive the famine by waiting it out and distracting themselves from their misery. They had to rise to the occasion and tackle the obstacle directly.

  And so it was decided: they would play one final game together.

  The kingdom’s population was divided into two, Herodotus tells us, and by the chance drawing of lots, it was decided which half of the population would stay in Lydia and which half would set out in search of more hospitable land.

  This final game is what led the Lydians to their own epic win—an unexpected but profoundly triumphant solution to the problem of the famine. The food resources of Lydia, it turned out, could much more easily sustain half as many people, and indeed we know from other historical accounts that the kingdom subsequently not only survived for centuries more, but flourished. Meanwhile, according to Herodotus, the Lydians who’d sailed off in search of a new home settled to great success in what is now the Tuscan region of Italy, where they developed into the highly sophisticated Etruscan culture.

  The Etruscans, of course, are known today as the single most important influence on Roman culture. Historians widely agree that it was the Etruscans who originally developed the great skills of urban planning and civil engineering, and that it was the Etruscans’ efforts to advance art, agriculture, and government that provided the foundations for the world-changing Roman Empire—and, therefore, much of Western civilization as we know it.

  But were the game-playing Lydians really so influential in the course of human civilization? Competing histories of the Italian region have claimed for centuries, as a point of local pride, that the Etruscans were native to the region, not immigrants. Meanwhile, like many of the histories written by Herodotus, this account of the Etruscans’ origins has been met with some skepticism. The tale of the starving Lydians and their gaming is so fanciful that many modern historians have dismissed it as a myth or fable, perhaps inspired by facts but not bound by them.

  However, recent scientific research appears at long last to conclusively confirm several key details of Herodotus’ account of the Lydians, both of the famine they faced and their eventual mass migration.

  Geologists today believe that a catastrophic global cooling occurred between the years 1159 and 1140 BC—a nineteen-year time frame they’ve identified using tree-ring dating.3 A tree ring is a layer of wood produced during one tree’s growing season; during droughts and famines, tree rings are extremely narrow compared with normal seasons. By examining the rings in petrified trees, geologists have concluded that global cooling caused severe droughts and famines lasting for almost two decades in the twelfth century BC, particularly in Europe and Asia. Historians now believe this global cooling may have prompted the eighteen-year famine in Lydia that Herodotus described.

  Meanwhile, in 2007, a team led by Alberto Piazza, a geneticist at the University of Turin, Italy, made what was widely considered a breakthrough finding in human genetics. The research team analyzed the DNA of three different present-day Tuscan populations known to be direct descendants of the Etruscans. They discovered that the Etruscans’ DNA was much more closely linked with near-Eastern peoples than with other Italians, and, crucially, they found one genetic variant that is shared only by people from Turkey, the region once populated by the Lydians. As Piazza reported at the time of his team’s discovery, “We think that our research provides convincing proof that Herodotus was right, and that the Etruscans did indeed arrive from ancient Lydia.”4

  With this modern-day scientific confirmation of two crucial details of Herodotus’ account, the legend of the ancient Lydians takes on new significance. An astonishing claim becomes suddenly much more plausible: we may owe much of Western civilization as we know it to the Lydians’ ability to come together and play a good game.

  It turns out the dice games weren’t just a way to be happier during difficult times. They were also teaching the entire society to work together wholeheartedly toward collectively agreed-upon goals. They were training the Lydians to hold on to a sense of urgent optimism even in the face of daunting odds. They were building a strong social fabric. And they constantly reminded every Lydian that they were a part of something bigger.

  These are exactly the good game skills and abilities that the ancient Lydians drew upon in order to survive catastrophic climate change and reinvent their own civilization.

  If they did it then, we can do it again today.

  We have been playing computer games together for more than three decades now. By that count, we’ve accumulated our own eighteen year
s’ worth of preparatory good gaming, and then some. We have the collaboration superpowers. We have the interactive technology and global communication networks. We have the human resources—more than half a billion gamers and counting.

  More than three thousand years after the ancient Lydians harnessed their game skills and abilities to reinvent the world, we are ready to do the same.

  We are ready for humanity’s next epic win.

  WE CAN no longer afford to view games as separate from our real lives and our real work. It is not only a waste of the potential of games to do real good—it is simply untrue.

  Games don’t distract us from our real lives. They fill our real lives: with positive emotions, positive activity, positive experiences, and positive strengths.

  Games aren’t leading us to the downfall of human civilization. They’re leading us to its reinvention.

  The great challenge for us today, and for the remainder of the century, is to integrate games more closely into our everyday lives, and to embrace them as a platform for collaborating on our most important planetary efforts.

  If we commit to harnessing the power of games for real happiness and real change, then a better reality is more than possible—it is likely. And in that case, our future together will be quite extraordinary.

  Acknowledgments

  I could not have written this book without the inspiration, collaboration, advice, and support of the following individuals. I wholeheartedly thank:Chris Parris-Lamb, my agent at the Gernert Company, for having the vision for this book before I did, for convincing me to write it, and, most importantly, for donning a blindfold and running through a labyrinth the very first time we met. +50 Courage

  Laura Stickney and Alex Bowler, my wildly talented editors at Penguin Press and Jonathan Cape, for so much editorial wisdom and encouragement. Thank you for finding what was important in the book and bringing real clarity to my ideas. (And for ensuring that I used the word “awesome” fewer than a hundred times in the final manuscript.) +50 Epic Guidance

  Everyone at Penguin Press, Jonathan Cape, and the Gernert Company, for taking seriously the idea that games can make us better and change the world—and for lending your great skills and talents to this project. +100 Teamwork

  My brilliant colleagues at the Institute for the Future, for always bringing the next decade into focus, and especially my mentors, who taught me how to think about the future: Marina Gorbis, Jean Hagan, Bob Johansen, and Kathi Vian. +100 Foresight

  Everyone at the Leigh Bureau, for helping me hone my story about the power of games, and for finding opportunities to deliver it to amazing communities and organizations around the world. +50 Encouragement

  The conference organizers who invited me to give the talks that inspired this book—Hugh Forrest (for SXSW), Eric Zimmerman (for the Game Developers rant), Susan Gold (for the IGDA Education Summit), and June Cohen, Kelly Stoetzel, and Chris Anderson (at TED); and the Conference Associate program at the Game Developers Conference, for providing aspiring game developers with a foot in the door. +20 Life Changer

  The great game designers and game researchers whose work inspired and informed this book—most influentially, Edward Castronova, Katherine Isbister, Raph Koster, Frank Lantz, Nicole Lazzaro, and Katie Salen. +20 Big Ideas

  The positive psychologists whose research helped me understand why we love games so much; their research is the engine for my game design, especially: Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, Dacher Keltner, Sonja Lyubomirsky, and Martin Seligman. +25 Well-being, +25 Happiness, +25 Life Satisfaction, and +25 Flow

  The amazing game developers and creators who taught me the craft—especially Elan Lee, Sean Stewart, Jim Stewartson, Ian Fraser, and Finnegan Kelly. +100 Creative Genius

  The players of EVOKE, The Lost Ring, Superstruct, CryptoZoo, World Without Oil, Top Secret Dance-Off, Bounce, Cruel 2 B Kind, and Tombstone Hold ’Em, for daring to go where no gamers had gone before. +50 Gamefulness

  My closest collaborators on these projects—Kiyash Monsef, Robert Hawkins, and Nathan Verrill on EVOKE; Jamais Cascio and Kathi Vian on Superstruct; Ken Eklund and Cathy Fischer on World Without Oil; Greg Niemeyer and Ken Goldberg on Bounce; Ian Bogost on Cruel 2 B Kind; Julie Channing, Edwin Veelo, Toria Emery, and all the global puppet masters on The Lost Ring; and Elan Lee on Tombstone Hold ’Em. +100 Superheroic Collaboration

  Mike and Paula Monsef, for encouraging me to write and always wholeheartedly participating in my games. +200 Nurturing

  My parents, Kevin and Judy, who bought a used Commodore 64 for me and my sister when we were in fifth grade so that we could practice writing on Bank Street Writer and learn to program our own games in BASIC. +500 Love

  My twin sister, Kelly, for her support through the process of writing this book—and for telling me more than ten years ago (in a flash of empathic insight) that, based on my childhood talents and strengths, I should invent a career for myself combining game design and public speaking. It sounded crazy. But she was right. +1000 Compassionate Willpower

  And most of all, my husband, Kiyash, who is my all-time biggest epic win, and the best possible ally in making a life worth living. “You know, sweetheart, if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: nobody knows what’s going to happen at the end of the line, so you might as well enjoy the trip.” +1000 Curiosity, +1000 Wonder, +5000 Meaning

  Appendix

  HOW TO PLAY

  This list is designed to help you learn more about the games in this book—and to get firsthand experience playing them. If you want to become actively involved in the community of people who are already making and playing world-changing games, these resources will show you where to start.

  HOW TO FIND OUT MORE

  To read more case studies and learn about new and upcoming alternate reality games, forecasting games, happiness hacks, crowd games, and collaboratories, visit the website for this book, www.realityisbroken.org.

  WHERE TO GET INVOLVED

  If you want to help create, playtest, sponsor, or commission a game designed to have a positive impact—to improve players’ lives, to solve real problems, or to change the world—join the social network Gameful, at www.gameful.org. Other organizations dedicated to a similar mission include Games for Change (www.gamesforchange.org), Games Beyond Entertainment (www.gamesbeyondentertainment.com) and the annual academic Games, Learning, and Society Conference (www.glsconference.org).

  WHAT TO PLAY

  Many of the alternate reality and world-changing games described in this book are free and available to play online or on your mobile phone. Others are no longer playable, but have been archived online for public viewing. The best online resources for learning about or playing these games are described below. Because many of the games in this book are, at the time of publication, still in beta or prototype form, their availability may change; we will track their availability and the emergence of new games at the book’s website, www.realityisbroken.org.

  The games below are arranged in alphabetical order, with the chapter in which they are described listed after their name.

  BOUNCE

  (Chapter 9) A beta version of this cross-generation conversation game, developed at the UC Berkeley Center for New Media by Irene Chien, Ken Goldberg, Jane McGonigal, Greg Niemeyer, and Jeff Tang, is available in English and Spanish at http://heidegger.ieor.berkeley.edu/bounce/.

  CHORE WARS

  (Chapter 7) A beta version of the chores-management game, created by Kevan Davis, is playable at www.chorewars.com.

  COME OUT & PLAY FESTIVAL

  (Chapter 9) Find out when and where the annual street festival for new mobile, social games is happening at www.comeoutandplay.org.

  THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS

  (Chapter 9) Find out more about how to play this social street game, invented by Simon Evans and Simon Johnson, at http://swarmtoolkit.net, or watch a short documentary at http://vimeo.com/1204230.

  CRUEL 2 B KIND

  (Chapter 10) A short documentary of
the game of benevolent assassination, created by Jane McGonigal and Ian Bogost, is available at www.cruelgame.com , where you can also download a kit for running your own Cruel 2 B Kind game.

  DAY IN THE CLOUD

  (Chapter 8) You can play the archived version of this in-flight game, developed by Google Apps and Virgin America, wherever you are—even if you’re not on an airplane!—at www.dayinthecloud.com.

  EVOKE

  (Chapter 14) You can join the EVOKE game network for social innovation, created by Jane McGonigal and Kiyash Monsef, and developed by the World Bank Institute and Natron Baxter Applied Gaming, at www.urgentevoke.com.

  THE EXTRAORDINARIES (NOW KNOWN AS SPARKED)

  (Chapter 12) Join the microvolunteering game, created by Jacob Colker and Ben Rigby, or design your own nonprofit mission, at www.sparked.com. Find out more at http://blog.beextra.org.

  FOLD IT!

  (Chapter 11) You can solve protein-folding puzzles for science at http://fold.it/portal, a collaboration between the University of Washington departments of computer science and engineering and biochemistry.