One hundred and eighty three million people in this world play games at least thirteen hours a week. Every week. Why? Because reality isn’t meeting their needs. Let me switch this up a little: reality isn’t meeting our needs. Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal Penguin Press January 2011 In the “real world” we get up in the morning, work all day and come home to go to bed. At work, we go through the motions of a never-ending litany of to-do lists without recognition and without progression. We know that we will never win the game of life. We just play it. Every day. But in games we have a chance for more according to McGonigal. In games we voluntarily add obstacles and challenges that don’t present themselves in “real life.” We have an opportunity to do things that we are good at and – more importantly – feel like we have a chance to succeed. In games, players are presented with challenges that have consequences far more epic (author’s term) than daily living would ever provide. And yet, they give these challenges to us knowing that we can overcome them with enough focus and effort. McGonigal’s work was so mind-rocking obviously right that (as an active gamer, fitting the definition above) when I read it I found myself simultaneously blown away and nodding my head, “Yes, this is exactly right!” Non-gamers sometimes struggle to understand why gamers play so much and get so into their games. They mistakenly assume that we are hiding from the “real world” or making up for social dysfunctions. The truth is far more enlightening and if properly understood, which this book does a great job or explaining, gaming not only becomes an obvious outlet but starts to become recognized as paradigm that the so-called real world is moving to. Let me give an example: if children just want to play games and also children seem to have a hard time staying focused on school work why wouldn’t we attempt to motivate through the use of gaming? How about a game that teaches? That’s not just a theoretical question but is becoming a recognized option. Games teach something, why not utilize them to teach subjects that students struggle with? This book was so much of a game changer, pardon the pun, that I used the ideas presented to create an alternative reality game at my job. My direct reports are required to hit certain metric goals each month so I layered the game on top of “real work” providing an instant reward and achievement layer for when they hit those metrics. I also provided an overarching narrative and a monthly cycle of challenges giving my representatives the ability to voluntarily take on additional challenges that should they achieve victory would also result in higher “real world” results. The results over the last five months of playing this game, called Alt-Life, have been amazing. Not only is work more fun, but metric results are amongst the highest that I’ve even seen in a group of my direct reports. McGonigal is right. Reality is Broken will change the way you view the world and hopefully the way you play it. Very highly recommended.