Optional Mission: Reading Journal

     The Introduction and Chapter 1 of Reality Is Broken by Jane McGonigal was really interesting. Her facts in the Introduction and in Ch. 1 really caught my attention. For example, I found it remarkable that there are "more than 5 million "extreme" gamers in the United States play on average forty-five hours a week"(McGonigal 12). Five Million?! That is an insane number of people! I know that there are people that play games for a living but I was not aware that there were that many people.
     What really stood out to me was the fact that she says that games are "hard work"(McGonical 28). I have never put much thought into it but she is correct. Games are hard work. Games are made to challenge us. That is the whole point of a game. I have never though of it as hard work because as I kid I played games when I was bored or had nothing else to do. After reading Ch. 1, I have looked at everything I have ever played much differently now. I am one of those people who always want to win. I always want to beat everyone else and be number one. But you can't be at the top of the leaderboards by not working for the objective. You have to put some effort into it. I never thought of it that way but it makes a lot of sense now.
     Jane McGonigal wants to change the world by having people play video games. She wants people to play video games to help them out with real world problems. This strikes my curiosity. How will she do it? She has already been called upon by major companies such as McDonalds, and Intel to help make gaming an "innovation strategy"(McGonigal 15). She has already paved the way for categories of games that focus on positively impacting the world. I look forward to reading the rest of her book and seeing how she will use games to end major problems such as poverty, famine, armed conflicts, any many other quarrels the world is facing.