SIGGRAPH: Futurist Claims Playing Games Can Help Improve Lives
By Rob Scott
August 14, 2012
August 14, 2012
- Game developer and futurist Jane McGonigal delivered a keynote at least week’s SIGGRAPH Conference in which she suggested that playing games has helped people suffering from autism, ADHD, PTSD and cancer. She cited scientific studies and her own extensive research.
- She also believes that games can help make people more optimistic and resilient. “McGonigal explains that games bring out positive emotions, including curiously, excitement, contentment, creativity, wonder, joy, relief, love, purpose and pride,” writes Carolyn Giardina for The Hollywood Reporter.
- McGonigal is director of game research and development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California, and author of “Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can Change the World.”
- “We are in the business of the art of shaping people’s destinies,” she told the crowd at the LA Convention Center. “We need skills and abilities to get the future we want … physical, mental, social and emotional resilience. When I think about games, I’m very interested in what abilities they create and also the destinies they lead us toward.”
- McGonigal has created a resilience-building game called “SuperBetter” that is available at the App Store.
- “During her keynote, McGonigal led an estimated 3,000 SIGGRAPH attendees through a sampling of the game,” notes Giardina. “Tasks included raising their fists in the air for five seconds — ‘worth plus-one physical resilience … every single second that you are not sitting still, you are actively improving the health of your heart, and your lungs and brain.’”
- McGonigal told the crowd that those who played along during the demo earned an extra 7.5 minutes of life.
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