Alternate Realitiesa game designer’s perspective on the future of happiness

Jane McGonigal, Ph.D. Institute for the Future

A future forecast (2017): Quality of life becomes the primary

metric for evaluating brands, services, built environments, and experiences

Positive psychology is increasingly a principal, explicit influence on design and development

The public will expect organizations & companies to have a clear vision for a life worth living

Success is defined as a measurable increase in real happiness – the new capital

Is happiness the new capital?

“Our economy is rapidly changing from a money economy to a satisfaction economy…. We are about to witness a politics that takes the pursuit of happiness very seriously indeed.”

– Martin Seligman, Authentic Happiness

Is happiness the new capital?

www.neweconomics.org

Is happiness the new capital?

www.neweconomics.org

Technology moves faster than culture

Culture moves faster than evolution

Our cro-magnum brains and bodies are being made miserable by our advancing technologies and hybrid cultures

Symptoms manifest (2007):

1. Gamers have figured out something very important: Reality is broken.

“We are witnessing what amounts to no less than a global mass exodus to virtual worlds and other online gaming environments.” – economist Edward Castranova

An exodus of time (16+ hours/week)

… of attention … of money ($1.5

B) … and of

passion.

In terms of perceived quality of life, is virtuality beating reality?

User Hours per Month

US $ Exchanged on Lindex (in Millions)

This exodus to virtual worlds and networked games is an extremely important signal –

Not (as some think) that we will or should abandon reality, but rather a signal that we need to make our reality work better.

We need an alternate reality… one that works more like a networked game.

In terms of perceived quality of life, is virtuality beating reality?

YES.

Symptoms manifest (2007):

1. Gamers have figured out something very important: Reality is broken.

2. To fix it, we need to make real life more like a game.

Symptoms manifest (2007):

1. Gamers have figured out something very important: Reality is broken.

2. To fix it, we need to make real life more like a game.

3. More specifically: to increase real happiness and improve global quality of life, the real world needs to work more like massively multiplayer online games, virtual worlds, and other super-collaborative playscapes.

Alternate Realitiesa game designer’s perspective on the future of happiness

– and 10 ways to save the real world

Jane McGonigal, Ph.D. Institute for the Future

'Play will be to the 21st century what work was to the last 300

years of industrial society -- our dominant way of knowing, doing

and creating value.'

--Pat Kane, author of The Play Ethic

Alternate Reality Game designers are a new breed of hackers who are pioneering this play ethic.

…. We are hacking everyday, real-life spaces, habits, and social institutions to be more like a networked game.

Why? Because ARG designers believe

games work better than

reality.

In what sense do Alternate Realities “work better”?

they better meet the gamers’ new standards for happiness

they harness the gamers’ talents for collaboration, intensifying real-world engagement and amplifying meaning of life

How do networked games work?

~ clear goals and specific avenues for advancement

~ focused attention

~ dynamic, real-time feedback

~ highly responsive environments

~ a rich, world (re)building mythology

~ intense community

~ a shared context for action

~ a sense of heroic purpose

There are 3 Tiers of Happiness:1. pleasure

2. engagement

3. meaning

There are 3 Tiers of Happiness:1. pleasure

– feeling good

2. engagement

– doing good

3. meaning

– discovering good

There are 3 Tiers of Happiness:1. pleasure

SENSORY STIMULATION

2. engagement

INTERACTIVE DYNAMICS

3. meaning

NARRATIVE, MYTHOLOGY

“We know what makes people happy: It is

to have good relationships with other human beings,

to do work you like

and to be a contributing member of some community.”

– psychologist Stephen Peterson, University of Michigan

Collective Intelligence

- Pierre Levy, 1994

Cogito, ergo sum Cogitamus, ergo sumus

The concept “alternate reality” comes from science fiction.

“a hybrid of Fantasy and Alternate History that alters this world's dynamics.”

In an AR, a game becomes an alternative framework for

experiencing everyday life.

“An alternate reality is another way of experiencing existence.”- G. S. ELRICK, 1978

World Without Oil, 2007 alternate reality game(www.worldwithoutoil.org)

“This was a blog for an ARG. But I am real.  My game profile is accurate. The people I wrote about in-game have RL identities. My husband really is too smart for his own good. My dog really is sick – but he’s going to be fine. Some of the events I wrote about in-game really did occur, others were my own musings. But the rest is entirely possible and that’s what matters.”

–WWO player manicHalo via blog

real play, not role play.

Massively networked media constructs and confirms the alternate

reality

When the game ends, the alternate reality continues.

“When they returned, they discovered that … their excursion had created a new alternate reality.” - G. A. EFFINGER, 1989

“I really mean it when I say WWO changed my life. I really have been walking more/driving less, using my cloth bags at the stores, turning off lights, and yes, recycling. My friends, family and coworkers have all noticed the difference. In all seriousness, this entire thing has made me a different person.”

-player Falling Sin, via email

When the game ends, the alternate reality continues.

Well-Being Inventory “I am optimistic

about the future.”

“I feel close to most people, even if I do not know them well.”

“My existence makes the world a better place.”

“So what did this game accomplish? I'll tell you what I got out of it - we're dealing with a hard set of problems! … All of those people, thinking about the worst-case scenarios, brainstorming community solutions! That's a very promising thought…. The game has left the game, but a great community has been built. We've only just begun!”

-player OrangeForaHead, via blog

Reality + optimism for the future.

“I end this game with HOPE.  Because, that is what I'm filled with in this moment. I have HOPE for our future. And what a powerful feeling that is.”

– player Falling Sin

Reality + optimism for the future.

"This is the first time in my life where I felt I had the power to change the course of history.”

-player Peak Prophet, via blog

Reality + makes the world better

“We have the potential to create community on a scale never before imagined on this planet, and I think only by creating that community, by working together despite race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability status, religion, or anything like that… the world will end up a little more united after this.”

-player Juiceman1, via blog

Reality + close to other people

Superimposin

g

Supersizing

Supercomputi

ng

Superheroic

As a result of super-collaborative alternate realities, We are witnessing the evolution of everyday, real-world superheroes.

“The opposite of play isn't work, it's depression. To play is to act out and be willful, exultant and committed -- as if one is assured of one's prospects.”

-- Brian Sutton Smith, anthropologist

Attent, 2007 beta alternate reality enterprise software

Foresight Insight:

Leading-edge Alternate Realities currently provide the strongest evidence for what make us happy –

and the best blueprint for how to engage and find meaning in the real-world.

A Future Forecast:

In the next decade, we will see more businesses, brands, organizations, and governments developing and adopting customized alternate realities -- in order to generate real happiness capital and to create a radically better way of engaging the public and innovating in the real world.

“You've opened our eyes and infected our minds with realities and

possibilities.” – ARG gamer

Thank you.

jane@avantgame.com

www.slideshare.net/avantgame