Superbetter by Jane Mcgonigal

Superbetter by Jane Mcgonigal

A remarkable life plan developed from the program four hundred thousand people have used to recover from setbacks and injuries and achieve personal growth

In 2009, game designer and author Jane McGonigal suffered a severe concussion that wouldn't heal. Unable to think clearly, or work, or even get out of bed, she became anxious and depressed, even suicidal--a common symptom for concussion sufferers. But rather than let herself sink further, she decided to get better by doing what she does best: she turned her recovery process into a game. What started as a simple motivational exercise became a set of rules she shared on her blog. These rules became a digital game, then an online portal and a major research study with the National Institutes of Health. Today more than 400,000 people have played SuperBetter to get happier and healthier.

But the ideas behind SuperBetter are much bigger than just one game. In this book, McGonigal reveals a decade's worth of scientific research into the ways all games change how we respond to stress, challenge, and pain. She explains how we can cultivate new powers of recovery and resilience in everyday life simply by adopting a gameful mind-set. Being gameful means bringing the same psychological strengths we naturally display when we play games--such as optimism, creativity, courage, and determination--to real-world situations.

McGonigal explores the best ways to harness these gameful skills in the real world not only to experience posttraumatic growth, but also to tackle positive life goals, achieving what she calls postecstatic growth. To show how, she shares stories and data from players who have followed the SuperBetter rules to get stronger, happier, and braver in the face of depression, anxiety, illness, and injury, as well as to achieve major goals like losing weight, running a marathon, or finding a new job.

The SuperBetter method contains seven rules for activating gameful strengths in everyday life, distilled from McGonigal's own pioneering work and that of others. SuperBetter the book turns these rules into playful challenges anyone can undertake while reading in a series of quests that explain the science behind the benefits. Playing by the seven rules begins to yield life-changing benefits in a matter of days, and eventually they become an ingrained skill set.

As inspiring as it is down to earth, grounded in rigorous research, and powered by game design, SuperBetter is a proven game plan for a better life. You'll never say that something is just a game again.

Jane McGonigal, PhD, is a world-renowned game designer and futurist. takes the game seriously McGonigal is the Director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California, where her work on the future of games earned her a spot on the Harvard Business Review's Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas of 2008 list. Her work has been published in The Economist and Wired, and she was named one of the 100 most creative individuals in business by The New York Times. She's spoken at TED, SXSW Interactive, the Game Developers Conference, ETech, and the Web 2.0 Summit, as well as The New Yorker Conference.

Jane, who was born in Philadelphia and raised in New York, now lives with her husband in San Francisco. SuperBetter: A New Way to Becoming Stronger, Happier, Braver, and More Resilient is her first book.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781594206368
ISBN 10	1594206368
Title	Superbetter
Author	Jane Mcgonigal
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Penguin Press
Year published	2015-09-15
Number of pages	480
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.