Jane McGonigal’s Theories
As the final touchstone of this chapter, we will look at Jane McGonigal’s theories. McGonigal is a game designer and author of the book Reality is Broken291. She’s most known for two TED talks on the power of games within the real world.
McGonigal describes the four components behind how games make people better and more resilient: Epic Meaning, Urgent Optimism, Blissful Productivity, and Social Fabric.
There are a few components that we can easily match with Octalysis. Epic Meaning of course echoes Core Drive 1: Epic Meaning & Calling - something that makes you feel like you’re changing the world. Social Fabric clearly aligns with Core Drive 5: Social Influence & Relatedness, which is about the trusting bond between people taking on the same quests.
Urgent Optimism is slightly trickier to comprehend through Octalysis Glasses. In Reality is Broken, McGonigal defines Urgent Optimism as, “the moment of hope just before...