Blog 4 - Jane McGonigal's Extra 7 Minutes of Life

So this post is assuming you have seen two videos from Jane McGonigal's TED talks.

Here is the first, where she explains why we need to play more games:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

Here is the second one, which I would like to discuss:



I would like to discuss the second video. In this video Jane starts off by discussing the top 5 regrets of the dying.
1. I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
2. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
3. I wish I had let myself be happier.
4. I wish I'd had the courage to express my true self.
5. I wish I had lived a life true to my dreams and not what others expected of me.

She goes on to describe how games address each of these issues (though the last one is still a question) using scientific research. My favorite thing she says in this bit is that online games can out-perform pharmaceuticals for treating clinical anxiety and depression. It can boost moods and produce long term increases in happiness. I no longer need to justify why I prefer to spend more time playing games (at least, when I have the time to), but just in case, I'll be saving this statistic.

Jane moves on to describe a brain injury she had that left her bedridden and wishing to die because her doctor's orders said she basically shouldn't do anything.
So to combat the suicidal thoughts, she turned her recovery into a game and eventually posted it online. It's called SuperBetter.  https://superbetter.com

The game uses quests that boost your attributes: Physical Resilience, Mental Resilience, Emotional Resilience, and Social Resilience.
These attributes actually correspond to 4 of the 6 types of health: physical, mental, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual (this one is not addressed through the game).

She has her audience do the first 4 SuperBetter quests which gives them all +1 to each type of resilience and then she uses science and math to explain how this increases your life span. The short version of this is if you do simple things every day, you will live for, at least, an extra 10 years. The math breaks it down to an extra 7.5 minutes added on for each day of these activities. 

The reason I love this video is because Jane used gamification to help herself recover from a brain injury and she has since turned into into a game that anybody can play, that is extremely healthy and good for you and that is the easiest thing in the world to play. Simply because it's life. It's the good life, broken down into silly quests that can only be good for you. It encourages people to live happy lives and it's really an inspiring video. The scientific research to back up her game adds an extra layer of awesomeness. Who doesn't want to live longer from enjoying themselves? And what gamer doesn't want to be able to tell all the nay-sayers that science is providing more and more evidence that games are good for us?