Compared with games, reality is disconnected.
Game developers know that people have more fun when they’re in large groups. They feel more fired up when the challenges are more epic.
You can’t play the same game every day for years. New games are key.
My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.
What’s really amazing about games is how they change our emotional response to challenges.
When we’re in game worlds, we become the best version of ourselves, the most likely to help at a moment’s notice, the most likely to stick with a problem as long at it takes, to get up after failure and try again.
You need to develop mental habits that allow you to activate the same brain patterns we activate during gameplay.
Urgent optimism is the desire to act immediately to tackle an obstacle, combined with the belief that we have a reasonable hope of success.
Games are unnecessary obstacles we volunteer to tackle.
Avatars are a way to express our true selves, our most heroic, idealized version of who we might become.
We can boost our immune systems by strengthening our social networks and decreasing stress.
My favorite part of running is the thinking time.
Every game designer should make one explicitly world-changing game. Lawyers do pro bono work, why can’t we?
Research shows that when we’re under stress or facing a major obstacle, we tend to focus on our weaknesses and what we’re afraid of.
Any time I consider a new project, I ask myself, is this pushing the state of gaming toward Nobel Prizes? If it’s not, then it’s not doing anything important enough to spend my time.
Growing up, I was prone to anxiety.
I want to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Prize.
When we know our strengths, we’re more likely to use them.
My mom is a public school teacher and works with third grade students.
There are people who are very dismissive of games and gamers.