| Jane McGonigal | |
|---|---|
Jane McGonigal |
|
| Born | October 21, 1977 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Occupation | Game designer, games researcher |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
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www.janemcgonigal.com |
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Jane McGonigal, Ph.D. (born 1977) is a game designer, games researcher, and author, specializing in pervasive gaming and alternate reality games (ARGs).
McGonigal writes and speaks about alternate reality games and massively multiplayer online gaming, especially about the way that collective intelligence can be generated and utilized as a means for improving the quality of human life or working towards the solution of social ills. She has stated that gaming should be moving "towards Nobel Prizes."[1] McGonigal has been called "the current public face of gamification".[2]
She has taught game design and game theory at the San Francisco Art Institute and the University of California, Berkeley and she currently serves as the Director of Game Research & Development at Institute for the Future.[3] In 2006, she was named to the MIT Technology Review TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35.[4]
| Year | Title | Organization | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Find the Future: The Game | New York Public Library | Director[5] |
| 2010 | Evoke | World Bank Institute | Creator |
| 2009 | Cryptozoo | American Heart Association | Director |
| 2008 | Superstruct | Institute for the Future | Director |
| 2008 | The Lost Ring | McDonald's and The Lost Sport | Director |
| 2007 | World Without Oil | ITVS Interactive | Participation architect w/ Ken Eklund[6] |
| 2006 | Cruel 2 B Kind | Concept and design w/ Ian Bogost[7] | |
| 2005 | Last Call Poker | 42 Entertainment | Live Events Lead |
| 2005 | PlaceStorming | [8] | |
| 2004 | I Love Bees | 42 Entertainment | Community Lead/Puzzle Designer |
| 2004 | Demonstrate | ||
| 2004 | TeleTwister |
Additionally, she has collaborated on commissioned games for the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
On January 20, 2011, McGonigal's first book, Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can Change the World, was published. In this book, McGonigal looks not only at massively multiplayer online gaming and alternate reality games but also at games more widely. Using current research from the positive psychology movement, McGonigal argues that games contribute powerfully to human happiness and motivation, a sense of meaning, and the development of community.
The book was met with a favorable reception from The Los Angeles Times,[9] and Wired,[10] and mixed reviews from the New York Times Book Review[11] and The Independent.[12] The book received criticism from some quarters, notably the Wall Street Journal.[13]
| Date | Award | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Named in O: The Oprah Magazine "2010 O Power List" | Named in O: The Oprah Magazine as one of twenty important women of 2010 on the "2010 O Power List"[14] |
| 2008 | Named one of the Top 20 Most Important Women in videogaming | [15] |
| 2008 | South by Southwest Interactive Award for Activism | Awarded for World Without Oil |
| 2006 | Listed on MIT Technology Review's TR100 | Named one of the world's top innovators under the age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review.[16] |
| 2005 | 2005 Innovation Award from the International Game Developers Association and a 2005 Games-related Webby Award. | For I Love Bees, the Halo 2 promotion.[17][18] |
She received her BA in English from Fordham University, and her PhD in Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, in August 2006.