Book review: Reality is broken

A few weeks back, TED.com posted another talk by Jane McGonigal on practical applications of gamification - once again, it is not only the real life examples of concrete approaches to behaviour changes using the principles of game design in the "real" world, but also the deeply engrained positive message for the future that I really like.

The post reminded me that I had McGonigal's book, "Reality is broken" in the middle of my pile of "To read" books. I pulled it out and finished it yesterday. As indicated in my many previous posts on gamification, what I love about McGonigal's stuff is that it is so rooted in her desire to improve people's lives and is so "actionable" - the book is packed full of examples of how simple games applied in the real world have had immediate and measurable effects.

The book is well structured and is underpinned with lots of quality thinking about positive psychology, the roots of gaming in society and concepts of good game design (McGonigal is an academic as well as a game designer).

The one thing I would criticise is the length of the book - it could have been ~50-100 pages shorter and still covered all its points well.

Despite this small point, this is definitely a book worth reading if you are interested in affecting behaviour changes in fun ways!