Jane McGonigal
Chief Creative Officer, SuperBetter Labs
Jane McGonigal's Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make us Better and How they Can Change the World (2011) is in digital and analog bookstores everywhere. She is a game developer, player, theorist, and evangelist:
"My #1 goal in life is to see a game designer nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. I’ve forecast that this will happen by the year 2023. Of course, it’s not enough to just forecast the future - I’m also actively working to make it a reality."
She uses alternative reality games (ARGs) to conduct research, build communities, connect with markets, and solve real-world problems. She directed the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game, Superstruct, which brought together more than 7,000 future forecasters from 90 countries. Her games work to solve many real-world challenges from curing disease to addressing issues of poverty, hunger, and a world without petroleum.
She is the Director of Game Research and Development at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California, where she earned Harvard Business Review honors for one of the Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas of 2008. The New York Times featured her as one of 10 scientists with the best vision for what’s coming next, BusinessWeek called her one of the Top 10 Innovators to Watch, and Fast Company named her one of the 100 Most Creative People in business.