An innovative guide to living gamefully, based on the program that has already helped nearly half a million people achieve remarkable personal growth.


In 2009, internationally renowned game designer Jane McGonigal suffered a severe concussion. Unable to think clearly or even get out of bed, she became depressed, even suicidal. She decided to get better by doing what she does best: she turned her recovery process into a resilience-building game. Today, nearly half a million people have played SuperBetter to get stronger, happier, and healthier.
     But the life-changing ideas behind SuperBetter are much bigger than just one game. In this book, McGonigal reveals a decade's worth of scientific research into the ways all games change how we respond to stress, challenge, and pain. She explains how we can cultivate new powers of recovery and resilience in everyday life simply by adopting a more "gameful" mind-set. Being gameful means bringing the same psychological strengths we naturally display when we play games--such as optimism, creativity, and determination--to real-world goals.
     Drawing on hundreds of studies, McGonigal shows that getting superbetter is as simple as tapping into the three core psychological strengths that games help you build:
 • Your ability to control your attention, and therefore your thoughts and feelings
 • Your power to turn anyone into a potential ally, and to strengthen your existing relationships
 • Your natural ability to motivate yourself and supercharge your heroic qualities
     As inspiring as it is down to earth, and grounded in rigorous research, SuperBetter is a proven game plan for a better life. You'll never say something is "just a game" again.