TED: Jane McGonigal: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life

"When game designer Jane McGonigal found herself bedridden and suicidal following a severe concussion, she had a fascinating idea for how to get better. She dove into the scientific research and created the healing game, SuperBetter. In this moving talk, McGonigal explains how a game can boost resilience — and promises to add 7.5 minutes to your life."

Cool stuff

While i like the content, it came off that it was presented in a rather abrasive manner to me for some reason.

If people are really depressive - I mean, as a real illness - then anything keeping their spirits up can help.

I know from my own experience.

But this is the very first time I learn of this game.

If you want to know a stage play writer who was in severe depressions, then read through the Wikipedia article of Sarah Kane - and especially her works.

Damian Mahadevan said:

While i like the content, it came off that it was presented in a rather abrasive manner to me for some reason.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't say "abrasive". On a much lesser scale, it's like a friend who's found this really awesome thing and just has to tell/show you. Once they do, you do find it's really neat, but not all that awesome.

More "overly enthusiastic". But given the fact that she thinks this really saved her life, and it may have actually saved her life ( we can't say definitively since we can't directly compare the alternate reality ), I can forgive her for that.

And since it might have saved her life, actually (who knows ? Who am I to judge it ?), she firmly believes that it could save others' lives, too.

And I do like that she's at least ttrying to help others out from their misery.
There's too many people out there who just don't care nowadays.

I mean abrasive in such a way that it is like listening to an awesoem lecture but it is completely done in monotone by the lecturer. I cant put my finger on exactly why i felt that way though.

I guess she had it written on a sjheet of paper - or t least an outline of it. The result is sometimes like this, I know it from my own experience. Even worse if the person is shy or/and has a social phobia, too.

She was strictly adviced to not do anything but rest (because of her brain injury), yet she created a game? I haven't personally created a whole game, but dealing with programming etc is the exact opposite of resting your brain.. Creativity is usually what brings me out of depressions, i think that's the main reason she got out of it too, if she really was injured..

You can heal people with placebo, it's been scientifically proved numerous times. It's been done since the begining of time and possibly one of the better benefits of for example religion (believing strongly that God will heal you if you are sick etc). Same could be done using a game, healing stones, a "miracle pill" (/sugar pill) etc. The other stuff (touch, excercise) is hardly groundbreaking news to anyone. She just presented things we've known for hundreds or even thousands of years in a modern way.

It didn't seem like a very complex game vert. Some very simple rules can create a very complex system. Also. You can't really classify it as working like a placebo. A placebo is a simulation of a treatment dependent on deception. This healing game is missing that deception and deals, or attempts to deal, directly with cause and effect.

However. I do think her enthusiasm has skewed her numbers a bit. She based her 10 extra years on the average lifespan and, if I recall correctly, her calculations reflect the assumption that the entire population is not already doing some of the games tasks in one form or another.

I dont know what "complexity" has to with anything..?

It's a mixture of placebo and directly dealing with things (exercise or touch certainly isnt placebo). Getting power-ups in a game to recieve strength and energy IRL, that's a placebo effect for sure.

I watched about half of it, and I lost 10 minutes of my life that I wish I could have back.