Feb 12 2010
Dr. Jane McGonigal
Leading Innovator, Director of Game Research & Development, Institute for the Future
Jane McGonigal is a brilliant designer of online mass roleplaying games. She’s also on the forefront of academic research on societal development and computer gaming. She is best known for creating games that inspire global-scale collaboration and collective intelligences. Most recently, she directed the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game Superstruct, which brought together more than 7000 future forecasters from 90 countries to tackle real-world problems such as pandemics, food systems, and climate change. The Association of Professional Futurists honoured Superstruct as the “Most Important Futures Work of 2008”.
“The leading innovator in the field of game design for future forecasting and problem solving”
Jane McGonigal has a PhD from UC Berkeley in performance studies. A pioneer in the field of “alternate reality gaming”, her previous projects include The Lost Ring, World Without Oil, Cruel 2 B Kind, and I Love Bees. She is an expert on applying game design and game theory to real work and real business, and has consulted and developed internal game workshops for leading technology companies in Asia, Europe, and the U.S., as well as more than a dozen Fortune Global 500 Companies. A recent project, co-sponsored by the 2008 Olympics and McDonalds, was a global immersive adventure titled, The Lost Ring.[/expand]
World-renowned game designer and futurist Jane McGonigal takes play seriously. Hailed as one of the 100 most creative people in business by Fast Company, she has studied how games change lives, spending a lot of my time figuring out how the games we play today shape our real-world future. In her highly sought-after presentations she discusses how games optimize human ability and demonstrates how games can harness the power of collective intelligence to solve real-world problems. She studies the power of games to impact the real-world — and she creates games that do just that.[/expand]
A very compelling, funny and engaging speaker, Jane McGonigal has a wonderfully contagious combination of energy, imagination and positivity, leaving her audiences excited and inspired by her talks. Jane is trying to make sure that a game developer wins a Nobel Prize by the year 2032.[/expand]
Watch a video presentation of Jane McGonigal
Topics
Saving the World through Game Design
The Future of Reality
Mass Collaboration
Collective Intelligence
Alternative Reality Game Design
Collaborative Problem Solving
Innovation
Awards & Recognition
One of the world’s top 35 innovators – MIT Technology Review
One of the 100 Most Creative People in Business 2009, Fast Company
One of the top Innovative Voices for 2008, BusinessWeek
Honored by the Year in Review feature of The New York Times
Superstruct: Most Important Futures Work of 2008, Association of Professional Futurists
Her theory of “alternate reality business” named one of the top 20 breakthrough ideas of 2008 by The Harvard Business Review
Game Developers Choice Awards’ Innovation Award (2005)
International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences’ Webby Award. (2005)
Received the Innovation Award, IGDA
Named to the first ever Women in Games: The Gamasutra 20
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