McGonigal Chapters 7-8

I believe McGonigal's 3 main claims in her writings are:

1. Wholehearted Participation - McGonigal really stresses the importance of not just participation, but wholehearted participation. She defines this participation as, "to be self-motivated and self-directed, intensely interested, and genuinely enthusiastic," and that if you are not participating wholeheartedly in your own life, you're missing out on ways to be happy. I thought this was a really unique way to look at it. She uses the examples of Chore Wars, Quest for Learning, and SuperBetter to show how engaging in this "wholehearted participation" of the mundane aspects of your own everyday life can make a positive difference. She believes that ARGs can (should) help the players participate more fully in their own live, even if positive-impact isn't the ARGs main goal. Her comparison between ARGs being the "antiescapist" game, compared to traditional games being a way to escape from reality, also supports this claim. No one is playing Chore Wars to escape from the stress of their lives, but they are playing it because it's a fun way to participate wholeheartedly while trying to complete a mundane, everyday task. 

2. Meaningful Rewards When We Need Them Most - McGonigal opens Chapter 8 by recalling an experience she had at a conference, where she mentioned that it would be nice to have a "leveling up" system in real life, the way characters can level up in games. She inspired someone to create a site that does just that; emailing people to let them know someone has given them a "+1" in some trait you exhibit, especially if it comes at the hand of doing an unpleasant task. She also uses her own personal experience as being a nervous flyer to make a case for why earning rewards can make a dreaded task more pleasant. She notes that when quantitative benchmarks are available for marking progress, the instant positive feedback encourages players to work harder, or take on the next biggest challenge. Nike+ is a great example of this. It's not an ARG in the way you would typically consider the definition of the game, but yet it has so many common characteristics. It encourages people to participate wholeheartedly in their exercise (a task many people dread), it provides an instant way to see the progress you've made and how far you have to go until you meet the next benchmark, and there is a community of other members who use Nike+ and compete in challenges together all over the world.