Should life be more like video games? Is such a proposition even possible? Jane McGonigal thinks so. What does she mean? McGonigal believes that games are simply more rewarding than real life and that people would respond better to a real world with game-like attributes.

But just who is Jane McGonigal and why should anyone care? She’s a senior researcher at the Institute for the Future, but you can simply call her a futurist. It’s her job to predict how the latest fad might shape the landscape of the future.

No, she does not believe the world needs magic mushrooms that will make people grow, or ghosts chasing people through the super market. She does, however, believe that a major flaw of reality is that it simply isn’t as rewarding as games. If you get up and go to work everyday, there is very little actual feedback given from reality other than a paycheck. Compare that with a video game where you are constantly given feedback about how well you are doing your job and even tips on how to do it better.

Yes, this is a very abstract way of thinking about games, but McGonigal insists it isn’t fruitless. Her ideas tie in with happiness research. Essentially, researchers have found people are the happiest when they have four things going on: satisfying work to do, the experience of being good at something, time spent with people they like and the chance of being a part of something bigger. Games present fulfillment, even if momentarily, of all four of these criteria. This also explains why MMOs such as World of Warcraft are so addictive.

So, how does the world become more like video games? The idea is to integrate game-like concepts into daily life tasks. For example, chores such as laundry could be made more game-like and therefore far more rewarding. Again, it’s abstract. At the very least, the concept of games penetrating reality does cure one problem that McGonigal sees. “We’re killing boredom,” she said.

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