Local Author Says Video Games Offer Valuable Lessons Not Easily Found In Real Life

By John Ostapkovich

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Millions of people play games, from the soccer field to the chessboard to online quests, and if you think that's all just a waste of time, a new book by a Philadelphia native disagrees.

The title of Jane McGonigal's book is "Reality is Broken".

"Reality is broken compared to games in a lot of ways. It turns out that games can give us emotions and ways to learn that are really hard to come by in real life."

Nor does it have this cool music soundtrack from World of Warcraft, a huge online game with millions of subscribers, where dozens can cooperate in battles.

"When we're playing with that many  people, we can be challenged to collaborate in new ways.  I call this extreme scale collaboration in the book, and this a new form of problem-solving."

That does translate into the real world, McGonigal insists, and can even (dare we say it?) be a job skill.