My goal for the next decade is to try to make it as easy to save the world in real life as it is to save the world in online games.

Jane McGonigal, a game designer and researcher, used this line while articulating her early-2010s mission for “gamification” and alternate-reality games: applying the motivational structures of games (clear goals, feedback, collaboration, voluntary participation) to real-world problems. The quote is closely associated with her public talks and writing around the time she was promoting large-scale “reality games” and the idea that gameful design could mobilize people for social good—an agenda she later developed in her TED talk and in her book on how games can improve lives and society.

The statement contrasts the friction of real-world change with the streamlined heroism of games. In online games, players are given clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progress, and a supportive community—conditions that make “saving the world” feel actionable. McGonigal’s point is not that games trivialize serious problems, but that their design principles can lower barriers to participation and sustain motivation. The quote implies a critique of real institutions that obscure impact and discourage agency, and it proposes a design-oriented remedy: build real-life pathways to meaningful action that are as legible, rewarding, and collaborative as game quests.