Games for personal and social wellbeing

How can games be leveraged to support wellbeing and human strengths?  Jane McGonigal, affiliate of the Institute for the Future, has been pioneering work in "Alternative Reality" games and gaming for social change for a while now. Her alternative reality game World Without Oil supported innovative problem solving in the face of peak oil crisis.

Evoke fosters the development of social innovation skills in youth. As the web description explains, "The goal of the social network game is to help empower people all over the world to come up with creative solutions to our most urgent social problems".   Game winners receive certification as Social Innovators from the World Bank Institute.  

The company for which McGonigal serves as CCO, SuperBetter Labs, has a mission to build "world-changing games powered by the science of personal and social wellbeing".   Check out the company's first game, SuperBetter which aims to build personal resilience.