Jesse Schell

“Games are starting to creep into every aspect of our day.”

“We all know the place you're in has a big impact on how you feel. How you feel has an impact on the quality of work. Why wouldn't we put a lot of effort into making the place we work as efficient and productive and pleasant as possible?”

“Our affluence has allowed us to move to a place where we tend to make things pleasurable, as opposed to efficient.”

“Usually, the best ideas come from having to fix a really hard problem.”

“LinkedIn's got a little progress bar. It wants you to do things like sign up 10 of your friends. It does that near the end. At the beginning it's like, 'You put in your name. 20 percent progress! How about some other information?' People want to fill in that progress bar. They like to complete a task. They like to check a box.”

“I often think of it this way: The 21st century is going to be a war on the attention of humanity. Where civilization focuses its attention, I mean, that's what defines what the civilization cares about.”

“Facebook is terrifying to the traditional games biz.”

“Why is it that big companies fail when the technology changes? It happens in every industry, so what's the pattern? What are they all doing wrong?”

“Is it OK for Amazon to know every word of every book you've read? Are you comfortable with that? Maybe you are. Is it OK to let everybody know you eat Corn Flakes? OK, but then there are certain products you might not want people to know that you're using.”

“Games have no other purpose than to please.”

“The main way to reduce stress in the workplace is by picking the right people.”

“The thing that all sports have in common is that they have no fantasy elements, which is a little weird.”

“More and more women are going online.”

“I jokingly call this convergence of games into reality the 'Gamepocalypse:' the moment when every moment of life is actually a game.”

“Microsoft isn't stupid.”

“One of the main things that's appealing about games is that you know a game can be won. It's an unusual game that's impossible to win.”

“We are shifting into an enjoyment-based economy. And who knows more about making enjoyment than game developers?”

“Everybody is playing games. There are games now for pretty much every age, every demographic.”

“People don't just stop playing Facebook games. They divorce them.”

“To be connected to the real world is healthy and important.”