If Wii Fit can get me off the couch, if the Weight Watcher's web tool can cut down on between-meal grazing, and if Chore Wars motivates me and my family to finish the vacuuming, water the garden, and clean out the fridge, why aren't there more digital games that harness this love of play to encourage us to address issues in everyday life?

That's the question Alternate Reality Game Designer Designer Jane McGonigal addresses in a Wired interview you can read at http://www.wired.com/gaming/virtualworlds/magazine/15-06/st_arg2

Games can be more than simple entertainment suggests Jane McGonigal. They have the power to fuel scientific research and crowd source real-world problems. A veteran alternate reality game designer and researcher, McGonigal studies the networked communities and how they display collaboration and collective intelligence.