Jane McGonigal and SuperBetter

Jane McGonigal creates alternate reality games (ARGs), basically MMORPGs that you play in reality rather than on your desktop.

She creates ARGs that operate on a global scale (The Lost Ring) or just around Times Square or downtown San Francisco (CryptoZoo).

And she also is pretty brave.

This past summer a collision with a cabinet door concussed her pretty badly. Post-concussion symptoms included crippling vertigo, blurred vision, mental fogginess, an inability to read, write or jog. The initial onset lasted five weeks until, she thought, "I’m either going to kill myself, or I’m going to turn this into a game."

So she created a superhero ARG, with herself as Buffy the Concussion Slayer while friends and family played Buffy's allies. She assembled a secret identity, missions, a superhero to-do list, "power-ups," and villains in the form of her symptoms. Here, in a nutshell, is why:

In an alternate reality linked to our favorite superhero mythology, we’re more likely to stay optimistic, because we’ll set more reasonable goals and keep better track [of] our progress.

And you know what? It worked.

Read her completely inspiring blog entry, "SuperBetter—or how to turn recovery into a multiplayer experience," complete with YouTube videos explaining the process.