If you caught my talk “There Is No Escape” at the 2013 Game Developers Conference (or watched the commentary on Twitter!), you know that I’m passionate about understanding the real-life impact that videogames have on our minds, our bodies, our ambitions, and our relationships.

Here are some resources to help you design games for maximum POSITIVE real-life impact.

Download a PDF of the slides! Jane McGonigal GDC 2013 There is no escape

(Wanna know even more? Check out my previous round-up of science must-reads for game designers at showmethescience.com. You can directly access 100+ peer-reviewed papers there on the science of positive emotion, building self-efficacy, strengthening relationships and more.)

Summary of the talk:

Do you think of games as “escapist” entertainment? Do you believe that the games you develop have little to no impact on your players’ real lives? If so, it’s time to wake up: There is no escape from reality, not even for gamers. Hundreds of scientific studies from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, family studies, and medicine document the myriad ways that games make a real and lasting impact on our brains and our bodies. Games change how we feel, think, act, and relate to each other even during the hours we’re not gaming. Most game impacts are positive, some can be negative, and the design of the game — more so than the content of the game — is what makes the difference. Whether you know it or not, you are already changing your players’ real lives. So get smarter about it. Accept that there is no escape — not from our brains, not from our bodies, and not from our relationships — and embrace the opportunity to design for maximum, positive real-life impact.

THE BIG IDEA

P.S. You’ve read my book already, right? Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

ESCAPISM

The research:

The two modes of escape: Read the whole Self-expansion vs. Self-suppression thesis in PDF

Gamers Experience Greater Levels of Life Satisfaction and Happiness… if they’re not trying to escape!

On Escaping the Self (an article) and and Escaping the Self (the full book) by Roy Baumeister (the same guy who did the famous two-marshmallow experiment!), this is the psychological model that associates escapism with suicide, anxiety, addiction, and more

Impact of positive emotions on success in life: “The Benefits of Frequent Positive Affect: Does Happiness Lead to Success?” and “The broaden-and-build theory of Positive Emotion”

Impact of positive emotions on health: Psychological Resilience and Positive Emotion and “Does Positive Affect Influence Health?”

Impact of social connection on health: “Social Relationships and Health: A Flashpoint for Health Policy”

Calm or Chaos: Controlling the Stress Response

Fight or flight vs. Calm and Connect (the article is about the science of love, but keep reading — it gets to the relevant info from my talk halfway through!)

Snow World game helps burn victims in the most severe pain more than morphine

Plus some fun stuff:

Is Escapism actually the highest form of art? A theory of escapist art from io9

Urban Dictionary on escapism

Great quotations about escapism

DO NO HARM

(how to avoid designing games with negative real-life impact)

Kotaku does the best round-up anywhere of meta-analyses of 25 year of research on the question: Do videogames make you more aggressive?

Daniel Cook explains the testosterone science of co-op vs. competitive game design so you can improve your players’ real-life relationships

Sitting disease by the numbers

Sitting is the new smoking

Great ideas for disrupting all of this horrible sitting at Juststand.org

GO GET IT

(how to make games with positive real-life impact!)

Watch Grandpa gamer play Call of Duty for the first time (okay, not a scientific resources, but still: AWESOME)

Daphne Bavelier explains cognitive enhancements from fast-paced action games in her Your Brain On Games TED talk (or read a summary of it in The neuroscience of how action games boost cognitive abilities)

Videogames lead to positive youth development (or read an excellent summary of it in New Research Emphasizes Gaming’s Contribution to Positive Youth Development)

“Violent Gaming Leads to Cooperation, Not Aggression” (summary) and full research paper (academic log-in required);“Effect of Playing Violent Video Games Cooperatively on Subsequent Cooperative Behavior”

Stanford researchers document how virtual superpowers lead to real-life helping behavior

Other related Stanford research on avatars and how they impact our real-life behavior: “Doppelgangers: A New Form of Self”; “The Use of Doppelgangers to Promote Health Behavior Change”;  “The Proteus Effect: Implications of Transformed Digital Self-Representation on Online and Offline Behavior”; “The Proteus Effect: Self-Transformations in Virtual Reality”

Seniors and gaming: Seniors who play videogames report higher sense of well-being; Video Games Requiring Physical Activity Alleviate Depression in Older Adults; Videogames May Help the Elderly Psychologically

Fast-paced action games boost reading in kids with dyslexia

Videogames increase social skills in autistic youth

Research from Michigan State University: “The ‘S’ in Social Network Games: Initiating, Maintaining, and Enhancing Relationships.”

Research from Brigham Young University’s School of Family Life: “Game On: Associations Between Co-Playing Video Games and Adolescent Behavioral and Family Outcomes.”

Clinical trials and randomized controlled study from East Carolina University’s Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic: “EEG, HRV, and Psychological Correlates while Playing Casual Video Games”; “The Effectiveness of Casual Video Games in  Improving Mood and Decreasing Stress”; A Randomized Controlled Study of the Efficacy of Casual Video Games to Treat Anxiety

On videogames, dopamine, and the neurological circuitry of the work ethic: “Brain Changes in Videogamers”; “A Neurologist Makes the Case for Videogames”;  “The Neural Basis of Videogaming”; “Dopamine Levels May Determine Work Ethic”

Nature Scientific Journals’ review of research literature on brains and videogames (summary)

8 Awesome Videogame Infographics on the neuroscience of gaming, positive social impacts of gaming, heath impacts of gaming, and more – more studies that I mention in the talk are cited in their footnotes!

This is just some of the research, the amount out there about the positive impact of games is staggering! But these should be a good rabbit hole to fall down, see what else you discover.

Follow me on Twitter (@avantgame) to get all the latest research on games and their real-life impacts!

Many people know me for my research and my book, my TED talks, or my online collaborative games. But I’ve also made real-world games for public parks, downtown sidewalks, historic cemeteries, landmark buildings, city arts districts, public transportation, Times Square, and even the Great Wall of China. And the truth is: I like the real-world stuff way more than the online stuff.

I want to do of more of the real-world stuff, and I’m looking for a partner who can commission such a game.

• Do you have a cool space? It could be a building, or a park, or monument, or architectural landmark, or a public space of any kind. I will create a game for it.

• Do you have a festival or event that needs a big, amazing, extraordinary collective experience for hundreds or thousands of people? I will design an epic live event.

• Are you a city that wants to infuse a particular neighborhood with live, shared play? I will explore the unique affordances of the space. I will come up with something strange and wonderful for people to do there that they couldn’t do anywhere else in the world.

• Do you want to invent a more playful version of a walkathon, or overnight walk, or a marathon? Something physical, something that covers a lot of terrain — but with more curiosity, wonder, and play? I am super-interested in exactly this challenge: We can invent a new kind of fundraiser together.

I will bring hundreds or thousands of people together in the same space for an hour, or an afternoon,  or overnight to experience something epic and unforgettable in the real world. 

I will travel literally anywhere in the world for a juicy project. No continent is off-limits! The more inspiring the location or the more challenging the opportunity, the better!  I am looking for one or two big projects to focus on in 2013 and 2014.

Some of my favorite previous projects:

Find the Future: We locked 500 gamers in the New York Public Library overnight to collaborate on a book together. Sunset to sunrise, and no one is allowed out until they write a book!

The Lost Sport: The year of the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, I traveled from city to city around the world — Vienna, London, San Francisco, Beijing, Bangkok, New York, Wellington — teaching thousands of players a “lost” Olympic Sport. Each city attempted to set new world records as players in other cities shared their best tricks and tips (and also tried to nab their own record!) We held the gold medal championships at the real Summer Olympic games in Beijing.

Tombstone Hold ‘Em: I collaborated with five historic cemeteries across the U.S. to hold special  events where groups of up to 200+ each came to “play their respects”. For the events, we invented a series of collective rituals and a version of poker in which tombstones represent playing cards.

CryptoZoo: We created a version of “parkour” (urban free running) for non-athletic, non-daredevil folks. Working together with the American Heart Associatio, we created 13 imaginary animals that appeared on city streets to inspire playful running through every urban space imaginable. We even had hundreds of CryptoZoo runners out for a midnight run through Time Square!

Cruel 2 B Kind: We ran live games for hundreds of players co-located in Times Square and downtown San Francisco as a way to embed social play in urban spaces. Teams won by literally killing each other with (random acts of) kindness. Hundreds of other Cruel 2 B Kind events were run by others all over the world.

These are the kinds of things I love to do.

After a year of digital-only game design, I’m hungry for the chance to invent a new sport, or transform an abandoned building, or breathe new life into an underappreciated public space, or otherwise create an unforgettable memory for hundreds or thousands of people assembled in the same space.

Email me at jane@avantgame.com if you have a space or a festival or a building or a city and want to commission something extraordinary. I’m available to create games or experiences for 2013 or 2014.

I often get requests to sign and personalize copies of my book as birthday or holiday gifts. This year, I thought I’d make it easy to give a gamer (or parents or grandparents of a gamer!) a special, personalized gift.

I’ll sign a paperback copy of the New York Times bestseller Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, and write a special message inside to anyone you want. I’ll customize the message  – tell me their favorite game, or their aspirations (are they studying to be a game designer or hope to be one? are they working on a game for change right now?), or a tongue-in-cheek message (one I’m often asked to write: “Your mom finally admits that you were right! Keep gaming!”) Just be sure to tell me their name, and if they’re a gamer, a game designer (or aspiring), a parent of a gamer, a teacher, anything that will make it more personal.

I will ship to you (for wrapping), or if you want me to ship to the gift recipient, I will send it straight on and include a hand-written note explaining who the gift is from (e.g. “To John From Mom”, or “To Mom from John”). Let me know if I should mark the outside of the package “Do not open until [HOLIDAY]!”

BONUS: I’ll include a limited edition Fiero! monster pin with each autographed book. (“Fiero” is a gamer emotion explained on page 33 of the book…)

Sample fiero monster:

And if you’re really feeling the love for your gamer this year, why not include a copy of the classic gaming documentary G4M3RS, also signed and personalized by the Emmy-Award nominated director? (who just happens to be my husband — details below!)

SEND THE BOOK! 

NOTE: I’ve run out of copies on hand. If you order a book now, it will not be shipped until 12/19, which means it might not arrive in time for the holidays. I’m happy to sign more books, but wanted to let you know about the expected delay.

$25 (includes free priority shipping in US):

A copy of Reality is Broken (paperback edition), signed with a personal message to anyone you want

+

Limited edition Fiero Monster pin

SEND THE BOOK AND DVD!

NOTE: I’ve run out of copies on hand. If you order a book now, it will not be shipped until 12/19, which means it might not arrive in time for the holidays. I’m happy to sign more books, but wanted to let you know about the expected delay.

$35 (includes free priority shipping in the US)

A copy of Reality is Broken (paperback edition), signed by the author (me) with a personal message to anyone you want

+

A copy of the classic documentary G4M3RS, on DVD, signed by the Emmy Award-nominated director (Kiyash Monsef, my husband) with a personal message to the gamer in your life. G4M3RS follows competitive CounterStrike clans on the road to the international championship. It was described by PC Magazine as “Like Chicken Soup for the gamers’ soul.” The Philadelphia Inquirer called it “a riveting documentary”; the New York Daily News: “Fascinating and insightful”. (DVD normally retails for $18)

+

Limited edition Fiero Monster pin

INTERNATIONAL OPTIONS

(includes free priority shipping)

$40 The book (signed, personalized) + bonus limited edition pin!

$50 The book + DVD (signed, personalized) + bonus limited edition pin!

But some games are better for us than others, and there is too much of a good thing. Here are a few secrets that aren’t in the book to help you (or the gamer in your life) get the most positive impact from playing games.

This practical advice — 5 key quidelines, plus 2 quick rules — is scientifically backed, and it can be summed up in a single sentence:

Play games you enjoy no more than 21 hours a week; face-to-face with friends and family as often as you can; and in co-operative or creator modes whenever possible.

1. Don’t play more than 21 hours a week.

Studies show that games benefit us mentally and emotionally when we play up to 3 hours a day, or 21 hours a week. (In extremely stressful circumstances – such as serving in the military during war-time – research shows that gamers can benefit from as many as 28 hours a week.) But for virtually everyone else, whenever you play more than 21 hours a week, the benefits of gaming start to decline sharply.

By the time you’re spending 40 hours or more a week playing games, the psychological benefits of playing games have disappeared entirely – and are replaced with negative impacts on your physical health, relationships, and real-life goals. So always strive to keep your gaming in the sweet spot: 7 – 21 hours a week.

2. Playing with real-life friends and family is better than playing alone all the time, or with strangers.

Gaming strengthens your social bonds and builds trust, two key factors in any positive relationship. And the more positive relationships you have in real life, the happier, healthier and more successful you are.

You can get mental and emotional benefits from single-player games, or by playing with strangers online – but to really unlock the power of games, it’s important to play them with people you really know and like as often as possible.

A handy rule-of-thumb: try to make half of your gaming social. If you play 10 hours a week, try to play face-to-face with real-life friends or family for at least 5 of those hours.

(And if you’re not a gamer yourself — but you have a family member who plays games all the time, it would do you both good to play together – even if you think you don’t like games!)

3. Playing face-to-face with friends and family beats playing with them online.

If you’re in the same physical space, you’ll supercharge both the positive emotional impacts and the social bonding.

Many of the benefits of games are derived from the way they make us feel – and all positive emotions are heightened by face-to-face interaction.

Plus, research shows that social ties are strengthened much more when we play games in the same room than when we play games together online.

Multi-player games are great for this. But single-player works too! You can get all the same benefits by taking turns at a single-player game, helping and cheering each other on.

4. Cooperative gameplay, overall, has more benefits than competitive gameplay.

Studies show that cooperative gameplay lifts our mood longer, and strengthens our friendships more, than competing against each other.

Cooperative gameplay also makes us more likely to help someone in real life, and better collaborators at work – boosting our real-world likeability and chances for success.

Competition has its place, too, of course – we learn to trust others and often motivate ourselves to achieve more when we compete. Not to mention, of course, that all games are fundamentally cooperative, even if we’re trying to beat someone — we’re cooperating to play by the same rules and to play the game all the way through without quitting.

But if we spend all our time competing with others, we miss out on the special benefits of co-op play. So when you’re gaming with others, be sure to check to see if there are co-op missions or a co-op mode available. An hour of co-op a week goes a long way. (Find great co-op games for every platform, and a family-friendly list too, at Co-Optimus, the best online resource for co-op gaming.)

5. Creative games have special positive impacts.

Many games encourage or even require players to design and create as part of the gameplay process – for example: Spore, Little Big Planet, and Minecraft; the Halo level designer and the Guitar Hero song creator.

These games have been shown to build up players’ sense of creative agency – and they make us more likely to create something outside of the game. If you want to really build up your own creative powers, creative games are a great place to start.

Of course, you can always take the next creative step – and start making your own games. If you’ve never made a game, it’s easier than you think — and there are some great books to help you get started.

2 other important rules:

* You can get all of the benefits of a good game without realistic violence – you (or your kids) don’t have to play games with guns or gore.

If you feel strongly about violence, look to games in other genres – there’s no shortage of amazing sports, music, racing, puzzle, role-playing, casual, strategy and adventure games. (I personally only kill zombies, monsters and aliens in games — or do battle with imaginary weapons, not guns. I just don’t like the way realistic violence makes me feel.)

*Any game that makes you feel bad is no longer a good game for you to play.

This should be obvious, but sometimes we get so caught up in our games that we forget they’re supposed to be fun. If you find yourself feeling really upset when you lose a game, or if you’re fighting with friends or strangers when you play – you’re too invested. Switch to a different game for a while, a game that has “lower stakes” for you personally.

Or, especially if you play with strangers online, you might find yourself surrounded by other players who say things that make you uncomfortable – or who just generally act like jerks. Their behavior will actually make it harder for you to get the positive benefits of games – so don’t waste your time playing with a community that gets you down.

Meanwhile, if you start to wonder if you’re spending too much time on a particular game – maybe you’re starting to feel just a tiny bit addicted — keep track of your gaming hours for one week. Make sure they add up to less than 21 hours! And you may want to limit yourself to even fewer for a little while if you’re feeling too much “gamer regret”.

Want to learn the science behind these guidelines? Read Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World (Penguin Press, 2011).

To read Camus’ existential in non-cookie text, here.

To learn about the history of the essay, here.

(Bangkok, there)

(Laxenburg, Austria – is)

to be continued…

Order your copy at Amazon.com

Get the Kindle edition!

“As addictive as Tetris, McGonigal’s penetrating, entertaining look into gaming culture is a vibrant mix of technology, psychology, and sociology, told with the vision of a futurist and the deft touch of a storyteller…. McGonigal makes an inspiring case for the way games can both enhance our personal happiness and help society.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review

Get to know me better ^_^

Here are a few of the favorite interviews I’ve done of all-time.

“I’m a Runner!” For Runner’s World magazine (April 2012)

“Super Girl” for Elle Magazine (June 2011)

“Gaming as a Spiritual Practice” for the Buddhist Geeks podcast (January 2011)

INVITE ME TO GIVE A KEYNOTE OR SPEAK AT YOUR ORGANIZATION!

I work with the Leigh Bureau, for the fastest response, you can contact them directly.

PERFORMANCE AND PLAY (undergraduate course at UC Berkeley, Spring 2004)

• Download the Course Syllabus for McGONIGAL R1B Performance and Play
• Archived course blog: http://performanceandplay.blogspot.com

Members of this class will improve their research and analytic writing skills as we investigate the connections between contemporary performance and play. Early in the semester, you will select a research question of personal interest and spend the rest of the course exploring, revising, and refining this question. This individual research will culminate in a final 10-page paper and a “creative intervention” (performance, game or some combination) of your own design.

Questions we’ll explore together include:

• How do actors, directors and audiences play in theatrical performances?

• How do we perform as players and spectators in games, sports and everyday life?
• What kinds of performances and play blur the line between theater and games?
• What are the best research tools and methods for investigating, documenting and analyzing live events like play and performance?
• How can we use game development and theatrical design to make a persuasive argument?
• Who else is trying to answer these questions, and how can we start conversations with them?

Our collective investigations will consist of research-oriented:

• class readings, assigned by me (theories of play and drama, fundamentals of game
• design, recent writing in game and performance studies);
• individual readings, chosen by you (theater history and criticism, actor and director
• training guides, game reviews, interviews, play scripts, design documentation, fan essays, and whatever else you dig up in the course of your research!);
• playing (in the classroom, in theaters, at home, on the field, onstage, online, in the streets);
• brainstorming (informal weekly discussions on our blog);
• writing (weekly formal and informal assignments in preparation for a final 10-page research paper on the play and performance topic of your choice); and
• design (a 3-page creative document with detailed instructions for an original game or
• performance related to your research topic).

THEATER AND GAMES (undergraduate course at UC Berkeley, Fall 2003)

• Download the Course Syllabus for McGONIGAL R1A Theater and Games
• Archived course blog: http://theaterandgames.blogspot.com

Members of this class will improve their writing skills as we explore the connection between plays (theater) and play (games).

Questions we’ll explore include:

• What is a game, and how do we know when we are playing?
• What kinds of live performance are particularly game-like?
• Why do games appear so frequently in modern drama as a central metaphor?
• Is “playing” a part on stage really playful?
• Do audiences and spectators get to play, too?
• How do contemporary game designers draw on theatrical models?
• How do we play (roles and games) in everyday life?

Our collective investigations will consist of:

• reading (dramatic literature, theater history, theories of play, and game criticism);
• playing (acting exercises, playground games, party games, computer games, life);
• brainstorming (informal weekly discussion on our course blog); and
• writing (3 formal writing assignments with peer review, a midterm writing workshop, and a final exam paper.

GAME DESIGN AS ART PRACTICE (BFA/MA studio class at San Francisco Art Institute, Fall 2004)

• Download the Course Syllabus for McGONIGAL Game Design as Art Practice
• Archived course blog: http://artpractice.blogspot.com

Game design allows artists to create meaningful play and interactive experience in any medium.  This introductory course, which explores both digital and non-digital games, aims to provide students with a critical vocabulary and historical context for analyzing games as art, as well as the skills and techniques necessary to incorporate game design into their ongoing art practice.

Through a combination of theoretical readings, case studies, critical analysis and design exercises, students will explore the expressive potential of games.  They will learn how to identify, create and manipulate core game elements such as player objectives, rule systems, feedback structures, win-loss scenarios, competitive and cooperative dynamics, and social interaction.

As a final project, students will work toward the design, development and deployment of a game in any medium of their choice.

Note: While digitally-based projects are welcome, students may also choose to work entirely with non-digital media.  No programming or computer design experience is necessary to enroll in this course.

GAME DESIGN FOR REAL LIFE AND EVERYDAY SPACES

(BFA/MFA seminar at San Francisco Art Institute, Spring 2007)

• Download the Course Syllabus for McGonigal “This Might Be a Game”
• Archived course blog: http://thismightbeagame.blogspot.com

Where can we play new games — and how might they change our real lives?

Experimental game design is the field of interactive arts that seeks to discover new platforms and contexts for digital play. This course examines the contemporary intersection of ubiquitous computing and experimental game design. The convergence of these two fields at the turn of the twenty-first century has produced a significant body of games and performances that challenge and expand our notions of where, when, and with whom we can play. This course explores how and to what ends such projects reconfigure the technical, formal and social limits of play and performance in relation to everyday life.

Throughout the semester, we will design and test a series of playful interventions and performances that seek to turn everyday life and public spaces into a “real” little game. A primary goal of students in this course will be to develop a critical gaming literacy that can be applied to ordinary, everyday life. Together, we will work to read the “real” world as rich with playful opportunities, carefully testing everyday media, objects, sites, and social situations for the positive and negative consequences of inscribing each within the magic circle of a game. Readings will concentrate on classic design manifestos from the fields of ubiquitous computing and game design, as well as theoretical essays on collective intelligence, public space, and the performance of everyday life.

In the meanwhile, on the way to that epic win, there are plenty of other achievements to be earned. Here are a few I’ve unlocked so far:

New York Times Bestselling Author of Reality is Broken (2011)

Young Global Leader & Davos Speaker World Economic Forum (2012)

“Top 100 Creative People in Business” Fast Company (2009)

“20 Most Inspiring Women in the World” Oprah Winfrey for O Magazine (2010)

“10 Breakthrough Ideas in Science“ New York Times (2011)

“2013′s Entrepreneurial Women to Watch” Entrepreneur Magazine (2013)

“Top Ten Innovators to Watch” Business Week (2009)

“The Most Important 50 Game Developers” Game Developer Magazine (2010)

“The Ambassador Award” Women in Gaming for service to the Game Industry (2013)

“20 Most Important Women in Videogaming” Gamasutra (2010)

“Top 35 innovators changing the world through technology” MIT Technology Review (2006)

“Top 20 Breakthrough Ideas of the Year” Harvard Business Review (2008)

“Entertainment Breakthrough of the Year” World Technology Forum in association with CNN, Time and Fortune Magazine (2010)

#1 Social Impact Game of the Year Games for Change (2010)

Most Important Futures Work of the Year Association of Professional Futurists (2008 and 2012)

#1 Bright Idea of the Year BrandWeek (2008)

Activism Award from SXSW Interactive (2008)

Innovation Award from the International Game Developers Association (2005)

The Gaming Award from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (2005)

Year in Review honors from The New York Times (2004)

And two unusual honors that I’m particularly proud of…

#1 Spot on the Annual List of Top Ten Sexy Geeks from Violet Blue (2011) (this is the geek equivalent of making People magazine’s most beautiful people issue, or Barbara Walter’s most intriguing people of the year!)

Ranked #16 All-Time Most Engaging TED talk out of 835 all-time TED talks (as of 2010) .. and that’s one ahead of Bill Gates, who’s ranked at #17

(Want my full bio?…)

“The game that can add 10 years to your life”

In my 2012 TED Global talk, I explain how games can boost our resilience, help us experience post-traumatic growth, and even give us 10 extra years of life.

“Gaming can make a better world”

The best hope we have for surviving the next century on this planet? Games. In this 20-minute TED talk, I explain why we need to achieve 21 billion hours of online gaming a week by the year 2020. That’ll be just an hour a day, every day, for half of the people on Earth…

In which I attempt to convince Stephen Colbert that playing games is the single most productive way to spend our time.

“Blissful Productivity”

Throw out your to-do lists. This 45-minute School of Life sermon proposes a radically gameful way to get the most out of each day.

“Gamers tackle the world’s most urgent challenges”

7 minutes live on CNN news! This was a major epic win for me – and for the EVOKE game, which officially became the first alternate reality game in the genre’s ten-year history to make it on to live national news.

Watch more videos.