Life isn't a game unless you want it to be
Gamification in the digital age and how game mechanics help and hurt us
I easily get overwhelmed when things are left unfinished. I’m a completionist, so not completing things compounds in my psyche over time, driving me into my most unproductive form of procrastination: video games.
The irony is that video games increasingly feel like work, tempting me to spend additional hours on the latest Battle Pass, side quests, DLC, new maps, bonus challenges, trophies/achievements, etc. I used to feel a sense of accomplishment in how long I spent on a game, but the hour counter these days adds to the growing anxiety that the time spent should have gone to writing, reading, or anything else.
The intent of this article isn’t to bash video games—I’m a gamer at heart—but to explore how gamification techniques are so effective at tricking our brains into thinking we are doing something. As well as how industries implement psychological mechanics derived from video games to help us improve our daily lives or prey on our baser instincts before presenting a way to maintain some semblance of balance in a life that feels more and more like a game.
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Your daily challenge awaits
Recently, I logged into Instagram, which prompted me with a feature called Challenges, where you can earn achievements based on your performance. You read that right: your performance on an app meant to work for you and not vice versa. Surprisingly, the prompt worked. It got me to post for the first time in weeks.
Challenging a user with a simple Call-to-Action to keep them engaged isn’t new; it is merely a perfect example of how businesses gamify everything we do to compete for our time.
Another great example is the challenge features found in multiplayer games (hereafter Modern Gaming). Modern Gaming has what is called a “Season Battle Pass,” where the developers monetize their typically free-to-play online games by locking cosmetic rewards behind a paywall. You must pay a fee to access the Battle Pass, usually $10. But you’re just paying for access. You still have to play the game to earn points to unlock the included rewards. Think of it like those bowling arcades where instead of points, you receive tickets for launching the skee ball down the ramp a little too hard, only to never have enough tickets for anything worthwhile in the gift shop (except that legendary jar of fart slime).
The purpose of a Battle Pass is to drip-feed you an additional layer of the overall experience so you remain interested in the game over a longer span of time. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. It’s clever, actually. Yet, this is where things start to get meta.
To progress through the Battle Pass faster (get more points/tickets), you must complete daily and weekly challenges. These challenges are usually mundane—depending on the game—like “Visit X location,” “Talk to X character,” or “Use X weapon.” That means I’m no longer playing the game I want to play but the game the developers are asking me to play: a game within a game where I’m the mouse in a carefully curated maze seeking out the visually appealing cheese.
Am I being hyperbolic? Kind of. But the fact remains that this is a tool meant to get you to play more and, ultimately, spend more. Because as soon as you purchase the Battle Pass, you have a self-obligation to finish it. It’s a subtle coercion enacted by a decision you were basically taunted into making. And don’t get me started on the fear of missing out (FOMO) factor when your friends get involved.
This is the further gamification of Modern Gaming. Is it a nefarious hack or a benign model to improve the overall experience? Well, it turns out the answer isn’t a simple one and depends on who, or what, is gamifying you.
The gamification of our minds
The principles behind gamification are linked to behavioral psychology, particularly the work of B.F. Skinner on operant conditioning.1 Skinner’s research in the mid-20th century showed that behavior could be influenced by a system of rewards and punishments. The term 'gamification' was reportedly first used in 2002 by Nick Pelling, a British-born computer programmer and game designer. However, it wasn't widely adopted until the late 2000s.
Gamification is “the use of game design elements in non-game contexts” with the intent of injecting fun, play, and passion into tasks and processes. ~ (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011, p. 10)
Gamification is everywhere. It’s the credit card reward system, grocery store fuel points, the punch card, the free coffee, the trophies, the likes, the frequent flyer miles, and the missed phone notifications. It’s so pervasive that I almost expect daily life to become a role-playing game with a fully functioning leveling system.
But gamification is not inherently wrong. After my fifth visit to a coffee shop, I enjoy getting a free drink. It benefits the customer and the business by maintaining our loyalty. If I continue to buy it anyway, I might as well get something else from it. Right?
The problem is not that gamification is being used but the intent behind it. Predatory gamification is when you’re not in control of the outcome.2 Examples of this are modern dating apps, crypto investing, gambling, and loot boxes.3 It’s the use of these mechanics at your expense rather than for your benefit.
I won’t dwell on why multi-level marketing schemes are gross and cults are evil; it’s pretty self-evident, in my opinion. The purpose of highlighting this entire concept is to hammer home the importance of distinguishing between when you’re the player and the one being played. Being consciously aware is the first step in maximizing your potential when the intentions are good.
Some good examples of gamification:
Using an app like Duolingo to learn languages
Fitness apps that set tangible benchmarks and metrics for physical health
Making educational and early development learning fun
Hitting word count or timer goals while writing
Bonding with family and friends over board games
Tracking progress with percentage bars
Earning badges for reaching a milestone
There’s no limit to what can be gamified. That’s part of the appeal. Businesses worldwide are testing how to apply gamification in their work models to increase output.4 Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t. Here’s why.
When gamification works and when it doesn’t
Gamification is fundamentally connected to our desire to compete and incite tangible change.5 When we see results, we feel rewarded. This is partially why I tend to write more when publishing on Substack: I’m releasing periodic pieces into the world and seeing a relative impact when someone comments with valuable feedback. It doesn’t hurt that interacting with readers and my peers provides me with much-needed motivation and inspiration.
The signature of progress is in the act of doing. By establishing shorter and easier-to-obtain goals, we’ll over-achieve rather than underperform. But we have to want to do the action in question; otherwise, the rules of the game don’t matter.
Katy Milkman said it best in her article, The Power and Pitfalls of Gamification:
At its best, gamification seems to work when it helps people achieve the goals they want to reach anyway by making the process of goal achievement more exciting. When people fully buy into a game, the results can be impressive, durably improving volunteers’ productivity, boosting worker morale, and even, as seen in one recent study, robustly helping families increase their step counts.
It’s when folks don’t buy into the game they are playing when things start to break down. There’s generally a negative reception to gamification that is mandatory or has the implication of being required. Take the #EAGate controversy, for example, where FIFA’s Ultimate Team game mode perpetuated the loot box frenzy, so players felt they needed to spend more money to land a decent enough team to compete online. This, among other things, came off the heels of Electronic Arts (EA) being named one of the most hated companies in North America in 2018.
Separately, and not similar to EA by any means, the United States Air Force would host morale events we jokingly coined as “Mandatory Fun Days.” Sure, it was nice not doing the typical, monotonous duties throughout the month, but it was still a mandatory event. Am I calling for the end of mandatory fun? No. I think many of us were grateful that leadership was even taking the time to consider our morale to begin with (it’s the thought that counts, sort of thing).
But the takeaway is the necessity for optionality in participation on behalf of the user. Nobody wants to be forced to do something they don’t want to do. It’s why stores usually ask you if you have a membership rather than force you (unless you’re Costco or the like). Even Amazon knows it’s better for morale when its employee gamification program is optional to its workforce.6
Constructing a game and maintaining balance
I want to conclude by sharing something that has helped me write more in the past month or so. Many of you are writers, but this still applies to others seeking experimental ideas for self-improvement. There’s no guarantee it’ll work, but I think it might.
Find a mechanism that works against you and use it to tap into something else you want to improve. In other words, if you are enthralled by something, take a step back and think of why that is, then flip the script.
Because I enjoy the gameplay hour trackers on video games, I decided to use a timer during my writing sessions. In 27 days, I logged 79.25 hours using an app on my computer. With a daily goal of 2 hours at the computer, I maintain creative flexibility and progress toward my top tasks. Usually, I go over my daily goal, but I never feel bad if I don’t. I’ve hacked my obsession for time tracking on one hobby and moved it to another where I feel more accomplished.
It’s harder said than done, I know. And I’m not perfect. But I’m learning that part of what makes gamification so effective is that we’re doing difficult things in the first place; otherwise, we wouldn’t need the extra oomph to get through it. By enabling these mechanics for our own gain, we understand more about ourselves and what motivates us, which may help safeguard us from the predatory tactics being implemented by others.
Thanks for reading. I want to hear from you!
Do you like elements of gamification in everyday life, or do you wish we could disconnect from the manipulative effects of our biological reward systems? What are some life hacks that help gamify your world? Let me know in the comments.
"The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis" (1938) and "Science and Human Behavior" (1953)
Great piece, Winston! It's not something I've really thought much about, but I guess I get mentally defensive whenever I sense something trying to manipulate my behavior. That's maybe not always the most productive reaction, haha. I never considered trying to "game" myself, though. Might be worth a shot as I attempt to do too many things at once and finish none of them ;-)
What if we’re playing games inside of a game? 😂