Gaming the System

Understanding Why Games Feel Fun When Life Feels Like Work

Why is it that many of us will happily spend countless hours grinding in video games while finding similar effort in real life tedious and exhausting?

I've played countless hours of the game Civilization (I haven't purchased VII yet but I've been watching the launch drama from the sidelines). In Civilization, you have to meticulously manage resources, and plan multiple turns ahead to grow your empire. Because I wanted to do well, I spent a lot of time deep diving on the game mechanics, watching videos, and frankly, studying on how to get better.

Of course, there was the game itself. I spent many a late night telling myself, “I’ll just do one more turn.”

Games like this require serious mental effort and focus, and yet we call them entertainment.

It's been many years since I played World of Warcraft, but I know a successful raid requires:

• Coordinating 10-25 people across different time zones

• Studying highly-technical boss mechanics and strategies

• Farming materials for potions and equipment

• Practicing rotations to optimize damage/healing

• Wiping repeatedly on bosses for hours

• Managing interpersonal dynamics and team morale

This is essentially project management, team coordination, and performance optimization. Players care deeply about outcomes, and so they will put everything they have into winning. They would also describe this work as "fun."

At the end of the day, they don't receive anything tangible for their effort. I know many people have spent years in-game.

Many of them feel remorse about what they could have had if they had spent that focused time on something of value.

If I asked these folks about whether they've set a personal budget and optimized their spending and saving, whether their house is organized and clutter-free, or whether they're maximizing their career growth, they would respond as though these things were chores, even though much of what they do in WoW is described as a grind.

I’m not here to judge people who like to play video games. But I do think there’s a lesson here on how we might channel at least a portion of what makes a video game fun to further our lives outside of just an escape from reality.

Why Games Feel Different

Here are the key differences between games and real life, why one feels like fun while the other feels like work:

Clear Feedback Loops: Games provide immediate and clear feedback. Every action has a visible consequence. You know exactly how close you are to leveling up, what resources you need, and you know when you've succeeded or failed. Real life's feedback loops are often delayed, unclear, or nonexistent.

Meaningful Progress: In Civilization, every turn moves you forward. You're always building something, researching the next technology in the tree, or expanding your empire. Each action feels meaningful within the game's context. Real-life progress is nebulous or gets lost in day-to-day maintenance.

Controlled Challenge: Games are designed to be challenging but achievable. They carefully balance difficulty to keep you in a flow state. They aren't too easy or too hard, otherwise people wouldn't play them. Real life's challenges are unbalanced. You will get hit with multiple problems simultaneously or experience long periods of monotony.

Clear Goals and Rules: With games, you know exactly what you need to do. The rules are consistent and knowable. Real life's rules are unclear, inconsistent, or seem arbitrary.

Safe Failure: When you fail in a game, it's just a temporary setback. This makes experimentation and learning feel safe. Real-life failures may carry serious consequences that make us risk-averse.

Making Life More Game-Like

In Ali Abdaal's book "Feel Good Productivity", he tells people to ask the question "What would make this work fun?" when confronted with work that you're avoiding. The answer is different for everybody, but it's a powerful question because it prompts us to identify these game-like elements we could bring to real life. Here are some strategies:

Create Clear Feedback Loops: Track your progress visibly. Use apps, journals, or simple checklists to make your progress tangible. For example, if you're trying to build a writing habit, create a "streak" system where you track consecutive days of writing. I have one going for this newsletter, and it helps motivate me even during weeks when I’m dragging. I have to keep the streak alive!

Define Meaningful Milestones: Break down big goals into smaller, achievable chunks. If you're learning to code, treat each concept like a skill tree in an RPG. If you’re preparing for a coding interview, master "Two Pointers" to unlock "Sliding Windows," then progress to "Trees." Each milestone becomes a quest completion rather than an overwhelming mountain to climb.

Control Your Challenge Level: When possible, structure your work to maintain a flow state. Take on challenges that stretch you without overwhelming you. It's okay to start on "easy mode" and work your way up. An easy way to do this is to challenge yourself to do a task a bit faster. I might challenge myself to put away the dishes before the coffee is done.

Establish Clear Rules: Create your own framework for success. Define what "winning" looks like in different areas of your life. For instance, if you're trying to improve your fitness, set up clear achievement levels: "Novice" might be doing 1 pull-up, "Intermediate" is 5, and "Expert" is 10. Each level unlocks new "quests" or exercises to tackle.

Build Safety Nets: Create environments where you can fail safely. Start small, run experiments, and gradually increase the stakes as you gain confidence.

The Reality Check

We can't completely gamify life, nor should we. Real life's complexity and consequences give it meaning. Sometimes, we just need to zone out. But understanding why games captivate us can help us structure our work and goals in more engaging ways.

Making work feel more like play isn't about changing the work itself, but about changing how we frame and approach it. After all, if we can find joy in managing virtual resources and overcoming digital challenges, perhaps we can find similar satisfaction in life's real challenges too.

Have you effectively gamified life? Let me know in the comments.