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January 12 - January 30, 2022
to develop foresight, you need to practice hindsight.
to develop foresight, you need to practice hindsight.
“To understand the future, you have to look back at least twice as far as you’re looking ahead.”
“To understand the future, you have to look back at least twice as far as you’re looking ahead.”
Games gave a starving population a feeling of power in a powerless situation, a sense of structure in a chaotic environment.
Games gave a starving population a feeling of power in a powerless situation, a sense of structure in a chaotic environment.
What defines a game are the goal, the rules, the feedback system, and voluntary participation. Everything else is an effort to reinforce and enhance these four core elements.
What defines a game are the goal, the rules, the feedback system, and voluntary participation. Everything else is an effort to reinforce and enhance these four core elements.
Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.
Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.
Freedom to work in the most logical and efficient way possible is the very opposite of gameplay.
Freedom to work in the most logical and efficient way possible is the very opposite of gameplay.
What makes Tetris so addictive, despite the impossibility of winning, is the intensity of the feedback it provides.
What makes Tetris so addictive, despite the impossibility of winning, is the intensity of the feedback it provides.
in a good computer or video game you’re always playing on the very edge of your skill level, always on the brink of falling off. When you do fall off, you feel the urge to climb back on. That’s because there is virtually nothing as engaging as this state of working at the very limits of your ability—or what both game designers and psychologists call “flow.”4 When you are in a state of flow, you want to stay there: both quitting and winning are equally unsatisfying outcomes.
in a good computer or video game you’re always playing on the very edge of your skill level, always on the brink of falling off. When you do fall off, you feel the urge to climb back on. That’s because there is virtually nothing as engaging as this state of working at the very limits of your ability—or what both game designers and psychologists call “flow.”4 When you are in a state of flow, you want to stay there: both quitting and winning are equally unsatisfying outcomes.
Competition and winning are not defining traits of games—nor are they defining interests of the people who love to play them.
Competition and winning are not defining traits of games—nor are they defining interests of the people who love to play them.
it’s a truism in the game industry that a well-designed game should be playable immediately, with no instruction whatsoever.
it’s a truism in the game industry that a well-designed game should be playable immediately, with no instruction whatsoever.
increasingly, the feedback systems are what we learn first. They guide us toward the goal and help us decode the rules. And that’s as powerful a motivation to play as any: discovering exactly what is possible in this brand-new virtual world.
increasingly, the feedback systems are what we learn first. They guide us toward the goal and help us decode the rules. And that’s as powerful a motivation to play as any: discovering exactly what is possible in this brand-new virtual world.
Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out that almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work.
Games make us happy because they are hard work that we choose for ourselves, and it turns out that almost nothing makes us happier than good, hard work.
we’ve been taught to think of play as the very opposite of work. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading psychologist of play, once said, “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”
we’ve been taught to think of play as the very opposite of work. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, as Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading psychologist of play, once said, “The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depression.”
gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.
gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression.
Noël Coward once said: “Work is more fun than fun.”
ESM researchers believe that when we consciously seek out relaxing fun, we’re usually trying to reverse these negative feelings. When we seek out passive entertainment and low-engagement activities, we’re using them as a counterbalance to how stimulated and overwhelmed we feel.
during eustress, we aren’t experiencing fear or pessimism. We’ve generated the stressful situation on purpose, so we’re confident and optimistic. When we choose our hard work, we enjoy the stimulation and activation. It makes us want to dive in, join together, and get things done.
The research proves what gamers already know: within the limits of our own endurance, we would rather work hard than be entertained. Perhaps that’s why gamers spend less time watching television than anyone else on the planet.
All the good that comes out of games—every single way that games can make us happier in our everyday lives and help us change the world—stems from their ability to organize us around a voluntary obstacle.
“If we continue to ignore what makes us happy,” he wrote, “we shall actively help perpetuate the dehumanizing forces which are gaining momentum day by day.”
if we failed to at least try to create more flow, we risked losing entire generations to depression and despair.
Compared with games, reality is depressing. Games focus our energy, with relentless optimism, on something we’re good at and enjoy.
happiness derived from intrinsic reward is incredibly resilient. Every time we engage in autotelic activities, the very opposite of hedonic adaptation occurs.
As long as we’re focused on intrinsic and not extrinsic reward, we never run out of the raw materials for making our own happiness.
Blissful productivity is the sense of being deeply immersed in work that produces immediate and obvious results. The clearer the results, and the faster we achieve them, the more blissfully productive we feel.
Compared with games, reality is unproductive. Games give us clearer missions and more satisfying, hands-on work.
Satisfying work always starts with two things: a clear goal and actionable next steps toward achieving that goal.
What if we have a clear goal, but we aren’t sure how to go about achieving it? Then it’s not work—it’s a problem. Now, there’s nothing wrong with having interesting problems to solve; it can be quite engaging. But it doesn’t necessarily lead to satisfaction. In the absence of actionable steps, our motivation to solve a problem might not be enough to make real progress. Well-designed work, on the other hand, leaves no doubt that progress will be made. There is a guarantee of productivity built in, and that’s what makes it so appealing.
MOTIVATION AND REASONABLY assured progress: this is the start of satisfying work. But to be truly satisfied, we have to be able to finish our work as clearly as we started it. To finish work in a satisfying way, we must be able to see the results of our efforts as directly, immediately, and vividly as possible.
“meaningful only when it proceeds briskly in the hands of a restricted number of actors and therefore where particular workers can make an imaginative connection between what they have done with their working days and their impact upon others.”
Until and unless the real work world changes for the better, games like WoW will fulfill a fundamental human need: the need to feel productive.
That’s what it takes for work to satisfy us: it must present us with clear, immediately actionable goals as well as direct, vivid feedback.
“World of Warcraft is the single most powerful IV drip of productivity ever created.”
And that’s exactly the IV drip of productivity that World of Warcraft is so good at providing. It delivers a stream of work and reward as reliably as a morphine drip line.
“Long before we ever earned any money, we were aware of the necessity of keeping busy: we knew the satisfaction of stacking bricks, pouring water into and out of containers and moving sand from one pit to another, untroubled by the greater purpose of our actions.”
When we’re reminded of our own agency in such a positive way, it’s almost impossible not to feel optimistic.
