Gamify Your Life: 5 Reasons Why You Should Model Your Life After Your Favorite Video Game Character
Adapted from the book "Level Up Your Life" by Steve Kamb.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1623365406/
5 Reasons Why You Should Model Your Life After Your Favorite Video Game Character
1. GAMIFY
YOUR LIFE
5 Reasons Why You Should Model Your Life
After Your Favorite Video Game Character
BY
STEVE KAMB
2. Believe it or not, hidden within our favorite
video games are the secrets to our happiness.
From Zelda to Mario, Call of Duty to World of Warcraft, video
games have discovered the fundamental principles that can
teach us how to live better, happier lives.
3. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been in love
with the idea of leveling up.
In our own lives we can become characters from these
games, capable of leveling up, too.
Here are 5 reason why we
should all be using video games
as a model for leveling up and
leading happier lives!
5. Whether we are saving the princess,
traveling to Mordor to destroy the One Ring,
or exploring far-off locales like Lara Croft
in Tomb Raider, these games and stories
give us a chance to escape boring lives and
instead imagine life as the hero.
REASON #1 GAMES AND STORIES ALLOW US
TO LIVE OUT EPIC EXISTENCES
6. Games show you exactly how to live a
life we can be proud of,
how to have adventures that will inspire our friends,
and how to finally start doing all the things we said
you would do eventually but never seem to find the
time for—whether it’s traveling more, losing weight,
running a marathon, starting a website, or anything
in between.
8. When you are Level 1 and killing spiders, you
know that when you kill enough spiders, you
get to level up eventually and get to start
attacking rats. Once you advance to a high
enough level, you know you get to start
slaying FREAKING DRAGONS
REASON #2 GAMES HAVE A VERY SPECIFIC
LEVELING SYSTEM
9. Because there is a very clearly defined
path for us to follow,
it’s easy to know what we have to do next or what we
get to do next, and thus it’s as simple as killing
enough bad guys, or completing enough quests, and
so on. The path from Zero to Hero is clearly defined.
11. When we reach Level 5 in EverQuest or World of
Warcraft, we might earn a new sword that will
make getting to Level 6 easier, which then gets us
a better spell that allows us to kill bad guys even
faster. This system of dangling that carrot in
front of you is a powerful force in pushing gamers.
REASON #3 GAMES HAVE A
REWARD SYSTEM
12. Reward systems are instant, gratifying,
and incredibly satisfying.
We should build a reward system around "quest"
we’re currently working on, see if there’s a way we
can reward ourselves with a treasure chest that has
lasting impact on our game of life.
14. In most RPGs there’s always something new to
explore or accomplish that keeps you guessing and
looking forward to whatever’s next. You might
wonder what’s over that mountain range, or at the
bottom of that lake, or in that cave, or what the next
zone will be. This one element alone is enough for me
to stay up far too late playing a game and exploring.
REASON #4 GAMES ENCOURAGE
EXPLORATION
15. Life can be amazing once we step out of
our hobbit-holes,
push ourselves to go places we’ve never been, meet
people we’ve never encountered, and give ourselves
experiences we never imagined. In order for us to do
that, we need to channel our inner adventurer and go
see what’s out there.
17. Ever heard of video game speed runs? Or seen the
documentary The King of Kong? Watched somebody
just dominate a game of Tetris? Games are an
opportunity for us to get lost in the flow of a game, to
zone out while perfecting our skills and seeing if we
can complete a particular section or level faster,
more efficiently, and/or with more points.
REASON #5 GAMES GIVE US A CHANCE TO
ACHIEVE “FLOW” AND MASTERY
18. There’s actually a scientific term for what
happens when we enter this trancelike state
while playing a game, flow.
Zoning out, connecting with friends, challenging
increasingly more difficult bad guys, collecting new armor
and leveling up our character are all things we can do those
in real life once we achieve flow.
19. We are happy when we are making
progress. Just like in games, if we can find
a way to make small improvements and
recognize those small improvements in our
day-to-day lives, it's likely to increase our
overall happiness.