Over the years, I've played a couple of video games, from different genres. By far, adventure themed games are my favorite, because they're less predictable and more expansive.
Of these games that I've played, only few were completed in terms of finishing the gameplay of the main story, the rest I abandoned somewhere along the way.
Thinking back at it right now, I clearly remember telling myself that the game got boring. Perhaps, too boring for my liking.
But this is only half true, the other half is it got hard and I dipped out to try something else.
Arguably, the latter is the main reason why I abandoned such games. Cyberika being the most recent one.
The Difficulty Deception
In many ways, this experience mirrors how we often tackle challenges in real life. We embark on a new project, a fitness routine, or even a personal relationship, full of enthusiasm.
But when the going gets tough – a setback or a conflict – this enthusiasm dwindles, and the urge to give up becomes very tempting. We just need to find the right excuse to jump ship.
For me, what's striking is how consistent this mechanism is across different challenges and across different people.
We might tell ourselves the game is boring, the projectis overwhelming, or the relationship is too demanding. But the underlying pattern remains the same: we struggle to persevere when faced with difficulty.
The lesson here is this: Difficulty is an inevitable part of any worthwhile pursuit. The challenges we encounter in life(and in games) are there to push us, to help us develop new skills and a stronger sense of resilience.
Frankly, giving up when things get hard means we not only miss out on the satisfaction of accomplishment, but we also stunt our own potential.
Gamifying Real-Life Challenges
According to Bi Worldwide, gamification is the art of applying game-like mechanics (points, badges, levels) to non-game contexts, with the main purpose of injecting a sense of fun, progress, and reward into everyday activities.
I personally view gamification as a way to spice up the challenges of life, see it through a different lens, which by extension means tackling challenges differently.
For example, being socially awkward can be a hurdle for many people. But what if we gamified overcoming it?
We could set levels and small, achievable goals like:
- Level 1: Basic greetings and introductions; Initiate conversation with one stranger a week. Earn points for each successful interaction.
- Level 2: Asking follow-up questions and actively listening; Participate in a group discussion, contributing at least once. Level up by overcoming the initial fear of speaking up.
- Level 3: Initiating conversations on shared interests; Ask someone out for coffee or a casual hangout. This might be the ultimate boss battle, but the potential reward (a new friendship!) is worth the challenge.
- Level 4: Maintaining a comfortable flow of conversation.
This lens/approach breaks down the intimidating task of overcoming social awkwardness into smaller, more manageable quests.
Like a typical game, each successful interaction earns points or unlocks new levels, providing a sense of progress and accomplishment.
In Conclusion
Of course, applying such an approach in real life wouldn't be a walk in the park. In practice, it's a reiterative effort that requires consistency. But I believe it's worth a shot.
The key takeaway is to adopt a playful and adaptable approach to challenges. Just like in a game, there's no shame in trying different strategies and adjusting our tactics as we go.
Maybe it's about time I revisit Cyberika and break the cycle for once.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.