One aspect of gaming that keeps me coming back is the next level. ‘Levelling up’ is a huge deal in gaming, drawing the gamer back time after time and keeping him/her at the game for longer. The thought of being better, increasing our characters traits, getting better weapons or being able to beat the other guy just that little bit more feels so good. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a First-Person Shooter (FPS) like Unreal Tournament, a Real Time Strategy (RTS) like Railroad Tycoon, or a game like GTA, The Sims, Spore, Supreme Commander or Tetris… the levelling up is what keeps us from going to bed. As Civilisation players say, ‘Just… one… more… turn…’
Of course I’m concerned about this being the only levelling up we ever do in life. Other forms of levelling up include going deeper in relationship with others, finding new releases of freedom in your life, hearing God’s voice better, getting a revelation which brings you into transformation, loving your wife and kids better and receiving new depth with them. There are so many more you might be able to think of.
My question is how do we remove ourselves from the draw of the game and focus on levelling up (or flourishing/prospering) in life a little more? How can we help gamers that we know do the same?
Maybe the addictiveness of games is that we can see the numbers change when we “level up”, where it’s very easy to get disappointed about not seeing concrete changes in life even if we’re growing (it’s all so subjective!)…
In that way, games are sort of an “easy way out” to the real self improvement we need to do sometimes.
So true. In Mafia Wars (facebook), I’m always checking back because I want to get to the next level! Addictive plus!
I agree with Josiah in a way, in games your progress is tangible, your levels/stats/resources are right in front of you, so you get the gratification instantly and you get caught in a feedback loop of sorts as it encourages you to progress further.
It’s the kind of momentum I wish I had a better grip of in the real world, where the reward isn’t always immediate. You have to wait for the best harvests, and it isn’t always enough to know that the end justifies the means.
“how do we remove ourselves from the draw of the game and focus on levelling up (or flourishing/prospering) in life a little more?”
That’s the problem here. If reality was more like an RPG, every positive action would have some gauge with which to measure it. Fortunately I think we have something pretty close, and that’s goal setting. After all, that’s all that you’re acting on in a game, the goals set for you. In this case, you get to dictate your own, and record your progress and accomplishments in a way that reflects the work you are putting in – in real time.
Some good thoughts there Michael. Goal setting and reaching really is our tangible way of reaching intangible goals. Unfortunately spiritual growth is difficult to measure as is our relationship with God and others. But I guess we still notice marked increases/decreases in both.
Surely game developers have spent countless hours on establishing the most addictive leveling systems in modern games… So maybe like Mike has said we need to implement our own..? Setting goals for every area of our lives and then make up a star chart? At lease that’s what my lvl 77 Night Elf would do!
LOL