Can I Get an EXP Bar For That?

I can't say I've ever identified myself as much of a gamer. I've mainly played RPGs off and on, usually finding them enjoyable but moving on to something else rather quickly, and I'm ridiculously lacking in skills in the video game category (though I do play a mean PvP Tetris!). So while I've grown up around games, they've never been a huge part of my life.

Now, suddenly, I've found myself hanging out with someone who wants to work in video games and enjoys playing them. Where work and hobby overlap, that generally means there's a whole lot of interest, so it's safe to say that I've been hearing about games a lot. A lot.
One of the subjects we've ended up talking about a bit is gamification - taking attributes of games (progress bars, achievements, points, levels, etc) and incorporating them into real life. I've found this interesting since it seems to overlap a lot with education in terms of ordering tasks a certain way, gradually working up difficulty and removing supports, and offering positive feedback, but hasn't had much effect on my everyday life.

Then a couple of days ago I was complaining about one of my classes at the gym. I take two different classes: one involves dancing, and I can see progress as it's easier for me to keep up, I start to remember the moves more easily, I look more fluid and natural, and I don't get tired as quickly. It's hard, but I feel good at the end. The other class involves a stationary bike and putting on resistance while mimicking doing hills or sprints. It's hard, and there's no real way to tell when I'm improving (the resistance is a knob, not a number, and I can't see how fast I'm going).

While I was whining, the gamer laughed and said "Wouldn't it make that so much more motivating to have an experience bar?" at which point I practically shouted "YES!" This got me thinking that there must be some ways to productively gamify some parts of my life.
I found a chore-completion RPG (if I'd had that as a kid my room would have been spotless), and lots of talks and theories on how to best use gamification well rather than just tacking on meaningless achievements and points just for the sake of having them.

I started this blog thinking about how I could adopt gamification into my life to help motivate me, but between the last paragraph and this one is a space of about two hours looking through videos, presentations, and articles. And I think I've changed my mind.

Levels and achievements aren't what make a game good and engaging; the actual game does that. Transplanting those aspects of a game into a mundane task doesn't make that task any less mundane. Maybe there's a little more motivation for awhile, but that's not long-term motivation; no extrinsic reward, particularly not a number on a screen, can give us that (yes, even money doesn't work, it's been researched).

But there's something else in games besides the superficial awards, status, and competition. Games are structured to give incremental increases in difficulty, so that tasks are neither too boring nor too challenging to be completed. There is something to be mastered.

I think maybe that's how I might try to use game mechanics in my life a little more. Instead of expecting to jump in and do a big task, how about trying a smaller one? Then a little bigger... then a little bigger... until my confidence and skill has gotten to the point that I can tackle the big project.

Though I'm going to admit that I may still draw a progress bar for how many times I clean up all my dishes or put money in the bank instead of buying caffeine drinks (they are just soooooo good!) because there's something fulfilling about getting to watch a progress bar fill up. But I don't want to have that for everything in life, because that removes all my intrinsic motivations.

Sorry this one's a little long guys, this subject's been bouncing around for awhile and I've been trying to make sense of my thoughts on the idea. As for a topic for next week, I found a Tumblr called "I Never Thought I'd Say This, But...", based on the idea that life is a culmination of a bunch of sentences that start with that. I'd be interested to hear everyone's sentences, if we're all up for that. :)