How to Get Inspired by Games

By looking for parallels between the games and real-life and by applying cultural relativism

Components to turning life into fun games

I am utterly happy to have discovered the possibility of turning my life into fun games. And the more I turn whatever I am up to into fun, for me, games, the more I am convinced of the synergy of anthropology, kaizen, and gamification in the process.

Anthropology takes its roots in awareness. Kaizen helps break down everything — be it a challenge, a step toward our goals and dreams, or rewards we bestow on ourselves or others in the process — into the smallest and effortlessly digestible bits. And gamification helps to identify fun elements and bring them into our lives.

But it all starts with awareness — of where and how we are, where we are heading and what the next smallest and effortless step there would be, and finally, what would be the most fun way to do that step and record the progress.

Did you notice the three parts here, in the state of awareness, too:

• aware,
• small steps, and
• gamefulness?

And the same applies to taking small steps and being gameful. All three are present inside each of these two, too. This is what I call the synergy of three, or what I also call the Swiss Army knife of Self-Gamification (= the art of turning life into games that brings anthropology, kaizen, and gamification together).

How to learn from games

These three aspects are always present when turning life into games and when we want to be inspired by games.

Especially the anthropological (non-judgmental) study of both games and reality.

It is not enough to study how the games are made or just play them.

In fact, you don’t need to play a game to get inspired by it.

Not every fantasy author writing, for example, about a zombie falling in love with a human reads all books with the same theme. You just need the idea. But of course, reading books by others in the same genre will teach you so many great things and enrich your writing style and the treasure trove of ideas.

So an idea is still enough for inspiration. This especially applies to developing new games.

But what you need to do when turning your life into games is to study two cultures anthropologically: yourself (and/or other people) in real life and yourself (and/or other people) in games.

Anthropologists have an approach called cultural relativism. It is

“an approach that rejects making moral judgments about different kinds of humanity and simply examines each relative to its own unique origins and history.” — Cameron M. Smith, Anthropology For Dummies

Looking for parallels

Essentially, what you need to do is look for parallels in games and real life.

But don’t compare them by saying the games are better than reality. In fact, a myriad of game designs was inspired by real-life scenarios. So our lives might not be as bad as we might perceive them.

The cultural relativism mentioned above

“promotes the idea that each culture should be understood in its own terms, rather than judged by outsiders. Cultural relativism is one of the cornerstones of cultural anthropology.” — Cameron M. Smith, Anthropology For Dummies

What I like about modern anthropology is that it is non-judgmental. When you observe two or more cultures at the same time, you consider the dynamics inside them without labeling one as better and another as worse or one as advanced and another lagging, and so on.

In other words, you observe the behavior of those who “inhabit” these two (or more) cultures and see what they have in common and what differs. You might not even need to figure out why there are commonalities and differences. Just looking at them in parallel can give you amazing insight and ideas for further steps inside either of the cultures you observe and non-judgmentally “compare.”

What does such a non-judgemental comparison between real life and games bring?

You might wonder what such an anthropological practice between your real life and games is good for?

There are so many great reasons to turn something or anything into fun games, which stars with finding parallels between games and real-life projects and activities.

But my favorite five reasons are these:

• A project or activity loses its drama, which we traditionally attach to anything we want or commit to do.
• Resourcefulness is on tap.
• Excellence becomes an effortless byproduct. It seizes being something to be motivated or forced.
• You stop hurrying forward and instead enjoy each step of the way.
• You realize that you are both the designer and the player of your life’s games, and, thus, you have all the information and the tools necessary to make the real-life “games” exciting for you.

How does cultural relativism look in practice when turning life into fun games?

So, how can this look in practice?

Here are some of my personal examples.

When I wrote the book Gameful Healing: Almost a Memoir; Not Quite a Parable, I realized that I could draw parallels between my health conditions and games.

My severe sensitivity to gluten lost at least a little of its tragic light when I saw the parallels between how I react to gluten and the board game Ludo. So, if gluten and I came into the same spot simultaneously — in other words, I consumed it — then I was thrown out of the game and needed to go to my base/home/starting square and start again. I often need to sleep my reaction to it out. Getting angry about not paying attention and coming in contact with gluten doesn't help, but resetting and recharging do. I love the game’s name in German, “Mensch Ärgere Dich Nicht,” which means “Don’t get angry.”

In another chapter of the book, I compared my gluten sensitivity to Minesweeper. Just like in Minesweeper, if I took time to analyze the situation before I headed somewhere — like to a party — and took necessary precautions to avoid the gluten “mines,” then the probability for me to win the game was higher.

Of course, taking care of one’s health is important and not to disregard or take too easily, but the diligence and presence, with which we are in games, are inspiring and enlightening.

A recent epiphany came when I read about the online game Lexulous in Jane McGonigal’s book Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World:

“More than 5 million people are playing the online word game Lexulous on Facebook. And most of them are playing it with their moms. When the game was released in 2007, it became the first Facebook application to achieve a mass audience, and the familiarity of the gameplay was one of its main attractions. If you know how to play Scrabble, then you already know how to play Lexulous — it’s just a slightly modified and unauthorized version of the classic board game, combined with online chat. There’s no time limit on turns, and games stay active even when you log out of the social network. Whenever it’s your turn, Facebook sends you an alert to your home page, your e-mail, or your mobile phone.”

Jane McGonigal devoted many pages to this game in her bestselling book. She described how it helps the players stay connected with their families and friends even if, or especially when, they might be far away from each other. McGonigal reported how she played the game with her husband when traveling.

I found it interesting that the players in Lexulous are looking forward to their next turn, which comes after the turn of their co-players/opponents in the game. So they are looking forward to their co-players to respond and make a move.

When I drew parallels to the possible situations in real life, I saw how I exchanged e-mails with colleagues and customers in various projects and hoped that no e-mails would follow, that the thread would end with that mail, and no reaction with further “turns” from my side would be needed. I wanted to be done and finished with the task.

But that would end the “game,” possibly with dissatisfying results for all the “players” in a collaboration.

When I saw that, I smiled and realized that I didn’t have to put all the possible information I could come up with in just one e-mail I had to write but make it clear and concise, and then send it happily to my co-players in the “project” and look forward to them to make their move.

Embarking on an adventure

These discoveries are so much fun! I can learn from my own (or other people’s) behavior in a game and adjust my reality in such a way that it becomes fun and exciting.

All it takes is a curious exploration of games and the real world around me.

I will continue exploring and writing about discovering parallels between various games and life as it unfolds for me.

I invite you to do the same in your life.

Consider the games that draw your attention. What parallels do you find between them and your life outside of games? You might recognize them pretty quickly because what draws our attention often resonates with what touches us in our lives and has a specific meaning.

And as soon as you see them, you will know how to turn that particular bit of your life into a fun game.

I wish you immense fun in this exciting adventure.

Thank you for reading!

If you enjoyed the article above, then in addition to those referred to above, you might also like these:

P.S. Disentangle a tough project by reading a free “awareness booster” along with a short story, which will provide for the first advice in it of taking time off your stagnating project. Get your “awareness booster” and the short story here: Optimist Writer.