Introduction to Gameful Life

A publication by Victoria Ichizli-Bartels, Ph.D.

Medium Publications by ILLUMINATION Writers

Dr. Mehmet Yildiz has invited ILLUMINATION contributors to introduce their publications in this story:

Thank you very much for this opportunity!

So, here it is:

The purpose of the publication

Ever since grasping into words the gameful self-help approach to turning our lives into fun games, which I call Self-Gamification, I wanted to create a library of information on how to approach our lives gamefully.

Here is what Self-Gamification is:

Self-Gamification is the art of turning our own lives into games. It is the application of game design elements to our own lives.

Self-Gamification is a self-help approach showing us how to be playful and gameful, and bringing anthropology, kaizen, and gamification-based methods together.

In Self-Gamification, we are both the designers and the players of our self-motivational games. Self-Gamification equals approaching life gamefully.

Where a

Self-motivational game is a real-life project or activity that you adjust in such a way that it feels like a fun game, with which you are eager and happy to engage, both in terms of its design and the playing of it.

Publication scope

The scope of the Gameful Life is in its description:

Living a gameful life means approaching anything we are up to or what comes our way as if it was a fantastic collection of games, of which we are both designers and players. This publication is about approaching all areas of our lives gamefully.

The target audience

The Self-Gamification approach to turning our lives into fun games can apply to anyone’s needs, but it also has four target groups. Here is a briefly adjusted excerpt from my book The Who, What, When, Where, Why & How of Turning Life into Fun Games: A Compressed Version of the Self-Gamification Happiness Formula, describing these four types as well as the age groups.

The Self-Gamification approach is for anyone who wants to bring fun and joy into various projects and activities they take on, and if they wish so, to all aspects of their lives.

Since I am a non-gamer, I initially had all my fellow non-gamers in mind, or those who play games very occasionally and prefer spending their free time doing activities other than games, but who, like me, want to enjoy life regardless of how it turns out. This approach will help non-gamers lose the suspicion and fear they might hold against games, as I did in the past (especially for video games), and find a natural starting point for turning their lives into fun games without having to delve into gamification design or psychological research.

But if you are a gamer (that is someone who spends many hours playing various games, often video and online games, in your free time) then this method is also for you. It will show you that experiencing fun doesn’t have to stop with switching off your video game. You will learn that you can take your favorite games and apply their elements to every-day life and become the super-hero yourself.

If you have already tried to consciously turn some activities into games and wonder how you can extend gamification principles to other or every area of your life, then this approach will help with that too.

Gamification designers can also profit by discovering techniques and skill sets to enable the users of their frameworks to obtain maximum benefit from their products.

A few words about age. The Self-Gamification approach is applicable to both children and adults. I had adults, including young adults, in mind when I wrote the books describing various aspects of it, but I would like to urge you to share the possibility of turning your life into fun games with your children or your younger siblings and friends. This will enrich the experiences of the whole family or community.

How to write for this publication

This publication represents a selection of what I write on the topic of Self-Gamification, as is, therefore, a one-author publication.

Links and samples

Here are five of the most-viewed and curated stories in Gameful Life:

They demonstrate that the interest in turning our lives into fun games spans over many topics, which are reflected by the featured pages of Gameful Life:

• Self-Gamification (All about practicing the turning of our lives into fun games)
• Work & Business
• Well-Being
• Parenting
• Writing
• Reading
• And others

Thank you for reading! I wish you fun discovering the content of the Gameful Life. To stay in touch, join my e-mail list, Optimist Writer.