What Does Turning Life into Games Bring during Times of Crisis?

When people ask me why turning various projects and activities into fun games makes sense, I often start with a version of the following. If we perceive what we are up to, or what life brings our way, as fun games, of which we are both the designers (or at the very least co-designers) and players, then the drama and seriousness fall away.

But what should we do, if the situation we are in — such as the COVID-19 pandemic right now — is so dramatic, that lifting any burden seems like a drop of water on a hot stone (in German “Tropfen auf dem heißen Stein”), in other words, of no help at all?

Experiencing lockdown and the changing rhythm of my day brought another reason to the foreground. I was reminded that through the continuous practice of Self-Gamification, resourcefulness unfolded easily for me and was a readily available tool.

Yes, this resourcefulness is a tremendous gift.

This resourcefulness starts with awareness, continues with a small step at a time, and culminates with everything that games and play provide. And here are the three main reasons that turning whatever we do or are facing into fun games facilitates effortless and joyful resourcefulness.

First of all, when we turn our lives into fun games, we turn them into safe environments, where we can experiment, be creative, without fear of failure. Or maybe even with this fear present but without resisting it and therefore not focusing on it. Instead, we can acknowledge it as an indicator of our big wish to level up in our lives’ games.

The second is the multi-dimensionality of games.

“The design and production of games involves aspects of cognitive psychology, computer science, environmental design, and storytelling, just to name a few. To really understand what games are, you need to see them from all these points of view.” — Will Wright in the foreword to Theory of Fun for Game Design by Raph Koster

So there is a lot to discover in games. They embrace so much. You could say they embrace our imagination, fantasy, the history of humanity, and beyond.

But there is a third and maybe the most important source for this resourcefulness. And it is the fact that whatever we are up to has the same structure as games.

Here’s how. In her best-selling book Reality Is Broken, Jane McGonigal, one of the best-known game designers in the world, identified games as having the following structure:

“What defines a game are the goal, the rules, the feedback system, and voluntary participation. Everything else is an effort to reinforce and enhance these four core components.” — Jane McGonigal, Reality Is Broken

You will agree that in every project, and also in every contract, there are all four components. For example, with job contracts, which lead to your job “games,” you have goals, rules, feedback system (the regular meetings you most likely have with your boss, before or after which you and your employer provide some kind of evaluation of each other), and both sides demonstrating voluntary participation by signing the employment contract.

Other activities, like sports to stay in shape, also have all four components. The same applies to the tasks our children get during homeschooling. These are games, with their definitions of the goals, rules, feedback systems. And fortunately for the children of today, many assignments not only look and feel like games, but they actually are games. Here is an endearing anecdote from this homeschooling time, which illustrates this fact and which I’ll treasure. Having watched my nine-year-old son doing school assignments online, my five-year-old daughter later asked both Niklas and us parents at the dinner table, “Will I get to play games like Niklas when I go to school too?”

The fourth component, voluntary participation, is strongly connected to the first three. Here’s how:

“Voluntary participation requires that everyone who is playing the game knowingly and willingly accepts the goal, the rules, and the feedback. … And the freedom to enter or leave a game at will ensures that intentionally stressful and challenging work is experienced as safe and pleasurable activity.” — Jane McGonigal, Reality Is Broken

I learned that in Self-Gamification, in other words, when I turn my life into games, voluntary participation means the will to see my projects and activities like games, to design and never stop developing these games. That includes the will to learn from other game and gamification designers, also those who practice Self-Gamification and approach their lives gamefully. It also means to play, which means actively engage in these self-motivational games (= projects turned into games), and to have fun.

So, if there is a project or activity you want to pursue or a challenge you want to master, but you have difficulty engaging in it, then, as a committed and non-judgmental game designer, you can adjust its other three components.

For example, you could, for instance, start seeing your goals as quests. Right after the start of 2020, I got the following brilliant advice from one of the leading gamification experts in my mailbox:

“I recommend adopting the word ‘quest’ instead [of goals]. A quest instills notions of an epic journey; a journey that will be hard work, but provide you with a sense of accomplishment once completed. A quest will become a defining part of your hero’s story.” — Dr. Zac Fitz-Walter

You can also adjust the rules, to make them nonsensical and fun. Don’t judge the ideas that appear.

Here’s a scenario of a quick game that came to my mind when I thought about the e-mails we need to write, but which we procrastinate about for some time. Each of us has had those once in a while. Here is just one possible “weird” idea. You could add a rule for this mini-game, to stand up and hop around your computer chair three times before you sit down and write the e-mail.

What would this achieve?

You will probably chuckle at the silliness of the idea. But the grin will reverse the frown you had when previously thinking about writing the e-mail. And the smile still lingering on your face might also positively affect the language with which you’ll formulate the e-mail. You might also observe yourself being more present and aware of the topic you need to address, and you will do so creatively.

You don’t have to develop rules too far ahead. If you need immediate help with something, then apply Self-Gamification. That means, get interested in what is happening and how you are feeling, see what ideas come from your awareness of games, and identify how you could use them right now in your project, for its next smallest and effortless step. Thus, the power of awareness and kaizen will be enhanced with the power of fun that comes from game design.

Remember, you are the designer and have all the freedom you need.

But remember to use the rules and elements of your favorite games as inspiration, like an idea for a recipe, rather than a prescription. And don’t stop observing yourself non-judgmentally. If you notice yourself escaping by designing sophisticated (even if very fun) rules for your project games, then you know that you stopped playing the game you initially wanted to play and started playing another.

As with everything else, the following applies: the more straightforward the rules, the better.

And finally, feedback systems have lots of gameful elements nowadays. Progress bars and stars for reviews are just two elementary examples. You can choose whatever is enticing for you. After learning about the game Go Nuts For Donuts!, I started rewarding myself with donuts, which I draw and color in a little weekly calendar reserved explicitly for this purpose. It is my personal leaderboard where my driving self competes with the one that likes putting on the breaks.

You can design your self-motivational games in such a way that they become irresistible for you to engage in. So, the ultimate goal of Self-Gamification is to give you tools that will enable you to make your reality engaging, entertaining, and fun.

Fun is, in fact, an essential and fantastic tool on its own.

Fun also acts as your compass:

“We have come to realize if we are not having fun, we are moving in the wrong direction.” — Ariel and Shya Kane

I love advising everyone to always have their “Fun Detecting Antenna” on. This extraordinary device is nothing more than an awareness of what is fun for you.

A beautiful by-product of letting games inspire us is that whoever we interact with closely or remotely becomes an ally in our lives, not someone to resent or resist, but someone to learn from, cooperate with, share our experiences, and play with.

This was an excerpt from my book Gameful Isolation: Making the Best of a Crisis, the Self-Gamification Way. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to get access to the vlog accompanying the book then check out this page: victoriaichizlibartels.com/gameful-isolation/.

And here is the video to the excerpt above:

We all had plans for the year 2020. Some of us planned to travel, others to make bold career moves. None of us expected the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing, or the lockdown of many countries worldwide.

But they happened.

Most of us are staying at home and trying to make the best of it. Many show compassion and camaraderie in these troubled times. Wanting to contribute something of her own, Victoria created the book and video series Gameful Isolation.

In this little book, Victoria shares Self-Gamification, the method she devised that unites anthropology, kaizen, and gamification to form a novel, gameful approach to life. She shares many personal anecdotes of using this universal tool to master the challenges we all face during these times of crisis.