The Video Game of Life (& How to win)

I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow video games.

For the same reasons people love sport for its competition, books for their narrative, and art for its inspiration, a good game not only encapsulates all of them but presents itself back to the player in a way they can engage with it in their own unique way.

This is why games are so addictive.

On the one hand, this can be very bad news.

On the other hand, it can reveal many of the principles that govern our deepest motivations that we can leverage for our own benefit.

One of those principles is the addiction to progression itself, which is what we’ll be dissecting in today’s article.

Let’s dig in.

There’s a particular game genre called an MMORPG or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game for the normies out there.

If you’ve ever heard of World of Warcraft, you can think of that as a high-level example.

MMOs have and continue to fascinate me.

To me, they’re more than just a game.

They’re hyper-condensed versions of reality reflected to us in fantastical ways that get us so hooked, that we prefer the virtual world over the real one (speaking from experience).

Instead of boringly explaining it, let’s completely nerd out by immersing ourselves in…

Mat’s Generic Fantasy Game

You and thousands of other players are summoned into the world of Materia

You are thrust at the centre of a completely original plot that goes:

Exactly 10 years from today, a great dragon will wake up from its slumber and destroy the entire world.

Your job is to prepare yourself, unify other players, and overcome this great evil to restore balance to the world (story arc sound familiar?).

Before you embark on your journey, you are given:

1.  An origin

This determines where you start in the world, impacting your quest line (ex. Human, elf, dwarf, orc, etc.)

2. A class

This determines your natural traits, impacting your skill trees (ex. Warrior, mage, archer, cleric, etc.)

Now, as a measly level 1 peon:

• You have no idea what you’re doing

• You have basic abilities and equipment

• The entire world outside your town is unknown

The only thing you can do is start exploring unknown areas, do small deeds, and fight monsters – all within and slightly above your current level to gain awareness and raise consciousness.

As you gain more awareness you gain experience.
As you gain more experience you level up.
As you gain more levels you unlock new skills.
As you gain more skills you take on bigger foes.
As you take on bigger foes you gain even more experience

And the cycle of progression continues.

Eventually, the darkness of the map has become illuminated and so too is your consciousness.

You’ve been able to make military alliances along the way, form business relationships with other players, and contribute to the community through your chosen profession.

All in preparation for the great threat that looms.

D-day arrives, the dragon awakes, you slay it, world restored.

Sorry had to speedrun that, I know you were on the edge of your seat but I just needed to paint a big picture.

A big picture with a frame.

The Universal Frame

At its most fundamental, Mat’s Generic Fantasy Game (or any game for that matter) is framed hierarchically.

This hierarchy consists of:

1. A desired outcome (purpose)

2. A path to that outcome (progression)

3. And ordered tasks along that path (priority)

Every time you engage in story, drama, theatre, music, art, etc. this underlying framework is running in the background.

By being aware of this frame, we can begin to be conscious of how we approach this massive game we call life.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

Purpose – The Great Responsibility

Games cannot exist without the end in mind.

For the world of Materia, the goal of restoring balance to the world can only exist from the potential of a great threat looming in the distance – the great dragon.

The dragon represents the catastrophe that awaits all of us if we choose to neglect our responsibilities.

Responsibilities at the micro level (self) have a chain-like reaction that impacts responsibilities at the macro level (society).

To put it simply, for every level 1 warrior who refuses to pick up his sword there is one less warrior in the alliance against the great dragon.

You can see this play out in real-time.

People would rather take to Twitter to complain about worldly problems than to occupy the seats that can actually do something about it.

For players in Mat’s Generic Fantasy Game, the threat is very real and calls into action.

Without an adversary, there can be no hero and therefore no triumphant story.

Eternal threats are what give us eternal purpose.

Most people find themselves drifting through life because they actively avoid their personal “dragons.”

“If only I leave this city and get a fresh start somewhere else, then I’ll be happy.”

“If only my parents didn’t hold me back, then I’ll have the time to flourish.”

“if only I can just save enough money, then I can pursue my passions.”

That last one was me.

I learned the hard way that there will never be “enough” money or jobs to take on.

We often mask our responsibilities behind excuses and ignore the heart of the issue.

The first step to finding your purpose is to recognize the very real fate that’ll come to pass if personal responsibility is ignored.

You do this by facing the dragons that are constantly calling your – and your name specifically.

The things that bug you.

The things you wish were different.

The things you know you’re avoiding.

Think of it as the Anti-Vision we’ve talked about in recent articles.

Answering these with courage is how you set the game of life in motion and is what it truly means to be “called to adventure.”

Adventure is the solution to the “life is suffering” dilemma.

Progression: The Optimal State

So you’ve answered the call, the game is in motion, the frame has been set – now what?

Well unfortunately it ain’t sunshine and rainbows.

See one of the primary reasons most people turn a blind eye when it comes to confronting their higher self is it immediately shines light on everything they are not.

Nobody wants to be reminded of their incompleteness.

Which is why it’s so much easier to sweep everything under the rug in favour of the safe, the familiar, and the comfortable.

Like a level 1 warrior facing off against the level 99 dragon, the difference in power is so stupidly unmatched, that most people die (psychologically) before the bout even begins.

You don’t force a med undergrad to perform heart surgery on a presidential candidate before an election, it would completely destroy them.

Game developers know this all too well.

Their job isn’t to make the game so ridiculously challenging you lose all hope and quit.

Their job is to get your endorphins going so that you’re glued to your seat and hooked on the game.

This is where the progression system comes into play.

See when you first load in the game, everything outside your periphery is blacked out.

You are forced to interact with things in your domain, so you can progressively work your way up the levels without confronting the final boss at stage 1.

At school, we start at grade 1 and progressively work our way up the ladder.

At work, we start as interns and progressively work our way up the ladder.

The same principle applies to our goals.

The beauty here is that we are both the player and the developer.

We assume full power in designing and breaking down our goals the same way game developers get teenage boys hooked to their screens for 12 hours straight.

How do they do this?

By tapping into the state of flow.

You’ve definitely heard the term before as it's been all the productive craze lately (as it should).

In summary, flow refers to the mental state in which a person is completely immersed and absorbed by an activity.

They tap into that perfect balance between challenge and skill level which keeps them right on the border between novelty and familiarity, anxiety and ease, chaos and order.

Flow can be used as the perfect indicator of how optimal we’ve designed our goals.

Too easy, set the goal higher.

Too hard, break the goal down further.

You can do this as much as you want until you’ve hit that optimal level where the challenge is matching the pace of growth.

This is how we take something as big and scary as a level 99 dragon and narrow it down to a level 2 goblin we can overcome.

Priority: The Judgement Call

Remember in our roleplaying scenario I mentioned specific origins, classes, & professions?

Yeah, that wasn’t just for show – it’s our final piece of the puzzle.

First, let’s imagine the world of Materia without unique archetypes:

• Rather than spawning in different zones of the map (impacting our quest lines) we’re each summoned in the exact same spot.

• Rather than flexing our unique traits (impacting what skills we can master) we’re all the same people.

• Rather than contributing to society based on our interests (impacting what role we play within the community), we’re each given the same obligations.

It’s safe to say that starting the game as an empty canvas, you’d be absolutely flooded with an infinite amount of choices – to the point of analysis paralysis.

Like a restaurant menu resembling an encyclopedia, there is such a thing as too many options.

Hell, it’s one of the main reasons why so many people find themselves lost in the age of information.

Recognize no matter how sophisticated human beings are, we are designed to focus on one thing at a time.

Any notion that you can operate at 100% efficiency whilst focusing on multiple tasks must be deleted from your brain this instant.

Game developers understand this principle well.

Just as they are motivated to keep you addicted through flow, they are also invested in keeping you so engaged, that reality itself is seen as a distraction.

And they achieve this by narrowing the epic vision (purpose), down to smaller goals (progression), & down even further to unique micro tasks (priority).

Example time, put your nerd cap on:

An elf (origin) mage (class) blacksmith (profession) would have drastically different priorities to an orc paladin armourer – even though they share the same ultimate goal.

The elf would lean into their intelligence and look to forge weapons of magical potency.

Whereas the orc would lean into their physical strength and look to fortify their defences through quality armour.

A 7-foot college basketball player who plays center, would lean into his strengths and prioritise rebounding, defense, footwork, etc.

Whereas the 6 2” point guard would prioritize his handling, passing, field vision, etc.

Both have the same ultimate goal (a championship), but vastly different priorities.

You get the point.

Collective visions can be broken so far down to the point of the individual’s unique strengths, curiosities, & values – impacting their priorities and creating their own unique story within a collective narrative.

Recap:

We started with the great threat (calling).

Which created the great responsibility (purpose).

Which then created pathways to that outcome (progression).

Which finally created unique judgements based on individuality (priority).

A reconciliation with the collective macro down to the individual micro.

This is usually the part where I give direct step-by-step instructions minus the fluff, but since this is part of an entire series (The North Star), and this is already long, I’ll save that part for when it actually makes sense.

I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I did writing it.

Stay tuned for next week. <3

— Mat.