Engineering Happiness

ConcernThe gamification bandwagon & psuedo-gamification, gamified learning, edutainment

50 billion collective hours (5.93 million years)

Jane McGonigal, PhDDirector of Games research and Development at the Institute of the Future

Reality is broken

Introduction

Herodotus – Lydia – Persian Wars

Collectively, the planet is now spending more than 3 billion hours a week gaming.

Four defining traits of a game

Specific outcome that players will work to achieve. Provides players with a sense of purpose.A goal

Places limitations on how players can achieve the goal. Push players to explore previously uncharted possibilities.

Rules

Tells players how close they are to achieving the goal. (points, levels, scores, progress bar). Real-time feedback serves as motivation.

A feedback system

Requires that all players knowingly and willingly accept the goals, rules and the feedback. The freedom to enter or leave a game ensures that intentionally stressful and challenging work is experienced as safe and pleasurable activity.

Voluntaryparticipation

Playing a game (digital or not) is the voluntary attempt to overcome

unnecessary obstacles

Bernard Suits, philosopher

Why do unnecessary obstacles make us happy?

Gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression

Playing a good game

Opportunity to focus our energy , with relentless optimism, at something

we’re good at and enjoy

Real life hard work

Have to do itNot hard enough

RepetitiveFear of failure etc.

VS

Games offering diverse kinds of work

The opposite of play isn’t work. It’s depressionBrian Sutton-Smith, Psychologist of play

• High-stakes work• Busywork• Mental work• Physical work

Eustress (positive stress) vs. stressExperience sampling

• Discovery work• Teamwork• Creative work

FieroWhat we feel when we triumph over adversity

”This isn’t a game” VS

”This could be a game”

A good game has a unique way of structuring experience

and provoking emotion

Genuine satisfaction during a state of consciousness called Flow. Completely absorbed in an activity, especially an activity which involves creative

abilities. During this “optimal experience” you feel “strong, alert, in effortless control, unselfconscious, and at the peak of you abilities.”

“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times… The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

”Games are an obvious source of flow and play is the flow experience par excellence”

Reinventing reality to work more like a game

The rise of positive psychology(human flourishing and different

forms of happiness)

Explosion of the computer and video game industry

Flow most reliably and most efficiently produced by the specific combination of:

• self-chosen goals, • personally optimised obstacles, and • continuous feedback

that makes up the essential structure of gameplay.

Gaming Fixes for Reality

REALITY IS(compared to games)

GAMES

FIX 1:

Unnecessary

Obstacles

FIX 2:

Emotional Activation

FIX 3:

More satisfying work

FIX 4:

Better hope of success

FIX 5:

Stronger Social

Connectivity

too easy

depressing

unproductive

hopeless

disconnected

challenge us with voluntary obstacles and

help us put our personal strengths to

better use.

focus on energy, with relentless optimism,

on something we’re good at and enjoy.

give us clearer missions and more

satisfying, hands-on work.

eliminate our fear of failure and improve

our chances for success

build stronger social bonds and lead to

more active social networks.

REALITY IS(compared to games)

GAMES

trivial

hard to get into

meaningless and

unrewarding

lonely and

isolating

hard to swallow

make us a part of something bigger

and give epic meaning to our actions.

motivate us to participate more fully in

whatever we’re doing.

make us feel more rewarded for

making our best efforts.

help us band together and create

powerful communities from scratch

make it easier to take good advice and

try out happier habits

FIX 6: Epic scale

FIX 7: Wholehearted

participation

FIX 8: Meaningful rewards

when we need them most

FIX 9: More fun with

strangers

FIX 10: Happiness Hacks

Gaming Fixes for Reality

REALITY IS(compared to games)

GAMES

FIX 11: A sustainable

engagement economy

FIX 12:More Epic Wins

FIX 13: Ten Thousand

hours collaboration

FIX 14: Massively

Multiplayer Foresight

unsustainable

unambitious

disorganised

and divided

stuck in the

present

The gratification we get from playing

games is an infinitely renewable

resource.

define awe-inspiring goals and tackle

seemingly impossible social missions

together.

help us make a more concerted

effort, they give us collaboration

superpowers.

help us invent the future world

together.

Gaming Fixes for Reality