Work is like Gaming

I will be completely honest, never in my life have I proclaimed myself to be in the “best productive state”. And I would argue many others would feel the same, even those “productive gurus” sprayed all over the net; they must have felt the same.

As you’re reading this article, I am currently in the brink of a “productive downfall”, where I’m like a lost cat on the road, confused trying to find the way to my owner’s home.

During this time, I pondered, and suddenly an idea popped into my head. It came to my realization to how working is almost exactly the same as gaming.

What?!

I’m not the kind of person that likes to game. I find them as unproductive and I feel like the time lost to gaming can be used for something better, like working or fulfilling my desires of learning new things.

I imagined, what if I became a gamer myself. What if I became the person that I see as “unproductive”, then asked myself, “why do I game?”.

For one, it might be because they wanted something to spend their time with. But it didn’t make sense to me, why would anyone spend time on something so “useless”? But when so many others find value in it, I realized I might be missing something.

Why do you game?

Let’s ask ourselves, why do we game?

We might answer “leisure”, “higher ranks”, “obtaining this rare item”, or even “filling the void in my life”.

I’ve been in such situation. Back when I was still in junior high school, I had a lot of friends that play this mobile game named “Mobile Legends”; simply an LoL knockoff on mobile.

As the usual school kid I was, I got hooked and tried the game myself. I had a lot of fun; the mechanics were novel to me, and it proved to be a lot more difficult than the usual games that I play. The way a team of 5 must be able to communicate, split up, and work together to defeat the enemy team was so profound to me. I seriously liked the concept.

But I’d like to divert your attention to this one peculiar feature of the game: Ranks.

For people that are living under a conceringly isolating rock, a rank is simply a symbol that symbolizes how “good” a person is in the game. A higher rank generally means you’re better than someone on a lower rank; and vice versa.

In order to achieve higher and higher ranks, you must play a “ranked match”. Where you will be matched in a game with people of the same rank, whose result will determine whether you go up or down in ranks. It’s quite simple.

I asked myself, why do I want higher ranks? The answer is Recognition.

Recognition

As the lockdown went into effect during the COVID-19 pandemic at the time, I started becoming lonely, not being able to meet up with my friends like I used to. I spiraled myself into a deep well of disconnection between me and my friends.

This loneliness combined with other factors, made me quit the game. Why? Because I didn’t have any friends to play with.

There’s no point achieving a higher rank, there’s no point getting the greatest heroes, there’s no point pushing myself to the highest of levels. To put it bluntly, I don’t have anyone else I can show it off to. There’s no audience for that recognition.

There’s no reason for me to continue playing, so that’s the reason why I quit.

Getting back to work

If you’ve read this far, try finding a pattern from what I’ve talked about gaming with work.

Gaming requires effort, you can’t deny that. My junior high school game for example, it requires me to learn, understand and make full use of its mechanics in order to have an upper-hand while battling.

I would argue that games are inherently inseperable from effort.

Try to name a single game that does not require any cognitive effort or any effort for that matter. Even the simplest game imaginable like snakes require you to strategize and be decisive when or when not to move the little snake around a grid of boxes in order to eat the most apples in one run.

A game that requires no effort to play will equal to no value when you “finish” the game. When you don’t need any effort, there’s nothing to put any effort in, which means you will be rewarded for nothing, making it fundamentally to have zero value.

Do you know what else requires effort? The thing we call “work”.

Work = Gaming

Think about it. Really think about it.

Gaming requires effort; perhaps with the reason to be better & achieve higher ranks (gain recognition), to obtain rare items (gain value), and perhaps, your sense of fulfillment and purpose in life.

Same goes with work!

Work requires effort; perhaps with the reason to become a manager or achieve seniority (gain recognition), to have an income or salary (gain value), and too, our sense of fulfillment and purpose in life.

Isn’t it beautiful?

I now realize, how these seemingly two different concepts, where I used to view one as something to avoid, and one to dedicate my life on, are characteristically the same concept after all.

I realize how “gamers” would often face the same thing as “employees”, and vice versa.

There’s that one time where you are so hooked with a game, you’re able to smash multiple levels or ranks in a short time span; the same can happpen with an employee that finds value, interest and passion in their work!

I’m very certain every one of us has faced this scary monster we call as “procrastination” during work; one of those times where we just can’t lay a single finger on our pile of tasks. The same thing too can happen for gamers! There are gamers out there chasing a goal of achieving a certain high rank, only to be fighting “procrastination” mid-way, creating a barrier between them and their goal.

An interesting thought for you: why does procrastinating a game feel better than procrastinating work?

With those in mind, I now understand how gamers are actually productive in a sense. Yes, you heard that right. Gaming is productive.

Does that mean we should always game??

Yes and no. There’s a lot of nuance to unpack in this.

A gamer with rare items with high value might not be appreciated in an environment where people do not understand the game. The same goes for ranks, people with a high rank in a game, will just appear like a normal employee at work.

Here’s the kicker: people value things differently, a person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

It all depends on the perspective of you, and the people you’re with.

Imagine a world where everyone are gamers; they’d value a rare item as something very worth pursuing, they’d value rank and skill as the defining value of someone. It might sound absurd, because it is absurd for such thing to become a reality, because not everyone are gamers.

Not everyone values the same things a community values. It’s all about the perspective.

So, can gaming be considered productive? Generally, no; but by definition, yes. If work is considered productive, and gaming is characteristically the same as work (putting effort in something, for hopes of gaining something of value in return), then yes, gaming could be considered productive to an extent.

Closing thoughts

These shenanigans led me to a whole new perspective in productivity. Work is characteristically the same as gaming. We give effort, and we get something back in return; it’s essentially an exchange of service.

It’s interesting to think how gaming can feel a lot of fun, enjoyable, fulfilling, and gave us a purpose in life. Yet we aren’t able to do the same with work.

It proves to us how work can become as fun, as enjoyable, and as fulfilling as gaming. But how do I do it? I’ll leave that one for you to figure out :)

Thanks for coming by, have a great day.