Yu-kai recently provided an update to his famous Real Life RPG series, which is a system he discovered as a student to treat life as a game.
Author Credibility: Yu-kai Chou
Yu-kai Chou created the Octalysis Framework after studying gamification since 2003 — years before the term entered mainstream vocabulary. As a Human-Systems Architect & Behavioral Designer, his framework has been applied by LEGO, Microsoft, Porsche, Coca-Cola, Salesforce, and MrBeast, impacting over 1.5 Billion Users.
Chou has taught the Octalysis methodology at Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Tesla, Google, BCG, and IDEO.
His work has been cited by Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Wired, US Department of Energy, NIST, NSF, NCBI, US Department of Education, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Google Scholar — with 3,700+ more academic publications. Explore his books here.
The Problem with Society Today
One problem with society is that increasingly young people don’t know what to do.
As a result, older people don’t like their jobs.
Teenagers, as they approach adulthood, end up doing what their parents want them to do. There are just too many choices.
Whereas in a game, actions are more directed and manageable. If I’m level 37, I need to plan a path toward level 38, and so on.
Progress is just a matter of choosing how to get there within the constraints of the game.
In real life, too many people don’t appreciate their jobs or like their work, and people are less happy and living for the weekend.
But don’t we make money to increase our quality of life?
Instead, we spend so much time working that our quality of life is intertwined with our work.
How to Avoid Becoming an NPC
One danger in life is becoming an NPC, or a non-player character.
NPCs generally have an explicit and static function within a game.
They sell potions, weapons, or divulge information at key moments to the hero.
A lot of people are becoming NPCs, meeting a basic functionality instead of pursuing their potential.
You can tell someone is in danger of becoming an NPC when you ask, “What’s new?” and they respond:
I’m still working the same old boring job.
While NPCs are reliable and consistent, they never change locations until the plot requires it.
Meanwhile, the HERO is always going out, taking on new quests, learning and growing.
Never stagnant, rarely passive, the hero is on a journey.
Would you rather life become meaningless?
You might argue that NPCs aren’t in danger, they don’t have to worry. But I think life as an NPC is not as exciting, adventurous, or meaningful.
The first step is to pick your game.
Related Reading
- 10K HP Step 1: Choose Your Game (Mission)
- 10,000 Hours of Play: 6 Steps to Unlock Your Real-Life Legendary Success
- The Octalysis Framework for Gamification & Behavioral Design
- What is Gamification?
- Lifestyle Gamification: How to become successful without looking impressive
- Books by Yu-kai Chou