How one man applied his “mad gaming skillz” to his daily existence, and you can too.
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The average age of a gamer these days is 35.
I have been a gamer for as long as I can recall. I started programming them at seven and now, at 32, own a mid-sized game development company. I’ve experienced many of the “whoa’s” and the “woes” of being a male gamer.
Being so immersed in games until I hit the real world of socializing, networking and doing my laundry, I found myself bored in life. The feedback loop on rewards from starting businesses came much slower than I had imagined, and the the subtle cues from women I was making moves on felt far less distinct than a high score in a game.
As such, I sought a way to apply my “mad gaming skillz” to both my real life romantic dramas and mundane daily existence.
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I couldn’t find an existing substantial methodology for gamifying life back, so I set out to create my own. In my resulting Foundations Quickguide, I outlined the following system.
1. Mindset: This covers the psychology of being a gamer of real life, seeing best friends as teammates, alignment through associating ourselves with polarizing ideas, daily “quests” being the tasks we do each day, having a chosen “class” etc.
2. Characteristics: Inspired by Role Playing Games, these are real life values we hold close to us, like Action, Fun, Growth, Love and Synergy that define who we are.
3. Skill Trees: The 5 overarching areas of life we can improve to have a well rounded and harmonious existence.
4. Onboard System Analysers: Neuro-Linguistic Programming triggers that keep us present to the characteristics and projects within the skill trees we’re committed to.
5. Scoring Systems: Back then the best I could put together was an excel spreadsheet to track progression, but today there’s many apps that could do this.
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“Personal Development for Gamers,” or “Gaming for Personal Developers,” was my initial market focus, but given how many of us today enjoy video games and want to become the best we can be, I believe this philosophy could now appeal to a much more broad audience.
So, coming full circle, I used these skills to create a daily life-game I’m quite proud of and happy with. It’s alleviated a lot of my own attachment and seriousness about life, and through play I’ve been able to enjoy more fulfillment as I see life as a game in which I’m the designer.
This is also quite relevant in our current age, as we are about to all get addicted to Virtual Reality in the coming two years, so I’m releasing it as is.
Today. Right here in this article.
Below is a sweet video we had done up with what would have been the product.
Please note: There is no current website or way to get the guide drip fed into your inbox as was originally intended. In stead you can enjoy the whole thing in one PDF. That said if the Facebook page start takes off, I intend to update the guide, including drastic updates to my viewpoint on parts of this topic.
What are some ideas for how to create your life into the most epic game you’ve ever played?
Share you thoughts below and begin your Epic LifeGame.