Why does real life not provide the same gratification hormones?
Obviously it should make me feel much happier and accomplished to do literally anything constructive with my time, even more so when my bank account total goes up from getting paid, than to have a mediocre time getting dunked on in an online shooter, but it doesn’t work that way…
Are there any studies done on this? I know there are apps and systems that attempt to do just this, gameifying real life chores with moderate success. Why does this not work as well as one would expect? The psychology should be very interesting.
Doing something constructive feels really good once you’ve finished and gotten a reward for accomplishing it. Games hijack this gratification system and instead trickle little rewards at you constantly so you always feel like you’re accomplishing something.
I’ve never gotten around to actually reading up on this, but I’ve always suspected it has to do with the frequency of gratification. In real life you could study for 8 hours and, while you’ll learn a lot, you don’t get that dopamine (or whatever) hit until you complete the test, succeed at the project, etc. Games, however, are constructed so that you get little rewards at regular intervals to keep you hooked, like levels, new gear, etc. Some, particularly a lot of mobile games, obviously prey on susceptible people with that loop, but even “regular” games can get pretty addictive with that sort of progression.
(I’m far from anti-gaming. It’s my main hobby. This is just my guess at how the psychology behind it works.)
This might be an interesting read: https://celiahodent.com/understanding-the-success-of-fortnite-ux/
Whom do you think countries wage wars for?
I can grind for a month for 1 of 100 ingredients for a ring that allows me to do something i could already do, but more convenient, in a block game, but not study for a couple days
Why does this game sound oddly familiar edit: I’m guessing windcraft, rlcraft or Hypixel skyblock
I was referencing the minecraft modpack Another Quality Modpack 2(in a multiplayer server to be specific)
Just got back into The 1.7.10 pack, good times
Why do our brains hate us?
I mean, you keep bumping into stuff. Who do you think has to deal with those pain signals all the damn time?
Me
This meme brought to you by a young kid trying to study, am I on Reddit?
Nah, not necessarily. I’m 40 and meant to be doing prep study for the Cytech exam and I’ve watched a grand total of one tutorial video, but I’ve put in almost 100 hours on Euro Truck Sim 2.
I wish more effort was put in to gamifying education courses.
That has nothing to do with age. Most people nowadays are so used to instant gratification that they struggle with stuff that only helps them in the long term, me included. Last time I tried to seriously sit down and learn I caught myself doing dishes and watering plants after not even 30mins.
It’s good if there are younger kids like me or even younger. We need some content to consume babyyyyy.
It’s grinding either way, but the real life stats can affect much more.
