67 THE JOB’S A GAME: HOW GAME DESIGN BUILDS BETTER TEAMS The final hallmark of a game is what Rosewater calls a “lack of realworld significance”10 and McGonigal, “voluntary participation.”11 Games are played for their own sake, and McGonigal argues that “the freedom to enter or leave a game at will ensures that intentionally stressful and challenging work is experienced as safe and pleasurable activity.”12 Rosewater reminds us that something with only goals (including a feedback system), restrictions, and agency is not a game, but simply real life. His favorite example would be the difference between running a flight simulator and flying an actual plane: the goal, feedback system, rules, and agency are identical, but the consequences of failure are markedly different.13 Life is what we do because we must, whereas games are what we do because we choose. And that, paradoxically enough, is one of the key reasons why work should look more like games. But first, let us consider the necessity of goals. Take, for example, the truly tragic letdown of No Man’s Sky, one of the most hyped video games in the history of…well, history. Touted as a space exploration game with an infinite number of planets to discover, No Man’s Sky’s release, when it finally came, was a vast disappointment. Some critics grumbled that the game’s marketing had misled players’ expectations with regards to graphics and features,14 but for those who looked deeper, the problem was structural, not cosmetic: the game, and the time of its release, had no clear goal. There were planets to discover, minerals to mine, characters to talk to, even combats to win, but no particular reason to do so. As one critic lamented: “No Man’s Sky is fascinating, and is able to draw out feelings that few video games have—genuine wonder, and a sense of philosophical scale […] Unfortunately, when you take a closer look, or a longer one, those sensations fade and leave you with what will feel like a dull, repetitive sandbox to a lot of players.”15 Other games have made successful use of resource management as their key mechanic because the resources are being managed for a specific purpose, such as progressive survival (Minecraft), advancing a plotline (Skyrim or The Witcher), or becoming richer than the other players and hence winning the game (Monopoly or Catan). If players manage their resources well in No Man’s Sky, they get nothing but more resources.16 Humans need a clear vision of why they are doing what’s expected of them, whether at the console
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODc4ODgx