Playing for Meaning

Here’s Peter Stromberg on why some people play videogames (or even chess) too much:

In life, there is an ending, but we don’t get to know what it is, because we are dead. The point is that games are like living life—we make decisions that influence the outcome—but in games the situation is set up so that we can know how it all adds up. This adding up, this meaningfulness, is one of the most important things that draws people to games.

This makes sense to me, and it comes back to what I see everywhere around me: people don’t know how many options they truly have. If we have problems seeing meaning, is because we fail to see it, not because it’s not there.

Lack of clarity strikes again. Whether it’s improving our business, educating ourselves, or seeing meaning in life, clarity of the goal and our available options is step one.

Videogames are appealing because of how clear everything is: we know what we can do, and what’s out of the question. It’s the boundaries, objectives and a meaningful end what makes them fun. Clarity in our work and life should achieve the same thing: structure limits and goals around a self-defined meaning.

Here’s Sebastian Marshall on looking for videogames for inspiration. Here’s Paul Graham on technology’s addictiveness. Here’s my post on why we don’t want too much freedom.