The Nerdist Way_ How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) - Chris Hardwick [7]
So why are video games so addictive? First and foremost, they’re an active distraction. They’re constantly engaging. How the hell did kids distract themselves before video games? Probably with zoetropes and having to work in factories. Second—and I think most important—they make you feel like you’re actually doing something. Your brain processes the tiered game achievements as REAL LIFE achievements. It’s like your accomplishing stuff! But unless you get paid to play video games, you’re kind of not accomplishing stuff. Recreational gaming is fine, but once it drifts into your “I really should be doing work” life, then it’s a problem (if you want to do anything substantial in the world, that is. If not, then play games until you get couch sores and ultimately have to be airlifted into a piano-sized coffin for all I care).
This is not bad news. If you’ve ever been obsessed with a game, you have already proven to yourself that you have the ability to focus. Rather than being all bitter about scaling back your gaming (or any obsession) and shifting to work mode, let’s see if we can figure out some ways to take the training you already have and apply it to what it is you really want in life. You know how lion cubs tumble around with each other and it’s all cute’n’ stuff? They’re not playing for the fuck of it. They’re training to destroy things later in life, and this is what we can try to do for you.
RPG YOUR LIFE
You probably know this, but just in case you’re some kind of jock trying to infiltrate Nerd culture to dole out a monsoon of noogies when we least expect it, an RPG is a role-playing game. D&D is the most classic example. Players assume character identities and make choices in a story that ultimately affects and determines their outcome. Non-video RPGs are played with dice, and the roll of those dice represents the haphazard nature of chance that we enjoy in life. I played as recently as a few years ago in a campaign with a few other notable Nerd comedians like Brian Posehn, Blaine Capatch, and Patton Oswalt (check out his book Zombie Spaceship Wasteland for hilarious Nerdy goodness, btw). I miss those Sundays, crowded around Posehn’s dining table, rolling twenty-sided dice and making wiener jokes, while Patton regaled us with filthy musical couplets from his drunken dwarf character, Stumphammer.
D&D is the ultimate Nerd game—where narrative meets probability, where fantasy meets mathematics. SQUEEEEEEE!!! The other compelling component to RPGs is their reward/ achievement system. As you progress through a story, you gain things like treasure and experience points. The more points you have, the higher your level, ergo the stronger you are. It’s a pretty fun distillation of life itself.
Some video games (like the Final Fantasy series) follow the RPG model, which is a really great model for goal achievement. You choose a path, then you have a series of smaller tasks and battles that make you stronger in order to take on harder and harder battles until you beat the final boss in the game and claim whatever ultimate prize you were seeking. It’s very linear, and very applicable to your life (unfortunately without the spells and magic weapons, dammit). Mirroring this model will be very exciting to your Nerd brain and should give you the same basic charge in reality that you get from guiding your digital avatar.
DESIGN YOUR GAME
Rather than being a helpless piece of seaweed that gets knocked around by the ebb and flow of a turbulent world, you need to RIGHT NOW and IN THIS VERY MINUTE think of yourself as a GAME DESIGNER. You certainly can’t control everything, but you can at least put a structure in place that tips the odds heavily in your favor.
First off, what do you want? Remember