Do you ever get frustrated by the rules of a game? Well, that's not fun, is it? Let's remove those rules then! Let's remove them all.
You can play the best game ever, it works like this: there are no rules, anyone can do whatever he wants.
Well, now what? Having fun? Probably not.
Turns out that a game is defined by its rules. Rules are what makes a game fun.
Constraints open the doors for crafting a strategy and foreseeing a plan of action. And you need that to enjoy the game.
Life is a game. You are playing life within the boundaries of physics, chemistry and biology.
These constraints may still be too broad. How do you craft a strategy? What are you supposed to pursue, and how do you measure it?
That's where (ideal) models help. Let's shrink the problem to a smaller scale, and then generalise.
Let's start with games. Video games. One game specifically: Genshin Impact (原神).
Infinite, single-player, open world
Wikipedia says everything that you need to know about Genshin Impact:
Genshin Impact is a role-playing video game. It features an anime-style open world environment and an action-based battle system using elemental magic and character-switching. Free-to-play game monetized through gacha game mechanics.
The game is an ideal model for drawing a parallel with real-life:
- Role-playing: Your character has levels, abilities, items
- Open world: Your are free to wander and do whatever you want
- Action-based: Your actions allows gathering more resources and grow your level
- Free-to-play with Gacha: You can play for free, but rarer items cost effort or (real) money, and they are still not guaranteed
The game is single player. You follow your own path, your objectives, your characters.
There is also not strict objective. The game doesn’t have an "end". You are free to decide what to pursue within the constraints of the game: grow your character, collect new items, explore the world, join quests.
That's real-life right there. Your character, your goals, your personal journey, all within clear boundaries defined by the game itself.
With some randomness here and there.
Overwhelmed by choices
The boundaries of the game are wide and open. It's still on you to define your goal. And that can get overwhelming.
When you can go wherever you want and do whatever, how do you choose?
That's where the game itself helps you. Quests are predefined missions with a clear reward that allows you to progress forward. When in doubt, the game suggests you the next quest to pursue, with the promise of a reward.
That's the "standard path". Can you see how this takes place in real life?
When you don’t have a personal aim, a default path is laid for you:
- Get a formal education, striving to get high grades. The reward is a degree
- The degree unlocks a job, the higher the degree (cost), the "better" the job (more rewards)
- The job grants resources to unlock items and side-quests
Within this structure, it makes sense that the highest aim is gathering more and more resources (money). That's what you have been trained for.
What about exploration, character grow, new abilities? The standard path leaves those mostly aside.
But you are not required to follow this path. You can still choose your own objective.
A goal is required, at all times
You can choose your goal. The trick is that you must choose.
There is no room for anything in between. Not having a personal goal while also refusing to accept the "standard path" leaves you overwhelmed and aimless. Days lose meaning as you struggle to decide what to do next.
You must always be striving to reach a goal. When you reach that, you must aim for something even further. That's the whole point of the game.
The satisfaction is found in the pursue, not the achievement.
In Genshin Impact one of the most desired rewards is unlocking a new rare character. But that's not easy, nor guaranteed. Just like real-life.
Let's focus on this specific goal, and on how it plays out.
A goal unlocks more constraints
The point of a goal is to restrict the boundaries of the world to a clear path towards the final destination (reward).
Getting a new character in Genshin Impact requires gathering enough "Primogems" to buy a "Fate" that grants you a chance with the Gacha machine.
This requirement applies a clear restriction on your actions:
Goal: A new character.
Action: Collect more Primogems (to unlock more Fates and play the Gacha machine).
First constraint unlocked! It's liberating. Suddenly you know exactly what to do: find ways to get more Primogems.
Randomness is always a factor
A game is ideal because the reward is explicit for each of your actions.
Looking for more Primogems? Each quest tells you exactly how many you will get when completed. You can now define a strategy: a series of actions that take you closer to the final destination.
You also know exactly how many Primogems are needed to buy a Fate, so you can plan ahead that as well.
But. There is a catch! The reward in the Gacha machine is random.
You are not guaranteed to get you desired character whenever you want just because you have many Primogems or Fates.
See a parallel with real-life? You are always dealing with randomness. No matter how much you strive, the final goal may still be further ahead.
But. That's where the game introduces another genius mechanic that mirrors real-life.
Effort grants you the reward
Complete randomness is not fun. What's the point of struggling for Primogems if the desired reward is completely outside your control?
Well, it's not. There is hope.
The Gacha machine guarantees getting a rare reward after 90 plays.
- Primogems buy Fates
- A Fate gives you 1 chance of playing the Gacha machine
- After 90 plays without a rare item, the game guarantees the 90th play will get you the final reward.
What about real-life? That's mostly the same.
Your efforts are not wasted. Eventually you will get the reward, it's guaranteed. It may take you years of struggle and consistency, but eventually you will get there. As long as you keep playing and collecting more "Primogems".
It's a long-term endeavour
Since it’s best to avoid dealing with luck, you prepare for the worst case.
The goal becomes collecting enough Primogems to buy 90 Fates, and play for the guaranteed reward.
Next question: how much does it take to collect enough Primogems to guarantee 90 plays?
Answer: a lot of time. But. There is another beautiful catch:
It's not about intensity, but mostly about consistency.
The game limits your ways to get Primogems on a daily schedule:
- Daily quests grants you Primogems, but you cannot hoard them. You can do these quests just once each day
- You may sometimes get Primogems by logging in each day
- Completing seasonal events grants you a few Primogems
See how this plays out? The game wants you to come back every day, every season. It wants you to be consistent. But it's not necessary to be intense.
The daily quests take about 15 minutes. The daily login reward is given right away when you enter. Seasonal quests take overall a few hours, but they last for weeks.
See where I am going?
Collecting Primogems requires a small daily effort.
You log in, get the initial reward, play the daily quests, and progress a little on the seasonal quest. 1 hour each day is enough to guarantee forward progress.
You can measure how many Primogems this 1 hour grants you, and plan the future for when you will be able to reach the 90th play and the guaranteed reward.
But it will get harder if you stop being consistent. You cannot show up 16 hours one day and pretend to account for 7 days of not showing up. The rules of the game fight against you.
The good (bad?) news is that real-life is exactly like this. A small daily effort builds a foundation that compounds over a long enough time. And that's where the reward is guaranteed.
The right place, at the right time
Guess what? There is another beautiful and cunning mechanic inside Genshin Impact:
Some characters are only available during a limited period or event. There is not other way to get them outside that time window, and you never know when they will come back again.
Suddenly it's not enough to just collect Primogems. You need to gather enough of them for the exact window of time when your desired character is featured.
That's another constraints. We learned that constraints are good.
Collecting Primogems may not be a strict enough goal. You may still find yourself wandering outside the path sometimes if the reward is guaranteed every time. Or you may waste some Primogems for other items if you know that the reward is just waiting for you.
But it's not! What if a character you want is coming, but you don’t have enough Primogems?
I ensure you there is nothing that focuses your effort more than a clear and meaningful goal with a clear deadline.
But remember, hoarding is not a good (or healthy) option. Playing 16 hours every day for weeks it's not the best strategy.
But that’s not necessary, as long as you showed up with consistency every day without wasting resources along the way. You will be in the right place (a lot of Primogems) at the right time (your desired character is featured).
In real-life these are called opportunities.
If an opportunity comes and you are not prepared, then it's irrelevant (not enough Primogems). You may still play the random game and get the reward by luck, but this strategy won’t take you very far.
If an opportunity comes and you are prepared, then the reward is guaranteed. You showed up, every day, waiting for that moment. And when it comes, you are prepared to take it.
As long as you show up, the opportunity will eventually come. Your desired character will be eventually featured. But you must be there, ready to catch the opportunity.
Imagine not logging in the game for a month. That may be when your character (opportunity) was featured. If you stop showing up, the opportunity will pass without you noticing.
Luck and effort
There is even more.
After 90 plays you are guaranteed to get a rare character, but not always the featured one.
After you first 90 plays there is a 50% chance of getting the featured character. If luck doesn’t help you, you get a rare character, but it's not the one you wanted.
Great, back to the start. What's the point of collecting Primogems if it's again all random? Well, it's not.
Only the first 90 plays have the 50% chance. If you lose your character the first 90 plays, the next 90 your character is guaranteed. 100% sure.
Back to the board for a new objective:
You must gather 180 Fates to guarantee 100% that you will obtain your desired character.
Effort eventually will grant you the reward. And that's a guarantee, 100%, sure. But it may require pushing some more if luck is not on your side. That's the nature of the game.
The goal marks a new beginning
You did it. You planned your strategy and showed up with diligence every day, until finally you reach your goal: the rare character you wanted is yours.
Well, what now? Turns out reaching the destination is just a single and intense spark of joy, before a quick reset below baseline.
Reaching a goal only marks the beginning of a new required objective. The joy is all in the pursuit.
The point of it all was having a goal, and pursuing a path clearly restricted by the rules of the game. The joy is having a destination that is within your reach. Having a destination, not reaching it.
Once you reach it, you need another goal. Fast. The excitement of getting the reward itself won’t last long, so you must always be on the lookout for what's next.
The good news is that the reward, the skills and the resources you gathered can fuel your next pursuit.
The new character you unlocked in Genshin Impact marks the beginning of a new journey to actually grow your character. That was the whole point of the pursuit.
And now you can stop worrying on getting something "new", and enjoy what you already have.
Abilities and items
The strength of any character is defined by two major components:
- The character's level and skills
- The character's weapon and equipment
Level and skills belong to the character. Each has his own set of talents and innate abilities.
Weapon and equipment are external, and can be swapped depending on the situation. They are not at the core. They are convenient but temporary, waiting for the next upgrade, goal, or item that would make them unnecessary.
Investing on your character innate abilities and skills will reap benefits long-term that can never be taken away.
Grow is all in honing your characters skills: learning how to get the best out of them, while also increasing the character's level and unlock new abilities.
New and fancy items are mostly a temporary aid. When in doubt invest in skills. They will always be with you.
It's a team game
Another question arises: what's the point of growing a single character if eventually I will switch to a new one, losing all his progress?
Or another: I already have my desired character, why would I bother with getting other Primogems to aim for a new one?
The answer lays in another beautiful mechanic of Genshin Impact: your team is made of 4 characters.
Suddenly it's not enough anymore to obtain a single character. Each character has his strengths and weaknesses, all playing in synergy with other members of the team.
Eventually you will reach a point where your current team may not suffice against a specific group of enemies. The challenge becomes too tough, and you need new help.
With the intention of filling a hole in your current team, you start aiming for another new character. And the cycle repeats.
Meaning and stakes
Final and core question: what's the point of it all? Why bother getting a character or growing his skills at all?
The answer has to do with meaning. Personal meaning.
The point is enjoying the day-to-day process, because it has meaning for you.
If you don’t enjoy the quests, exploration, battles, challenges, the core gameplay that Genshin Impact offers, then there is no meaning in getting or growing a character.
Goals and rewards offer rules and constraints that guides you towards an exciting destination, but they never suffice alone. The path itself must be meaningful and enjoyable for the goal to make sense.
Meaning is personal. It must make sense for you and you alone. Enjoying the process is a sign you are on the right path.
The goal sparks excitement for the future, but the joy is all in the daily activities. The present. All the skills that you learned made you reach this point. This point, right here and right now, is where the game is played. Where the joy is to be found.
But the game continues.
Staying still is not an option. You either improve or get worst. Getting worst is the default when you stay idle.
More resources will grant you more opportunities, but hoarding them won’t make you progress. Eventually you will need to invest those resources with the risk of losing them. Aiming for an even higher reward. High stakes for an uncertain but absolutely meaningful reward.
And that's the whole point of the game.