Ding! Another Level In Blog Posting
Happy Tax Day to all you Epic Procrastinators out there! Me? I would never wait until the last minute to do something so incredibly important…
I just finished filing my taxes. Hey, it’s not last minute. I had until midnight. That leaves me at least 14 hours ahead of the game. So, I win. I level up in Tax: The Frustration. Wait… They don’t give XP for that sort of thing? Well, they should.
Actually, in the “If Life Were More Like Games” category (which would sure help Jane McGonigal realize her dreams for gamer productivity in society), I think more of our gadgets should be like my GPS.
My wife bought me a GPS for Christmas this past year. Since, like all geeks, I have always been fascinated with technology of pretty much any kind (she bought me a weather station a few years ago), she thought this would be a great gift. It was. I use it every day. I even have it running when I drive to work, a route which I’m pretty sure I could drive in my sleep, or to the grocery store two miles from my house. Really, who knows when I might need to detour around a loose herd of water buffaloes that wandered into the road or something. For that, the GPS would come in really handy.
A few months ago, we went to Florida in a rental truck to clean out my mother-in-law’s house (she passed away last year as a part of our “2009: The Year From Hell” celebration). We made a little nest in back for the dog (which he never used, as he wanted to see everything, so he stayed up front, wore sunglasses, and slept between the seats) and plugged in the trusty GPS for the 500+ mile trip. Of course, the trip was one we’ve made hundreds of times over the past 20 years or so, but I had never used the GPS to plug in an actual route and have it direct me from the mythical point A to the equally legendary point B. So, we plugged in the GPS and off we went.
After only a few miles, I made an astounding discovery. When you do something that the GPS tells you to do (AKA complete the quest given to you by Lady Magellan of GPSland – she has a female voice), the unit makes an audible dinging sound. Immediately, I flashed back to my World of Warcraft days (the shaking subsided eventually). When you complete a quest for the GPS, it dings. Which MUST mean that I just leveled up! It didn’t take long before I started counting levels, naming quests, defining chain quests, etc. I actually got nervous at complicated turns along my route (that I have made hundreds of times) because I wanted to “ding.” I wanted that level. That positive feedback. I wanted to please Lady Magellan.
I did miss a few quests along the way, like when I had to deviate from Lady Magellan’s prescribed route to stop for food or gas. I felt like I had let down the entire kingdom of GPSland each time. I swear I could actually hear Lady Magellan’s heart breaking. But by the time we returned home, I was up to level 80. I think that was the level cap on my GPS anyway. I can’t wait for the expansion, when they raise the level cap.
Seriously, if all tasks in life had the same immediate positive feedback, dinging, leveling up, etc. that we get from games, I think we WOULD be more successful and productive.
*Note to all the computer programmers and software design geeks out there: Start working on this immediately. There has to be potential for huge profit here.
Doing my taxes this year was more fun because I finally ditched the old paper returns and did them online with tax software. I got congratulatory messages and was able to advance to the next screen when I did something correctly, so I got that game style feedback.
Now I just need to incorporate this into some other tasks. The washer and dryer should give you experience points for sorting laundry so that the color doesn’t bleed onto inappropriate clothing that should have been in a separate load (not to mention for proper stain treatment). The toaster should award a level in Toaster-Fu when you get the appropriate level of golden brown. The oven should reward you for new and creative recipes by unlocking new recipes or something. And mostly, I ned a word processing program on my computer that gives me immediate positive feedback (ie. experience points, levels, or skill points) for typing a certain number of words per day towards my writing goals. Now that I think of it, commenters here on Geekcentricity could award me levels anonymously for superlative post writing (if it ever happens). I’m all for it. Somebody design it. QUICK!
In the meantime, I’ll just play this game. You should too. You should also award me a level for sharing it. Now click on that link and go save those little girls from the pedophiliac bears! And enjoy the awesome soundtrack.
