When Saturday morning cartoons lost their appeal, Saturday morning World of Warcraft took their place. 

I played WoW for hours, diving into the fantasy world and totally losing myself there. If you’ve ever lost yourself in an RPG, you know what I’m talking about. There’s an incredible urge, a drive, a need to get to the next level, unlock the next skill, discover the next story.

Video games have an insane power to attract and hold our attention. We catch RPG-OCD, exploring every corner of every cave to make sure we don’t miss out. We think about our next quest when we aren’t even playing, and will sometimes do boring stuff for hours just to level up. I still think fondly of games I haven’t played in 10 years.

What if we could harness the power of video games for fitness?

Really, who has never skipped a workout? Before I figured out how to get consistent, I messed with my workout schedule constantly. I would work out for maybe two weeks, burn out, and give up.

Repeat that every 6 months and you have my old life. I told myself, over and over, that I’d “make it up tomorrow.”

Spoiler alert: I didn’t.

When I tried to get fit, it was hard to find the time. It was hard to stay motivated when life gets in the way.

It can hard to deal with friends and family that don’t understand why you’re trying to change (and keep sending food in your direction). Sometimes it feels lonely.

All that, and you still have to actually do it. That’s hard.

But playing video games is easy. I never had to “find time” to play games, I just did it because video game psychology makes games fun. I’m not going to stand here and claim that you can make fitness as much fun as video games, but using some of the psychology of video games, practicing “video game fitness,” can make everything easier.

Fortunately, video games are literally designed to be rewarding and engaging. Paying attention to the video game psychology, and using it to gamify fitness, can keep you consistent, on track, and constantly motivated.

Step One of Video Game Fitness: The Psychology of Video Game Design

If you want to use video game fitness to get fit, the first step is to understand the psychology of video game design. Video games tend to have psychological characteristics in common [1]. Most good games have these four characteristics:

1.     Social interaction
2.     Player control and autonomy
3.     Compelling storylines
4.     Reward and punishment systems

Think of your favorite game of all time. It probably has all four of these things.

I love Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for the Game Boy Advance. I replay it at least every few years, and guess what?

• You can get items by linking with friends
• You have complete control over your characters and in-game strategy
• The story is absolutely brilliant and the characters are compelling
• You can level up, get new skills, get new items, die, and be sent to jail

Great games fill these four characteristics because those characteristics are the reasons we play games in the first place. Video game psychology is based on filling psychological needs, including our desire to be good at stuff, our need to have control over things, and our need for social interaction [2].

Seriously, think about how these characteristics line up with your favorite games. There are some examples coming up, but take a moment to think ahead: can these principles of game design be used for video game fitness? Where do they fit into your life?

Social Interaction in Video Games

MMORPGs are some of the most addicting games out there because of social interaction. In fact, online social interaction is a key predictor of video game addiction [3].

Guild Wars 2 flipped the typical MMORPG structure on its head, creating an environment that encouraged teamwork among complete strangers. There’s an incredible joy in coming across an in-game event and rallying a group to beat it—just from random people passing by.

Add in guilds and PvP, and there are tons of opportunities for social interaction and teamwork. Not surprisingly, the Guild Wars 2 community is absolutely thriving, and the game released its second expansion in September 2017.

When you go to the gym, who do you interact with? Is going to the gym a social activity for you? It doesn’t have to be, but this is one place video game fitness can help.

Control and Autonomy in Video Games

Humans do not like uncertainty; research shows that uncertain situations activate the threat centers of our brain and reduce activation in the reward pathways [4].

Similarly, control over our environment and the ability to make meaningful choices are powerful psychological needs that might even be innate [5]. These needs are a big part of self-determination theory, a popular theory in psychology [6].

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance gave you an incredible amount of choice. You could choose two professions per unit, change professions at will, create a team of different races, mix-up units for each battle, decide on a variety of strategies and moment-to-moment tactics, change-up equipment on the fly… the list goes on.

This is also why games like Skyrim give you like 2,000 options for your character’s nose. When you have the power to make choices, you connect more deeply with the game.

I know on my first day at the gym I was very uncertain. I had no idea what was going on and no idea what to do. Chances are you’ve been there too; most people have, and start out by following cookie-cutter routines. Think about video game fitness—how can you give yourself more control in your exercise routine?

Narrative and Storytelling in Video Games

Humans love stories. Famed cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner argued that we use stories, narratives, and characters to organize and explain the events of our everyday lives [7]. We even conjure up stories to describe the movement of abstract objects [8].

Not only that, but we tend to tell our own stories in the same way throughout our lives. In fact, the way we tell stories has been proposed as a way to measure our personalities [9].

I didn’t play Tales of Symphonia until 2015, 12 years after its release. I was instantly hooked. The puzzles were interesting, but sometimes tedious. The combat was ok, but outdated (and honestly I didn’t even figure it out for most of the game).

But the story was enthralling.

Incredible plot twist followed incredible plot twist and kept me on the edge of my seat. I played for hours on end hunting for the next step in the story. It was almost an interactive TV show instead of a game.

How you tell your own story can affect your actions. When you think of yourself in the gym, are you a nervous newbie, or someone grasping their new, healthy lifestyle with both hands? How you choose to think about yourself can make it easier or harder to work out.

Rewards and Punishments in Video Games

Leveling up. Better equipment. New quests. Death.

All of these are rewards and punishments that make gaming addictive. Grinding in games is usually tedious and boring—but I still do it all the time.

Going all the way back the original Pokemon games, I would sit in Victory Road for hours battling Onyxes in the quest for higher level pokemon. I searched the Safari Zone for Chansey, and used literal slot machines at the Game Corner to get a Dratini.

Rewards look different in different games, but well timed rewards that progress steadily and unlock new gameplay can keep people playing for hours on end.

At the same time, too many rewards (or rewarding the wrong things) can really ruin gameplay.

When I asked Jamie Madigan, author of Getting Gamers: The Psychology of Video Games and Their Impact on the People who Play Them, about times when rewards are dangerous, he said:

“The overjustification effect happens when we start offering extrinsic rewards (money, points, discounts codes for gear, etc.) for something that people were already doing just for the enjoyment of it.

Over time we shift towards thinking that those external rewards are the reason we’re doing the activity instead of the internal pleasure. So if those external rewards go away or become irrelevant, we’re left with less motivation than if we had simply let people continue to do things how they want.

I’ve seen this myself in certain running apps. I’ve used a few different kinds of apps to track my runs. I like running and all I really want is something to record and visualize my progress towards my goals. I purposely ignore or even try to disable any leaderboards, games, goofy challenges, or achievements because I don’t want those external motivators to replace the simple joy of running and trying to do better than I did on my last run.”

Reward yourself for things that are difficult; be careful rewarding yourself for things you already like doing.

Is working out a reward or a punishment for you? A lot of people struggle to work out because it’s physically difficult; rewarding yourself (if you do it correctly) can help you stay more consistent in your video game fitness.

The Fifth Factor: Flow

There is a fifth psychological factor that affects the fun of gaming: flow.

When you’re in flow, you’re entirely engrossed in what you’re doing. If you’ve ever been “in the zone,” that’s flow. It’s a state of being totally focused and attentive to what you’re doing. It happens when your skills are perfectly matched to the difficulty of your task.

And it feels awesome.

So if a game can get you into flow, that’s a good sign you’ll have a good time playing that game.

There are 4 aspects of video games that help you get into a flow state [10]:

• Concrete goals with manageable rules
• Goals that fit player capabilities
• Clear and timely feedback
• Few distractions

Do you know what you need to be doing? Are you capable of doing it? Do you know when you’re doing it correctly? Is there anything else to do? If you can answer yes to those four questions, there’s a good chance a game is going to get you into flow.

(hint: video games and fitness aren’t so different. Ask yourself the same questions for fitness)

One of my favorite examples of a flow-inducing game is the browser game TagPro. The game is dead simple: it’s capture the flag where everyone plays as a hard-to-control ball.

But it fits each of these four characteristics:

• The goal is to capture the enemy flag and defend your flag
• At every skill level, there is a role you can contribute to your team
• When you mess up, your ball “pops” and you respawn
• There’s nothing else to do in the game

It’s a simple example, but flow states can occur in a wide variety of game genres, and they make a game highly engaging. In fact, distorted time perception (one characteristic of flow) is a predictor of video game addiction [11].

Gamify Fitness with Video Game Psychology

Great, you know a thing or two about video games, but how is that going to help you get fit? What’s the next step towards video game fitness?

If video games are appealing because they meet our psychological needs, meeting those needs in exercise should make fitness appealing.

How can you use the psychology of video games to gamify fitness and incorporate each need?

Video Game Fitness Principle One: Social Interaction

• There are dozens of online forums dedicated to fitness. I used to love hanging around Fitocracy, a platform actually focused on gamifying fitness. Nowadays I prefer /r/fitness, /r/weightroom, and /r/advancedfitness. There are dozens of fitness Facebook groups, and FitBit is getting popular. Finding a place to talk about fitness online makes it part of your social interactions.
• Get a workout partner. My old workout buddy is now one of my best friends. Working out with someone is a great bonding experience.
• Join a team or group fitness class. A great way to meet new people and friends.
• Try any of the other methods in my free ebook. There’s a whole section titled Getting Gym Motivation From the People Around You.

Video Game Fitness Principle Two: Control and Autonomy

• Give yourself control over your workouts. Too many people print out cookie-cutter programs (that may or may not work) and follow them to the letter…and then quit. Do you have exercises you especially enjoy, and some you don’t? Make your workout yours.
• Do your workouts on your terms. It’s tempting to try to work out in the morning and eat every 2 hours because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do. But if it’s not how you work best, you’ll burn out.

Video Game Fitness Principle Three: Narrative and Story

• What story are you telling yourself? The way you talk about your story can have a major impact on how consistent you are.
• Look at other fitness stories. If you need to get motivated, almost nothing is as compelling as reading success stories of people like you. Seeing those successes helps you believe that fitness is possible.

Video Game Fitness Principle Four: Rewards and Punishment

• Rewarding yourself for fitness isn’t a new idea, but most people do it wrong. Use a small reward after each workout to give yourself a boost.
• Remember that workouts are inherently rewarding. Watching yourself get stronger feels awesome
• Check out this article I wrote for more specifics on how to use good rewards

Video Game Fitness Principle Five: Flow

• Your workouts should be easy to understand and you should know how to do them
• Your workouts shouldn’t be too easy or too hard (they should match your skill level)
• You should get feedback when you do things well. Just finishing reps is a start, but having a friend or trainer can help with this.
• You shouldn’t be distracted. If messing around on your phone or listening to a podcast gets you to the gym, that’s fine. But you’ll be more likely to enjoy the process if you’re fully engaged.

You don’t necessarily need to use every piece of video game design to gamify fitness. But as you glance over these lists, think of the slight changes you can make to your workouts to make them more fun and keep you more consistent. Think about video game fitness.

Finally, think about your favorite video game. Can you see these psychological factors at play?

 

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Citations:

[1] King, D.L., Delfabbro, P.H. & Griffiths, M.D. (2010). Cognitive behavioural therapy for problematic video game players: Conceptual considerations and practice issues. Journal of CyberTherapy and Rehabilitation, 3, 261-273.

[2] Przybylski A. K., Scott C., & Ryan R. M. (2010). A motivational model of video game engagement. Rev. Gen. Psychol. 14, 154–166.

[3] Hull, D. C., Williams, G. A., & Griffiths, M. D. (2013). Video game characteristics, happiness and flow as predictors of addiction among video game players: A pilot study. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2, 145–152.

[4] Hsu, M., Bhatt, M., Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., & Camerer, C.F. (2005). Neural systems responding to degrees of uncertainty in human decision-making. Science, 231, 1680-1683.

[5] Leotti, L. A., Iyengar, S. S., & Ochsner, K. N. (2010). Born to choose: The origins and value of the need for control. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 14, 457–463.

[6] Ryan, R.M. & Deci, E.L. (2000). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations: Classic definitions and new directions. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 25, 54-67.

[7] Bruner, J. (1991). Narrative construction of reality. Critical Inquiry, 18, 1-21.

[8] Heider, F. & Simmel, M. (1944). People create stories from abstract images. The American Journal of Psychology, 57, 243-259.

[9] McAdams, D.P., Bauer, J.J., Sakaeda, A.R., Anyidoho, N.A., Machado, M.A., Magrino-Failla, K., White, K.W., & Pals, J.L. (2006). Continuity and change in the life story: A longitudinal study of autobiographical memories in emerging adulthood. Journal of Personality, 74, 1371-1400.

[10] S. Baron (20012, March 22). Cognitive flow: The psychology of great game design. Retrieved from http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/166972/cognitive_flow_the_psychology_of_.php

[11] Hull, D. C., Williams, G. A., & Griffiths, M. D. (2013). Video game characteristics, happiness and flow as predictors of addiction among video game players: A pilot study. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 2, 145–152.