Game Time is a gamified habit-tracking/rewards system that helps you progress on goals and play games.
The system is meant to encourage game-lovers to complete meaningful work towards a chosen area in their life, aka reaching a goal or completing a passion project. In Game Time, progress on goals has the added benefit of rewarding you gaming time.
Side effects include: increased connection to goals, increased productivity and an enhanced gaming experience:
- Gaming feels more meaningful with set play-time limits.
- Gamers experience less guilt for 'gaming' vs 'working on goals'.
Game Time in a nutshell:
- Create Quests - Create Quest, Daily, and Rare quests.
- Do Work - Log quest completions and get Game Time points.
- Game - Spend your points to get gaming time. 1 point equals 20 minutes of gaming.
Creating quests in Game Time is easy but requires some forethought and experimentation.
To get started:
- Learn the quest types. Familiarize yourself with the different types of quests you can create.
- Determine your focus goal. Figure out an overarching goal to help you focus your efforts.
- Brainstorm quests and their rewards. Brainstorm quests that help you achieve your goals. Choose the right rewards for the quest.
Also, remember that experimentation is key. It's hard to know which quests/rewards work best for you without experimenting. You can adapt as you go.
- Quests
- Quests are concrete, repeatable, tasks that push you forward towards reaching your goals.
- Quests can be logged by completion or by time spent.
- A standard quest will reward the points specified by the quest's rewards when completed.
- A timed quest will reward the points specified by the quest's rate (i.e. .5 points per hour) and the amount of time spent (i.e. 1.5 hours). In other words, the longer you do the quest the more points you get.
- Daily Quests
- Daily quests are positive habits, self care, or maintenance tasks which help you be the person who will reach your goals.
- A daily quest will reward the points specifiedfor the quest when completed.
- Rare Quests
- Rare quests are difficult tasks or milestones that deserve celebration.
- A rare quest will reward the points specified for the quest completed, and then the quest will be removed.
Spend some time and determine your overarching goals, preferably a single focus goal. A clearly defined goal will help inform the quests you create in Game Time: each quest in game time should help you reach your goal. Avoid spreading yourself too thin by attempting to reach too many goals at once.
Jot down tasks/quests that will help you reach your focus goal. These could be completion oriented: "complete chapter in course book", time-based: "study French", or specific "finish unit 4". Avoid adding things you will do anyway, or which don't relate to your goal, i.e. doing chores.
Think of the how much you might reward for each. An easy task or one you will do frequently might earn a fraction of a point (i.e. .25). ask may earn 1 or more points
Whether these quests are quests, dailies, or rare depends. You have options.
In general, if you might complete a quest more than once per day, or for a variable amount of time, make it a Quest. Alternatively, if a quest is best thought of as a positive habit, make the quest a Daily. If the quest is a milestone, or a one-off really difficult or really important task, make it a Rare quest.
Some inidcators the quest is a quest:
- this quest is a step towards compeleting your goal
- this quest can be repeated or done for a variable amount of time
Some indicators the quest is a daily:
- the real benefit of this quest comes from building it into a daily practice
- you receive diminishing returns from completing this quest more than once in a given day
- completing this quest helps you be the person who will achieve your goal
Some indicators the quest is rare:
- completing this task deserves proper celebration
- this quest can only be completed once
That said, there's no one-size fits all. If your goal is to become a monk, "meditate" might be better as a quest than as a daily.
As you complete quests, log them in Game Time and watch your points accumulate.
Standard Quests reward the rewards assigned to the quest, i.e. .75 points per completion. Timed Quests reward points based on the quest's rate and the duration of time spent on the quest. Example: your "Study Latin" goal is worth .75 points per hour, and you worked for 2 hours. Thus you gain 1.5 points.
Daily quests can be compeleted once per day and reward the rewards assigned to the quest, i.e. .25 points. Each daily can be completed once per that calendar date.
Rare quests can be completed once and reward the rewards assigned to the quest, i.e. 2 points. Once completed, the quest is removed from your list of available quests.
Spend Game Time points in order to play video games, computer games, etc... for a set period of time.
A Game Time point equates to 20 minutes of real life gaming time.
Of course, the assumption here is that you won't play games otherwise.
When spending Game Time points, only whole points can be used. I.e., if you have 3.5 points, only 3 points are available for use. Choose the amount you wish to and game for the equivalent amount of time. I.e. spend 3 point to game for an hour. Used points are removed from your balance.
Your quests in Game Time are not set it stone. Create, edit, and remove quests as you go. Rare quests, by nature will be added as time goes on.
If you feel that you're accumulating Game Time points too quickly try reducing rewards. You may want to reduce rewards across the board or only for specific quests. Consider removing quests that require little effort.
If you achieve your focus goal, congratulations! Also, it might be time to restart Game Time.