Why are games more fun than real life?

I used to come home exhausted from work and still play video games for eight hours straight. On weekends, I’d game from morning till night.

But ask me to learn a new skill? “No time.”
Ask me to start writing? “Too tired.”
Ask me to exercise? “Maybe tomorrow.”

This isn’t just my problem. Most people I know are like this.

We’d rather grind to max level in a game than level up in real life. We’ll stay up late studying boss fight strategies, but won’t spend ten extra minutes working toward our own goals.

Why?

If I can answer this question well, maybe I can finally fix my lifelong procrastination problem.

After thinking about it for a long time, I realized it’s not because we’re lazy. It’s because games are designed way better than life.

I made dozens of observations and organized them into a memorable framework called GAMES:

- G | Guaranteed Progress
- A | Autonomy
- M | Measurable
- E | Easy to Retry
- S | Scaled Difficulty

G | Guaranteed Progress

In games, killing 100 monsters always gives you 1 level. Reaching level 10 always makes you stronger. The rules are crystal clear. The system never lies.

Even if you have bad luck today and don’t get good loot, the experience points are still yours. Progress never resets to zero. This guarantee that “your effort will always be remembered” keeps us grinding.

In games, no monster is killed in vain. Every action counts.

A | Autonomy

Games have this beautiful quality: play when you want, quit when you want. Don’t like this one? Try another. Nobody calls you a failure.

Level 50 is impressive, but level 5 is fine too. You can be a warrior or a mage, or even just fish all day without fighting. Game not fun? Delete it and pick another. Nobody says you gave up halfway.

Most importantly, we play because we want to, not because we should. This pure sense of autonomy has almost disappeared from real life.

M | Measurable

Level 15. HP 80/100. 320 XP until next level. Kill one monster, +10 XP pops up immediately.

Games quantify everything. Every action has instant feedback: damage numbers, coin sounds, new skills unlocked. You always know where you are, where you’re going, and how much further you need to go.

This “visible progress” is the source of flow. No guessing, no waiting, no self-doubt.

E | Easy to Retry

Died? Respawn at a checkpoint, maybe lose a few coins.

Games make failure cheap. Die a hundred times and it’s fine—you learn something new each time. Oh, that’s how to dodge this skill. Oh, the boss has a second phase with a special attack.

Failure isn’t punishment. It’s the process of gathering information. You can try infinitely without the pressure of “only one chance.”

S | Scaled Difficulty

The starting village has level 1 monsters. After beating them, you learn new skills, then move to the level 2 area.

Good games always give you a challenge that’s “just right.” Too easy is boring, too hard makes you quit. Can’t beat it? It’s not that you suck—you’re just underleveled. Go train nearby and come back.

And games teach you. New skills have tutorials, new areas have guides, stuck sections have hints. They don’t just throw you into a high-level zone and abandon you.

But life doesn’t understand GAMES

Compare that to reality:

• Effort doesn’t guarantee results: Write 100 articles and nobody might read them. Friends spend 10 years mastering a skill and the industry disappears overnight.
• Everyone else’s expectations everywhere: “Not married at 30?” “Your classmates all bought houses.” “Be a lawyer/doctor/engineer—better salary!”
• No way to know if you’re improving: Did a year of work actually make me better? Is this even working? No progress bar to check.
• Failure costs too much: Failed startup might mean debt. Wrong major feels like four wasted years. Every choice feels so heavy.
• No gradual progression: First day at work and you’re handling major projects. YouTube is full of “master it in 21 days.” No tutorial zone—straight to fighting the final boss.

This isn’t a motivation problem. It’s a design problem.

We can redesign it

The good news: we can bring gaming wisdom back to reality.

Not gamifying life or turning everything into points. But understanding why games engage us so deeply, then using those principles to improve our lives.

Use a gamer’s perspective to rethink growth.

Life is already a game.
We just never got a tutorial.
We just never learned the level design.

But that’s okay.

We can be our own game designers.