How my brain achieves rapid efficiency!
I love Dragon Age Inquisition. Unlike other RPG games, the combat is unique and open for a lot of real-time strategies. After successfully finishing the game for four times, I wanted to understand how my brain becomes better at it and how it dramatically cuts down the time necessary to reach maximum level and finish all the story missions. By combining my knowledge in neuroscience and self-observation, I want to understand the processes a human brain uses to reach maximum productivity and efficiency. The insights that will be provided in this article will be very useful for designing motivating and efficient workplaces. Humans are not machines. Our brains don’t work like a traditional program. So why is the brain wired to achieve long term efficiency?
Our ancestor's rock painting in Algeria
The brain is an energy hog. It processes billions of abstract concepts every second and they require a substantial amount of energy. When our ancestors begin to possess bigger brains, it becomes necessary to eat energy rich foods and evolved specific brain mechanisms to save energy. Back in the days of hunter-gatherer societies, the world was an uncertain place. Conscious learning of a new skill takes a lot of time, effort and energy. Once the skill becomes more familiar, the brain relies on subconscious automatic shortcuts to rapidly carry out specific tasks of the skill. We sometimes call these shortcuts: habits or muscle memory. Once all these tasks are mastered, the brain carries them out effortlessly and focuses more on how to combine these tasks at an advanced level. So how is this knowledge relevant to my Inquisition playthroughs?
Figure 1.0: The time taken for each of my playthrough of Dragon Age Inquisition
According Figure 1.0, the first run took a whopping 100 hours to reach max level and finish all the story missions. As the saying goes, the pioneers face with a huge efficiency lost. The reason why it took this long is because my brain is playing the game with relatively little prior experience. I don’t know where to go to do the missions. Sometimes, I run around the same place over and over to search for resources that worth very little. My brain is just starting to understand the game world and its mechanics. I don’t know which missions are more important than others and I tried to do almost everything I see. The game has a deep combat and crafting system. So, making sense of these systems took many hours of idle reflections and testing. As a result the first playthrough took a long time.
By the second and third runs, I have completely mastered the game mechanics. I know exactly which builds and items will bring out the approximate amount of damage. I know the enemies weak spots and which abilities should be used to subdue them. I know the quickest way to reach the missions and finish them. I know the answer to all the small logic puzzles in the game. I know which missions are time-consuming and worthless, and which are short and rewarding. As a result, all of my experiences and skills of the game accumulate to reach half the amount of time in the third playthrough at 51 hours compare to the first.
The more curious case is the fourth run. The difference of hours between the first and second run is 21 hours. Then the difference between the second and third run is 28 hours. However, the difference between the third and fourth run is just mere 6 hours. This indicates that the process of efficiency is reaching a plateau. The power trend line clearly shows this. My brain has mastered almost everything there is to know about the game. However I need you to know that I wasn’t trying to do a speed run in any of my playthroughs. I made sure I enjoyed the game as much as possible. These figures simply show the time taken for my natural progression of the game. In other words, the time it took for the final run is simply the minimum amount of time required to reach max level and finish all the story missions without sacrificing fun.
After this observation, we have to ask another question. How does the brain do it? What are the processes is it using to quickly master the skills and cut down the play time? Here I will show you four main factors that the brain is exploiting.
1. The game developers of Dragon Age Inquisition make the game structure based on motivating incentive systems and reinforcement schedules. In-game missions are arranged in a way that the player has always something to do. My brain thrives inside these incentive systems. It is always being motivated to pursue the goals of the game and to master the game mechanics. I did not complain for one moment that the tasks are being forced upon me. Everything I do in the game is based on my calculated choices.
2. Rapid categorization of tasks into importance. The brain is naturally wired to categorize in order to save energy. Which tasks yield the most results compare to the costs? What is the least amount of effort required to achieve the most rewards. 80/20 rule is especially important here. 80% of the rewards come from 20% of the missions. However my brain has to figure out which missions fall into the 20% category. This is the main reason why my first run took a long time. I did not know which missions are more important than others. I just did everything indiscriminately leading to massive efficiency lost. For the categorization effect to kick in, the tasks and goals must be clearly defined. I must also be aware beforehand which mission will give me which kind of rewards. Are these rewards useful for this particular character? By the third run, I even know by instinct the amount of time required to complete each mission considering no unexpected circumstances surface.
3. Finding the shortest possible path both in navigation and problem solving. Chinese Postman problem/ Route Inspection problem is an especially favorite problem of the brain. The brain is always thinking of the route that requires the least amount of effort taken to reach a destination or the least possible steps to take when solving a problem. In the game, my character must navigate huge areas of land to establish camps and reach mission locations. In my first run, I wasn’t familiar with these areas and walked everywhere to fully understand the terrain. At the same time, my subconscious brain is constantly finding shortcuts and shortest possible paths taken to complete the most numerous missions. By the fourth run, I know the maps of the game world like the back of my hand. I even know which missions are on the same route. What I mean is that I complete several missions while taking one specifically chosen path.
4. After the third run, I have fully mastered the game mechanics. The reason why I saved even more time in the fourth run is because I began to use exploits and loopholes to cut down time. I call them multiplier processes. In other words, if the game allows me to do this particular loophole, then it is legal. In real life, the laws have a lot of loop holes if one is creative enough to exploit them. It is in human nature to exploit loopholes because the brain is trying to save energy.
To conclude, in order for the brain to achieve efficiency in a new job/skill quickly, the management needs to provide motivating incentive systems (through gamification) and clearly defined tasks. Then it should encourage the brain to categorize these tasks based on importance and net value. It may sound counterintuitive but in order to increase productivity lazy thinking should be considered a virtue. By that I mean, the employee must be trained to solve problems with the least amount of effort by using loopholes and creativity. If all of these factors are working in unison, the brain will rapidly achieves its maximum potential and the employee will also feel motivated for doing his job.