9 excuses my brain creatively comes up with to play more Dragon Age Inquisition
Dragon Age Inquisition is not a perfect game. It has a lot of glitches and quality issues. One thing it does right is making me addicted to it. The game has several reinforcement schedules superimposed on one another to make sure that I will not experience a single moment of boredom. Every action I take in the game has a purpose and they are connected to well-defined goals. As a result, I am very motivated to achieve them. I once binged played this game for 6 hours straight without feeling like boring work. This is because the game is actively updating my progress. When I reflect on the nature of these tasks in the game, they are not very different from the usual work I have to do in real life. Why do I procrastinate them in real life while I do them happily in the game? The answer to this question can be gained from studying how my brain creatively coming up with excuses to play the game.
1. “I have to test different character builds.” When I level up in Dragon Age Inquisition, I gain a skill point in which I learn cool skills and abilities. There are more skills than the skill points I gain throughout the game. As a result of this limitation, my choices and creativity become essential. I often spend a long time basically testing different skills and weapons. Which ones are more powerful? Which ones control the battlefield? Which ones are more fun? In real life, I have to spend a long time learning new skills. In the game, learning is instant. As a result, I have more opportunities to use my strategic skills to come up with a powerful build that is also fun to play.
2. “I must quickly do these easy fetch quests to level up and have fun with late game skills and items.” Like most RPG games, the fun really begins in late game when you are powerful and unbeatable. Early games are slightly frustrating due to lack of options with skills and items. So I have to come up with a way to do the early quests as quickly as possible so I can achieve late game as early as possible. This is called meaningful grinding. It feels like an investment. I am investing my time to reap the benefits of the fun and glory later.
Soundtrack Cover Art
3. “I want to listen to the game’s soundtrack. Let’s watch some guide videos on YouTube. Shit I need to play this game now.” These are self-imposed triggers. When I listen to the game soundtracks, I recall much of the emotions I felt during the exact moments when I first heard the soundtracks. These emotions are very attractive. I want to feel them again which translates to I want to play the game now. When I was watching guide videos on YouTube, my brain is constantly coming up with inspirations and ideas. The will to test these new ideas overwhelm my self-control. It’s difficult to break out of this cycle.
Character build trees
4. “I am reaching level 17 soon.” As I mentioned above, my character gain one skill point per level when he levels up. I have to spend this point wisely. It is very hard to stop playing when I am soon reaching another level. The possibilities of what I can do with the skill point I can gaining soon overwhelms any desire to stop playing. Once I reach level 17 and spent the point, now I have to test this new skill. Is it powerful or is it boring? The cycle begins again.
Loot chest
5. “Ah shit I need that item from that specific quest to enhance my character.” Sometimes I have realized that one specific item like SUPERB COOLDOWN AMULET will be useful for this particular build. So I look up on Google to look for this particular item. Then I would spend a good amount of time hunting for it. If that amulet isn’t good for this build, perhaps SUPERB STAMINA AMULET might do the trick. As I have indicated many times, meta-knowledge of the game feed back into the game system, enhancing its addictiveness.
6. “It's boring right now.” It’s natural in real life to experience momentary boredom. It’s a gap where one is not motivated to do anything or find nothing meaningful to do. The boredom can become a powerful trigger to play DAI. In the game, I can fast travel (teleport) between locations of vast distances. I learn new knowledge and skills instantly. There are no administrative tasks to think about. The game is pure brain food. This is what the brain likes: shortcut and teleportation so it can achieve efficiency and creativity much more quickly.
Vinsomer, the dragon of lightning
7. “How do I beat Vinsomer dragon quickly?” Killing dragons in DAI is an important achievement. These majestic creatures are filled with loot. I feel glorious when I take one of them down with clever tactics. Killing three of them back to back feels amazing. This kind of feeling is rarely experienced in real life.
8. “There are 4 voice actors for the protagonists so I need to play the game four times by choosing different options.” The game has 2 male voices and 2 female voices so playing through the game four times feel differently from each other. As a result I can fully explore the full breadth of the game choices. In real life, I cannot wear four masks to make different choices as different people. Once I make a choice, I cannot turn back. I am forever stuck with additional choices that resulted from my previous choice. In DAI, this is not the case. I can compare and contrast different decisions I have made throughout the game. I also use my imagination to role play between different protagonists. For example, my male human is fair and pragmatic. My female human is harsh to enemies but kind to friends. My male elf is a sarcastic prick. My female qunari is hilariously polite despite her menacing appearance. This is a unique experience I will not find anywhere else other than in games and perhaps acting.
British female voice actress, one of the four
9. "My advisors must have finished their tasks by now." Since my character controls an independent nation, there are many war table operations I have to do to expand my organization’s influence. I have three advisors: the tactful ambassador, the strategic spy and the military commander. I have the authority to choose who will be responsible for each operation. The time it takes to finish the mission is tied to real life hours and minutes. When they finish with the missions, they bring valuable rewards and influence points. For example, if a particular mission takes 5 hours for the spy to do it, I will be triggered to open the game when she is about to finish her mission so that I can reap the rewards in time. This is another effective strategy that the game uses to keep being attractive.
The advisers
RPG games like Dragon Age Inquisition can teach us how to make real life more interesting and less boring. If we can transform our real life experiences into the form in which the brain loves to consume, our productivity and creativity will go through the roof.