为什么我们喜欢玩游戏

Many people feel that playing games is a waste of time.

Moms and dads might say to their children, "Stop playing, go study."

Teachers might also feel that playing games is no help to learning.

Everyone feels that games are just a small matter.

Games are just for fun, for resting.

But, is that really the case?

There is a person who writes books named Thi Nguyen.

He wrote a book called "The Score".

He feels that games are very important.

Games can tell us how humans make decisions.

We also want to know why we like playing games.

First, let's take a look at what a game is.

In games, there are many things you "cannot do."

For example, let's go play soccer.

You want to kick the ball into the goal ahead.

If you hold the ball with your hands, run over, and put it in the goal.

This is very easy.

You can do it very quickly.

But, is this still playing soccer?

This is not playing soccer.

Because playing soccer has a rule.

This rule is that you cannot use your hands.

You must use your feet.

Kicking the ball with feet is much harder than holding the ball with hands.

Because it is difficult, therefore it is a game.

If it were a very easy thing, it wouldn't be a game.

This is the most interesting part of games.

In games, we ask for trouble ourselves.

In games, we do very difficult things.

In life, we like easy things.

We want to take a car, not walk, because walking is tiring.

We want to buy things, not make them ourselves, because making them ourselves is slow.

But in games, we like "slow," and we also like "difficult."

Why?

Because when we do a very difficult thing, we will feel very happy.

We will feel that we are very awesome.

If in a game, you could do whatever you want.

Then you wouldn't feel happy.

So, games are just giving oneself many "difficulties."

Then, we strive to solve these difficulties.

This makes us feel that life is very interesting.

Second, there are scores in games.

When you play games, you will see the score.

If you play well, the score is high.

If you play poorly, the score is low.

Are these scores real money?

No.

If you have ten thousand points, can you go to the store to buy apples?

No.

The store people don't want your game points.

However, when we are playing games, we care very much about this score.

We will play for a long time just to get one more point.

We will skip eating and sleeping for scores.

Although scores are not money, we feel they are very precious.

This is because scores let us see very clearly.

In real life, things are not clear.

Did you do your work well or not?

Sometimes you don't know.

Sometimes the boss doesn't know either.

Are you a good person?

This is also hard to say clearly.

But in games, everything is very clear.

You take one look at the score, and you know if you did well or not.

You know if you are first place or last place.

This feeling of "clarity" makes us very comfortable.

We like knowing how we are doing.

This is another reason why we like playing games.

However, this is also a problem.

Because now, our lives are also becoming more and more like games.

Think about our schools.

In school, students have to take exams.

Exams have grades.

Ninety points, eighty points, sixty points.

This is just like scores in games.

Teachers look at grades, moms and dads also look at grades.

If grades are high, everyone feels you are a good student.

If grades are low, everyone feels you didn't learn well.

Think again about our jobs.

In companies, there are also many numbers.

How many things did you sell?

How much money did you earn?

These are also scores.

That book writer Thi Nguyen, he is very worried about this matter.

He says that the current world is too much like a game.

We like looking at scores too much.

We forgot that life is more important than scores.

For example, in school, what is studying for?

Is it to score one hundred points?

No.

Studying is to know this world.

Studying is to become smarter.

But, because we like looking at scores too much.

Many students study only for scores.

They don't care if knowledge is interesting.

They only care about what is on the exam.

This is turning life into a game.

It's the same in work.

Doctors see patients to help patients get healthy.

But if the hospital only looks at numbers.

Doctors might work for the numbers, not for the patients.

This is wrong.

Scores in games are very simple.

But life is very complex.

We cannot just look at numbers.

Some things are invisible to numbers.

For example, you love your family, how many points is this?

You helped a friend, how many points is this?

You read a good book and felt happy inside, how many points is this?

These do not have scores.

But these things are more important than scores in games.

So, we like playing games because games are simple and clear.

Games make us feel that as long as we work hard, we can see results.

This makes us feel very safe and happy.

But we must be careful.

Do not turn real life into a simple game too.

Do not only look at scores and not look at other things.

What we just spoke about is actually regarding a book called "The Score".

This book tells us why people like playing games.

It is because we like to work hard in this clear little world.

Although the difficulties in games are what we sought ourselves, solving difficulties makes us happy.

This also tells us, do not let simple scores replace complex real life.