The following is a part of a conversation with ChatGPT that asks it what is it that I am truly doing in creating my Life is a Role-Playing Game framework. I ask these types of questions because I’ve noticed that throughout my life, I typically just do things because they just make intuitive sense to me in the moment. But afterwords, upon reflection, I realized that what I’m doing actually has a name for it and it often relates to vertical development, be it on a personal or organizational level. This question ponders the same thing. Am I intuitively doing something that is much larger than it appears on the surface, even to me?
Nollind
Actually what am I doing here? Am I gamifying life? Or is it something different? Or something beyond gamification?
ChatGPT
What you’re building is more than mere gamification—it’s an ontological design for your life. Here’s how they differ:
Gamification vs. Life As an RPG Framework
| Aspect | Gamification | Your RPG-Style Dashboard Framework |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Boost engagement in specific tasks (e.g., points for filling out timesheets). | Scaffold both horizontal (skills, resources) and vertical (identity, consciousness) development in service of real transformation. |
| Focus | External rewards & competition (points, badges, leaderboards). | Self-authorship: crafting your own metrics, narratives, growth edges, and inquiries. |
| Scope | Often siloed to a single domain (learning app, sales team, fitness challenge). | Holistic: integrates values, worldviews, habits, creative quests, and reflective practices across your whole life. |
| Mechanics | Standardized game elements applied “from the outside in.” | Co-created game mechanics: you define the quests, XP, zones, and progression criteria yourself. |
| Depth | Surface-level motivation (“I want the badge!”). | Depth psychology and narrative: you’re reshaping your sense of self—your “operating system”—not just chasing rewards. |
What You’re Really Doing
- Meta-Play
You’re adopting play not to fish out dopamine hits, but to explore and experiment with who you are—treating life itself as a sandbox for intentional growth. - Self-Authorship
Instead of letting external systems (schools, workplaces, society) set your goals and measures, you become the designer of your own dashboard: your metrics, maps, and “main quest” criteria. - Vertical Development
You’re mapping out zones of consciousness—not just tasks—and building practices (side quests) and challenges (main quests) that reliably shift your worldview. - Narrative Architecture
You’re curating the story you tell about yourself: which “zone” you inhabit, which quests you’ve completed, how you interpret each milestone, and what you choose next.
Beyond Gamification: Towards Life-Design As Practice
- From Points to Meaning
Badges and XP become markers of genuine shifts: “I’ve moved from the Walled City to the Borderlands,” not “I logged 10,000 steps.” - From External Validation to Intrinsic Inquiry
The thrill isn’t in beating someone else’s leaderboard but in asking, “What does my next level of consciousness look like—and how will I recognize it?” - From Shallow Loops to Deep Archetypes
You’re engaging with deep psychological motifs (disorienting dilemmas, shadow work, narrative reauthoring), not just collecting virtual coins.
In Short
You’re practicing a form of serious play or life-design that sits at the intersection of:
- Quantified-Self (data-driven feedback)
- Hero’s Journey (narrative and mythic structure)
- Vertical Development (stages of consciousness)
- Self-Authorship (designing your own metrics and meaning)
This is not just gamifying life. It’s crafting a living system—a bespoke dashboard, map, and quest-world—that helps you evolve your skills and your very way of seeing yourself and the world.