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分享以游戏机制戒除和培养习惯的方法

发布时间:2013-05-21 16:44:15 Tags:,,,,

作者:Lauren Hall-Stigerts

“要是我能看完自己所有的书就好了。”

“要是我能用更短的时间完成更多工作就好了。”

“要是我能成功减肥就好了。”

这些说法听起来很耳熟吧。有时候让我们做出改变好像是不可能的事情。但有个好消息是我所做的一些研究表明这其实可以更简单一些。

如果我们能够辨别出令我们产生惯性的坏习惯,就有可能改变这一点,并培养积极的好习惯。

游戏玩家能够培养和打破习惯

你喜欢玩游戏对吗?你可以不费吹灰之力就拿起游戏并为之上瘾。如果你玩游戏,那你已经掌握了改变一种习惯的方法了。

想想你为什么会重返游戏。游戏设计师使用了大量技巧取悦你,并让你多次返回——这就是游戏机制。它们驱使你解决谜题,摧毁敌人,命中随机砖块以看其他弹出内容。

我们玩家可以使用自己玩游戏中所掌握的东西成就一些大事。

让我们先看看游戏机制的定义,了解哪些元素会驱使玩家的习惯,然后将其组合在一起创造更美好的生活(或至少改变自己)。

游戏机制速成课

著名游戏设计师及游戏机制专家Chris Bennett曾表示“触动人们的基本欲望可令人产生投入性,这就是所谓的强制循环,它们会让我们重复去做某事。”

他以《愤怒的小鸟》为例进行说明。这款游戏的设计师希望玩家通过摧毁猪头而赢得游戏,你可以向天空弹射小鸟,摧毁建筑来压垮猪头。

Angry-Birds-Seasons(from goldeneggsangrybirds)

Angry-Birds-Seasons(from goldeneggsangrybirds)

这就是游戏机制的魔力所在,也是你对向空中弹射小鸟欲盼不能的原因。

《愤怒的小鸟》设计师通过党报我们的一些预规划的欲望而刺激玩家不断向建筑发射小鸟:

*社交诱因–如果你太久不发射或者失败了,那些猪头就会嘲笑你。

*千钧一发–你向空中投射小鸟,并且直接命中!有只猪头翻滚到了摇摇欲坠的边缘却又滚回了安全的所在。

*奖励–你打了一个回合之后获得了新武器——一种会爆炸的小鸟。你继续上弦向充满猪头的建筑发射小鸟,反复不断。

这难道不是你自己养成的一种疯狂的习惯吗?这正是游戏设计师所谓的反馈循环,一门令你反复做某事的学问。

1)玩家动作(发射小鸟)

2)游戏规则以及状态变化(小鸟弹射轨道可能破坏建筑并击败敌人)

3)反馈–向玩家传递变化(玩家看到建筑崩溃,猪头死亡)

4)合成及过滤–玩家掌握了哪些动作会影响变化(弹射小鸟可使建筑坍塌并击溃猪头)

5)返回玩家动作(弹射另一只鸟)

想想自己喜欢的游戏。为什么你会重返游戏?哪些游戏机制促使你不断回到游戏中?

Bennett又举了其他例子:多人游戏中的社交压力要求你成为一名团队贡献者。随机奖励令你四处翻箱倒柜寻找宝藏。风险/奖励让你持续走向更具挑战性的路径。

习惯的形成

我们已经了解了游戏机制如何养成了我们在游戏中的习惯,现在让我们看看这些原则如何运用于日常习惯。

习惯——无论好坏,都是重复和加强的产物。我们做一些事情,看到并喜欢其结果(分泌多巴胺),就会再次去做。我们反复去做,就在我们大脑中形成了难以随着时间流逝而变化的神经通路。

随着时间发展,这些习惯变成了潜意识的行为,无需我们大费脑力去思考其中的处理过程就能自觉执行。比如,你并不需要去考虑使用餐具吃饭的种种过程。我们的大脑只需简单地让我们拾取叉子,将食物送到嘴里,咀嚼而已。这是一种自发行为,它已经成为习惯。

深神经通路正是改变习惯如此困难的原因所在——但我们并非无法改变。

还记得上面提到的反馈循环吗?没错,这正是同个反馈循环——只是这里的游戏设计师是你的大脑!不过这会更复杂,因为这涉及到你所处的环境,数年的条件作用,你独特的基因组成等诸多因素。

改变习惯是一场游戏

Chris Bennett称我们要是把目标分解成更小的部分,就会更容易改变习惯。他分享了一个被称为Fogg Model,可助你制定或分解任何习惯的法则:

行为=动机+触发器+能力

“行为”就是你所做的事情,“动机”是执行该行为的欲望,“触发器”是那些促使你执行该行为的事物,“能力”是指你是否拥有彻底完成该行为的方法。

这里的关键在于:

要通过轻松获得动机、触发器能力这三个变量,可以培养良好的习惯。

通过移除这三个变量中的一者,就能消除坏习惯。

再看《愤怒的小鸟》这个例子:

弹射小鸟=想弹射+猪头嘲笑+剩余小鸟

将这几个元素中的一者移除(游戏邦注:例如不再投射小鸟,猪头不嘲笑,没有剩余小鸟)就可避免你再次玩游戏。

每晚清洁一次牙齿

让我们将此运用于培养一个表习惯——用牙线洁牙。

首先,你得有培养这种习惯的欲望。如果你事先就没有,也许可以这样刺激你:我的牙医嫂嫂告诉我,晚上睡觉前不洁牙好比是一周不刷牙。

那么现在你总会有洁牙的动机了吧?

然后设定一个可达到的目标。Bennett表示著名的斯坦福劝说技术专家BJ Fogg提出简化过程更易于培养习惯。

目标:在睡觉前用牙线剔一颗牙,如果做到了,你就赢了!

“哇!好简单!一颗牙而已!这太容易了,我可以提高挑战了。”

下一步,考虑你每晚睡前都会看到的触发器:将牙线放在闹钟上面,在镜面贴个便笺,或者用你的手机调闹铃。

最后,不要漏掉能力这个变量。确保你有牙线在手,并且能够腾出一分钟洁牙。

这里有个技巧:只剔一颗牙很容易做到,但你一开始不能就只剔一颗牙!

改掉坏习惯

改掉坏习惯远比培养好习惯更困难——所以我们要讨论的是让它更容易的办法。这里以睡前2小时吃零食为例(晚上吃零食是肥胖的一大罪魁祸首)。

还记得行为=动机+触发器+能力吗?那就从至少移除其中一个变量开始。例如:

动机:想想自己今年夏天穿泳衣时臃肿的样子,或者看看一些关于晚上吃东西有害的文章。

触发器:将垃圾食品藏在自己看不到的地方。避免观看与美食有关的电视节目,例如烹饪节目。

能力:确保你家里没有垃圾食品,或者更现实一点,让自己的亲人将垃圾食品藏在你拿不到的地方。

这些就是移除相关元素的例子——为何不增加一些奖励元素呢?

随机奖励

据Bennett所述,最具刺激性的游戏机制之一就是随机奖励:你无法预知奖励何时降临,你所知道的就是如果持续做某事,最终就会获得奖励。

你需要做的是:在饭前准备一些非食物奖励,让和你同住的人监督你,并在一些地方藏现金。

执行方法:

1)你在睡前数小时内如果碰了垃圾食物,就得在厨房的一个罐子中投入一定数量的现金。让你的室友取出这些钱作为你的随机奖励。

2)确定随机奖励:你朋友带你去看你所喜欢的电影,为你买一款新游戏,或者在下一个晚上早点为你做一顿健康晚餐。

3)让你室友或者其他重要的人破坏你的坏习惯。告诉他们你尝试以多长时间打破坏习惯,规则是什么,你希望得到哪些随机奖励。

4)让你朋友为你制造一些惊喜,但确保不是数周后才能看到奖励。你需要鼓励而不是沮丧。

设定合理的目标:最开始连续执行三个晚上,然后再增加到7个,之后再看看能不能坚持一个月睡前不吃零食。

有人说坚持21天才能培养或打破一个习惯,但这只是一个谣言。实际上,这要取决于你的个人化学过程。你越频繁和持久地执行一种行为,就越难戒除它。而当你做到时,就要回避一些可能让你返回原地的触发器。

更多打破坏习惯的方法

替代物:切除你所上瘾的习惯。例如,用爬楼梯来取代上网,然后再回到坐位上班。

可视化:画下你戒除坏习惯后可能看到的成果或感觉。设置触发器提醒自己去想想这些目标。只有看得到目标,你才会去做。

投入成果:玩家投入时间越多,就越可能通关玩游戏。执行一个可能让你投入的动作,例如告知家人和朋友你的计划。

改变环境:你怍变环境时很难培养一种好的新习惯。与之相似,如果你处于新环境中,需要花时间与新的群体打交道,或者布置家具,那就更容易戒除坏习惯。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

How to Change Any Bad Habit Using Game Mechanics

by Lauren Hall-Stigerts

“If only I could read through all the books I own.”

“If only I could get more work done in less time.”

“If only I could lose weight.”

Yup, those sound familiar. Sometimes it feels impossible to make a change. The good news is that I’ve done the research on how it can be easier. By understanding a few things about how you tick and what to add into the mix, a better you is just around the corner.

The ruts we find ourselves in can be changed by identifying the bad habit that got us there – and cultivating the positive habits to change for good.

Gamers are experts at making and breaking habits

Photo Credit: Treefiddy via Compfight cc

You enjoy playing games, right? It can be effortless to pick up a game and get addicted. If you play games, you’re already good at what it takes to change a habit.

Think about what makes you keep returning to a game. Game designers use a number of techniques to keep you entertained and coming back for more – these are called game mechanics. They are what drive you to solve puzzles, destroy enemies, and hit random brick blocks to see what might pop out.

We gamers can accomplish great things anywhere by using what we’ve learned from gaming.

Let’s look at game mechanics, understand what drives habits, and then mash them together to create a better world (or at least a better us).

Crash course on game mechanics

Chris Bennett, an accomplished game designer and expert on game mechanics, clued me in on what makes a game tick.

“Tapping basic desires can keep someone engaged,” says Bennett. “These are called compulsion loops. They keep us doing something over and over again.”

He uses Angry Birds as an example. The game’s designers want players to win the game by destroying the pigs (the enemy, naturally). You destroy the pigs by bowling over their structures with birds you launch into the air.

Here’s where the magic of game mechanics happen and why you just can’t stop throwing those birds into the air.

Angry Birds’ designers motivate the players to keep launching birds at the structures by knowing some of our pre-programmed desires:

•Social cues – The pigs taunt you when you wait too long to slingshot a bird or when you lose.

•Close call – You launch the bird into the air and it’s a direct hit! One of the pigs roll conspicuously close to the ledge before rocking back to safety.

•Rewards – So you beat a round and you’ve been graced with a new weapon in your arsenal: a bird that explodes!

And you keep slinging birds at structures filled with rolling pigs. Over. And over. And over….

Crazy habit you’ve developed there, huh?This is what game designers refer to as a Feedback Loop, the science that makes you do things over and over:

1)    Player action (launches bird)

2)    Game rules and state change (bird trajectory may damage structure and defeat enemy)

3)    Feedback – communicates change to player (player sees structure crumble, pig roll to its death)

4)    Synthesis and filtering – player learns which actions affect change (slingshot bird at structure to topple and defeat pigs)

5)    Return to player action (slingshot another bird)

Think about your favorite game. What keeps you going back? Which game mechanics are at play to keep you returning?

You’ll see these everywhere as you play games. Bennett gives other examples: social pressure in multiplayer games keeps you moving to be a team contributor. Random rewards keep you overturning rocks for treasure. Risk / reward keep you moving along more challenging paths.

How habits are formed

Photo Credit: Emily Barney via Compfight cc

We’ve seen how game mechanics can create habits we form in-game. Now let’s talk about how these principles apply to everyday habits.

Habits – both good and bad – are the product of repetition and reinforcement. We do something, we see and like the results (a rush of dopamine), and we do it again. We do this over and over, forming deep pathways in our brain that become harder to change as time goes on.

Over time, habits become unconscious to help reduce the burden of brain processing. You don’t think of all the little processes to eat food with utensils. Oh my God, what a chore. Our brains simply have us pick up the fork, brink the food to our mouth, and chew. It’s automatic. It’s a habit.

Deep neural pathways is why changing habits can be so dang tough – but not impossible.

Remember the Feedback Loop we discussed above? Yes, this is the same feedback loop – only the game designer is your brain! Well, it’s more complicated because we’re taking into account your environment, years of conditioning, your unique genetic makeup, and more.

Changing habits is a game

Chris Bennett says habits are easier to change by breaking them down into smaller parts. He shared a magic formula called the Fogg Model that will help you make or break any habit. Ready?

Behavior = Motivation + Trigger + Ability

Behavior is what you actually do. “Motivation” is the desire to do the behavior. “Trigger” is the thing that prompts you to do the behavior. “Ability” is if you have the means to follow through with the behavior.

Here’s the key:

Create good habits by making it easy to have all three variables – motivation, trigger, and ability.

Kick bad habits by removing just one of the three variables.

Looking to Angry Birds again:

Catapulting a bird = Want to catapult + Pigs heckling + Extra birds left

Removing one of these elements (don’t want to throw a bird, pigs going silent, no birds left) will prevent you from playing the game.

One tooth a night

Let’s apply this to forming a new habit – flossing your teeth.

First, you need to have the desire to create the habit. If you don’t have it yet, this should motivate you: My dental hygienist sister-in-law says missing one night of flossing before bed is like skipping one week of brushing your teeth. EWWW.

Do we have the motivation now? Good.

Then set an attainable goal. Bennett says renown Stanford Persuasive Technologist BJ Fogg suggests making habits easier to form by simplifying them.

Objective: Floss ONE TOOTH before bed. If you do this, you win!

“Wow, simple! ONE tooth! That’s easy enough. I can rise to the challenge.”

Next, think of a trigger that you see every night before bed: put your floss on top of your alarm clock, put a sticky note on your sink mirror, or set your cell phone alarm to ring.

Finally, you can’t do it without the ability. Make sure you have floss on hand and a minute to spare.

Here’s the trick: it’s easy to think about flossing one tooth. But you can’t floss just one tooth when you start!

Changing the worst habits

It’s harder to change a bad habit than create a good habit – let’s talk about making it easier. How about eating within two hours of bedtime. (Snacking on unhealthy food right before bed is a big contributor to obesity.)

Remember Behavior = Motivation + Trigger + Ability? Start by removing at least one of the variables. For example

•Motivation: Think about how good you want to look in that bathing suit this summer or read more on the health risks of eating late.

•Trigger: Hide junk food so you don’t wander across them. Avoid TV shows focused on food, such as cooking shows.

•Ability: Make sure you have no unhealthy food in the house, or more realistically, ask a loved one to hide or lock away the junk food so you can’t access it.

These are examples of removing elements  – how about adding elements that will reward you?

Let’s go on a quest: Random Rewards

Photo Credit: Jonathan_W via Compfight cc

According to Bennett, one of the most motivating game mechanics is random rewards: you don’t know when it’s coming – all you know is if you keep doing something, eventually you’ll get a reward.

What you’ll need: Something to replace food before dinner as a reward, someone who lives with you and can keep you honest, and someplace to store cash.

How it works:

1)   You’ll be dropping a set amount of cash into a jar in the kitchen every time you grab junk food within a few hours before bed. This is the money your partner will be pulling from to randomly reward you.

2)   Determine random rewards: your friend takes you to see a movie of your choice, buys you a new video game, or even cooks an early dinner for you the next night.

3)   Get your roommate or significant other up to date on breaking your bad habit. Tell them how long you will be trying to break the habit, what the rules are, and how you’d like to be randomly rewarded.

4)   Let your friend pick when to surprise you, but make sure it’s not weeks before you see a reward. You want to be encouraged, not discouraged.

Set reasonable goals: start with three nights in a row, then build up to seven, then see if you can go a full month without snacking before bed.

Some say all you need is 21 days to make or break a habit, but this is only a rumor. Truthfully, it depends on your personal chemistry. The longer and more frequently you’ve been running a behavior, the longer it will take to kick it. And when you do, be careful to avoid triggers that will send you spiraling back to the habit at a moment’s notice.

More ways to break a bad habit

Substitution: Switch out the behavior you’re addicted to. For example, walk up and down the stairwell instead of surfing the web at work. Return to your seat ready to focus again.

Visualization: Picture how you will look and feel after you kick a bad habit. Set up triggers to remind yourself to think about it. You can’t be what you can’t see.

Invest in the outcome: Players are more likely to play through a game the more time they invest in it. Make an action that commits you, such as telling your family and friends.

Change your environment: It’s hard to create new (good) habits when you change your surroundings. Likewise, it’s easier to kick bad habits when you’re distracted with a new locale, spending time with new people, or rearranging your furniture.(source:bigfishgames


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