What motivates us to Work?

We have all been there; the anxiety kicks every time while you are at work, the only reasonable way to power through the boredom is to immerse yourself into a digital game on your phone, right?

Well, eventually, the game becomes your obsession. You are unable to sleep, so you build castles, fight off intruders and level up to higher difficulty as you upgrade to more challenging levels.

You love your new responsibilities in the digital world. You ravish the control the game gives you. Simply put, you are the Boss and the buck stops with you.

In contrast, your job in the real world, even though it pays in real money, seems less and less appealing. Every waking moment of your life is spent either playing or feeling anxious about advancing your levels or collecting more points.

There is nothing to be ashamed of; digital games can be extremely engaging (sometimes addictive) even for the most ambitious and disciplined people.

If you lack motivation at your place of work, it might just be that your vocation lacks the above key qualities of good work.

For most people working regular mundane jobs, digital games present the thrills and excitement that simply lack in their daily tasks.

After all, digital games have gone through tremendous developments to keep players engaged. With the advancement of technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, you can become part and parcel of your gaming environment thanks to these amazing technologies.

In 2016, for instance, Pokémon Go broke the internet with a renewed interest in augmented reality (AR) while Farming Simulator similarly became popular to the level of a cult even among professional farmers.

The big question, however, is whether these new technologies can be useful towards shaping future industries while also supplying sufficient motivation for building a futuristic economy.

Could games and AR in games help in motivating workers by injecting competence and autonomy to routine and mundane tasks? Are there any other technologies apart from AR that can help merge the real world with the digital realm, ensuring digital games are worthwhile?

Well, according to the determination theory in digital games, digital games provide basic psychological needs such as control, competence, and relatedness that are important towards establishing motivation and well-being.

But even as gaming (with the help of AR and VR) takes center stage, presenting new possibilities lets not forget that these emerging technologies are still under development and there are a bunch of bottlenecks to be cleared.

So far, even though there has been a buzz in the AR and VR space with investors pouring money into startups in the space, these technologies still remain to be the reserve of a few enthusiasts.

Perhaps the Gartner’s Hype Cycle can best explain why there is a little adoption of these revolutionary technologies despite the huge investments.

According to Gartner, a globally renowned advisory, and research company, the reason as to why AR and VR seem to have stagnated despite huge investments is because they are currently at the disillusionment stage of the Gartner Hype Cycle.

However, when the first prototypes appear (considering first prototypes are not always the best versions) consumers become disillusioned with expectations that the prototype fails to meet.

But if the technology has real merit, companies continue to invest in the space and with time renewed interest is established.

Another application of AR is Memomi, a smart mirror that uses AR to let you try on luxury fashion wear and see just how the clothes fit without actually trying them on.

These are just a few of examples that demonstrate the potential of AR. Keep in mind that most of them are still in the experimentation phase with hardly any of the projects bringing back ROI.

However, even with years of developmental stages ahead of us, is there any way to achieve an immediate impact of AR in the real world?

Well, to answer that, let’s get back to the gaming world.

Basically, the question revolves around the possibility of creating games that are worthwhile beyond earning virtual points.

Apart from using AR to immerse players into a digital world, could players actually earn points that have value in the real world at the moment?

As it turns out, this is already happening.

Blockchain technology, known for its immutability and cryptographic security, is currently being used by companies in the gaming industry to inject accountability and prevent scams from duplicated points.

This does not only make the gaming more exciting by raising the stakes but it also presents a huge economic upside for the gaming industries and other global industries as well.

So, there you have it. With companies already investing in technologies like AR and Blockchain, there is no doubt that we will quickly advance through these early stages of technological revolutions.

In one hand AR is set to blend our reality with the digital realm while on the other hand Blockchain will turn digital assets into rare collectibles akin to cryptocurrencies.

Next time you are at work and the anxiety to keep playing kicks in, be sure to earn enough points. You never know, those virtual points might just earn you a living.

What are your views on this subject?

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