All The World’s A Game

Editor's note: Tim Chang is a managing director at Mayfield Fund. This is the first in a three-part series about the quantified self-movement. Follow Tim on Twitter @ timechange.
As a lifelong gamer, I grew up fascinated with role-playing games, from pen-and-paper fantasy worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, to computer-based RPGs like Ultima and Wizardry. I've spent hours crafting and Thousands of "leveling up at least" dozens of alternate personas, tuning Their stats and experience points allocations across Various character traits, and charting virtual Their careers. I've always loved exploring all the different possible attributes and powers to minimize or maximize, and then mapping out how to Achieve the optimal configuration for my style of play.
Several years ago I started wondering, "What if real life were the ultimate role-playing game? What character class would I be, and what would be my current level? Which skills would I go deep in and master? "
What started out as a fun thought experiment grew into a bit of an obsession - not only in how I approach life personally, but also in my job as a venture capitalist. Having been an early investor in social gaming and backing companies like Playdom, ngmoco, Lumos Labs, and Badgeville, I've witnessed the interplay between "real world" social media and "in game" behaviors generate tremendous value (Playdom was acquired by Disney for $ 763M, and ngmoco was bought by DeNA for $ 403M; Lumos Labs and Badgeville continue to grow like weeds). Now Gamification (the application of game mechanics to non-game fields) influences much of my thinking and ongoing investment.
I believe we all have a "superpower," no matter how niche or small it may seem. In the game world, we always know precisely what is and what superpower our level it's at, how we're being scored and how each action affects That score. Our superpower is explicitly shown to and valued by other players. In the real world, our talents, tastes, and know-how Are not always evident, yet we spend our lives, ineffectively Often, Trying to score, balance and demonstrate them. But now we have the technology to bring the scoring, feedback and interactivity of games into our real-world lives.
Thank the quantified self-movement, the which centers around gathering as much personal as possible the data numerical and analyzing it, for making this possible. Together with the quantified self, Gamification will have a huge impact on how we play the "Game of Life."