To tag on to this: I'd argue that work and school are more engaging than video games. When was the last time you just stopped going to work because it wasn't fun? Having to do these things in order to survive is extremely exciting, it just that the excitement doesn't feel good.

> Having to do these things in order to survive is extremely exciting, it just that the excitement doesn't feel good.

That's just called stress and I'm not sure I would equate stress to excitement. What makes the video game more engaging, relatively speaking, is that the stress factor is virtually eliminated. If we want to make real life more engaging, so to speak, perhaps we all need to focus more on how to reduce/eliminate stress.

I think stress is like excitement with risk. Something exciting and not stressful probably doesn't have much risk involved. However, if the individual perceives risk, then stress is introduced. Think skydiving. Skydiving can be pretty exciting, but if you perceive a high risk of death or injury then skydiving would be pretty stressful.

If we want to make real life more engaging, perhaps we need to focus on how to reduce risk. Or at least, reduce the risk of a superbad negative outcome.

I'm not disagreeing entirely, but I'd like to add and ask, have you ever heard the saying "stress is the body's natural response to task managment"?

I have been in many situations that others would find stressful (and always including the people around me during them) but because I was organized and experienced these experiences were in fact very exciting and even fun. The risk and very real consequences of failure are what made those situations what they were. Not saying it's for everyone, but for those that thrive during real challenges and having the good fortune to be tasked so heavily and with such responsibilities, these situations can be absolutely exhilarating. As an added bonus, the rewards are also real!

I greatly disagree. Please provide an example of your school or work situation for comparison with a video game. Most real-world schools and jobs do not require quick thinking and actions like video games. I do think that there is an opportunity to make school and work more engaging, its just that most are still stuck in the old framework/system.

First off, you’re clearly ignoring a disagreement about what engagement is.

Secondly, it’s not clear why engagement in terms of “quick thinking and actions” is desirable. It’s a dopamine rush, not a paycheck. You persuade me to work by paying me money; the second I see achievements at work, I’m headed for the hills.

Sometimes I got to work because I have no real choice. This isn't a new thing, I've been that way my whole life. I do sometimes enjoy my work. But sometimes I don't.

Games, however... I only play them when I'm enjoying it. Nothing is forcing me to do that.

Games are absolutely more engaging than work.

This would mean that rich people have more fun, because their risks are lower.

That seems likely to be true, coupled with the fact that wealth means greater selection in their entertainment.

However, they are not more likely to be happy (down to a certain point - earning less that 70K affects your happiness; above that though, it doesn't seem to have an influence).

Happiness != Fun. Sadly, we often seem to try to maximize Fun (/pleasure/ease/etc.), and not Happiness.

> However, they are not more likely to be happy (down to a certain point - earning less that 70K affects your happiness; above that though, it doesn't seem to have an influence).

I thought that was a misinterpretation of the data, which showed essentially logarithmic growth of happiness with respect to money? When plotted on a linear graph, the curve seems to go flat after a certain income level, but it actually keeps on increasing. Which would mean that more money results in more happiness, but with diminishing returns.

True, but OP mentioned fun.

It's also true that more wealth doesn't seem to make me happier, in and of itself. It does mean I have much less stress. That makes me more content, which some might call happiness.

But it's not like rich people live their lives as if everything is without risk like a videogame.

Not everything is without risk, even if you're rich. Most of things that make a rich person's life more fun are the things that their wealth allows them to do without risk: talk to anyone, lend people their stuff...

If there were games where you could get physically hurt, they would easily have a bigger fanbase than regular games.

Football?