I was waiting for this to arrive. Sadly, they haven't yet optimized the graphics for iPhone 4's retina display, so it has a blurry, pixelated sheen.

A fun application, but still a little rough.

1) The experience required to advance the first level seems quite high. In order to get people hooked, you should give them a quicker reward up front. As it stands it looks like it'll take me a couple of weeks to become a level 2 whatever.

2) The task scheduler needs to be more flexible - at a minimum, including days of the week in the interface, plus the ability to schedule a quest for 'every weekday'.

3) It would be nice to set a standing goal, which can grant experience every time it occurs. I might like to award myself 100 points every time I get positive feedback from a customer, for example - not something I can easily schedule in advance as a 'quest'.

The dev seems pretty devoted, and also very vocal on his Facebook page at least. There's already an update waiting for review at Apple. Hopefully we're in for some good additions soon.

grinding RL is such a chore, I think I'll buy an account instead

I've not read it, but I think you're looking for "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss

Anyone find that RPGs don't seem like a natural/obvious/fundamental game genre -- they are more like an accident of history?

People who have not followed their ancestors in game evolution would probably find RPGs strange and arbitrary.

Strange is a word that doesn't mean very much. (My grandfather uses it a lot: for him, any food that's not obviously salty or sweet is simply "strange.")

There are few things in culture that are natural or fundamental. Except for brief periods of "cultural purification" such as the Akhnaten period in Ancient Egypt and 20th century Western modernism, civilizations seem to have a tendency towards more complex artistic forms that will appear strange and arbitrary to an observer who doesn't understand the context.

For example, I can't follow Japanese Noh theatre, but it's not inherently any more "difficult" than some piece in London's West End -- both require a huge amount of cultural background to be understood.

I always thought that RPG's make their impact by giving people a constant stream of small, finite rewards. Growing numbers and flashing lights are something that just seems to fill people with an addictive pleasure, e.g. slot machines.

What strikes you as unnatural about RPG's? Do you think there will be some kind of generational shift where their popularity will wane?

The stats, character classes, etc. are strange. There is no reason why a game should appear so complicated and require so much assumed knowledge.

Moreover, there seems to be way too much stuff to collect. And if keeping the right stuff is important, it's not at all clear what the tradeoffs are.

The quests tend to be rather similar and are not much fun.

There's also too much grinding.

BTW, I also find RTS games to be strange... sure they are a natural progression beyond games like chess, but they are not as fundamental as chess. There's too much to learn and it's not obvious why people would find them fun.

RPG simply grow out from pen-and-paper RPGs, which are basically collaborative storytelling.

> Moreover, there seems to be way too much stuff to collect. And if keeping the right stuff is important, it's not at all clear what the tradeoffs are.

I'd like to know what kind of RPGs you're talking about here. In most good RPGs (e.g. the great days of Black Isle & al), packratting is very much optional. Packratting tends to be a characteristic of A-RPG more than "Western" (aka "true") RPGs.

> The quests tend to be rather similar and are not much fun.

> There's also too much grinding.

Same question as above, a good RPG is a crafted experience, and a well crafted experience is terrific. Would you per chance be talking about MMORPGs?

> but they are not as fundamental as chess. There's too much to learn and it's not obvious why people would find them fun.

Chess and go and other such games are simplifications of war from a general's point of view. They're played by people who want to battle strategically without shedding blood. RTS are "realifications" of those, standing closer to actual wars. That's why they're fun: you build yourself, you set up strategy and tactics, you try to understand your opponent's and react to that, ...

As you say yourself, RTS games are a natural progression of simpler strategy games. Yes, they're more complicated, but isn't that exactly the kind of progression you'd expect?

Or, to rephrase, exactly how do you see games progressing within a genre if not by adding at least some complexity?

I'm not sure what's sadder, people that want to make lists and pretend they're playing a video game or people that play a video game that resembles real life in terms of having to complete a list of menial tasks...

I am reminded to work on my own RPG/life improvement hybrid web application.

I'd actually love the same kind of app for finances. It would be pretty easy to set short term goals automatically using Mint or another financial service.

I was actually thinking about how this might work while on my way to work this morning.

It's kind of a fun concept. Your scores are your money. I suppose it would also be good to have a levels system where you gain xp or ranks for juggling your finances well. You set goals for yourself, do daily tallies that give you a discreet "whistles and bells" review of all your gains and losses. When you meet important goals like making rent this month or paying down your credit card it lets you know what you can go out and buy or do with your remaining income, e.g. "You just paid down INSURANCE today! With your extra cash you can get yourself a BURRITO at UNION BURRITO!"

You could incorporate it with a wishlist so that it alerts when you've got enough to go out and buy that Upper Playground tshirt while still making rent this month.

Make it 0.99 and I'll buy without thinking. 2.99 makes me think.