From Play to Purpose?: Reimagining Games as Vehicles for Human Development
- CIKS Anaadi
- 3 days ago
- 5 min read
Online games, through play, can enable a better future- but how? CIKS fellow and creator Dhruv shares his reflections in his latest blog.
Remember that promise I made in my last blog? About creating media that's just as magnetic as the content flooding our screens today, but infused with true value and meaning? Well, I'm about to reveal my secret weapon, and spoiler alert: it has power buttons and sometimes comes with joysticks.
Now before you think "just another gaming enthusiast overestimating their hobby," hold that thought. What I'm proposing represents two fundamental shifts that are completely transforming how we engage with media and design experiences. And trust me, it's about to get interesting.
The first shift is from passive to interactive media. For decades, we've been content to sit back while media happens to us—we watch, we listen, we scroll, we double-tap. The experience mostly flows one way—from screen to human. But evolution doesn't stop at spectatorship. We're wired to participate, to influence outcomes, to matter. Interactive media fulfills this deeper human need by transforming audiences from passive consumers into active participants who make decisions, receive feedback, and shape their own experiences. This isn't just a technological shift—it's the natural evolution of how humans want to engage with their world.
The second shift is equally powerful but rarely discussed outside game design circles: moving from Function-Focused Design to Human-Focused Design. This concept, brilliantly articulated by Yu-kai Chou in his book "Actionable Gamification," explains so much about what's wrong with our current systems.
Look around—our schools, workplaces, and health systems are mainly designed like efficient but soulless machines. They assume compliance rather than engagement. Get in, follow protocol, get out. But humans are terrible at being robots. We're emotional creatures who do things because they feel good, not just because they're logical. We'll spend hours mastering a difficult boss fight but groan at five minutes of required reading. The problem isn't our attention spans—it's systems that ignore our humanity.
Human-Focused Design flips the script. Instead of asking "What's the most efficient way to teach calculus?" it asks "What would make someone excited to learn calculus?"
It optimizes for emotion, motivation, and engagement as the foundation for designing the entire system. And this shift isn't optional—it's essential in a world where attention is the scarcest resource. Design that neglects human psychology is design that fails.
Now, where do these two shifts converge most powerfully? Games.
Games aren't just entertainment—they're the most advanced laboratories for Human-Focused, interactive design we have. The gaming industry pioneered these approaches not because developers were being altruistic, but because games face the ultimate design challenge: they must motivate people to engage in completely optional activities. No external pressures, no requirements—just pure voluntary engagement. And they've mastered it.
This is why games represent the proof of concept for what's possible when we truly design for human motivation. Game designers have spent decades learning how to keep people consistently engaged with challenging activities toward seemingly "purposeless" goals. They've mapped the terrain of human motivation with unprecedented precision.
And yet, we've applied these powerful insights primarily to... helping people collect virtual coins and defeat imaginary monsters. That's like developing nuclear fusion and using it exclusively to power Christmas lights. The potential is vastly undertapped.
This creates the most intriguing design challenge of our time: how do we bridge the gap between the motivational power of games and the systems that actually shape our lives?
Two complementary paths emerge:
First: How do we infuse games with more meaning? Most games are designed for entertainment, but what if we designed them deliberately to develop life skills, cultural values, and practical knowledge? What if the next battle royale also taught conflict resolution? What if the next building simulator fostered ecological awareness? Not as thinly veiled "educational games" that feel like broccoli dipped in chocolate, but as genuinely captivating experiences that happen to nurture growth?
Second: How do we infuse real-world systems with more game-like elements? What if school felt less like an assembly line and more like an epic quest? What if health apps didn't just track steps but transformed physical activity into adventures? What if workplace tasks came with the clear goals, immediate feedback, visible progress, sense of agency, and consistent coaching that make hobbies so much more engaging than work?
The real opportunity, though, lies in the fusion of these two paths. Imagine a world where there's no distinction between learning and play, between personal growth and entertainment. This isn't about gamifying systems as an afterthought—adding points and badges to dreary tasks—but reimagining systems from the ground up through the lens of human motivation and engagement. As the Sanskrit word "Leela" suggests (and the inspiration behind our company name, Leelaland), life itself is play—a divine, joyful dance of creation.
This is why I've chosen games as my primary medium. They represent the most sophisticated laboratory for understanding human motivation and engagement.
Games are unique in their ability to create intrinsic motivation, provide safe spaces to experiment and fail, make complex systems tangible, deliver personalized experiences at scale, and generate emotional engagement with abstract concepts.
What might this look like in practice? Imagine an educational system where a child's learning journey adapts to their unique curiosities, strengths, and growth edges. Lessons aren't just content delivery but challenges calibrated precisely to their skill level—difficult enough to be interesting but not so hard they give up. Feedback is immediate and constructive, progress is visible and meaningful, and collaboration is built into the fabric of learning rather than treated as cheating. Instead of counting minutes until dismissal, students can't wait to return tomorrow to continue their quests for knowledge.
For wellbeing, picture a system where mental health practices aren't something you force yourself to do because they're "good for you," but engaging experiences you look forward to. Meditation isn't a chore but an adventure inside your own consciousness. Therapy isn't just talking about problems but actively practicing new approaches in simulated scenarios with immediate feedback. Emotional regulation isn't an abstract concept but a skill you level up through regular, engaging practice.
This vision holds particular promise for India's aspiration to become a Vishwaguru (world teacher). India possesses both the technical talent in its rapidly growing gaming industry and the world's most sophisticated understanding of holistic wellbeing in its Sanatan traditions. What if we created game universes rooted in these timeless principles where players worldwide could experience concepts like dharma, karma, and interconnectedness not as abstract philosophy but as lived experience through their own choices and adventures?
You know what really gets me excited about all this though: there's an unmatched joy in designing experiences that light up people's faces. That moment when someone loses themselves in a world you've crafted, when they're growing without realizing they're growing, learning while thinking they're just having fun—this is what makes game design so deeply fulfilling. Creating these bridges between enjoyment and development, between ancient wisdom and modern engagement, between India's cultural heritage and the world's future needs—this is the path I've chosen.
Life itself is play. Let's play better.
This blog has been created as part of the CIKS Summer Fellowship 2024. Each fellow will share a series of blog posts summarizing their projects from the fellowship. Keep an eye out for the exciting work the fellows are doing.
About the Author: Dhruv Mahajan
Dhruv is an entrepreneur focused on solving for human wellbeing by designing video game experiences that not only entertain but also educate and heal. He shares a deep appreciation for the protocols of wellbeing that are rooted in Indic traditions. He has had formal training as a computer science engineer and sees video games as the most intuitive means to share Indic systems of wellbeing with the world.
