In many action-adventure video games, the player must undertake one mission at a time. Classic linear game design does not have the hero jumping back and forth between stages. The gamer must “beat” one level before advancing to the next one.
Gameplay involves other forms of “leveling up” as well. Players “unlock” and accumulate trophies, weapons, helpers, and new abilities. And sometimes there are stages of development (or “evolutions”) that the avatar (or the avatar’s pets) must progress through one at a time.
This leveling-up approach can also be useful for personal development IRL (in real life). Centuries before the first video game, Benjamin Franklin gamified his own self-improvement efforts in this way.
Franklin identified thirteen “necessary or desirable” virtues he wanted to attain, which he enumerated as follows:
Temperance
Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
Silence.
Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
Order.
Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution.
Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality.
Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i. e., waste nothing.
Industry.
Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity.
Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice.
Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation.
Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness.
Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
Tranquillity.
Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
Chastity.
Rarely use venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dulness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another's Peace or Reputation.
Humility.
Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
For Franklin, it was not enough to merely dabble in these virtues. He wanted to make them permanent conquests, lifelong character traits, and ingrained habits. He also understood that changing one’s habits is hard and requires great care and concentration. So he decided to focus on one virtue at a time. Only after beating that level and unlocking that virtue would he advance to the next one. As Franklin put it:
My intention being to acquire the habitude of all these virtues, I judg'd it would be well not to distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it on one of them at a time; and, when I should be master of that, then to proceed to another, and so on, till I should have gone thro' the thirteen…
In video games, the powers and prizes unlocked in one level often enable the hero to unlock further powers and prizes in the next. Similarly, Franklin sequenced the virtues he would successively seek so that winning one would help him win subsequent others:
…as the previous acquisition of some [virtues] might facilitate the acquisition of certain others, I arrang'd them with that view, as they stand above. Temperance first, as it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head, which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up, and guard maintained against the unremitting attraction of ancient habits, and the force of perpetual temptations. This being acquir'd and establish'd, Silence would be more easy; and my desire being to gain knowledge at the same time that I improv'd in virtue, and considering that in conversation it was obtain'd rather by the use of the ears than of the tongue, and therefore wishing to break a habit I was getting into of prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company, I gave Silence the second place. This and the next, Order, I expected would allow me more time for attending to my project and my studies. Resolution, once become habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavours to obtain all the subsequent virtues; Frugality and Industry freeing me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, etc., etc.
By taking this methodical, foundational, incremental, leveling-up approach to personal development, Benjamin Franklin became the template of the American “self-made man”: the kind of man who—as an entrepreneur, author, scientist, statesman, and more—could unlock a staggering string of achievements throughout an adventure-rich life.