Summer '13

Summer time’s over. I guess a lot of you have gone on exciting trips to the beach, to the mountain or whatever wonderland of your own. I had my journey too. Actually, it’s a long one and not over yet. I’ve been through Lemonade Lake, Chocolate Mountains, Minty Meadow, Salty Canyon, visited Candy Town  and Peppermint Palace, just to name a few. LOL, now you know what I mean, right? I am on Candy Crush Saga (CCS). I spent almost 3 months of my summer for this game, managed to reach level 140 and I am not sure I’m gonna stop. CCS is way too popular on Facebook. When I played some first levels, I couldn’t believe this game was a real phenomenon that engages millions of monthly players. It was just the old concept of Jewel wrapped in a new look. But as I played on, I found myself automatically addicted to it. Playing CCS was supposed to be the first thing I did in the morning after waking up; even when I closed my eyes, all I could visualize is colorful candies stripping, exploding; all I could hear in my head are: “Sweet”, “Delicious”, “Divine”, … I was obsessed!

My current crush ;)

What I want to say in this blog is not how addicted I am to CCS, but rather some interesting unusual thoughts I have about this game. CCS somehow possesses many qualities of my dream work, i.e. I’m gonna make a comparison between CCS and work.   

The first quality lies in goals. In CCS, there are hundreds of levels, each of which has a specific goal. It’s what keeps you going and achieving. When you work, you need to know what you want to/must achieve. The power of goals should never be underestimated.

Secondly, think about what engages you in CCS. In working, you need the same thing to keep the bond between you and your job.

i) Interesting and changing activities: CCS is fun to play because it can become really challenging and it offers a wide range of tasks, from clearing jelly, moving ingredients to the bottom, collecting orders, to getting X points in Y seconds/moves… In a similar way, we don’t want to do the same boring job every day. If we aren’t lucky enough to get an exciting job, we at least need a breath of fresh air now and then.

ii) Progress: In CCS, once you complete a level, you move on to the next and go a little further in your saga. You like the feeling of accomplishment, don’t you? In a work, we love to see things done and progress, too.

iii) Bonus: In CCS, often when you’ve just unlocked a new episode, you will be given a useful booster. I always enjoy this special gift, not because it helped me out a lot, but because I feel content when rewarded with something.  The same method of motivation can be applied to work. A job would be more attractive if you know you can draw something from it ;)

The next important characteristic that a workplace should have is the motivating environment. CCS gives me a sense of solidarity and emulation, both of which are crucial to development. Solidarity is when we send lives, extra moves and ticket pass to our CCS friends while emulation is when we strive to overtake our friends in the CCS adventure. It’s bittersweet to be in glory one day then wake up the next morning just to find out we have already been left behind! An ideal working environment needs to comprise co-operative yet competitive colleagues so that we are always propelled into exertion. CCS has taught me well about “give and take”.

After sometime, I’ve drawn some lessons for myself as to how to succeed in CCS. I think these elements of success are also true to your professional life:

i) To start with, just follow the rules. For almost a third of CCS levels, it works! You just need to keep in mind which ingredients make which combination and how that combination would help you clear the candies. For most entry-level employees, I believe the process is somewhat similar. Doing what you are told to and respecting the rules, you are playing it safe.

However, there are times everything is not so easy to work out. Then you have to try something different.

ii) Plan your moves. When I first play CCS, I didn’t really think it was a brain game because I literally swapped two candies randomly and still nailed it. But there came a day I was stuck in a level and couldn’t play the random game anymore. This was when I decided to start planning my moves. Of course I couldn’t calculate all my moves, but planning did help me pass that level. The further I go in CCS, the more I realize the importance of using your brain instead of relying on some kind of luck to put you through difficulty.

iii) “Failure is the mother of success”, what an old saying, but it’s always true. You have to try and try again before achieving something. Sometimes, I spent nearly a week to pass a level. I played it again like 30 times per day, which makes over a hundred times per week. But I am glad I didn’t give up.

When I started writing this, I admit it was for fun and I would use it as an argument to make excuses for my lazy bygone summer days spent on games and all. But it turns out that when I look deep below the surface, I discover things that really make sense. CCS is not a merely entertaining, time - wasting, famous-by-chance game but a platform where you come, play and learn.