If an activity is an infinite game, then you don’t need motivation to do it. It’s more likely you need motivation to not do it too much. Like smoking.

If you play infinite games that are good for you, then that’s fine. I did my first 5k in 2005 and first marathon in 2009. I was addicted to running and got a lot of health benefits. Better than that, I ate as much as I wanted. I loved running, and I thought I would do it forever.

But all of that running did have downsides, and I had to give it up. It was hard. Last year, I was sidelined for six months because I injured a knee trying to re-incorporate running into my routine. That was enough to make me quit (I hope). I still think about doing it, though.

Bad habits are hard to break because you get an immediate benefit. The bad part usually comes in the long-term. When designing an infinite game, we need to keep the immediate benefit part. It’s best if that benefit is obvious when you are playing the game. Or at worst, you see improvement the next time you play.

This is easy at the beginning, which helps you get hooked. Couch to 5K is a good example. But as you improve, it gets harder for a small gain to seem significant. This happens for bad habits too, which is how you can eventually end up with a two-pack a day smoking habit.

Right now, I am trying to figure out an infinite game to learn Spanish. I really think that there’s no downside to do this, but I am really struggling to find a fun game with immediate benefits. My improvements are imperceptible to me. Maybe I just need to play longer each day for now to get more of a fix.