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As I studied history, I discovered the profound influence of game mechanics on human life. This inevitably led me to explore evolutionary psychology, which helped me understand how my own mind works. Through games, I came to understand thinking and behavior mechanisms shaped by millions of years of evolution. This realization enabled me to develop unique strategies for mental development. After all, the better we understand how our brain works, the more effectively we can use its potential.
But before we dive into practice, let’s delve deeper into understanding the power of game mechanics and their influence on our brain. Because it is this deep awareness that is key to effectively performing exercises and unlocking the mind's potential.
When our primate ancestors came down from the trees, they had to adapt to new conditions that required more complex forms of social interaction. The ability to form groups, coordinate actions, and build hierarchies became a key survival factor.
There are many hypotheses about this transition. One suggests that food scarcity forced human ancestors to forage on the ground. Bipedalism gave them an advantage—standing upright, they could spot predators from a distance and react in advance.
However, in this new, more dangerous world, loners had little chance of survival. To survive, it was necessary to develop universal social strategies beyond those used by tree-dwelling primates. This led to the complication of the social game mechanic, which eventually became the foundation of human society.
Over time, group interaction became more important than individual strength. Those who could negotiate and find their place in the social hierarchy were more likely to leave offspring.
In today’s world, the power of the social game mechanic is obvious. But if we look deeper, we’ll see how deeply it is embedded in our minds.
Ever felt afraid to stand out from the crowd? Or noticed anxiety rising inside when you feared judgment or rejection? These reactions seem normal, but they are in fact a legacy of millions of years of evolution.
In the wild, group rejection meant a death sentence. If you were exiled from the tribe, it almost certainly meant death. That’s why the fear of rejection so strongly influences our thoughts and actions. We seek acceptance and look for our tribe.
📌 Group choice is a survival strategy. Instinctively, we prefer being in a community, even if it doesn’t fit us perfectly, rather than being alone.
Look at punishment systems. The harshest penalty has always been exile.
Even today, in the 21st century, the harshest prison punishment is solitary confinement.
What was the most painful experience in childhood?
Not a bruise from a fall, but the fear of being rejected by peers or shaming the family.
Our brain perceives social rejection more acutely than physical pain because, for our ancestors, it meant mortal danger. Being outside the tribe meant losing protection, access to resources, and a chance at survival.
And though the world has changed, this mechanism still governs us, making us fear judgment, seek approval, and look for our place in the social hierarchy.
This mechanism is so deeply embedded in us that even virtual interaction can activate it. That’s why people can spend hours on social media—their brains perceive it as real social interaction.
🔹 The better we understand social game mechanics, the more consciously we can use them.
📌 Thus, evolution turned social interaction into one of the most important game mechanics, one we continue to play to this day.
Now let’s look at modern technology and games through the lens of game mechanics.
One could say that Facebook is a game. People spend time there, enjoy it, build businesses and influence—but essentially, it’s all built on game mechanics.
To simplify:
📌 Rule: “Post a message or update.”
📌 Game mechanic ‘Society’: Add friends, get likes, comments, engage with your audience.
Now consider other popular platforms:
Twitter/X
TikTok
These platforms function like mini-games—simple in mechanics but incredibly powerful in impact. When we debunked the myth of gamification, we saw that games don’t need fancy graphics. The simplest mechanics, plus the “social” element, can make a product so engaging that people spend hours, days, even years in it.
📌 Want your game or project to become popular? Add the “Society” game mechanic.
Society gives the game power. Remove the social mechanic from today’s popular games, and their popularity would plummet.
Throughout evolution, the brain developed a reward strategy in the form of dopamine bursts—a neurotransmitter responsible for motivation and pleasure.
What gave ancient humans pleasure? Actions that increased their survival chances:
📌 Note: All these same mechanics are used in modern games and social platforms!
Let’s examine the connection between evolution and game mechanics through the example of a popular game like Dota 2 (applicable to many other games too).
It features 9 game mechanics that trigger dopamine spikes:
1️⃣ Characters and skins. Status instinct: the ability to stand out.2️⃣ Teamwork. Social instinct: cooperation toward a common goal.3️⃣ Skill mastery. The better you play, the higher your chances—analogous to “develop skills to survive.”4️⃣ Artifact collection. The ancient instinct to gather resources.5️⃣ Competition. Winning triggers dopamine because humans competed for resources for millennia.6️⃣ Many heroes and combinations. Curiosity instinct: exploring possibilities.7️⃣ Ranks and rewards for victory. Status mechanic: higher rank equals more respect.8️⃣ Tournaments and prize money. Another level of the status mechanic.9️⃣ Dynamic gameplay. Constant change keeps attention focused—similar to hunting or life-or-death battle.
📌 In games, we experience the same emotions as in real life, but without risk. The brain doesn’t differentiate between virtual and real achievements—dopamine is released in both cases.
That’s why social media and games can be addictive.
For the brain, there’s no difference: whether real people applaud or you get a “like.”
Today, people argue, fall in love, earn money, and express creativity—online.
I’ve experienced this myself.
📌 I was addicted to games.
📌 I obsessively checked social media, waiting for likes.
📌 I got upset if someone disliked my content.
We know this behavior is irrational, yet changing our thoughts and reactions is extremely difficult.
Modern tech amplifies this effect. Today, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat have replaced TV—all using the same game mechanics to hold user attention.
As anthropologist Gregory Bateson said, “Everything has its measure; beyond it, even oxygen, sleep, psychotherapy, or philosophy can become toxic.”
The same applies to entertainment and information consumption.
These platforms can distract and cause addiction, but they also became powerful tools.
Today, the internet is a new arena for artists, entrepreneurs, and educators.
📌 The internet is like a teenager—structured and full of character, yet still growing and seeking identity. Gamification is in infancy—taking first steps, learning to interact, evolving through trial and error. And artificial intelligence, like a newborn, is just beginning to realize its potential, learning rapidly and requiring careful guidance from humanity.
When we talk about numbers, scores, and point systems, we must understand that this is not just mathematical abstraction. It's an evolutionary necessity embedded in our consciousness over tens of thousands of years.
Imagine: our ancestors lived in a world where keeping precise track of resources could mean the difference between life and death.
🔹 How much food is left for winter?
🔹 How many warriors does our tribe have compared to the neighbors?
🔹 How many kilometers to the nearest water source?
Primitive people who learned to track quantities gained a survival advantage. Those who could count and plan survived more often, and thus passed those skills down through generations.
The first "point game mechanic" appeared when people began making notches on sticks.
💡 Imagine a hunter keeping track of deer caught.
One notch – one deer.
At first, it was just a memory aid. But over time, people began to see more than marks—they saw symbols conveying meaning.
That’s how the metaphor of numbers was born.
Then came numerals.
Now "5" wasn’t just five lines on wood—it was a concept that could be managed.
Thousands of years passed—and today we can't imagine life without numbers.
Our subconscious treats numbers as survival indicators.
📌 100 sacks of wheat – the tribe survives the winter.
📌 45 sacks – we need to ration immediately.
This instinct still drives our behavior.
✅ Bank account balance – and your heart skips a beat if it’s lower than expected.
✅ Likes on social media – and your brain either lights up or feels disappointed.
Though these numbers pose no real-life threat, our brain still interprets them as key indicators of success, resource, or danger.
That’s why the “points” game mechanic is so powerful.
As civilization advanced, numbers became more central to our reality.
Today, nearly every sphere of life is governed by a points mechanic:
📌 Education – grades and GPA
📌 Economy – money and bank accounts
📌 Social media – followers and likes
📌 Sports – points, records, rankings
Look how games work:
And in real life we see the same:
Numbers have become the language of the game humanity plays.
When I realized the depth of the points mechanic, I saw the Theory of 100 in a new light.
The Theory of 100 isn’t just a technique—it’s a mini-system of game mechanics:
I used to see it as just an exercise, but now I recognize that this number hides a powerful structure that creates progress, goal achievement, and a sense of completion.
Why 100?
The number 100 is unique.
On one hand, 100% symbolizes completeness, a full cycle. We see it in percentages, grades, progress bars.
And this is not just my interpretation. The number 100 carries weight across various life domains:
The number 100 is more than just a number.
Probably not.
100 feels like scale, ambition, a summit climb. It’s not just a number—it’s a structure that drives development.
And 100 is the number that forces you to dive deeper, explore, and change your perception.
It turned out to be the key that opened new horizons for me.
When we hear the word "metaphor," we often think of literary devices, poetry, or elegant comparisons. I used to think the same.
But over time, I realized that metaphors permeate our lives much more deeply. Psychologists, philosophers, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists study how metaphorical thinking shapes our perception of reality, helps us make sense of complex phenomena, and even influences our decisions.
In the world of game mechanics, metaphor takes on a new dimension. It becomes not just a descriptive tool but a bridge between the concrete and the abstract, the real and the imagined.
Let’s explore metaphor as a game mechanic—a tool that permeates our reality and shapes how we see the world.
We’re used to numbers and don’t realize that they too are metaphors.
Why are numbers metaphors?
Take the number "100." It carries no physical meaning—you can’t touch, smell, or taste it. Yet our brain automatically assigns it significance:
Thousands of years ago, our ancestors made marks on sticks to track food, animals, or days. Over time, those marks became numbers, and numbers became a universal language. Numbers are metaphors for real things, such as:
Numbers are not just abstract symbols. They are linked to real phenomena and thus serve the same function as metaphors—they connect the abstract to the tangible.
Even scientific thinking is rooted in metaphors. Physics formulas like E=mc² are not just mathematical expressions—they are metaphorical constructs that help us grasp reality.
Think about it:
Yet when we see the formula E=mc², we instantly understand it as a profound truth about mass-energy equivalence.
Why?
Because our brain links abstract symbols to real phenomena. We use metaphors to explain complex concepts that otherwise defy description.
What if the universe itself is built on metaphor?
Take E=mc² again.
It tells us that energy and mass are essentially the same thing, just in different forms.
But isn’t that amazing?
They seem entirely different, but the formula shows they’re fundamentally connected.
This principle appears everywhere. In the universe, there’s constant transformation—like an endless game of change:
This suggests that the universe operates as a metaphorical system where different elements are just different aspects of the same reality.
Human thinking is built on the same principle. We constantly connect the unconnected:
We use symbols to manage reality. We look at a number on a bank statement and perceive it as a real resource—though it's just an abstraction.
Likewise, physical laws don’t just describe reality—they shape it through relationships.
That’s why metaphor isn’t just a literary tool—it’s a fundamental game mechanic embedded in the nature of our world.
Why can we consider metaphor a game mechanic? Because games themselves are metaphorical.
Take chess—one of the most iconic games in history. It’s just a board with 64 squares and 32 pieces. But for a player, it’s a battlefield, where a war of minds unfolds. Chess players don’t just move wooden figures—they immerse themselves in warfare, strategy, tactics, and anticipation. They aren’t just playing—they’re waging war.
That’s why chess tournaments are seen as grand battles, and top players are revered as strategic geniuses. Victory in chess isn’t just about clever moves—it’s a symbol of intellectual triumph.
In video games, we enter imaginary worlds, yet they function according to real-world laws we understand. Even in fantasy settings, players perceive a metaphorical link to reality:
Games turn abstract ideas into comprehensible metaphors.
In truth, humans perceive the world through metaphors. Our brain doesn’t see “four legs and a flat surface”—it automatically interprets it as a “table.”
This principle works everywhere:
Each person interprets a place differently, because each of us carries our own metaphors. An office to one is just a room—to another, it's where they spend most of their life.
The human mind doesn’t perceive the world as a list of objects. It interprets it through metaphors.
Take a simple example—water.
Scientifically, water is just H₂O. That’s the basic, undisputed fact.
But how does a person really perceive water?
Imagine three glasses of water:
1️⃣ Tap water
2️⃣ Fresh spring water, blessed in a ritual
3️⃣ Water purified from urine using space tech
Chemically, they’re the same—H₂O.
But our minds react differently. We assign meaning to each:
This is metaphorical thinking—we perceive not just physical essence, but symbolic meaning.
One day I was sitting in a restaurant with friends and shared this water story.
Suddenly, a woman at the table said:
“My grandfather would’ve chosen the water purified from urine and drunk it like champagne!”
We were stunned.
She explained:
“My grandfather was one of the Soviet scientists who developed water filtration technology for cosmonauts. When they first successfully turned urine into drinkable water, it was a monumental breakthrough. They literally opened the door to long-term space missions!”
And that’s the key insight: for us, that water is disgusting—but for her grandfather, it was a symbol of victory, achievement, technology, progress.
Same object — different metaphors, different perceptions.
This principle applies everywhere:
📌 Food at a restaurant is one thing—but when your mom cooks it, it feels different.
📌 A simple T-shirt becomes a “lucky shirt” after winning a competition in it.
📌 The number "100" turns into a symbol of completion, purpose, ambition.
We live in a metaphorical space, and recognizing this helps us understand how our mind works.
Humans have used metaphors since ancient times to explain complex ideas and phenomena they couldn’t express directly.
📌 Why is climbing a mountain a symbol of growth?
Because physical ascent requires effort, overcoming obstacles, and willpower. Over time, it became a metaphor for personal development: “rising above fears,” “reaching a new level.”
📌 Why does someone "hit rock bottom" when struggling?
Because a fall downwards symbolizes loss of control, weakness, destruction.
📌 Why is a circle a symbol of completeness?
Because the sun, coins, ancient amulets—all are circular shapes associated with protection, stability, life cycles.
Metaphors help us interpret abstract concepts through familiar physical sensations. That’s why religion, philosophy, psychology, art are all based on metaphorical imagery.
Religious texts are full of metaphors because they explain the unseen through the seen.
📌 In Christianity, the "Kingdom of Heaven" isn’t a physical place—it’s a metaphor for a spiritual state.
📌 In Buddhism, "enlightenment" isn’t literal light—it’s internal clarity of mind.
📌 In Taoism, "The Way" (Dao) isn’t a road—it’s a metaphor for the natural flow of life.
People in ancient times thought in metaphors much more deeply than we do today. For them, every event had symbolic meaning, and the world felt alive and full of signs.
Today’s society, focused on logic and technology, has largely lost that capacity. However, metaphors still govern our thinking, even if we’re not aware of it.
Think about how we describe life and growth:
It is through metaphors that we construct our mental models of the world.
Try an experiment: for 100 days, record your dreams and analyze their metaphorical meaning.
You’ll see that in dreams:
🐍 A snake might symbolize fear or wisdom.
🕷 A spider – tension or hidden threats.
🏔 A mountain – an obstacle to overcome.
🐅 A predator – internal conflict, aggression, or strength.
Our subconscious doesn’t speak in letters—it speaks in images.
In this sense, metaphors are the language of the mind, and studying their structure helps us better understand ourselves.
When we add new game mechanics, the game begins to change, transform, and evolve.
📌 Imagine adding the game mechanic "society" to football—now you have fans, clubs, world championships. Football becomes more than a game—it becomes a global phenomenon.
📌 The same happened with the Theory of 100.
Originally, it was a simple system:
But when I added the metaphor mechanic, the Theory of 100 turned into Portals.
The addition of new mechanics changed the perception of the game. It wasn’t just an exercise anymore—it became a world of new possibilities.
Theory of 100 is just counting to 100.
Portals are journeys into new realities, where thinking begins to operate differently.
📌 Theory of 100 is like football without a scoreboard. You can play, but it’s more exciting with points.
📌 Portals are like football with a full league, tournaments, and a development system.
Portals became a more advanced game because they develop the mind through metaphor.
For example, in Theory of 100, you simply complete actions. But in Portals, you start to realize that you’re traveling in a new reality.
📌 “If I’m in this situation—then it’s part of the game. What lesson is this?”
This unlocks a whole new level of awareness and thinking.
In this chapter, we’ve taken a fascinating journey through the evolution of human thinking—from ancient instincts to modern technologies. We’ve seen how deeply game mechanics are embedded in the structure of our consciousness, and how metaphors shape our perception of reality.
We’ve explored:
These mechanics, formed over millennia, continue to guide our behavior, emotions, and choices—even in virtual spaces. They are invisible frameworks that turn life into a game, and the mind into its most advanced player.
In the next chapter, we will dive deeper into how consciousness works—viewing it as a system of “apps,” each with its own function. We’ll explore how evolutionary programs influence our behavior and learn to use this knowledge for personal growth.
Remember: just as metaphor transforms the abstract into the tangible, and game mechanics turn routine into a captivating journey, our understanding of the mind can turn mere existence into a conscious, meaningful life.
We are standing at the threshold of a new era—an era of conscious development through game mechanics.
And this is not just a theory, but a practical path to unlocking the full potential of the human mind.
Let’s take the next step on this extraordinary journey together.
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