There is a fundamental difference between people who play and people who work and it is not what you think it is. It has more to do with attitude than with games.

Game designer Jane McGonigal defines games as "Games are unnecessary obstacles that we volunteer to tackle." A player's perspective of life is to have a challenge mindset. Everything that comes on your path is an obstacle you want to tackle. A player will do anything to prolong play to do more to be challenged that little bit extra. So if you have a player mentality you do the things you do for their inherit quality.

The worker on the other hand does thing for what we call price. He wants the play to stop. He goes to school for a diploma and goes to work for money and play games to win. The problem is that this state is paradoxical. You play to stop playing. You do not enjoy the process for its own sake. The end goal is to not play anymore and if the goal is reached weather it is a price, money or a diploma.

At any given moment in our career we can choose what we do. Are we going to be a player or a worker? Who will you be?