Jane McGonigal's book on gamification, Reality is Broken, includes quite a bit of detail about this similarity between work and games. The basic idea is that humans enjoy work if certain conditions are met, and games are designed to meet these conditions. She defines a game as having four elements:

  * Goals to be achieved that give the player a sense of purpose.
  * Rules that limit how the player can achieve said goals.
  * Feedback on the player's progress towards the goals the proves them to be attainable and motivates the player.
  * Voluntary participation by players aware of the rules and goals.

And then the further argument is that we can make the world a better place and people happier in general by bringing all of these game-style elements into work and everyday life. It's an interesting read, if a little one-sided.

On the flip side, the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Credits" features a dystopia in which most people spend their entire lives generating electricity by peddling on stationary bicycles to earn credits they can use to outfit a virtual persona. Let's hope that's not the logical conclusion of Farmville!