One possibility is giving people a way to direct their emotions. For example, particularly hard problems could be delivered by a certain character, thereby redirecting the associations players have with the difficulty of the problem from the game itself to the character. The player would think upon seeing the character "Geez, not this jerk again."
This is sort of fascinating from a startup perspective. Small companies that get big still have this sort of vibe to them for the most part. Google was run out of a closet (read: spare space at Stanford) before it became a titan.
Sort of fitting that a man who taught at the University of Chicago and who has Larry Summers for an advisor would use economics for more than just balancing a national budget.