Life Is An RPG

I always thought life seemed like an RPG.

You're always grinding for skill points, experience, money, and items. It's a game of accumulation and confrontation. College is accumulation. So is a car and a house. And the game is timed. We spend half our our lives accumulating the things we need to live well in the second half (or the final quarter for some).

We also spend time overcoming various obstacles and such as well as exploring everything in life; how everything relates to us and how we relate to it.

The goals depend on the player, as well as the terms of victory. But what's so funny about the game of life is that everything you gain goes when you're gone. At least for you.

In that way, life is (for most people) like a chain. Your life was preceded by another life, but you came during the other persons life and another life will begin from your own before yours ends. If you can keep nothing after death (whether death is the end or their is a heaven, you keep nothing earthly with you) it seems that the purpose of life is assuming the world from the people before you, and preparing the world for the people who will come after you. Ideally, this thought should foster a sense of brotherhood in everyone. That we all exist for the sake of someone else. That we exist because of others for others.

Ah well. But the best part seems to be that there is consequence. Without consequence, there is no fun. When you use cheat codes to play, after the exhilaration of being invulnerable or having a never ending amount of money, it gets very boring. I always thought that if I won a billion dollars, they would be a brief time where i would go crazy and spend till I got sick of it. Then, having all that money, I would most likely begin to seek out those things that could not get with any amount of money. Things like challenge and purpose, solving huge problems and all that (because, in fact, some problems get worse the more money you throw at it).

Because their is risk, you are able to enjoy going into the unknown, allocating time and effort to things that will improve you, staying clear of things that will harm or diminish you, and- like most players- I guess in the end, you'll have bragging rights. Other than those things we are able to pass on to others, we still retain bragging rights, like Alexander the Great. I don't think there is another undefeated general. (though I am suspecting Alexander is ix of legend than truth. Although he was probably was a superior general, I wouldn't be surprised if a defeat or two was blotted out of history)

I guess the game of life might be about three things. Accumulation, confrontation, and aspiration. In the open-ended RPG's, you can do what you want. Your actions determine the ending. In life, you can do what you want, but things have been placed to where doing somethings (for better or worse) will have consequences. Everyone has their sense of right, wrong, and passable, as well as every group of any and every size. These different opinions form great currents and knowing who you are, were you are, and the nature of things around you will give you a great advantage.

I think life is definitely a game, but the risks are real and because of that, fear prevents you from enjoying the games greatest potentials. Like those games where you can die in one hit, in life, you have to be resourceful and crafty. You have to plan ahead and be prepared.

And the absolute law of any person who plays RPG's and grinds for hours only to have their dog walk by and pull the plug out the wall, (and making you want to punt him through your living room window for a vein-popping ten seconds) if you don't like devoting precious time to something and then watching it get taken in the space of an instant from something unseen and unexpected, always have a back up or SAVE, SAVE, SAVE.