My Life as an RPG

Most people would agree that video games provide a rather unrealistic portrayal of the real world. Most of us can’t throw fireballs with our hands or double in size by consuming a mushroom. Even so, the fundamental principles of an RPG can provide some insight into how we go about making decisions in real life, though you may not have access to all the cheat codes.

A Balanced or Min/Max Approach

One of the biggest struggles that I face in my own life is this desire to do everything. I want to be a professional writer. I want to grow my YouTube channel. I want to start a podcast. I want to do more photography. I want to play more video games. I want to pursue this and I want to pursue that.

Of course, it is impossible to pursue everything. Any choice you make comes with an opportunity cost, particularly in terms of time and attention. The time that I am taking to write this blog post could be used to shoot more video or to edit more photos or to play more Street Fighter. By extension, the assumption is you get better at something the more you do it.

And this carries with it a profound choice. Do you balance your skills or do you focus on just one or two? Put in more of an RPG kind of way, do you spread out your attribute points or do you load up on strength? Typically, more powerful characters tend to be slower, more agile characters tend to be weaker, melee-oriented characters aren’t so great with magic, and so on. It’s a trade-off and not one to be taken lightly.

On Rupees and Experience Points

Money is generally viewed as a means to an end. You want to have more money (gems, rupees, gold, bells, or other items of currency) so you can buy a nicer car, a bigger house, or a more powerful shield. To get that money, sometimes you have to smash a few pots or complete a few tasks that don’t interest you directly.

They’re a means to an end. Gamers might be familiar with “grinding” it out so that you have enough money to buy this item or that item. The real world can oftentimes feel very similar, “grinding it out” at a 9-to-5 so you can pay for a certain lifestyle.

Conversely, there are quests and adventures that may not reward you with any gold at all, but the experience points are valuable unto themselves. You travel to exotic lands or go on that amazing hike not because it’ll move your career forward or pad your bank account. You do it for the experience that makes the game of life worth playing.

An Adventure at Your Level

If you’ve ever played an RPG (or any number of other game genres for that matter), then you’ve likely encountered the scenario where a stage, quest or area is not available to you until you’ve upgraded your character to a certain level. You can’t take on this mission until you’re at least a Level 10 Warrior.

And even when you do manage to unlock that quest, you could find that you’ll suffer significant damage and even fail the mission because you’re going in with just the minimum requirements. You might go back to earlier stages to earn more XP or gain more abilities before proceeding.

Real life can be much the same. You can’t have this job until you have this diploma, but you might not be hired until you manage to beef up your resume. You can’t compete for that project until you have these skills, but more experience will make the quest that much easier. But you’ll never know until you try.

An Open World with No Ending

In a RPG, you typically follow a natural progression. Your characters get more powerful, you encounter increasingly challenging enemies, and your worldview continues to expand. You unlock achievements and milestones, just like in real life. Publishing my own book was a big deal for me. Becoming a father was even bigger.

Perhaps more to the point, it may be more accurate to think of life as a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). There are multiple players, you can embark on quests as teams, and the game itself never really ends. Instead, it’s about the journey, the experience, and the story you create. It’s about exploring the open world. Life, like a game, is what you make of it.

And that’s true whether you’re a wizard, a ninja, a ranger, a paladin, a medic or a necromancer.