Important lesson I learned from playing RPG games

#TrueTalkTuesdays 70

As a kid born in the 80’s in the beginning of the video game era, I loved playing video games. I used to have every platform from Atari, Nintendo, Sega, TurboGrafix, Playstation, and of course playing on Macs and PCs as well.

While there are many games that I have fond memories of, only a few have had a real impact on my life in the sense that it changed my life perspective. The most profound realization wasn’t realized until after the game was over and I reflected back on it.

The type of game was an RPG, or Role Playing Game. This is a type of game that you are embodying a character and playing as him or her. Just as the name implies, you are role-playing, so ideally you make choices a character in that situation would. But in RPG games, they are more about you designing your character as you wish and having fun with it.

Anyhow, these types of games are typically very long, and you collect items and quests, and have to be cautious on your resources if you want to finish the game. Being a conservative individual, I only used items I absolutely had to, and saved everything else.

What ended up happening to me repeatedly is that I would finish the game with a stock pile of weapons, potions, scrolls, and items that I never used.

Was I efficient? Absolutely. But, I missed out on the fun of using these items and the experiences that go along with them. The goal of a game is not to finish it – but to enjoy it.

You can see the similarity here with life. If all you did was save all your money and worked 24/7, never spending any of it, you would be like my character at the end of your life – with stock piles of treasures but no time to use them.

I’m not saying that you should spend everything and live paycheck to paycheck either. Just like the video game, if you use all your resources early, you won’t make it to the end of the game. As in all things, you need to achieve balance.

So if you are grinding away your whole life and miserable, hoping one day you will be able to enjoy it, make sure you do have the time to enjoy the spoils of your work. Unfortunately, we do not get resets in life like video games, so you have to make this play-through count. 🙂

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

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