Life as a Player

Today, I want to talk about a revelation I got from my Hungarian friend, Peter. When I got home and told him about my purposeful walk by the bridge, he asked me to see it from yet another angle: ‘What if we could watch ourselves live our lives as though we are controlling our characters in World of Warcraft?’ In actual fact, we are in control of our lives after all… I had such an AHA moment when he said that. I could absolutely picture myself with my right hand on the mouse and my left hand on the keyboard, and my eyes looking at the character from a helicopter view.

If indeed I could live my life and watch it play out the way I play StarletFudge (my character name) on World of Warcraft… I would not take my life so seriously and have more fun in the process, like I do when I’m playing the game. I would feel like I’m in control, not like life happened to me like a victim. I would see myself from the bigger picture perspective instead of focusing on the minute details.

So, say for example, how am I living my life right now? My business is me trying to level up to 120. Every business problem is a quest; my wealth is the gold I accumulate, the runes and things I pick up along the way are the skills and connections I’ve made that over time will transform into gold one way or another. I would join quests with colleagues, some on small quests, some on more long-term quests. Sometimes quests fail and we redo them again and again - thats a pivot. My siblings are on their own quests from time to time; we may trade a rune or two, or an armor or two, or even some gold.

I felt somewhat liberated when I saw my life as a game that I am in 100% control of. Of course, there are many other factors involved: emotions, religion, and whatnot. But if I could enjoy it despite all that complexity, I think I could really live a darn good life!