I love playing RPGs, or Role Playing Games.
This ranges from just RPGs on console, like Playstation, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, to MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online RPG) online.
Where you get to interact with other players and trade with others and stuff.
I'll describe what an average RPG or MMORPG is like.
RPG typically follows a storyline, the main character forms a team, they level up, gain better equipment to fight a final boss who typically wants to destroy the world, in between the story, the main character will travel across the world to search for items or abilities or friends to help with the conquest.
For an MMORPG, there are many similarities as there are differences. Typically, there isn't a final completable storyline. You just play and keep training, gaining gold, items, you usually play as one character only. If you gain friends, they are real life other players who are connected online. You can trade with others, duel with others, called PvP or player vs player. You can travel the world, but there's no storyline behind it so you can travel alone to fight normal monsters or you can team up with your friends to fight bigger boss monsters.
I've realized how you play RPG or MMORPGs really give an indication of how you live your life.
For example. When I play MMORPGs, I play the game for a short time, level up to an appropriate enough level, where it is efficient to train until. Cos most MMORPGs will let you level up until a certain level easily, then anything further than that will be really tough to level up. So I will reach around this level, then I will move on to trade. So I buy items from other players and resell them at higher rates. And I spend most of my time selling stuff. I hardly even play the game for the purposes of training anymore. Usually, I will trade and earn money til I can buy almost all the best items, and yet I will still be of lower level than my friends. Cos my friends will continue to level up and train like what the game was meant to be. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy playing the game by trading and yet, trading isn't supposed to be the way the game is meant to be played. You are supposed to go out and kill monsters and level up.
I compare that with my real life and I find many similarities. I worked and reached a high enough post where I can earn money efficiently and yet still have a good work life balance and saved up my money. Then I left to try to find something else to do. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't really have an inefficient market like in games for trading of items. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy doing what I want to be doing, instead of doing what everyone else is doing. Some people may think I'm not living the way life should be cos many people think that life should be about accumulating stuff, and yet when I play the game or live life, who cares right? As long as you're happy playing the game or how you live your life, who is to say what is right or wrong, cos the main objective to play the game or live is to be happy. If you aren't happy, playing game or living, then why are you even bothering to do either?
Then there's this thing called grinding or farming. Grinding is something you do repetatively. Like grinding a millstone, so you can grind for levels or you can grind killing monsters hoping that a particular monster will drop something good. Farming is typically killing monsters for their items or gold. Usually an efficient monster where the effort to kill is low and the drop rates are better than average. Many people hate grinding or farming. It's boring. But it's gotta be done to get better. And I think, sometimes, if you understand that grinding to reach a certain level and then moving on is fine. Like if you are saving up for some high powered equipment and you farm for a week killing the same monster, I think that's quite ok, or you want to reach a certain level so you kill the same monsters for 2 weeks to reach whatever level which allows you to fight a bigger monsters. That's probably fine too. But I know some people train for the sake of training. Like they just HAVE to reach the max level. And they grind for days and months just to "complete" the game by reaching the max level. And yet they don't enjoy the grinding. And when they reach max level, they lose interest in the game. So in my mind I'm thinking. Then why are they grinding? They make it a chore, and yet after they finish the chore, they stop playing cos they've nothing more to do after that.
It's like playing Pokemon GO. I'm sure many of you played it. I played it too. Well... sorta... I didn't like the idea of playing Pokemon GO. I'm the kinda person who doesn't like it that society has reached a point where people don't interact with the here and now and they spend much of their time on the phones when the people they should be talking to are right in front of them. But I'll probably do another post on that next time. Today is about games. So I "played" Pokemon GO. I didn't like that the game knew where I was, I didn't like the game made people glued to their phones like zombies. So I didn't play it the normal way... you get what I mean? *cough* I caught them all in like 4 weeks... Even those overseas in Australia, USA, Europe, Japan *cough* and let me tell you, even if you don't play it the normal way, it's not easy to catch them all. So for folks who said they played it legitly and caught them all within a month, I highly doubt they played normally. So after I caught them all, I lost interest cos there was nothing left to do. Similarly, I had a friend who really played it normally and caught all the Pokemon available in Singapore. He played it religiously like so many other Singaporeans. The way I hated it cos he neglected his children, the people around him, etc. He did it like a chore, and after he caught them all, he lost interest and stopped playing. THEN WHY DID HE PLAY IT FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE? He even spent real money buying virtual stuff!!
I see people like this all the time. Rushing through their lives or activities like they were just chores. That things will settle down when they reach... 50, 60, whatever age. Well, life never settles down. There's always something else you want, something else you want to do. You have to settle down your own life. Most people just keep pushing for more. More this, more that, more money, bigger car, etc. And at the end of their life, what is the most important? Health, family, the people around you. I'm not saying they are mutually exclusive. You can have both health AND money. But many people do sacrifice health for money, in terms of stress, sleepless nights, high blood pressure, etc. But it IS possible to win them all. Some people can win them all, some can't and it's important to know where you stand and prioritize which battle you want to win.
So life is really like playing a game. Have you lost the fun of the game since you started? Are you farming or grinding and it has become a chore? Sometimes people grind so long in games that after they grind for so long, and they have reached their objective level or gold target, they log in the next day and they don't know what to do next. Cos they are so used to logging in and grinding, that they aren't able to play the game normally and enjoy it for what it is anymore. Has work become like this? That after you reach a certain level of financial security, people just continue working cos they don't know what else is there to do with their lives? Cos it's so easy to wake up and just change and go to work? Look at children. They play, give them more time, they continue to play. Give adults more time and they don't know what to do.
So really. Remember what you are living for. Remember why you are playing your game.
You play games for fun and enjoy the process. Same as living. If you need money, grind and farm. But remember there's more to life than just grinding and farming. There's many other things to do and you need to do them. Relax and play the game and enjoy it. Else what's the point in playing anyway.
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This ranges from just RPGs on console, like Playstation, Sega Saturn, Sega Genesis, to MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online RPG) online.
Where you get to interact with other players and trade with others and stuff.
I'll describe what an average RPG or MMORPG is like.
RPG typically follows a storyline, the main character forms a team, they level up, gain better equipment to fight a final boss who typically wants to destroy the world, in between the story, the main character will travel across the world to search for items or abilities or friends to help with the conquest.
For an MMORPG, there are many similarities as there are differences. Typically, there isn't a final completable storyline. You just play and keep training, gaining gold, items, you usually play as one character only. If you gain friends, they are real life other players who are connected online. You can trade with others, duel with others, called PvP or player vs player. You can travel the world, but there's no storyline behind it so you can travel alone to fight normal monsters or you can team up with your friends to fight bigger boss monsters.
I've realized how you play RPG or MMORPGs really give an indication of how you live your life.
For example. When I play MMORPGs, I play the game for a short time, level up to an appropriate enough level, where it is efficient to train until. Cos most MMORPGs will let you level up until a certain level easily, then anything further than that will be really tough to level up. So I will reach around this level, then I will move on to trade. So I buy items from other players and resell them at higher rates. And I spend most of my time selling stuff. I hardly even play the game for the purposes of training anymore. Usually, I will trade and earn money til I can buy almost all the best items, and yet I will still be of lower level than my friends. Cos my friends will continue to level up and train like what the game was meant to be. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy playing the game by trading and yet, trading isn't supposed to be the way the game is meant to be played. You are supposed to go out and kill monsters and level up.
I compare that with my real life and I find many similarities. I worked and reached a high enough post where I can earn money efficiently and yet still have a good work life balance and saved up my money. Then I left to try to find something else to do. Unfortunately, the real world doesn't really have an inefficient market like in games for trading of items. And I'm ok to be of lower level than other people. I'm happy doing what I want to be doing, instead of doing what everyone else is doing. Some people may think I'm not living the way life should be cos many people think that life should be about accumulating stuff, and yet when I play the game or live life, who cares right? As long as you're happy playing the game or how you live your life, who is to say what is right or wrong, cos the main objective to play the game or live is to be happy. If you aren't happy, playing game or living, then why are you even bothering to do either?
Then there's this thing called grinding or farming. Grinding is something you do repetatively. Like grinding a millstone, so you can grind for levels or you can grind killing monsters hoping that a particular monster will drop something good. Farming is typically killing monsters for their items or gold. Usually an efficient monster where the effort to kill is low and the drop rates are better than average. Many people hate grinding or farming. It's boring. But it's gotta be done to get better. And I think, sometimes, if you understand that grinding to reach a certain level and then moving on is fine. Like if you are saving up for some high powered equipment and you farm for a week killing the same monster, I think that's quite ok, or you want to reach a certain level so you kill the same monsters for 2 weeks to reach whatever level which allows you to fight a bigger monsters. That's probably fine too. But I know some people train for the sake of training. Like they just HAVE to reach the max level. And they grind for days and months just to "complete" the game by reaching the max level. And yet they don't enjoy the grinding. And when they reach max level, they lose interest in the game. So in my mind I'm thinking. Then why are they grinding? They make it a chore, and yet after they finish the chore, they stop playing cos they've nothing more to do after that.
It's like playing Pokemon GO. I'm sure many of you played it. I played it too. Well... sorta... I didn't like the idea of playing Pokemon GO. I'm the kinda person who doesn't like it that society has reached a point where people don't interact with the here and now and they spend much of their time on the phones when the people they should be talking to are right in front of them. But I'll probably do another post on that next time. Today is about games. So I "played" Pokemon GO. I didn't like that the game knew where I was, I didn't like the game made people glued to their phones like zombies. So I didn't play it the normal way... you get what I mean? *cough* I caught them all in like 4 weeks... Even those overseas in Australia, USA, Europe, Japan *cough* and let me tell you, even if you don't play it the normal way, it's not easy to catch them all. So for folks who said they played it legitly and caught them all within a month, I highly doubt they played normally. So after I caught them all, I lost interest cos there was nothing left to do. Similarly, I had a friend who really played it normally and caught all the Pokemon available in Singapore. He played it religiously like so many other Singaporeans. The way I hated it cos he neglected his children, the people around him, etc. He did it like a chore, and after he caught them all, he lost interest and stopped playing. THEN WHY DID HE PLAY IT FOR IN THE FIRST PLACE? He even spent real money buying virtual stuff!!
I see people like this all the time. Rushing through their lives or activities like they were just chores. That things will settle down when they reach... 50, 60, whatever age. Well, life never settles down. There's always something else you want, something else you want to do. You have to settle down your own life. Most people just keep pushing for more. More this, more that, more money, bigger car, etc. And at the end of their life, what is the most important? Health, family, the people around you. I'm not saying they are mutually exclusive. You can have both health AND money. But many people do sacrifice health for money, in terms of stress, sleepless nights, high blood pressure, etc. But it IS possible to win them all. Some people can win them all, some can't and it's important to know where you stand and prioritize which battle you want to win.
So life is really like playing a game. Have you lost the fun of the game since you started? Are you farming or grinding and it has become a chore? Sometimes people grind so long in games that after they grind for so long, and they have reached their objective level or gold target, they log in the next day and they don't know what to do next. Cos they are so used to logging in and grinding, that they aren't able to play the game normally and enjoy it for what it is anymore. Has work become like this? That after you reach a certain level of financial security, people just continue working cos they don't know what else is there to do with their lives? Cos it's so easy to wake up and just change and go to work? Look at children. They play, give them more time, they continue to play. Give adults more time and they don't know what to do.
So really. Remember what you are living for. Remember why you are playing your game.
You play games for fun and enjoy the process. Same as living. If you need money, grind and farm. But remember there's more to life than just grinding and farming. There's many other things to do and you need to do them. Relax and play the game and enjoy it. Else what's the point in playing anyway.
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