It’s been a few years since I started thinking, “Life should be played like a game. Or maybe it’s been a few decades already.
I’ve been a gamer for a long time, and I’ve always been the type of person who gets into games that require strategy. So I’ve been thinking about how I can apply my success in games to my life.
The idea of “playing life like a game” is not so unusual. In fact, anyone who plays games to some extent would think about it at least once.
However, the word “game” has a wide range. In my case, I tend to be attracted to competitive games like Magic the Gathering and Pokemon, so I often reinterpret my life through these games. I tend to reinterpret my life through these games.
In other words, I fine-tune my life by thinking like: “Oh, this is an interesting strategy for the current metagame,” or “I personally don’t like that style of play. It might be a little crazy to think like this, but it’s surprisingly fun because some interesting ideas are hands down born from the use of this metaphor.
For me, life, as it is, is too complicated, there is too much to do, and I don’t know what to do. That’s why I dare to reduce the number of pixels in my life, set simple rules, and try to act according to them so that I can control myself.
There is nothing special about this. The so-called self-help books, which are often ridiculed, are also a kind of gamification of life. In my case, however, I have a strong sense that every thought or procedure must be recognized as a game. They should be “attractive enough to be absorbed in, but at the same time make you aware that they are fictional,” or perhaps I should say, “they should not be talked about as if they were absolute truths.
The game engine called “the world” can be used to create a variety of games, so we should not assume that only one game is absolute. Also, the meta-game changes even within a single game.
While we should not misunderstand or ignore fundamental system parts such as the laws of physics, other parts are more or less fictional. The important thing is that we should enjoy them and continue to develop and create more interesting games even if we recognize that it is just a game.
I believe that human beings are essentially “game players” and “game creators” at the same time. In order to be a “game player,” you must first realize that there are countless games in the world. If you believe that there is only one game, no matter how great you become in that world, you are no different from an NPC. Even within that game, if you’re too powerful, you can be modified or even banned. Hence It’s better to play an unlimited number of games and establish your own playing ethics so that you can enjoy them.
Also, you should not only play games that someone else has made but also play games that you have made yourself. It’s definitely more fun that way.
The reason why I suddenly started writing this poem is because I’m going back to graduate school this fall to explore gamification of learning, and I wanted to take stock of what I think about “games” and “life” now.
And the reason why it is written in English is because my destination is New York University in the US. By the by, I would like to continue to push forward with the project of turning life into a game.
