Aristeia Diaspora

Due to ‘popular’ demand, it’s back – with a vengeance!

Now, the questions that seem to arise from my previous post is “to hoard, or not to hoard”. Some other interesting corollaries were “should we simply take our time and enjoy the whole experience, rather than rush to the end?”. I will attempt to think about this aspects of playing an RPG, and whether or not they have anything useful to say about life.

I think there could be a case for hoarding, but hoarding is for the purpose or the goal. In my opinion, in the standard RPG, the goal is to take the role of a hero and fulfill his destiny. The point of sidequests and hoarding is to gather enough enquipment/experience to make the final fight feasible/easier. Of course this is not always the case. In games such as Final Fantasy VII, I spent a whole lot of time fighting emerald weapon, getting the gold chocobo and knight of the round, and other junk. Suffice to say that when I finally fought the final boss I only needed to cast one spell and he was done for. But it kinda took the kick out of the game. What was the point of being overpowered for the final fight? I dont think game makers should overdo their sidequests. Another great example is Oblivion. They made sidequests so interesting that the main quest paled. That to me really made the game fail in my eyes. Which is why i thought Bethesda did a far superior job with Fallout3 where the plot was tighter and sidequests didn’t seem to be more important than the main quest.

Indeed, for me, I tend to move on from side quests once i feel my character has learnt enough. I’m not the sort to explore every nook and cranny (after all, the point of an RPG is to have different experiences — if everyone did everything there was, everyone would have the same experience!!!). I like to balance out side quests and the main quest. That way you don’t forget that there is a MAIN quest. Its easy to be sidetracked with money and stats promising side quests. Then you start getting bored and don’t even bother with the main quest altogether.

I think it’s here that the analogy can be drawn to life: do we have a main quest? Do we know what we’re actually striking out for? If not we’ll tend to get caught up with ’side quests’. We justify our pursuit of sidequests by saying “just one more time…i NEED that longsword +10000 or that Fatboy x100″. Similarly with life we say “i need to hoard money for my kids; i need to hoard money for rainy days; i need to hoard money for all sorts of reasons. Now, if we spend too much time hoarding money, don’t you think we’ll — just like the case of the RPG — end up getting ‘burnt out’/'bored’ and give up? Then we start to lose focus of what we’re really out here for. I believe a more moderate approach is called for. Some side quests + constantly going back to the mainquest to remind you of what you’re doing.

What’s the advantage of this? If you constantly go back to the main quest, you can tell if you’re ‘hoarding’ because you’ll generally know if you have too powerful weapons or stats, in which case you know you shouldnt sidequest anymore because you’re too powerful. Similarly with life: if you spend all your time hoarding but not getting back to the main quest, you’ll tend to overhoard because you don’t know how much you really need. But constantly getting back to your goal in life will let you know if you’re wasting too much hoarding money that after all, you dont need, and you could have used the time for better things.

Of course, the big question one should then need to ask, what is the goal or purpose of our lives? It seems pretty clear in RPGs. But that’s where the analogy ends.

p.s. thanks Jon for asking the questions you did — made me draw out more from the analogy than i had originally thought to!

I quit playing Drakensang: the Dark Eye. Reasonable story; great character building; too much combat and too little options or influence on the story.

But this post is not about my RPG adventures. Rather, tis a lil’ tidbit of perrenial musing, a product of  half-intentionally not listening to a Sunday morning sermon. In many ways, RGPs are like an idealised conception of life: you play a character — YOU (insert strange archaic name here)– whose main purpose is to: 1) realise his destiny 2)fulfill that destiny by levelling up and acquiring hoards of overpowered paraphernalia; and if you’re lucky enough the RPG will allow you to 3) fulfill that destiny in the particular way that YOU choose to (and not just because fate said so).

How is this similar to life?

1) REALISE YOUR DESTINY

Everyone’s out there hoping lightning will strike them — not literally of course — but everyone’s waiting for that big break. When an opportunity will show itself. Some actively seek that life changing opportunity. Others wait passively for it. In a typical RPG setting, heroes are very unseeming and start from meagre backgrounds.

2) FULFULL YOUR DESTINY

Of course, realising is just the beginning. For many of us, we may ‘realise’ all kinds of destinies as a child. But give up along the way. The real hero plods on and collect all kinds of paraphernalia along the way.

3) YOUR PARTICULAR ENDING

Now we get to the meat and potatoes of my little musing. Despite the lure of destiny, an RPG is only enjoyable if there are some choices to be made that have an impact on the outcome. Same thing with life. But what struck me even more is the fact that in my early RPG days I would save a lot of potions and 1 use items in the early parts of the game. I would not use them until the very end. However, most of the time I found out I had saved one too many potions and I could not finish them by the end of the game. And after the game ended, of course, all my saving was in vain. This ultimately changed my play style to be more balanced, and more willing to use whatever was acquired.

Similarly in life, are we ‘hoarders’? Do save and stock up money and skills but never use them because we are waiting …

Lastly, to me, the best part about an RPG is the connection you build with the characters and the story. The levelling up and item hoarding are just distractions, really. Because after finishing a fantastic game like Final Fantasy VII or Planescape Torment or Fallout, I don’t go “WOW I really liked how I ended the game with SUPER SWORD OF KICKASSNESS +100″ but rather “DAMN Im so glad I was able to save the world!!!!”. The point is, once the destiny is realised, you’ll in turn realise that things like the money, skills and weapons you accumulated throughout the game are gone – no longer meaningful once your destiny or goal is achieved. But the impact — the changes you brought about: those things wil go on forever.

If you knew how close death was, would you still be hoarding? Or will you take whatever you have, and go out and save the world at whatever the cost?

“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. ¹⁷He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

¹⁸“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘

²⁰“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

²¹“This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

~Luke12:16