• Ramblings

    Unfairness

    April 16, 2013

    It’s like raiding in World of Warcraft. You pot your flasks, you have the best gems and enchants for your gear, you prepare your raiding food and potions, you spend hours going through theory craft of your class and practising your rotation on the training dummy. During the boss encounter, you end up one of the top few in DPS/healing meters, the boss finally goes down, and then  the system gives the boss’s loot you want to the player who does not really care, hardly logins, and is at the bottom of the DPS/healing meters.

    You comfort yourself, telling yourself that there is always the next week. The next week when you down the boss, you didn’t get the loot. And it happened again the week after, and after, and after. And you start asking if the random number generator has anything against you.

    It is the same with life. The person who does not deserve it, tends to get the things you wanted, the things you worked hard for. And gets it again, and again, and again. And you ask if life has anything against you, if life is biased, if life is blind.

    You have doubts, questioning what is the point of working so hard when those scumbags get things that you worked so hard for, without even trying.

    The unfairness of it all. In game. And in life.

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  • Ramblings

    Life Game

    March 10, 2013

    Just watched ‘Wreck-It Ralph‘.

    It is a pretty good movie, based on the plot of someone who is sick of being who he is, and wants to be something that he isn’t. The references to the video and arcade games are plenty, and it clearly mirrors life. At the end of the movie, it got me thinking, which I usually do after watching good movies. Perhaps I should be not worry too much about being someone whom I am not, perhaps I should just be me, and not worried how everyone else perceived me.

    Like Wreck-It Ralph said, ‘Because if that little kid likes me, how bad can I be?” As long as someone out there likes me, isn’t that enough?

    Shakespeare said, ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.’  Well I think life is but a game, and we are just the characters in this game called ‘Life Game’.

     

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  • Ramblings

    Achievement Obtained

    December 21, 2010

    I have been stagnant too long. I have not put in enough effort and time for self growth. I was hardly reading any books, let alone spending time to improve myself.

    I asked myself why that it was possible for me to spend hours a day previously, in front of my PC, farming* while I can’t spend any effort to improve myself? That was when I realised a change in mindset was necessary. I need to think of life as a game. Hours spent farming* basically means hours spent reading a book, going for a self improvement course, or getting some certification in life. The only way to see if this new view of life was going to work for me was to put it to the test.

    I decided to get my driving license.

    Now, most people around my age will have obtained their driving license long before me. The thing was that I didn’t have the money to go for my driving lessons last time, and when I did, I really didn’t have the time. Of course, the fact that it was a chore going for the driving lessons didn’t really motivate me. So putting this new view of life to the test, I went for my driving lessons. It was really no difference between game farming* and going for driving lessons. I went to the driving centre for my driving lesson once a week, during the weekend. It was a 2 hours to and fro journey, for a 100 minutes lesson, for 6 months. Doing the same activity each weekend was really a chore, but by treating it as a real life farming*, I held on.

    After spending 2500+ minutes on driving lessons over a period of around 6 months, I went for the driving test, which only lasted 30 minutes, and I passed. Driving license obtained. Achievement obtained.

    Viewing it like a real life farming* really makes it easier. On those days when I just want to skip the lesson, I just told myself that if I can spend hours in a game doing the same task again and again, then I am sure I can do it in real life. It helped me to stay motivated. I am definitely going to use the apply the same mindset from now on. I will take a little break, before deciding what to go for next. The Project Management Professional certifications looks tempting.

    *farming in games means repeatedly doing a boring mundane task to gain a certain object over and over again.

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  • Ramblings

    Life

    January 15, 2008

    I think I have this thing call life figured out.

    Sure, it took many, many years, and after successive failed attempts to decipher it, pouring through books and articles on faith, religion, Zen, self-sacrifice etc, I think I have it figured out.

    No, it is not 42.

    Life is a game, not just any other game, but a RPG (roleplaying game) one.

    In a RPG, you start off weak, naked (well maybe a loincloth), a wooden stick perhaps and off you go, to kill some low level weak trash, like a mouse, or a cockroach. As you kill them, you gain experience points, gain some better armour or weapons, and in time, you gain a level. As you kill bigger monsters, you get even more powerful, gain even more levels, better gear, so that you can go out and kill even bigger monsters. And the cycle repeats itself. Until you get to the demi-god levels.

    In life, it is the same. You start off knowing nothing. You go to school, armed yourself with the best spells and skills, go out and gain experience (through having a job, not killing someone of course). You get paid peanuts, but with experience gained, you get paid more, you go out and buy better items for yourself (like a new car, or a expensive apartment beside the sea), and you realised you want more, so you go out and gain even more experience, and the cycle repeats. Just like in a RPG.

    It sure makes it easier to go through my life now that I had this figure out. Working 12 to 15 hours a day? Nothing to it, I am just farming for honor points or gold. Facing a demanding client? I am just having a bit of trouble killing a big boss. Falling sick after working non stop for more than a year? A potion of cure poison will cure that.

    And of course, when it is pay day, it is just the loot I deserved after battling and overcoming a dragon guarding its treasure at the end of the long and dark dungeon.

    However, there is still some minor part left that does not fit in. Where does love fits in? I do not recall playing any RPG that has any significant love in it. Unless it has to do with female night elves blood elves (someone insisted blood elves are hotter).

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