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Life As An MMORPG? Or An MMORPG as Life?

For the longest time, I’ve continually said that MMORPGs are the perfect metaphor for Life, as they can help us to understand the steps we need to reach The Future of Work and how vertical development plays an integral part of this. The problem with this thought though is that even though I understand this within my head, trying to express it seems difficult, as I can never find the right context or voice to describe it within. The last few days though, I’ve had the most hilarious thought. Perhaps my goal isn’t to describe how MMORPGs are the perfect metaphor for Life but rather my goal is to describe an MMORPG as though it were Life.

When I make this subtle shift, suddenly things seem easier to communicate. I can say that in this MMORPG called Life, you don’t create a character at the start but rather it’s created for you. And you don’t choose your class, so much as you discover it from the experience of playing the game itself.

Even more so, even though each of these statements reflects a deeper understanding of vertical development and how it applies to life, I’m not having to describe the verbose and sometimes confusing details of it at all. Instead by describing the mechanics of the MMORPG as Life and more specifically the relationship between these mechanics, it helps one to understand Life on a deeper level (especially if you’re a gamer and understand the mechanics of MMORPGs).

Anyways, something to play with going forward and seeing how far it can take me versus my previous reversed approach.

By Nollind Whachell

Questing to translate Joseph Campbell's Hero’s Journey into The Player’s Handbook for The Adventure of Your Life, thus making vertical (leadership) development an accessible, epic framework for everyone.

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