Ever wondered how your life would be like a game?
That's what I'm gonna talk about for this week.
Not to take too long, I'll just take 5 aspects of my daily life and turn them each into a game mechanic/structure.
Basic mechanics like stats are already part of my life.
(Stats are, for those that don't know, the level of a basic ability such as
strength(str), intelligence(int) and even luck(luk). A certain level may be required to do a task.For example, you need 20 str to carry this box or you need 40 int to solve this math problem)
They will be: I. Skills (eg Cooking, martial arts,instruments...etc)
II. Friendships/Rivalry
III. School
IV. Love/Family
V. Time
I. Skills
Over the years of your life we all acquire a skill or two. It may be playing an instrument or something easy like cooking/baking, but from then on, we probably try to either hone it or we eventually forget about it and our skills rust away.
1. Acquiring Skills
Life is hard, especially without any basic and/or special skills. With the internet these days, we can easily learn something with information taken from there. Of course, training in this skill may take much more time than the skill is worth. What matters is choosing a skill that interests you. Skills can be obtained from the internet or taking classes where possible.
2.Honing Skills
While obtaining the skill is easy, honing it may be much harder. For example, Cooking is easy but making something elaborate that tastes good is very much so harder. The level of our skill increases with the amount of time spent on it as well as the amount of interest you have in it. It can also decrease if we don't practice the skill at all.
3. Special Skills
People always say that you never forget how to ride a bicycle. That may be true for many skills and so certain skills can be much more resilient to decrease.
II. Friendships/Rivalry
1. Friends and Relations
I can consider myself a loner at times but no matter what i know i have friends by my side. No matter who you are or where your from, even if there's nothing you have in common, you could be friends. A line from a movie that was fairly recent went like this: "...back in kindergarten, when you would stand next to some other kid and 10 seconds later you'd be the best of friends....".
No matter what you should have a friend even if you don't realize this yourself, it could be a childhood friend or just that one guy/girl in class who talks to you at times.
2. Impact of Friends and Rivals
Without a doubt, friends and rivals will change the way you look at some things. With more friends around, loneliness is never there and work gets done faster when everyone helps out. With rivals, you'd work harder to beat them at something. Life at the same time gets much more interesting than it normally would be when your alone.
Friends can cheer you up and work together to achieve more and Rivals motivate you
3. Keeping Relations
When your away from friends for a long time, you lose touch with them. Their cell phone number changes, there's a new inside joke you don't get or that person has just changed a lot in time. Keeping in touch is important with friends. It's getting easier with things like Facebook and other social networking sites but still you get this sense of drifting apart. Call up a friend, meet up once in a while, keep that friendship going or you'll be depressed later trying to deal with it.
Relations can disappear if you don't maintain it well enough but grow in strength with more time spent together.
III. School
1. Place and Time
School is the one place you'll find most of your childhood and teens have gone. It's the one place your social life revolves around. Friends gather at school (especially classmates and CCA friends) ,rivals in CCAs and potential friends are continuously around the corner.
Friends are easily made at school.
2. Place of Learning
Schools are there with a purpose and that purpose is education. Schools provide many types of education : Physical education, Academic education and Social Studies.
These classes can increase some stats like strength or maximum stamina or intelligence in exchange for some time and stamina.
3. More than Just Education
Schools have more than just studying and academics, one of the more exiting parts of school life is CCAs(Co-Curricular Activities) . In CCAs, we can gain more friends, strengthen the bonds with existing friends and learn new skills. CCAs can also provide stat increases, for example, sports clubs strengthen your body (str) while culture clubs up your knowledge (int).
IV. Love/Family
Friends are different from some relations. Your family and love take more or less to maintain than regular friendships. Family will be there for you at any time but because they're always there, you never realize how important they are and may lose them easily.
Love takes friendship to the next level. Certain things that can be said as friends can't be said any more and you'll have to watch yourself when around other people of the opposite sex when your in an intimate relationship. This makes it harder to maintain your love life than other relations.
Falling in love can power you up at certain times while losing love can cause a status effect such as heartbreak.
Not seeing these relations for too long can cause status effects like love sickness or home sickness.
V. Time
1. And so Time moves on
"Time and tide waits for no man",Life continues on with or without you. This means that regardless of what your doing it takes up time. If your realize it, all of the aspects mentioned, all require Time to maintain.
2. Time Management
With all the aspects of your life you have to juggle, you need to manage them properly. Will you finish your work before meeting with friends or will you put work aside for family or will you catch a movie with your boy/girl-friend. Choosing when and where you need to go is important in some games. Maintaining your life hinges upon this fact.
3. Energy
Your appointments are indeed important but you also need time for yourself. You have a certain amount of energy and that only allows you some options for the day. You can't have school then hang out with friends and celebrate a family member's birthday all in one day without feeling the drain. That makes time management all the more important. Energy can be restored by taking a break or going to sleep. Extra energy can be gained from energy drinks or by sleeping early and waking up fresh.
My life may be just a boring game that no one wants to play but i like it the way it is though it could use some spice.
I wonder how other people's live may be like as a game.
I hope you dwell upon this question too.
