The story of how I realized that "life is not an RPG," but rather "an RPG is an imitation of life"

In my previous article, I suddenly started thinking that "life is like an RPG (role-playing game)," but as I pondered it further, I began to think, wait, isn't it the other way around?

Link to previous article↓
Life is an RPG. Early retirement is a "New Game Plus"

In the first place, if you think about history, life existed first, and it is only natural that games came later.

Thinking about it that way, it felt more plausible to me that rather than life being similar to an RPG, it is the RPG that was created by taking the complex activities of life as a motif and quantifying them with parameters.

I will write about that today.

Which came first?

If you think about it in terms of a timeline, life naturally comes first.

So why was the RPG system born? I thought that perhaps an RPG is something that breaks down life, reconstructs it as game elements, and visualizes it with parameters.

Originally, growth in real life cannot be objectively quantified and is very difficult to see. Daily efforts do not appear as numbers on a graph. It takes a long time for results to appear, and the definition of a goal differs from person to person. The rules of life are diverse and somewhat unclear.

The RPG system took that uncertain life, quantified it, and expressed it as the tangible feeling of stats increasing over a short period.

Thinking about it that way, perhaps the reason RPGs were so accepted by the public is that they allowed people to compare them to their own lives and "visualize" growth that was originally invisible. That seemed to me to be the most convincing answer.

Comparison between life and RPGs

When comparing the elements of life and RPGs, I notice that the events we face every day can be converted just like game parameters.

What I felt was that the experience we accumulate every day in life is exactly what "EXP (experience points)" is in an RPG. And individual growth, which is ambiguous in reality, is clearly quantified in an RPG by the expression "level."

Furthermore, if we look at the workplace, the way we handle tasks looks just like fighting. There was even an era when the "Regain" commercial provoked us by asking, "Can you fight for 24 hours?"

In other words, it makes sense to think of the skills we acquire, such as sales ability and technical expertise, as "weapons" for defeating enemies.

On the other hand, modern society is a battle against stress. The mental strength and mindset that protect us while exposed to criticism and pressure can be considered armor or other defensive gear in an RPG.

And the physical strength and energy we consume to be active are exactly the parameters of "HP (Hit Points)" and "MP (Magic Points)."

Writing it down in words like this, I get the feeling that I have "visualized" life itself. I was once again impressed by the ingenuity of the structure, realizing that an RPG is a well-made simulation of life.

Is this just me overthinking things?

From solo play to a party

I remembered the time I played Dragon Quest for the first time when I was a college student. I recall that in early games, the hero set out on an adventure all alone.

As the games were updated, the element of a 'party'—forming a team—was added, and RPGs became significantly more interesting.

This is exactly like life.

Living alone or working alone is almost non-existent in reality; I feel that life is interesting precisely because we always interact with others and have a team. It seemed to me that the evolutionary process of RPGs traces the process of how people grow and interact with others in society.

The difference between RPGs and life

I have thought about the commonalities so far, but on the other hand, I found two points where I feel they are decisively different.

One is the existence of a final boss.

Perhaps there are major goals in actual life that correspond to a final boss. However, in an RPG, the final boss is an entity that, once defeated, clears the game and brings about the ending. Achieving it and finishing is one milestone of an RPG.

However, in life, the game does not end just because you have cleared a major goal like a final boss. Daily life continues the next day as well.

There was a time when I thought that once a goal was achieved, it was over, or that it was cleared once I was satisfied. But I realized that life is also about new purposes continuing to appear even after that achievement. There is no ending, and it keeps going. I think this is a major difference.

The other is the definition of 'game over'.

In an RPG, if you are defeated by an enemy and your HP runs out, you die, but you can be resurrected at a church or similar place.

On the other hand, in life, except in special environments like war, you do not physically die just because you are defeated by an enemy called work. Even if you feel like you are dying from excessive stress as a company employee, you will not be killed by anyone.

In an RPG, being defeated by an enemy is death, but in life, as long as you do not end the game yourself, you will not get a game over no matter how many times you fail.

Thinking that the game continues as long as you are alive, this endless game is a difference from an RPG.

Continuing an endless game

As I write this while organizing my thoughts, I have come to think that life is an RPG with invisible parameters that does not end easily. That is why I think we quantify things to confirm our growth, even if it is subjective. After all, everyone wants to grow.

When you level up in an RPG, a cheerful fanfare plays.

"Ta-da, da-da-da-da!"
A sound like this (does that come across?)

There is no fanfare that you can hear with your ears in real life, but I have heard this sound in my head when I level up in real life. I have heard it multiple times (or so I feel) when my experience points reached a certain level and I achieved a major project.

RPGs are inventions designed to visualize and encourage us through our difficult realities. Thank you for bearing with my forced, personal theory that "RPG is an imitation of life," rather than "life is an RPG."

Well then, I think I will continue to advance through the unclear game that is my own life again today.

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