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Insights from an MMORPG

My imagination is hungry beast, and wants to tear it's fangs into all things fantasy and adventure. It wants to be coaxed by sipping on the juice of magic, of heroes, of legends, and a realm tossed by the plight of good versus evil. I crave a deep hit of the fantastical - and MMORPG games did this for me while I was still under the belt of high school. Being able to actually play the hero and undertake an epic journey felt like a living breathing experience. 




An MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) is an opportunity to taste an entirely new reality with real people from all over the world. There are many similarities between the virtual world and the real world - and in fact I have found in my own experience that my virtual avatar was a projection of my inner self. I was able to be somebody that I couldn't be in the real world.

But even further than just looking into how the game can be enjoyed, I would say an MMORPG provides a brilliant opportunity to understand some of the nuance of life. Everybody plays their own unique character, doing what they can do become legendary heroes in the internationally accessible virtual world, or simply cruising along and enjoying the experience with friends and an online community. I couldn't help but notice the similarities with real life, and after a little ruminating, I arrived at 2 key insights that I discovered from my own experience in the virtual world of Tyria, Guild Wars 2.

The Heroes Journey

From the minute you step into the fantastical MMO world, you can actually do whatever you want, and nobody is going to stop you from doing what you truly want to do. However, regardless of what you choose to do, you are given a mission and purpose to follow - the main quest line. This purpose is far greater than yourself, and requires that you evolve into the hero and vanquish the evil that is oppressing the land. I would say that this is a brilliant demonstration of what the Heroes Journey is all about.


So if you finished the main story quest of an MMORPG, you've already embodied The Heroes Journey in the virtual world, which gives you a good framework for how to translate this idea into the real world. Where does it all start? It starts at level one - you enter the world an inexperienced character with no skills, and absolutely no idea what lurks in the unknown. And you absolutely don't stay there! You have a calling that you must follow, which guides you out of your comfortable home (the tutorial zone) and into the dangerous world where the foes become stronger and the quests become more challenging. You must hone your skills, increase your level, and improve your abilities in order to face the growing challenge. You become the hero, the greatest version of your character, and then defeat the evil that is oppressing the world.

In the MMORPG world, a great evil is encroaching on the land, and the world is indeed ravaged by evil. The same is true in our real world. There are many evil people in power who have twisted agendas, and are silencing the radiance that is our birth-rite as human beings on planet Earth. There are also many evils within ourselves, like our limiting beliefs, our close-mindedness, our neurotic behaviours, our bad habits - all of these things are holding us back from unlocking our highest potential. We must walk the heroes journey and become heroes! We must live our highest destiny, take back our personal power, and shine more light into the world by embodying higher ideals like Truth, Compassion, Beauty, Freedom, Creativity, Passion, and Adventure!


Mastery

In Tyria, the progression of the game only takes place when you raise your level. When you reach higher levels, you can continue to unlock more advanced and more rewarding facets of the game world. From level one, you go out into the world completing quests, exploring, conquering dungeons, completing your missions, all the while gaining experience which increases your level. Essentially, the only way to reach ever higher levels is to work for it. And what's more is that you are surrounded by other people who are doing the same thing, and seeing others who are higher level looking badass and conducting wicked moves inspires you to put in more effort to increase your level. Mastery is one of the core themes in an MMORPG.


Mastery is imbedded in the game. Your in game character has many various abilities and skills, and you need to exercise these in order to get better with them if you wish to perform better in a team setting. Furthermore, you might have found your own interests within the game, each of which you would also need to exercise in order to become better at them as a player. What did you find yourself doing in the MMORPG world? Crafting items? Using the trading system to flip items and make lots of money? Managing an online community (guild)? Being a key member in a professional team? If you did any one of these things, you would have noticed that it takes time and practice to get better with them. And also, when you are well adept in whatever field or skill you have chosen, you become a valuable player, and people will seek you out if they need that particular role filled.



Mastery is like the golden key to unlock the realm that you want to be in. For example, in the game, if you want to play in the elite PvP teams, or be the leader of a squad in a dungeon, you must be a highly skilled and well versed player. And this can only come through lots of deliberate practice and experience. The same applies to Mastery in real life - if you want to provide true value and offer something remarkable to future teams you may be apart of and to the world at large, then mastering your chosen skill is critical. And this doesn't get handed to you on a plate. You have to put in hours and hours of deliberate practice in order to see tangible improvements. This is an entire field that I am barely scratching the surface of here, and I highly recommend the book 'Mastery' by George Leonard if you wish to explore it more. 




The Heroes Journey and Mastery are 2 such ideas that are central to many video games and particularly MMORPG's. However, the in-game manifestations of these concepts are not to be confused with how it is in the real world. I am sharing these ideas here only as pointers to demonstrate how important and practical these 2 ideas are in leading a rich and fruitful life that is everything you wanted life to be. In the MMORPG, in regards to Life Purpose, the idea is to find your own. And I think you'll find that the ultimate underlying reason for playing is to have fun and enjoy yourself. So, go ahead and walk the heroes journey, and master various skills. But most importantly, have fun and enjoy yourself! 


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