Life is like an RPG! No seriously, this isn’t a satirical article I misfiled, I’m 100% serious. If you step back and take an honest look at life, you can see all sorts of elements of a good RPG.
Role Playing
This isn’t some classic, on-rails JRPG (bless them). You have full control over what you say, what you do, and who you are. None of the plot is pre-written. Where you go and in what order you do things is up to you, at least once you’re an adult.
If life feels like everything is just happening to you and that you’re just going through the motions, maybe you’re forgetting to play your role and really live.
Skills
Life is full of skills to learn. Useful skills, useless skills. Skills for amusement, skills to make a living off of. You can learn skills online. You can learn them in schools.
You like skill trees? Life’s got skills in trees! Look at math. You want to learn Calculus? You’re gonna have to learn Algebra and Geometry first. You want fluency in Japanese? You’re going to need to learn the grammar and vocabulary. And learning the vocabulary means learning thousands of Chinese-origin characters. Skills build upon skills.
Quests
What’s life without quests? We’ve got all sorts of quests.
Perhaps the most fundamental quest for many of us is a lifelong, open-ended one: To Serve God. You don’t want to forget about that one. And how do you best serve God? By serving his people. Aka, the side quests!
There are always people out there who need help with something. Think of helping them as small, self-contained quests. Some of them are mundane, but sometimes, they can turn out to be real adventures, stories you get to tell at parties and such. Visit somebody who’s sick. Help somebody get a job. The sky’s the limit.
And of course, we have personal quests. What’s a deeply personal goal of yours? Perhaps it’s getting married and raising a family? Or perhaps it’s to visit every continent. Perhaps you aim to run for higher office. What are the quests that define you?
Exploration and Discovery
Life is full of things to discover and secrets to learn. You can make friends and learn about them. You can go check out scenic vistas and see them in a way nobody else can. You can do scientific research. Maybe you can find a new theorem, a new species, a new medical cure, a new archaeological site.
But you don’t have to look so far. Discoveries are all around you. Maybe you can discover the cheapest way to buy fresh produce where you live. Or maybe you can solve a local mystery, like maybe figuring out who keeps letting their dog crap in the park like they own the place.
Villainy
Evil to fight against is everywhere. There’s no shortage of big villains, small villains, shameless lackeys, petty jerks, etc. The world is full of intolerable injustices. If nobody is willing to resist them, what’s gonna become of the world? A life spent just ignoring evil (assuming you have the luxury) sounds pretty well wasted to me.
And it’s true, opposing evil might cost you dearly. In extreme cases, you might even die. But you’re going to die someday in any case. Will you die for a good reason? What will your Game Over screen look like? Is God gonna give you cheevos or a lecture?