
Life is a game, this is your strategy guide - oliveremberton
http://oliveremberton.com/2014/life-is-a-game-this-is-your-strategy-guide/
======
crux
This is a charming article. But it's somewhat sad to read. Because it operates
on the nearly universal assumption that life _is_ a game, or a battle, or a
scavenger hunt—and the way to win is to maintain a high 'state' and get lots
of 'achievements'. The reason this gaming terminology is so appealing to us is
that it overlays nicely on the way we already think about life: you're
constantly making some grade or another; you're constantly doing better or
worse than your peers. A generation ago business was the most appropriate
metaphor. But whether our obsession is with who's giving us a raw deal and who
we're getting over on, or where we have advantages and where we have
disadvantages (what am I at +1 for?), the basic sensibility doesn't change.

The perspective here is consistently egoistic. It's not even mentioned. It's
just assumed that the way one goes through life is as an individual, with
one's own interests solely at heart, and one's own state the only thing to be
managed. You win by maximizing your own state, by grabbing as many
achievements as you can before you die. And even if you're not a dick about
it, your concerns are very much limited to your states, health level, and the
contents of your inventory.

This is no way to go through life! It leads to suffering and a small view of
things. I'm really interested to see, actually, what this community makes of
that insight. It will dawn on people eventually—or at least its negative will:
that everything we've been putting so much damned energy into isn't making us
happy. But this community is so relentlessly introspective, communicative,
articulate, well-equipped, and outright _successful_. And we have so many
blogs like this one: so many people actively, sincerely, unabashedly
interested in the science of happiness and fulfillment. So the potential there
is pretty big. The potential for massive burnout and dissolution or massive
reorientation.

~~~
erikb
Sorry, I couldn't find the alternative in your approach. Please reformulate
for me what approach to life do you actually suggest. I'm really interested to
see another point of view. My last years were mainly spent from switching to
just living life to the style mentioned in the article and just everything
feels so much better since. I am happy to go to work in the morning. I am
happy to write my thesis. I am sometimes even happy to be critized by other
people. And my social life also increased drastically since, containing more
meaningful relationships to other people on all levels. And heck, I'm even
doing sport because I know it ups my motivation, health and happiness.

I was used to being one of the least positive people about life prospects, now
at least in my circles I am one of the most positive people and others are
actually spending time with me just to grab some of the positive energy.

If you have a life style to offer that makes me and the people around me even
more happy I would be really happy to learn more about it!

~~~
crux
Sure. The one liner is: spend as much of your free time and energy focusing on
giving and helping others rather than enriching yourself.

Find ways to delight in the well-being and success of others—all others,
everybody you know, everybody in the world. And when you feel that you aren't
getting your fair share, that you'll miss out—take a long, long pause, really
feel into that emotion, and see if self-centered thinking ends up getting you
more of what makes you happy or not.

Mind: this is incredibly difficult. It's nobody's fault if they can't or don't
do this. Almost every single meme and conditioned habit that's in you and the
culture you live in works against this pattern.

~~~
DennisP
That approach seems compatible with the article's main points. For example, if
you drain your energy by not taking care of yourself, you'll likely end up
sitting around watching TV instead of helping people.

~~~
ptmx
I agree that it's compatible, and further that taking care of yourself is
crucial to being able to effectively help others. The author might agree too,
but in that case it's rather peculiar that everything in the article has an
egoistic bent to it. Even if it wasn't the author's intention, I think it's
worth pointing out that any mention of altruistic behavior is conspicuously
absent from the article.

------
onion2k
Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and
shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1].

 _Literally_ every point in every article on how to live a happy life was
being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle _thousands_ of years ago, and
there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for
philosophy today - they were right.

[1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy For Life (And Other Dangerous
Situations)" by Jules Evans or "Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain De Botton
as a starting point.

~~~
f_salmon
And there's a major logical error in it:

> At the start of the game, you had no control over who you were or your
> environment. By the end of the game that becomes true again.

This implies that you have some sort of control between the start and the end
- which is completely untrue, because:

What genes you get from your parents and in what environment you are put will
determine everything that will happen in your head. And everything that
happens in your life, has its inception in your head (over which you could
never have the slightest control).

This is also the reason why whe should all have the same rights (and wealth),
independently of the fact of how well we were (and therefor now are)
"equipped": There is no such thing as a "free will".

Everything in your life is nothing but a function of 2 variables:

1) Your inherited genes

2) Your inherited initial location

It means we can never be judged by anyone.

EDIT: The above is not based on any beliefs (as in "religious" beliefs), it's
pure logic. (So, when I wrote "is completely untrue", I meant "is completely
illogic".)

EDIT II: Sorry, I can't recommend any literature for this. It's all based on
my own thinking.

But actually, you don't need any book, because I can't call this a
"worldview", I can only call it: "100% pure logic". (Meaning: no
cultural/religious/otherwise arbitrary beliefs allowed.)

So, if you can think logically and are willing to do some mental work, you -
and everybody else who does it - will automatically get there. That's kind of
the beauty of logic - it's the only thing/law in the universe that seems to be
an absolute/unquestionable truth, everything else being invented by somebody.

~~~
VLM
You're getting unfairly voted down rather than responded to.

A reasonable disagreement is pointing out you're assuming zero randomness in
the universe (which includes in your head, and everyone elses head, I'm not a
mind-body dualist) so no development of unique new ideas, or having unique new
experiences or perceptions, both of which feed on each other to generate new
echos of randomness long after something interesting happens. Also it assumes
no social interaction with others however distantly linked to "interesting
random people" even if the individual and their direct contacts are in fact
really boring (aka effect of arts in general).

That is a much more productive form of disagreement than hitting the down
button.

(Edited to add I think you're getting downvoted because of a cultural-
linguistic meme or bug that whenever someone in the USA spins a story with
"can't or don't judge" that usually means its a known and obvious statement of
fact that they did something they and everyone else knows is wrong, and they
have no better spin option. Last (modern) refuge of a scoundrel. Thus the
downvotes)

~~~
allthatisgold
Are there truly random events at the sub-atomic level? Or could it be simply
that we don't understand yet what's happening but everything is deterministic?
If it's the former, then there is no destiny, it is not determined.

The effect of these tiny random events would propagate upwards and perhaps
cause an apple to fall from a tree. A sub-atomic particle vibrating randomly
in a certain way could fire a neuron, giving you a new thought.

Even if life isn't determined, can you really say there is free will? You
can't control the way that sub-atomic particles will behave, you may have the
illusion of control in your head but at the end of the day it would come down
to physics and randomness.

Personally, I don't find this opinion a healthy one, so I tend not to dwell on
it much.

~~~
baby
I like the idea of seeing life as deterministic or not. It's definitely a
matter of "belief" when you put it that way. Although my scientific mind tells
me nothing would exist if true random didn't exist. Thus the universe is not
deterministic. But that's a question we'll never be able to answer anyway.

This is why I downvoted the parents by the way. I feel like there is no safe
discussion when it starts with strong opinions ("which is completely untrue").
There is no right or wrong here so better be open minded.

------
ozziegooen
Life game.

Graphics: 9/10 Pretty good, shadows and lighting effects portrayed quite well.
Some really strange pixelation going on though. It's on a very small scale,
but still noticeable with the right instruments and upsetting to the general
public.

Sound: 6/10 Fantastic variety. Only works well for the first 2/3rds of the
game or so, then becomes quite buggy.

Story: 2/10 It's not obvious if there is really a story going on here. Most
players experience relatively little classical narrative, and that which does
exist seems quite randomly or recklessly placed, possibly completely contrived
from otherwise non-storylike events.

Multiplayer: 5/10 A wide variety of things to do with others, but many of them
are considered quite boring or uninteresting. The gameplay mechanics sometimes
seem to encourage active hostility or selfishness between players, which seems
clearly suboptimal.

~~~
3pt14159
More like multiplayer 10/10\. The boringness of the people that you spend time
with is directly correlated to your own.

------
whizzkid
Small things that should be mentioned about this game, so far i have played;

\- Multiplayer is the only option you can select.

\- There is no pause button.

\- Your character is truly random selected so expect anything.

\- There is only one map which is way too big, I haven't had time to go most
of the places yet but not complaining.

\- You only have one chance to survive the game, no 'save the state' option.

It is a unique game with unique rules. I like it!

~~~
Ygg2
> Your character is truly random selected so expect anything.

Actually no, it's more like PRNG. Which stands for Predictably Random Natural
Genetic.

Lack of save state is really bad though. Also humans are hard to grasp. Really
poor UI.

~~~
_mulder_
I see what you're getting at, but I disagree; you can't really chose your
parents can you. So from your point of view, however you end up when you're
born, is actually completely random and out of your control.

~~~
Ygg2
No but that's not the point. If you know seed of PRNG you can based on
predecessors find next element. Also it's a joke :)

------
cell303
I really don't know how to say this without sounding like a complete bozo, but
I really think that this is a very, very sad perspective on life.

It tries to quantify every aspect of life (or rather: disregards any aspect
that can't be quantified) and therefore leads to a view of the world that is
completely mechanic.

What's worse are it's dogmatic undertones. It kind of suggests that these are
general rules that apply to everyone. And if you don't want to be a loser you
have to play by those rules.

Games have winners and losers. Who is to become a winner or a loser is decided
by some arbitrary rules that are predefined and can't be changed. Is that the
kind of mental mindset that you want to equip yourself with? That you will be
either a winner or a loser, by the standards of other people? Please, we
already have a high chance of getting burnout in our profession. You don't
have to forcefully increase it.

So as a little comic relief, here is a quote form the article:

> When your willpower is low, you are only able to do things you really want
> to.

By contrast, here is a quote from Bob Dylan that I happen like:

> A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and
> in between does what he wants to do.

So if you want to be a success by the standards of Dylan, you know what to do
;)

~~~
pknight
It's because it _is_ a sad depiction of life and totally misguided for the
purposes of making a catchy post. He took the games analogy to far the way of
mechanical games that emphasize the hamster wheel approach to life.

That's not to say game play doesn't provide a very good analogy. Life makes
much more sense when you relate to it like a variety of games each with their
own rules. When you know the rules, everything becomes more clear. What you do
with it is still up to you, but it's better than being in the dark.

Having a more playful approach to life and finding the fun in the most trivial
of activities is rewarding. But unlike what the author emphasizes the in-the-
moment experiences matter more than the milestones one reaches for the sake of
reaching milestones.

------
Jach
This is a fun little post. I did have a nitpick with the points about
willpower, though. There's evidence that's it's limited if you believe
willpower is limited, and nonlimited if you believe willpower is nonlimited
([http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/Publications_files/Job...](http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/Publications_files/Job,%20Dweck,%20%26%20Walton,%202010.pdf)).
(And in other ego depletion literature, loss of willpower may just be
reflecting lower glucose levels.)

> All players die after about 29,000 days, or 80 years. If your stats and
> skills are good, you might last a little longer. There is no cheat code to
> extend this.

Wouldn't that be a great hack, to extend this number indefinitely, and share
the exploit with everyone else?
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_Foundation](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_Foundation)
et al. are working on it...)

~~~
malka
Great is not really the word I would use. Awful fits better.

------
swombat
_The first 15 years or so of life are just tutorial missions, which suck.
There’s no way to skip these._

Umm... right. Seriously? That's all the advice this guy has on the first 15
years of life?

Reading the rest, it doesn't look like he has much of use to say about
anything else either.

~~~
oliveremberton
Author here. Originally I had a lot of blather in that section, but given:

1\. It's a long post 2\. Most of my readers are presumably >15 yrs old 3\. I
honestly think most people up to age 15 have limited control over their lives

I decided to trim it down. Obviously I am not literally saying that a
14-and-11-months year old has no influence over their destiny but a 15 year
old does. But superfluous precision is the enemy of effective writing; you end
up with a legal document.

~~~
CJefferson
I would say "pay attention to the tutorial missions. The main game assumes you
completed all the tutorials well."

------
pyrrhotech
Very cool and fun. However, I think we need to stop talking about this 80
years nonsense. My grandad is 83 and ran a marathon last year. He still works
everyday, and talks about where his company will be 15 years from now. I have
6 great aunts alive in their 90s or older (I just attended one of my great
aunts' 100th birthday parties over the holidays).

The point is that the human body if treated well in the ideal conditions is
meant to live 120 years or so. Over time, litte damages we do to it like not
get enough sleep, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, eat trans fat, take drugs,
stress at work add up to years off.

No one is perfect, and just about everyone will end up taking a decade or two
off this max even if their goal is not to. But living to 100 while still
enjoying life should be everyone's goal. Remember that having a 100 year life
span gives you 25% more life than 80. That's a really big difference and
enhances your perspective greatly. I don't feel that life is over at 35, in
fact it's pretty much just getting started.

And this is all not counting any technological advances that may enable us to
drastically increase our lifespans. I hope Mr. De Gray and Kurzweil are
correct. But even if they aren't, you should shoot for at least 100.

------
daGrevis
I would like to share my opinion on living life.

What is the main goal? Some may think that it's getting better at something to
get a raise and more money. First there is a school, then there is the 1st
job, the you try to get a better one and you are trying and trying and trying
to get higher. In my opinion, that's not the main point and it's just a side-
effect of the life.

Article suggests that 1st 15 years of life is a training or a tutorial, but I
disagree. They are as much as important as any other time period. Person
should do what makes he or she happy. If it's playing video-games or spending
time with friends at a bar, it's okay. Of course, it won't affect your skills
on getting a better job (so more money), but if it makes you a happier person,
do it! Life is all about being happy and doing what you love to do.

There is no magic-prize at the end of the life, only memories. What will be
the point of having much money and good CV in you will sacrifice your
happiness on it.

In my opinion, this video[1] nicely shows what I'm talking about.

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-
GC4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERbvKrH-GC4)

~~~
babby
While I mostly agree with you, one could also argue that there is a meaning to
life and that is not to be happy but is to instead do all that one can do to
further human survival (or whatever we end up turning into). One person
providing some obscure service eventually bubbles up to the guys colonizing
other worlds.

There is a default meaning to our life, and it's merely survival. I believe
there is a balance between giving into ones emotions and _not_ ; doing many
great and small things which accumulate into mattering in the grand scheme of
it all, determining ones worth.

You're lying on your death bed and you ask yourself; how meaningful were my
actions to this universe?

~~~
codonaut
One could argue that survival is the meaning of life, just as one could argue
that eating cake is the meaning of life. Just because we have a massive
instinctual desire to survive doesn't necessarily mean that it is the default
meaning of life.

------
sz4kerto
Is this supposed to be a joke or there are people who really do think that
they have figured out the simple rules of how to lead a good life?

Maybe I'm just becoming old, but I already hate this kind of arrogance.

~~~
benburleson
It's not obvious the article is supposed to be "fun?"

Man, I don't want to get old.

------
lgieron
Seriously, THIS is the advice that you'd give to, for example, your son? Views
like that (both the content and the form that was used to present it) are a
great example for why lots of people see the techies as detached simpletons.

~~~
Tloewald
What, you don't think that your main life decision was whether to be
comfortable, well-off, or mega-rich?

~~~
lgieron
It's not that hard - orienting your life around becoming rich is clearly a
trap and, as for the remaining two options, it's better to make more money
than less as long as the job doesn't suck too badly.

~~~
Tloewald
Defining your life around money goals is probably a bad idea period. If you
can, do what you love.

~~~
lgieron
I'd say - set yourself a comfortable base by selling your time and talents
(ex. by working as a programmer) and then, if you have enough spare time, do
what you love. Going 100% after passion is as dangerous as going 100% after
money.

------
eshvk
I am curious. Are video games such an influential component of American twenty
something year olds that every fucking thing has to be couched in terms of
gaming lingo? I see this shit on Reddit all the time and it baffles me.

~~~
kyro
Agreed. Maybe I'm not part of that culture or fully understand it, but as I
get older into my late-20s, this type of stuff puts me off more and more.

------
nilkn
> It’s almost impossible to get rich working for someone else.

A very minor nitpick, but this has been proven false so many times. If "rich"
means $1M+ during the mid-life period (I think this qualifies as rich if you
are willing to live outside of major cities), plenty of people have
accumulated that level of wealth by working for others. Go work for a big tech
company, save/invest all your bonuses (of which there will be many), and
save/invest a good portion of your salary, and you could potentially be a
millionaire in only 10 years (for a programmer with just a bachelor's degree,
that could translate to early to mid 30s).

If "rich" means $10M+, then that is indeed quite a bit harder to do (unless
we're talking about age 65+, in which case the above person will easily
achieve it). It can still be done by joining the right pre-IPO company,
working on Wall Street as a trader (admittedly, a very demanding career--but
not "impossible"), achieving partnership at a major law firm, or working your
way up the corporate ladder (Satya was making $8M/year _before_ being promoted
to CEO).

------
notacoward
Also...

* We all have to play in hardcore mode - death is permanent, no saves or restarts.

* Difficulty level is chosen for you at birth, and you can't change it during the game.

------
petsagouris
Ok, this has been done on reddit:
[http://www.reddit.com/r/outside](http://www.reddit.com/r/outside)

------
hugofirth
OK... ok - I get all this. But how do I build for Tanky DPS?

Addendum: Article also forgets to mention the University stage, otherwise
known as LFG.

------
girvo
This got a whole stack of upvotes, reached #1 on HN... But most of the
comments here are _super_ negative. That's weird, why would that be?

~~~
ceeK
Interesting point. I quite enjoyed it, but didn't take it as seriously as
everyone else in this thread. I mean, it's relating life to an 16-bit computer
game, what would one expect?

I expect perhaps there may be a few more like me, upvoting the article because
they enjoyed it, but then leaving it at that. There's not much to discuss when
you realise the true purpose of the article.

Negative comments seem to come from people who took it a bit too seriously, in
which case it becomes easier to generate discussion points.

------
guspe
Life is not a game. And that's because, unlike any game, life has no rules. By
following this strategy guide, there's absolutely no guarantee you will
succeed (btw, what exactly is it to succeed in life?).

People might get a sense of comfort in thinking that life has a recipe, that
it has some sort of inherent quest you must conquer. But there's isn't.
Religion, technology, culture and art are our way to deal with that.

Life is open for you to make whatever you want of it. And this is the beauty
of it all. Do you want to make it a game? Go ahead, lay some rules, build a
strategy, get your achievements. But I think there's more to life than
following rules and managing your resources. I wouldn't be surprised if the
rules changed without warning or if my resources were suddenly depleted
without apparent reason. Because life doesn't care about the rationalizations
you came up with.

Life is a unique experience that, fortunately, cannot be framed within a
metaphor. There are many ways to live (life as a game, life as a movie, life
as a story, life as a poem, life as a checklist, life as a tough math problem)
and all of them are right. So maybe we shouldn't bother too much about living
the right way and instead just enjoy the ride.

------
opendomain
This is a fantastic article - I wish I had known this guide when I was young.
I liked it so much, I sent a link to my teenage son. However, if you would not
mind, could this be edited so my teeanage daughter would also enjoy it?
Unless, of course, she wants to be a "ladies magnet" \- I support her life
choices. But if we want more women entrepreneurs, we should encourage them to
follow a path like this without the possible sexism.

~~~
oliveremberton
Thanks. I did agonise over that part at the time I wrote it. I couldn't think
of a more inclusive alternative, and chose something a little comedic on
purpose ('ladies man') in the hope it wouldn't be taken _too_ seriously.

Open to suggestions.

~~~
roel_v
Suggestion: ignore whiners like this who petition for 'manhole covers' to be
renamed 'personhole covers'.

~~~
thezoid
Or you know... just name them to something generic like "sewer access point
covers"

~~~
dubfan
Not all "access point covers" go to sewers. Some go to communication conduits.
Sewerist.

------
l33tbro
When did HN become a repository for sub-par Tony Robbins pap?

~~~
robobro
Sadly, it's part of the toxic startup/marketing/web design/etc half of hn
that's really quite terrible.

------
pete_b
AKA a colorful and witty guide to being a self-assured and self-validated
narsissist

------
fromdoon
I find this very interesting. Most of us who have crossed the 25 year mark,
would already have read/seen something like this.

But this is an awesome way to teach some valuable lessons to kids. The analogy
of life to a game is something that is clear, simple and pretty intuitive for
a growing kid. Since most of the kids these days have played some games or
other.

------
city41
It seems like the author was influenced by Scott Adams, he talks about a lot
of this stuff in his book "How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win
Big". If this article intrigued you, I recommend the book. It's a very down to
earth and practical look at how to be successful.

------
omegaworks
-Select- your character! Reminded me of a wonderful Louis CK sketch:

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG4f9zR5yzY)

Of course you can't end up a person of color. Oh heavens no, anything but
that!

------
Breefield
Enjoyed all of this aside from the "finding a partner" section. Finding a
partner is trivial, keeping that partner is the hard part. Unless you want to
keep finding new partners all the time (some do).

~~~
l33tbro
Finding the right partner isn't trivial.

~~~
danielweber
Maybe it's blasphemy for me to say this, but in my life it's been a lot harder
to start a relationship than to keep one. Relationship books say that you have
to work just as hard to keep one but that's nonsense. I don't need to buy my
spouse flowers constantly or go on dates every weekend. (But surprise flowers
are always a good idea.)

~~~
Al-Khwarizmi
It's the same in my experience. It was very difficult for me to start a
relationship, and much easier to keep it.

Starting one still looks rather random to me, you roll the dice until finally
someone that you like likes you too, and that's most of what there's to it.
Your attitude or effort can give you some small modifiers or penalties to the
dice roll, but that's about it. It might sound childish but honestly, if I
have to start a new relationship at some point, I'll be as lost in a sea of
pure chaos as I was the last time.

On the other hand, keeping a relationship is pretty rational. Love the other
person, care about her, don't be a dick, be emphatic, try to make her life as
good as possible, and if you are not unusually unlucky you'll normally
succeed.

Maybe it's also that as people that for one reason or other have a very hard
time looking for relationships, we tend to value them more and make more
effort to keep them than those who have it easier to get into one.

------
splitbrain
This is awesome. What I'd really like to have is an improved HUD for this game
that permanently displays the internal states of Health, Energy and Willpower.
Google Glass + some biosensors maybe.

------
Schwolop
So Oliver had 86 karma before posting this. Assuming this marks the start of
his intent to post all his 2014 articles, I shall enjoy observing how rapidly
this number blossoms...

~~~
oliveremberton
Thanks! I've not really posted much on HN before, although I've had a few of
my posts turn up in here by themselves, and I thought it would be worth trying
myself.

 _crosses fingers_

~~~
Schwolop
I think some crossing [of fingers] might be in order. HN has a weird hatred of
Quora, so if anyone ever finds out how internet-famous you are there, there
could be trouble!

~~~
oliveremberton
Sorry – "crossing"?

~~~
Schwolop
crossing of fingers. I probably could have worded that better...

------
return0
"The default life in post-industrial western cities is a game, this is your
strategy guide." \- FTFY

Not all the people in the world live such mechanical, predictable lives.

------
erikb
Awesome guide! I agree with most points. Just a minor point is that rule
number one of money is actually _never use your own_. The rule in the book
should be more like the rule number one of managing resources of all kinds, as
was also explained to skill. Put your skill into things that grow your skill.
Put your time into things that get your more time. And sometimes it also means
put your engergy to grow your skills, etc.

------
dummy00
Setting goals and pursuing them - very well

Trying out different strategies to be more effective in reaching your goals -
perfectly ok

Convinging yourself that you have complete control over what's happening to
you and becoming too serious about the game - big mistake..

You should always allow a good doze of doubt and be open to the unknown,
because ultimately .. we have no clue what a fuck we're doing here...

------
alecsmart1
Nice. Can also add-

Cheat codes: There are no cheat codes.

Or if you want to be controversial-

Cheat codes: \- Find a rich partner \- Win a lottery \- Get born in a rich
family (random)

~~~
baby
I thought reading books was a cheat code?

A lot of people try to figure out things by themselves, and some things have
to be understood by oneself. But a lot of things can also be understood in
books, or by listenning to the experiences of others that have failed where
you are trying to suceed hundred of years before you.

~~~
charlieflowers
Reading skill-building books is like grinding orcs for two hours to get to the
next level. (Reading fun books is another mini-game. Every now and then, you
can find a book or 2 that is both fun and skill-building, which is more fun
than any game I've ever encountered).

------
lilsunnybee
On the way to the gym you got into a car crash. After a difficult recovery you
now have chronic pain and memory loss problems. Max Happiness is reduced from
10 to 5. All relationship counters reduced by half due to mood changes and
inability to relate. These effects are permanent. Continue with life? -Sure-
-Quit-

------
md2be
Welcome to a world with no mozart, no Jesus, no Buddha, no Poe, no Pele, no
Einstein .....

------
DaGal
All those "BE PRODUCTIVE" subliminal messages are somehow damaging my
willpower.

------
opinologo
Supporting (and implementing) the idea of life as a game, you can check:
[http://habitrpg.com](http://habitrpg.com)

------
dllthomas
Today's SMBC is relevant:

[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=3259#comic](http://www.smbc-
comics.com/?id=3259#comic)

------
baby
I like how it simplifies everything to something we can all understand. And in
the end, yes you should get more sleep.

------
hardwaresofton
It would have been nice to have some other races... as starting
points/included in the strategy guide at all.

------
md2be
Really? Look through the history books and see how people who made their mark
followed this formula?

------
viach
There is a suspicion that we can have persistent game items/artifacts between
sessions.

------
kyberias
I'm disappointed by the total lack of evolutionary perspective in this
article.

------
huangc10
"death gotta be easy cuz life is hard" \- 50 Cent

------
BrownBuffalo
Brilliant. The sandbox example rox.

------
rrggrr
genius. great article.

------
notastartup
How many of you clicked on the 'PRESS START' and then started to wonder if
it's actually a key and realized you have no idea what you are doing like life
itself.

Only 19,345 days remaining in your life (assuming there's no way to extend
life beyond 80 in my life time and still be solid) how depressing is that? The
only thing that now makes sense is go full out Skyrim, raids and pillaging,
indulging in hedonism and a senseless pursuit of scarce material goods.

On another note, this site seems like a personal therapist. When I read one
article I just feel calm and excited depending on the article. It's a freaking
goldmine of life hacks.

~~~
jzzskijj
"How many of you clicked on the 'PRESS START' and then started to wonder if
it's actually a key and realized you have no idea what you are doing like life
itself."

I clicked, but just because I wanted to make sure I don't miss an easter egg
or something.

------
Fasebook
So which drawer is the Ultima Weapon in?

