Life Is Not A Game

The Emotional Difference Between Fiction and Reality

Human life has a lot in common with certain video games. In what are called “role-playing games”, players create a character, develop their skills, and accomplish various challenges or quests that improve their resources and make them more powerful.

Some players are motivated simply by the intrinsic rewards of accomplishing something difficult and interesting within the game. Other players are motivated by the reputation that their success within the game will bring them. Millions of human beings around the world invest not only considerable amounts of time, but considerable emotional resources, into the lives of the characters they create.

From a certain perspective, our lives can look eerily similar to a video game. We take time to develop our skills, carefully choose a profession, and accomplish certain objectives in order to secure more resources, praise, and stability four ourselves and our loved ones.

Despite the similarities, life is not a game, and it is important to understand why.

Although the successes and failures of fictional characters in a game or movie can evoke real emotional responses in us, the emotional consequences of these events are not permanent. Our responses to fictional events do not burn themselves into our souls. The reason for this is that fiction is not final. It can be rewritten. New characters can be created. We can learn from our mistakes in a game, and try again.

Meanwhile, when we fail to achieve our life goals, or cause another human being to suffer, we cannot undo these events. We can try to make up for them, and avoid making the same mistake twice, but we must live with the permanence of the things that we do (or don’t do). We carry the emotional weight of our lives with us, in our bodies and in our souls, at all times.