Livin’ Ludic

An Open-Ended, Open-World Game, of Indeterminate Length

Over the years, I increasingly gain an impression of my lived experience as being game-like. I find myself accidentally playing ‘Nell Watson RPG’, a game whereby the player roams around an open world, accepting quests and requests for help from a variety of NPCs. Sometimes the player character will accept a reward after the fact, but often just knowing that the state of play is improved in some way is plenty in itself.

The game also includes a lengthy main quest to ‘save the world’ by shepherding new social technologies into being. Along the way, other players have joined up as a party to pursue some goal or mission. In doing this, I have learned to align my character’s strengths with those of others, each taking their ideal role.

Some of these folks are industrious Tanks, full of brawn and vigour, others are Mages, with an eerie wisdom, but a weaker constitution. There are also perceptive and strategic Rogues, able to craft ingenious solutions to tough situations. Some players may seem underpowered on the surface, but when combined with others can produce strange poorly-understood buffs that somehow make the entire unit more cohesive.

As a Level 30-something Gnomish Bard of alignment Neutral Good, my role is to inspire others into fighting the right battles in the right way, and to sing memorable ballads of those who have accomplished great deeds; may they live in eternal memory. The role of the Bard is to minister to a challenging world, to fill others with hope, wisdom, compassion, perspective, and tools of resilience. The role is not to heal the world per se, rather to inspire others to find and join a quest to do so.

Adopting a ludic mentality lets you enjoy the meta-experience of your life in new ways. You can play just for the loot, but it is empty. Better to ascribe virtual points to yourself — points garnered through smiles induced, others empowered, disagreements resolved, and disorder put right. 

Sometimes you get an unexpected Quick Time Event, where you can make a crucial difference in the moment. This is where a strong, consistent alignment pays off: it provides natural decision heuristics. Knowing your values, and living them in daily practice, is what makes those split-second calls possible.

When I was younger, life was hard for a good while. As a child, I often wished that I could start again, the way you do when a game gets badly derailed and the current run feels beyond saving, leaving you aching for the chance to begin again. 

I developed a strong Renegade alignment. This gave me the strength to push through difficult moments through force of will, but it held back the softer parts of myself from their full bloom. In healing my old unlicked wounds, a new kind of energy had room to take centre stage, something more Paragon in nature. 

When one almost gets run over by the proverbial bus, a moment of clarity ensues. The random caprice of mortality makes one keenly aware of playing for keeps in a persistent world. All good fun must come to an end.

Much of our daily interaction in society is also a game of sorts. Some games are zero-sum; others can have co-operative outcomes.

One can think of one’s vital statistics in certain ways also, to better play to one’s strengths:

• Meat is how physically adept your body is.

• Brains is how smart you are.

• Spark is how “creative”, alive, aware, unfettered one is.

• Slack is how lucky and laid back one is, in the sense that higher Slack scores allow more affordance to roll with the punches, and fewer issues coming one’s way.

• Mana is how much force of will / composure one has.

• Class is how highly others rank you when they compare you to someone else, and the box they put you in; it is the one stat rolled for you rather than by you.

Some zero-sum scenarios:

• In a sports competition, the higher Meat will win.

• In a chess match, the higher Brains will win.

• In a Locked Room puzzle, the higher Spark will win.

• When the waiter trips while holding a bowl of soup, the lower Slack will get the soup dumped on them.

• When two people each found new start-ups, the lower Mana will go under first.

• When two people apply for a job interview (or a loan, or a date, or a scholarship), the lower Class gets rejected.

Doublestat effects:- Picking a lock is a Meat+Brains roll.- Surviving in the wild is a Meat+Spark roll.- Surviving an illness is a Meat+Slack roll.- Intimidating someone is a Meat+Mana roll.- Attracting a mate is often a Meat+Class roll.- Inventing a gadget is a Brains+Spark roll.- Exploiting loopholes in a system is a Brains+Slack roll.- Winning at strategy games is a Brains+Mana roll.- Surviving in academia is a Brains+Class roll.- Making it through a war zone is a Spark+Slack roll.- Founding a startup is a Spark+Mana roll.- Creating art is a Spark+Class roll.

- Bumming from couch to couch without losing friends is a Slack+Mana roll.- Getting into a fancy nightclub is a Slack+Class roll.- Being a sex symbol is a Mana+Class roll.

Different character classes have their own strengths and bonuses. Understanding which class you natively belong to matters. A character forced to work against its strengths can seem like a damp squib — until it finds the right role or environment and suddenly shines. With mastery and experience you can also unlock prestige classes: a specific niche that maximises your abilities within a particular domain.

If social life can be abstracted to a series of contracts and games, then models that map scenarios onto them may be useful. But regardless of strategy or desired outcome, the aesthetic counts. The journey rewards more than the destination, and though you may lose many battles, the war remains undecided. Building yourself to ever finer self-mastery is what really counts.

Play your game of life as artfully as one might play an instrument. Make of oneself a work of art, and wear kindness as an aesthetic: a ribbon of goodwill, and a cape of humanitarian faith.