I would say that there is a difference in strongly narrative games where you’re playing mostly for the story (i.e. things like Baldur’s Gate) and games where the story helps build an engaging world (i.e. good MMOs)… Life is an almost entirely narrative experience, it’s good to avoid poverty and the like but there is no scoring system at the end that matters… Money, Power, Accolades, (meaningless) Children - they mean nothing. At the end of your life the only persistent value you should care about is how your life impacted others.
Did you ruin the days or lives of others? Did you help others live good lives and write positive stories of their own? That’s fucking it.
When playing a board game with my friends I, personally, love to be a villain because it makes a fun story to get lost in for an afternoon… But I would never choose to purposefully put another person through unnecessary strife.
Ed: I revised “Children” to “(meaningless) Children” because some people treat reproduction like a goal and parent dozens of neglected children and that’s what I wanted to call out. If you decide to become a parent and help your child to have a wonderful life that’s obviously a fucking awesome thing - but you can have relationships like that even without physically reproducing.
I would say that there is a difference in strongly narrative games where you’re playing mostly for the story (i.e. things like Baldur’s Gate) and games where the story helps build an engaging world (i.e. good MMOs)… Life is an almost entirely narrative experience, it’s good to avoid poverty and the like but there is no scoring system at the end that matters… Money, Power, Accolades, (meaningless) Children - they mean nothing. At the end of your life the only persistent value you should care about is how your life impacted others.
Did you ruin the days or lives of others? Did you help others live good lives and write positive stories of their own? That’s fucking it.
When playing a board game with my friends I, personally, love to be a villain because it makes a fun story to get lost in for an afternoon… But I would never choose to purposefully put another person through unnecessary strife.
Ed: I revised “Children” to “(meaningless) Children” because some people treat reproduction like a goal and parent dozens of neglected children and that’s what I wanted to call out. If you decide to become a parent and help your child to have a wonderful life that’s obviously a fucking awesome thing - but you can have relationships like that even without physically reproducing.