PHILOSOPHICAL LESSONS FROM VIDEO GAMES
Contents:
The medium through which a user communicates with a software application.
A game that involves the player assuming a fictional role in an in-game story.
An umbrella term that encompasses games that use specific mechanics modeled after Rogue, a game which became famous in the 1980s. In essence, a roguelike is a game structured around failing and restarting, in which no two play-throughs are exactly alike due to a design that randomizes various aspects of the experience, according to Greg Kasavin (Perry, 2023). More precisely, according to the Berlin Interpretation (which is the definition that was settled on by at the 2008 International Roguelike Development Conference), a roguelike must have the following (Lee, 2021):
NOTE 1: Random environment generation does not necessarily mean randomised; it can be another form of procedural generation that is practically random for the player. Furthermore, “environment generation” does not necessarily mean that the map of the game is generated anew; the environment also involves encounters, NPC interactions, loot, etc., and if one or more of these are randomised in some way, it still counts as “random environment generation”.
NOTE 2: Non-modal gameplay is when the rules remain consistent throughout the game, with no separate “modes” for different activities. In other words, all actions and scenes take place in the same UI, which means there are no cutscenes or separate gamemodes; for example, there are no separate UIs for battles and exploration. (Bellow, 2024).
Occidental Heroes is a roguelike RPG with exploration, quests and turn-based tactical combat but without non-modal gameplay (since battles, exploration and city/town stops have separate UIs). My goal here is to present lessons I learned from playing the game that apply to life more broadly. However, to put these lessons in the context of the game, I shall first explain the game.
The game starts by choosing a founder for an adventuring company, wherein you can choose one out of many specialisations (e.g. man-in-arms, fencer, archer, etc.) and backstories (e.g. impoverished nobleman, devout warrior monk, etc.); each specialisation comes with its own strengths and weaknesses, and each backstory comes with its own special capabilities and personal goal. Normally, you can choose up to two party members with pre-defined specialisations and backstories; the options are randomised at the start of every run. The goal of the game is to help each party member achieve their personal goal and earn enough money to retire comfortably.
Money is earned mostly by completing dangerous jobs, but there are also rewards (in money, loot or other kinds) that can be won through battles or earned by completing side-quests. Each party member has his own personal goal that has its own criteria for success. Furtermore, each party member also has a level resolve, which can decrease (e.g. if wounded in battle) or increase (e.g. by winning a battle without the party taking any hits). Taking care of resolve is important since a party member quits the company if his resolve is too low.
The game is set in a low-fantasy medieval world, and the events of the game take place in the “Occident”, a newly colonised contintent with its own natives and native history (like the Americas in our world). The map consists of a number of terrains (e.g. plains, hills, forests, etc.) with a number of settlements and structures (e.g. cities, towns, ruins, etc.) spread across the map. The map is set in a grid, and as the party travels across the map, it may be faced with random encounters (e.g. merchants, bandits, etc.). Jobs can be sought in most settlements, and party members can be retired in taverns in the settlements that have them. If the party is short of members (due to retirement or death), new party members may also be sought in such taverns.
Retiring a party member makes sure the member leaves the company in good terms (which improves the company’s reputation), unlike the case when the member quits due to low resolve. Furthermore, if a member has achieved his goal and/or if he has achieved enough money to retire comfortably, he contributes to the player’s score as long as he is alive, even if he retires. However, if he is killed, only his share of the company’s earnings is taken considered for the score. Hence, seeking new party members and helping them achieve their personal goals as well as earn enough money to retire comforably is important to the player’s score, and the highest score possible is 100%.
Do not let the loss of a value blind you from other values in your life. Once, when a party member got killed during a battle, I remember letting the loss overwhelm me to the point that I played recklessly, as if there was no point anymore in making sure the other members were safe. As far as I remember, a key emotion I felt was despair, i.e. I lost sight of the fact that there were yet values worth preserving and pursuing. Now, I hold that (1) values are properly evaluated with respect to a standard of value (i.e. the value for which every value is pursued), and (2) emotions are a form of instantaneous value-judgement based on internalised premises. Hence, in my understanding, an emotional reaction such as the one I had stems from not holding the right standard of value, leading to me not making the right value-judgements, leading thus to emotions that led me away from the pursuit of values, i.e. that obscured what was important to focus on, despite the loss.
Reality and fate owe you nothing. The game has some randomisation in its encounters and circumstances (e.g. randomisation with respect to the favourability or lack thereof of (1) the environment within which a battle took place, (2) the difficulty of the battle — which could not be known before entering it — (3) the quests available, etc.). This randomisation at times led to unfavourable or even disastrous situations, such as only getting quests that were too risky for my party, or having to fight in unexpectedly unfavourable terrain, or having to make a move in battle even though that move would risk or lead to death, etc.
Such randomisation serves to simulate, to some extent, the fact that factors that are practically unaccountable can affect your life for the better or for the worse. What is the best approach to dealing with this fact? This fact relates to the nature of reality as it affects you, a conscious being, and hence, the relationship between reality and consciousness is most relevant here. Now, this relationship is identified by the metaphysical principle of the primacy of existence, which states that existence is the fundamental basis of facts. In other words, it states that (1) consciousness is a part of existence, and that (2) existence exists independently of consciousness, i.e. the facts are what they are independent of the contents of your consciousness. You can act to change the facts as per your capacity, but even to change them, you must first accept them as they are and act accordingly; in other words, nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed (Francis Bacon).
Just to be clear, since consciousness is part of reality, so are its contents, and as a part of reality, its contents can and do affect reality in some sense and to some extent. My point, however, is that the contents of consciousness do not automatically correspond to the facts (e.g. imagination and intuition do not necessarily correspond to the truth), and any effects the contents of consciousness do have (e.g. the formation of conscious units such as percepts and concepts, physical and physiological effects and reflections of mental activity, the will to act that leads to action, etc.) are based on causality that does not automatically correspond to your intention. In other words, to achieve what you intend to achieve, you must align your intention to causality and not expect causality to align itself to your intention.
Hence, your wishes do not shape reality unless that are concretised through action, if doing so is even possible. Hence, we come back to the question: what is the best approach to dealing with the effects of unaccountable factors? The answer, based on the primacy of existence, is that it is irrational to expect, much less demand, anything from reality other than the facts and what they imply as per your knowledge, whether or not these facts align with your expectations. Indeed, if the facts go against your expectations, it is your expectations and not the facts that must change. Hence, it is invalid to curse fate or think of reality as acting intentionally for or against you, i.e. benevolently or maliciously. Reality is neither; it just is what it is, and it can be known and dealt with only by grasping and accepting it for what it is.
Take what you want and pay for it.
Hold onto regret only until you learn from or correct for your errors and/or faults to the best of your capacity and knowledge. Self-punishment (and regret) must never be ends in themselves but means to improving one’s efficacy in life; to the extent that it does not serve to improve one’s efficacy in life, it must be put aside.
Perry, H. (2023). Don’t Be Scared. Play a Roguelike. [online] Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/what-are-roguelike-games [Accessed 02-09-2024].
Lee, J. (2021). Roguelike vs. Roguelite Games: The Differences, Explained. [online] Available from: https://whatnerd.com/what-is-a-roguelike-roguelite-difference [Accessed 02-09-2024].
Bellow, P. (2024). What Makes a Roguelike? Defining the Classic Genre. [online] Available from: https://litrpgreads.com/blog/what-makes-a-roguelike-defining-the-classic-genre [Accessed 02-09-2024].