If Life Were a Video Game

     If life were a video game, people would get achievements for jobs, marriage, self-sacrifice, and sticking with goals. Perhaps, if they were older games, we would be facing holes in the ground, which we would, of course, jump over. Door on the second floor? No problem. You can jump over than your head...if you can jump at all. I prefer the jumping; I hate video games where a small pile of trash you could step over blocks your way.

     Our pockets would be infinitely deep. We could carry around furniture and all our worldly possessions in a backpack or a pair of cargo pants. Moving to another town would be an epic journey requiring the assistance of someone with an oversized sword and a hero complex. Hey, the hero complex would be so common as to be practically normal.

     We would have random encounters with strange monsters whenever we travelled...and zombies while at home. But don't worry, a lone hero would come, perhaps gather friends, and save us all. Or, perhaps you're the hero. You could be; or perhaps, in trying, you might become the hero. Or their ally, or a warning for someone else.

     If life were a video game, there would be countless princesses of countless kingdoms, and every one of them would be good and beloved and endlessly in danger. But worry not, these troubled times will pass, for the prophesied hero will come and save her, restoring the kingdom to peace and prosperity. Or perhaps she is not kidnapped. Perhaps she goes out to set right the things that have gone wrong in her kingdom. That happens, right?

     Maybe you're in a different genre altogether, with pigs stealing eggs and birds knocking down towers. Maybe you're an intellectual being, and your power to save the world lay in your ability to crack a code or solve a puzzle. Alternately, you're an aspiring tyrant, and to take over the world, you must use tactics and strategy.

     Maybe you've chosen a dark game. You may be alone, or nearly so, and just to survive. Maybe you are the last human, and the remaining bits of humans are slathering monsters. You discover something, a secret, maybe other survivors. Maybe a cure is just around the corner. You would have to find that cure. Unless you're one of the slathering monsters.

     Let's swing things back around to happier games. Say you need someone to love; you could gather a few flowers, recite a few poems, and become inseparable. Your relationship would be limited to a small selection of phrases. But that would be enough, right? Certainly it would be; isn't that all a pixelated hero needs?

     But in all these cases, these wandering monsters and slathering subhumans, fear not. There is a healing potion, or a blast of adrenaline, or a magical flower. You will be healthy at a mere taste. Catch a disease? Chances are, this potion will heal you. Health is great and incurable diseases unheard of.

     Maybe there's magic involved. Perhaps you, and/or others, can cast great and powerful spells, or create rituals that will save humanity. You're in a video game; anything is possible.