What In the World of Warcraft?
Most people, nowadays, have probably heard of MMORPGs. World of Warcraft was a very famous example of one.
MMORPGs stand for “Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”.
While World of Warcraft is by no means the only such game out there, it is one I played extensively for around 5 years. Hence, me using it for my analogy.
I no longer play it, and at the time of writing this entry, the game is mired in much controversy, due to ongoing issues at Activision-Blizzard. It may not even be around by the time you read this.
For the Uninitiated, this is an online role-playing game.
How It Works.
The way it works is that you choose your side you wish to be on, the character you wish to play, and level it up, in the gaming world, so you can enjoy many aspects of the content available.
The concept of timelines, dying, and returning can be difficult for some to fathom. However, I find that World of Warcraft can illustrate those ideas quite nicely.
The game, itself, is set up so that it is run on individual servers. There are hundreds of identical copies of the gaming world. Each one has their own individual name so you can tell them apart.
While each server provides an identical copy of the game, there are often variations on how you may play the game itself.
The main ones are Player versus Environment (PvE), Player versus Player (PvP) and you may also choose a server that allows roleplaying.
You indulge yourself in the many activities available. Raiding, levelling up your “toon”. Battlegrounds, dungeons, raids, daily quests, and pet battles. New features are being added all the time.
Different Approaches
Regardless of your choices, the same “in game” events will occur.
The differences in how things play out will be how you choose to approach them.
Each time you try something, it may succeed or fail. You can try many different approaches to your objective, and do it working with different personalities and goals.
Every time you die, you can return to your body for another go, as though nothing ever happened.
While everything is the same, it is also different.
You could liken this to timelines. Each version is almost identical, but each time, events play out slightly differently, depending on what you choose to do, who you decide to do it with, and so on.
Experience will be your teacher and eventually you will reach a point where, what once was hard or tricky, becomes easy.
You could be playing on one server, then decide to transfer to another. Everything will seem the same, but it won’t be. There will be subtle differences, including the feel and atmosphere of that server.
Death Becomes a Mere Inconvenience
Death has no real consequence. At the worst, it will cost you some gold for repairs, or delay you for a few minutes.
Should your character die; you just come back over and over again, until you work out a way to win or avoid death.
Though I’m using World of Warcraft as an analogy here, it’s not a perfect one, but it helps to illustrate my points.
In real life, you come back time and time again. Trying different ways, making different decisions, and trying to work out how to experience and achieve the goals you have set for yourself.
You may not be aware that this is happening. Or if you are, you will more than likely put it down to a faulty memory that doesn’t make any logical sense.
Avatars
In World of Warcraft, you are fully aware of what needs to be done, and how to do it. If it’s a new challenge, you will work it out soon enough.
To take the analogy further. You, as the player are the main soul. (Often referred to as The Higher-Self.)
The “toons” are your avatars. You control them all. Decide what you want to achieve, and then give instructions to do it. Sometimes things work out. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes those “toons” will seem to have a mind of their own.
With this analogy, it’s similar to our own Higher-Selves. It is the main Soul and we are its avatars.
Like the “toons”, you may not be aware it is even happening but your Higher-Self knows everything it needs to know in order to have the experiences it desires.
The Higher Self might even have more than one Avatar at the same time, which is also something you can do in World of Warcraft.
Next entry, we’ll look at what an Avatar is.