Thoughts on MMORPGS and Impermanence

I've been playing World of Warcraft today, and it got me to thinking as I was playing it. One spends their time, hundreds of hours possibly, playing one character. They advance them from level to level, gaining experience, knowledge, power, and wealth. They gain greater and greater gear until they are nearly unstoppable and are smashing everything in their path. they are very near, forgive the term, gods on the server on which they play.

What happens then when that server is shut down? What happens when they no longer have access to their account either because it no longer exists or because, perhaps, they've been banned for bad behavior? The answer is that they lose everything they've worked for. Their wealth, their abilities, their extraordinary reputation. It's all gone. It all exists only as a memory.

It struck me today that this is an analogy of life. We spend years striving to accumulate new experiences, reputation, power, wealth, possessions, and then "poof." It's all irretrievably gone. The truth is that in order to really enjoy a game like WoW, you have to play it with the truth of the impermanence of everything you do in it in mind, and the ability to accept that what you're working for is merely an illusion that feels good in the moment but is intangible and unable to be held onto.

This is a truth of real life as well. In order to really enjoy real life, you must live it on the understanding that nothing you accumulate, no power, no wealth, no ability, no possession is permanent or retainable. As soon as you are "disconnected," it's all gone. Everything you worked so hard to achieve, for you, is up in smoke like it never existed. And then you are surrounded by Existence Himself, naked and without anything you thought was so important.

Fundamentally, this is why the practice of detachment is so important in living this life. You have to be willing and able to let go of those things you've worked so hard for, because you will lose them. You have to be willing and able to let go of those relationships you've developed, because, generally speaking, once you're "disconnected," you're disconnected from them too just like losing all connection with your guild mates once a server shuts down. We can talk about meeting again when there's nothing to blind us to the presence of God, but it's clear those relationships will be changed and different from anything we experience in life.

In fact, if a person has their entire life wrapped up in an MMORPG, when real life hits, they will find themselves powerless, unable to cope, poor, friendless, and in torment. The only way to successfully separate from an MMORPG is to keep the real world in view; that is, to keep one's attentions and living centered and grounded in the real world so that when the inevitable shutdown happens, one can move on with relative ease because they recognized the game was merely a diversion and an illusion.

So it is with life.

For all of us, we must play the game because the "character" we play was born into it, but we must play it recognizing that it is neither permanent nor can we keep any achievement or any possession we have striven for. Like an MMORPG, life is not about "winning" the game, it's about enjoying your time there until you must return to the real world.