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Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

oliveremberton.com

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Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#22

Post by onion2k »

Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1].

Literally every point in every article on how to live a happy life was being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle thousands of years ago, and there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for philosophy today - they were right.

[1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy For Life (And Other Dangerous Situations)" by Jules Evans or "Consolations of Philosophy" by Alain De Botton as a starting point.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#23

Post by Jach »

This is a fun little post. I did have a nitpick with the points about willpower, though. There's evidence that's it's limited if you believe willpower is limited, and nonlimited if you believe willpower is nonlimited (http://www.stanford.edu/~gwalton/home/Publications_files/Job...). (And in other ego depletion literature, loss of willpower may just be reflecting lower glucose levels.)

> All players die after about 29,000 days, or 80 years. If your stats and skills are good, you might last a little longer. There is no cheat code to extend this.

Wouldn't that be a great hack, to extend this number indefinitely, and share the exploit with everyone else? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methuselah_Foundation et al. are working on it...)

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#24

Post by NickPollard »

oliveremberton wrote: post #11
opendomain wrote: post #3

This is a fantastic article - I wish I had known this guide when I was young. I liked it so much, I sent a link to my teenage son. However, if you would not mind, could this be edited so my teeanage daughter would also enjoy it? Unless, of course, she wants to be a "ladies magnet" - I support her life choices. But if we want more women entrepreneurs, we should encourage them to follow a path like this without the pos…

Thanks. I did agonise over that part at the time I wrote it. I couldn't think of a more inclusive alternative, and chose something a little comedic on purpose ('ladies man') in the hope it wouldn't be taken too seriously. Open to suggestions.

I thought it was a great article, but I think it would be better if the image of the 'random character's at the start showed racial variation - saying that your character is totally random and then having a picture of 6 white people was a bit incongruent to me. Otherwise excellent.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#26

Post by ozim »

onion2k wrote: post #22

Every time I see an article like this I just want to grab the readers and shout "Read a philosophy book!" to them[1]. Literally every point in every article on how to live a happy life was being made by the likes of Seneca and Aristotle thousands of years ago, and there are good reasons why those writers are still the foundation for philosophy today - they were right. [1] I would recommend something like "Philosophy…

Basicaly those readers try not to waste time on reading old creazy guys from ancient past. It is easier to get pieces here and there on random internet sites.

I would sum this article with such quote:

"It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the very greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing." On the shortness of life - Seneca

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#27

Post by JacobAldridge »

michaelmcmillan wrote: post #17
whizzkid wrote: post #5

Small things that should be mentioned about this game, so far i have played; - Multiplayer is the only option you can select. - There is no pause button. - Your character is truly random selected so expect anything. - There is only one map which is way too big, I haven't had time to go most of the places yet but not complaining. - You only have one chance to survive the game, no 'save the state' option. It is a uniqu…

What about: You'll never win.

What about: You'll always win.

Re: Life is a game, this is your strategy guide

#28

Post by ehALoginName »

seizethecheese wrote: post #4
opendomain wrote: post #3

This is a fantastic article - I wish I had known this guide when I was young. I liked it so much, I sent a link to my teenage son. However, if you would not mind, could this be edited so my teeanage daughter would also enjoy it? Unless, of course, she wants to be a "ladies magnet" - I support her life choices. But if we want more women entrepreneurs, we should encourage them to follow a path like this without the pos…

While I think that you're heart is in the right place, an expectation that personal advice be written in a gender-neutral environment is excessive. Oliver is a man (I presume) writing a guide based on his experience.

As soon as I saw the picture of the sample players, and the "ladies magnet" bit I thought of..

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/15/straight-white-male-th...

Hidden handicaps can hinder some level progression (like jobs, social acceptance) may really frustrate some players. No mention of the luckless that spawn in unfortunate terrain/hostile environments.

Compared to similar players I feel like I need to level grind more than those that spent the same amount of time on it. And that's how I discovered the game is not balanced, which is sometimes rather depressing.

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