What MMORPG With 350.000 Daily Users Can Teach Us About Life Fulfillment

Any MMORPG is a copy of real life.

It can be in a medieval setting, or a space one, but one thing remains the truth. The game steals a lot of concepts from life: money, market, communication, guilds (communities), raids (wars), and, of course, skill-building. I especially got interested in MMORPG which recently hit 350.000 daily users worldwide - Albion Online and its skill-building system which is 100% similar to real life's.

In a game, you build skills according to the tree of skills. There is one big node in the center of the screen, your skill level at the beginning of a game. From the main node, there are a bunch of branches leading to different nodes. Every branch represents areas of skill you can acquire:

• Combat

• Farming and Gathering

• Crafting

If you want to become a farmer, you must practice gathering wood and stone to gain experience. Only when you gather a lot of stones and gain a certain amount of experience, can you open the next node on the farmer's branch, which in turn opens 5 other branches leading from the node you've just opened. Another 5 ways to practice, other opportunities.

You can start farming, or continue gathering, but something more valuable like ores. You can learn both, but it will take more time. And only through practicing and gaining experience on the related node.

Real life works the same.

When we are born we start with one big "skill node". We know nothing. But our nature forces us to learn: to say your first word, to walk. Our skill tree is opening its nodes and branches, it's expanding.

Growing we started to pick "skill branches" more consciously. What hobby do I like? What friends do I wanna have? What school subject do I like the most?

Every choice is a branch of skills we decide to sign up to, either consciously or unconsciously.

After you get older, you're usually forced to make a choice: what skill branch should you choose to provide yourself with income, community, and safety? Most people usually pick one, forget about other choices, and live with this one branch forever, day after day, closing themselves to any positive experience that they could have from other branches. Our skill tree is closing its nodes and branches, it's shrinking.

Most people wonder why they are miserable. They have a high-income job, they have a car, beautiful house with a green lawn, all provided with one skill.

They wonder why they were so happy when they were children. They find the same miserable answer as they are themselves: "I didn't have problems", "My parents were deciding everything for me, I just played with my friends", and "I was a carefree child".

But there is a reason why they were happy as a child and why they are miserable now.

They progress only following one branch.

Job. Daily. It's not a surprise that it can become boring. And it does.

Remember yourself as a child. You played with the sand because it was something new. You drew a silly picture because it was something new. You sculpted from plasticine, any computer game was a masterpiece because it was something new. Our minds strive for something new.

If your skill tree is leveled in one direction, other directions remain dark. Other branches are blurred, and nodes are black. Imagine, what a possibility to explore!

You can't reset your skill tree and rebuild it from scratch. But you don't need to. You have experiences that make you who you are. Give up fear, return to the initial node when you were born, and start from scratch.

• What skill have you always wanted to have?

• What inspired you when you were a child?

• Do you have a big goal in mind you think is impossible?

Ask yourself these questions and make your mind wonder, ask question after question until you have a proper answer: what do you want to learn? What do you want to do with your life? And start to expand your skill tree once again.

We have only one skill tree and I want mine to be fully explored.

What about you?