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video games === samsara (a rough draft thread)
MMOs specifically are about getting you to chase incremental gains in damage and hp numbers as you do progressively harder content
As soon as you reach your goal, there’s another, slightly more intense version of the same goal. And if you ever do somehow complete every goal in an area of the game, there are other areas too! Raids, dungeons, pvp, pet collecting, fashion contests, achievements
Each of these could be a full time job if you wanted it to be. Completing one takes months, at least. And if you’re lucky, and devoting dozens of hours a week, you’ll finish all possible goals in a category right before the new patch drops
People who get really emotionally trapped in the game are trapped in samsara. People who feel an obligation to play are trapped in samsara (I often am this person! I’m learning to push against it)
The drive to do something you don’t really want to do for a reward that doesn’t actually exist... that’s the definition of suffering/being stuck!
The moment you get angry at the game for not being like you want it to, the moment you feel mad at the developers or publishers, you’ve lost. And there’s SO much anger aimed at the devs in the forums. It’s crazy!
In an interview with Sharon Salzburg and Duncan Trussell, they talk about how real life is like an MMO, and realizing that is how you break free from samsara
That when you get destabilized and freak out and get scared, you’re just playing fucking world of Warcraft and getting angry at the devs
You win by recognizing you’re playing a game! You break the cycle! Personally I don’t think you even have to stop playing, it’s enough to understand that it’s a game that wants something from you.
Anyway, it’s late here. TLDR is that the relationship that we have with a video game is a great microcosm of samsara vs Nirvana, and the game itself is a great microcosm of our own life, and that ultimately everything is a goal hydra, and you will never feel done or finished
And there’s a joy in that! Goals are good, wanting to be done is not. It makes you bitter. Both in games and IRL.
Goodnight!
