I’ve come to realize something very interesting about playing MMORPG’s for so long: many of the lessons learned in the online world, will in fact carry over to RL. The first step to playing an MMO, before you can even step foot into the world, is you have to create your character. You customize his/her appearance, race, class, hair color, nostril size, etc. I’ve decided to do this for RL too.

What I mean by this is before we dash headlong into this world of near infinite possibility, I want to set some goals so I don’t become too overwhelmed by the plethora of options before me.

Areas of RL I want to work on (and how I relate them to MMOs):

Business/Finance In Game: In World of Warcraft there is the Auction House and Trade channel, in EverQuest there was the Bazaar and /ooc, in Dark Age of Camelot there was a housing system and traders and all of these games have guilds. Running a guild and making money in game were very similar to the real world concepts of running a business and creating income. In MMOs I was pro at seeing value. I didn’t make money off trade skills and I couldn’t bear to sit and grind for money so I mainly bought low and sold high or found interesting investment opportunities.

Business/Finance IRL: I want to run a successful business like a successful guild. To create exciting transactions of value that are mutually beneficial to all parties involved. To learn how to find solid investment opportunities in RL and allow my money to work for me as opposed to putting me in debt. And to create positions of value and income for other people. Business will be like my class, with a specialization in Software and a sub-spec in investments.

Health/Body In Game: My character’s in WoW and EverQuest we’re in peak physical condition. They RAN not walked around entire universes with 6-12 backpacks on, carrying dwarf heads and 1000’s of gold and platinum coins. They fought giant beasts for hours at a time without asking for a rest!  They also ate foods that made them stronger and faster, not fat and lethargic.

Health/Body IRL: I feel like sitting on my ass for hours at a time, eating junk food and pouring sugar down my throat really caused my body some harm. I started to get a fat and insecure about my body and my teeth suffered from the sugary drinks. I was honest with myself and noted I was fatter than I’d like to be and decided to make a change. My character’s body looks like Brad Pitt’s (AKA Tyler Durden) in fight club.

Friend’s List In Game: An MMORPG is ALL about social networks, just like life. If you really step back from your character and see these games as just another thriving, prosperous city you see the intrinsic value available for anyone willing to look. MMO’s are so popular because people can connect. It literally is it’s own microcosm. Like an ant farm we can see how the society functions (or doesn’t). I’ve really noticed that who you hang around, determines quite a large portion of what you do. And not even from a “peer pressure” standpoint either. It’s just what is readily available to you in your social networks.

Imagine you are in a 40 man raid guild. You would imagine you would do more 40 man raids than Joe Schmoe in a pre-made PvP guild. Conversely, Joe over there is probably doing more pre-made PvP matches. With that fact solidly in mind, I give you:

Friend’s List IRL: I want to create a positive social network for myself. What this means is I want to do more in my life than just play video games and work a crappy job to keep playing video games. I want to develop social networks of people interested/involved in the things I want to do/be involved in. It makes more sense as those activities would be more readily available. I don’t want to develop a network around people that do/involved in things I don’t.

Family In Game: While I have met and played with a few people who I would consider family; and while some of my actual family members did play with me, nothing beats actually spending time with my family being a family IRL… most of the time! =p

Family IRL: Nothing in the world, on or offline, means more to me than my family. I was blessed with an awesome family, that supports and cares about me,  that will always get my 6 (Kay). This one makes me the saddest to think about because on occasion I neglected some of my family because of video games. But dwelling on the past is no way to live all we can do is move forward! I want to be able to spend more time with family.

All in all I’d say being consumed by the escapism of MMO’s and dedicating my time to developing my in game character has really caused my IRL persona to suffer. I could be further ahead in academics, business, friends and definitely spent my time with my family more wisely. The good news is NOW is the best time to make a change!

Taking all these things into consideration I have a pretty good idea of what I want for my character IRL and that is a great start.