My First Blog: Let's play an AAA Game

I believe this is my first official post on the internet! While I have shared a few stories on Instagram, they were primarily aimed at raising awareness about the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Just a heads-up: some of you might find this just a tad boring but those who stick around will surely find some value in this blog.

Alright, let's dive in. Suppose that you are playing an AAA open-world title, however the game is very cruel and doesn't let you choose your character. You can't choose the player's ethnicity, height nor the gender. The game also assigns you a random spawning point. You feel like it's quite unfair since you paid $70 for the freaking game. The best example that I can think of off the top my head is GTA V. You are given three characters and you can't control their appearance nor their social status in the beginning.

Let's consider two players that play the game, one spawns in Pakistan and the other spawns in Hong Kong.

Starting off, the player that spawn in Hong Kong has a head start. The loot in the area is generally much better and the main and the side quests offer better rewards even though they are the same quests that the Pakistani player has to do as well. The Hong Kong player might even get some exclusive quests that the Pakistani player doesn't have access to yet. Hence, overtime the Hong Kong player accumulates more 'Rare' and 'Legendary' items while the Pakistani player may only have 'Uncommon' and 'Common' items.

You might have caught on to this by now but the game I'm talking about is the game of life. In life you don't decide your appearance, race nor do you decide where you are born. Does this mean that just like the game, life is unfair as well? You may be surprised to hear this but life is not unfair at all.

For a moment let us step away from the game and talk about the real world. Remember two those players from earlier. Suppose in the real life their quest is the perform the top in their class. Both have to work equally hard.

The Pakistani boy gets a cricket bat and ball from his parents and the Hong Kong boy gets the latest console with the latest AAA title. The difference in the materialistic worth of both items is roughly about 30 times! However, how can I assure you that the rich boy isn't 30 times happier than the poor boy, because what mattered is that their parents got them a gift. It's the emotions behind the gifts that matter not the price tag. Of course, I'm not saying that the gift itself doesn't matter. I don't think either boy would've been satisfied with a measly bar of chocolate.

Well, the two boys that I mentioned, you can say that both of them are me. When I was young the most expensive gift that I got from my parents would cost as much as a cricket bat and that was even if I got something. I wanted so many toys and I would dream of them for literal months watching every possible video to get to know how that toy feels. I wanted to have consoles, hoverboards, Beyblades and so much more. It was not just toys, it was the same story for snacks. I remember that whenever I went out shopping with my parents, me and my siblings were very reluctant to buy expensive snacks. Particularly I remember that getting Magnum ice cream was a big deal. I also remember that having soda was such a big deal at lunch and it brought us so much joy, more than the actual meal itself.

Well things have changed now. I studied hard and now I'm in Hong Kong. I can get whatever drink and snacks that I want. But you know what, I don't feel any happier than I did longing for those snacks and just having them occasionally. No kidding! Here is the thing: happiness is momentary. Oh, you finally get that laptop that you've been working for all summer. It'll take about a week and then you'll get over it. Oh, you finally graduated, you've your graduation ceremony and then the happiness will slowly fade because you eventually have to work.

I guess I can boil this blog down into the following lesson: it doesn't matter how and where you spawn in life, you can rest assured that you'll find your moments of happiness, which are unique to your spawn settings. Oh, and don't forget that if you do all the missions (work hard in life) you can always get those bonus points!