18Oct/1114
New on Kotaku! New Life+: If Life Were A Game, How Would You Replay It?
Hell must have frozen over and Howard Stern must be President because Lisa Foiles wrote a SERIOUS article for Kotaku. I know, right? Everyone together: WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL LIS--
Okay enough of that. I put a lot of time, thought, and effort into both writing this article and finding the perfect Groundhog Day screencapture to go with it. So, go read it, dammit! So far it's my least viewed Kotaku article of all time. Hm. Guess I should stick to comedy?
New Life+: If Life Were A Game, How Would You Replay it? by Lisa Foiles
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October 19th, 2011 - 01:13
Why so serious, Lisa?
October 19th, 2011 - 01:45
No wonder it’s not your most popular article – there’s not a single photo of you anywhere for Kotaku to drool over.
/attempted comedy
This is a topic I’ve thought long and hard about every now and again. Allow me to answer your questions: ‘Would you replay life as a completely different person or as the same person, only better? Would you want a new adventure with new dialogue choices or the same adventure keeping a one-step-ahead mentality?’
Every choice we make in life is based on emotion, circumstances and the basic idea of ‘how will this benefit me?’ no matter if the consequences are long term or short term. Allow me to give an example, something which actually happened to me:
“I am a quiet, shy individual in high school (year 9 or 10, can’t remember that well apparently) wanting to study hard for my exams. Suddenly in science class, a lady sits next to me attempting to start a conversation. All goes well until she says “If I didn’t have a boyfriend I’d go out with you.” I look at her; she looks at me with a smile and edges her seat closer. Now, right at that moment in time, what would you do, what choice would you make if you were in my position?
Would you like to know what I did? I just said ‘cool’, ignored future flirtatious advances and continued keeping my head down and studied. Yes, I missed out on a potential relationship, however the choice I made right then and there had had extreme benefits; I passed my exams which in turn gave me good grades which in turn allowed me a freedom of choice as to what university/college I could go to and what course to study.
It’s easy to look back on life and regret certain choices. What we do need to consider is the emotion of the time and the circumstances at which the choices arise. If I did have a second chance at life, if we ALL had a second chance at life, I guarantee that we would all make the exact same choices no matter if we knew what lay ahead. We would make the exact same decisions because that is what feels right and benefits us at that particular point in time.
/reply
/serious business
October 19th, 2011 - 09:43
See? It’s fun to be serious sometimes. :D All very good points.
And I’m glad you said ‘cool’ to that chick… girls are bad news anyway. ;)
October 19th, 2011 - 06:31
Why is this your least viewed article? This one is genuinely written, offers some interesting viewpoint (which nearly any gamer at least least once has thought about but not nearly as fleshed out as this one) and is nevertheless fun to read. Great work on this one. Love it and mailed the adress to my friends (with a little remark that I MIGHT kick their asses if they don’t read it).
As for the question stated in the article: I think I would go the “refine your previous life”-way of things. Everyone has some regrets but there are always things to look back to with a smile and say “I wish I could be there again…feeling exactly that” However, if you decide to refine your life: nevertheless would you end up living a different life either way. You would still have to be aware of making several key choices, so you end up with the things you loved about your old life with the awesome new stuff. Like everybody who played FF13 should realise, that they were off WAY better if they had invested their money into Resonance of Fate that month…
October 19th, 2011 - 09:45
Thank you. :) Yeah, I wanted to try something completely different and I guess it’s not what the Internet wants. Oh well! At least I have a serious article to stick in my portfolio.
And I agree with you. I probably would relive my life that same way, too. If I made completely different decisions, there would be too many incredible moments I’d miss out on. Sure, there would be new moments, but… I’d rather relive the awesome ones I’ve had.
October 19th, 2011 - 10:26
See, how I’d replay my life and how I replay games would be to completely different things. When I go through replays in games, oddly enough I can’t bring myself to do the different choices. Most perfect example is Bioshock. My first play through, I saved every single Little Sister, without fail or second thought. Screw you Atlas, I’m going to save them. So on a dark and rainy night I decided to play again. I get to Rapture, get to my first Little Sister and…save her. I couldn’t bring myself to snap their neck and suck the Adam out of them like a Pixie Stick.
On life however, that’s a different story. I’d probably go the route of the New Game+ side of things. There’s some stuff I’m going through right now where I wish I could turn back time and find a way to some alternate timeline, where I can achieve what I want and hopefully Biff isn’t in charge of the world, but there’s so much that I wouldn’t give up either. I’m usually so stubborn in who I am that change in my personality really only occurs after something particularly traumatic/powerful.
Oh, and I read the article pretty much as soon as it came out, as I always do, and, personally, I think it’s the best article you’ve done to date. And that includes all the articles that used to be on here. We don’t see serious Lisa very often. I like seeing every part of you exposed.
October 19th, 2011 - 16:17
We’re all doing the Beavis and Butthead style laugh here, right?
(Wait, wait, I wrote a serious answer down below as well!)
October 19th, 2011 - 10:29
Even though its a serious article I still had fun reading it, great job Lisa. I hope you write more articles like this in future, don’t let the low amount of views discourage you.
October 19th, 2011 - 11:59
That was a really amazing and inspiring article, Lisa.
October 19th, 2011 - 16:16
I’ve got to say that while videos of you being silly was how I originally found out about your work Lisa, it was the content of the more longer form pieces that made me stay, stick around and discover Save Point in general. So yeah, I enjoyed this more serious piece and would definitely love to see more.
I think the concept of a new game + is interesting, but I’d argue the best New Game + aren’t just those that allow you to replay the same situations while changing the outcomes with your new knowledge, but those that actually change up the situations presented in the first place meaning you’re learning on top of the event. I think to have exactly the same things happen all the way through would take a lot of the challenge out of it, and I don’t think a true New Game + is about removing the challenge, but making it different.
October 20th, 2011 - 01:24
Metagaming your own life, a min-maxer’s dream.
October 20th, 2011 - 10:50
I have to say that no matter how many New Life+ I’d have gone through, anyone who gives me a “You’re my density” speech would overwhelm the cuteness centers of my brain. That may be my inner physics nerd talking though.
Honestly, I enjoyed the article. Serious “ponder this issue” articles are always interesting when they’re well written. It also made me wonder what a world where everyone gets a second and third chance would be like. A slowly perfected utopia or a population completely detached and jaded?
October 20th, 2011 - 19:21
The reason its the least viewed, is because you referenced Groundhog Day *groans*. Also there are so many things I would want to see how they turned out different. Like what if I went back a few months and decided to play Mass Effect as a Rouge instead of a Paragon? Insanity! But for cereal you know what they say about butterflies and stepping on them. Screws up your shoes.
October 25th, 2011 - 02:43
HEY, HEY, HEY, HEY! Listen….
I actually enjoyed the article. Even though Lisa’s comedy is my bread and butter, I enjoy reading a serious article every now and then, especially by her. Why? Because it has that spark she has; it’s not just a random article I’ve read somewhere by someone I don’t even know. It’s Lisa, and we all know her, and we know she’s awesome. If anything, it makes me pay more attention because she’s not a random nut job who wrote a random article (…that I know of).
As far as the original question, I don’t know if I’d be fine with an New Game+ feature in my life. I mean, using that example that she provided, imagine your last moments, thinking about what you’ve done, what you missed and where you’re going. You take one deep breath and embrace your destiny. Trolololo! Joke’s on you! You’re alive again! 8D
Okay, who am I kidding? I’m pretty sure most people would love a second chance, if only to make things right or, in other words, to perfect their Mega Man playthrough. So in lieu of that, I wonder if anyone would be okay with taking this one step further and doing something a la Mass Effect 3 (Maybe): Replay the game, but this time as the opposing gender.
This is something I’ve done with Dragon Age; start a new game with a different race and gender. Basically, I know where to go and what to do, but it feels like it’s someone else. My old friend Alistair now looks at me differently. And my armor fits differently too, that’s for sure! Some people don’t seem to mind; I’m looking at you, Leliana and Zevran!
Anyway, what I’m getting at is that: Would anyone dare do that? As for me, I don’t know. I suppose I would, but only because once I do that, I’d be living a completely different lifestyle now. I wouldn’t miss being the opposing gender because there was no such thing for me before, as far as I know. Sure, I would have knowledge of major events, like the day lightning struck the clock tower and rendered it useless, or the day my son got arrested, or the day of that major accident responsible for me not being able to play guitar anymore….
But it would be interesting. Instead of perfecting the same ol’ path I know now, I’d try something completely different. For me, perfecting a game is just gravy because once I figure out what I need to do, it become mechanized; I no longer care for the game, I’m just beating the game like clockwork, only stopping at places where I missed something list time.
Also, it wouldn’t hurt to make a fortune here and there with my otherworldly knowledge…
Aw, come on! You were all thinking it! >:/