why do u call the place u park your car a "driveway" and the place u drive your car a "parkway"?
lets discuss:
How similar is Maplestory and "Real Life"? Explain your answer.ok first of all, i'm not going all ss and doing it ss style. i'm doing it my way. so here goes.
. i will talk about one similarity. it is that Maplestory (maple for short) and Real Life (life for short) both contain challenges. ok, a tad obvious. but lets bring up an example. creating a character in maple would do nicely. for those of you who know, you know. for the uninformed, well, this is how it goes. firstly you click in the "create a character" button, which brings you to the "create a character" screen. there usually the first thing you do is to "roll the stats". which is basically clicking a button that re-randomises the stats of your character, so you can sort of "choose". the stats you want is usually best stats for your preferred job. like, a magician would do well with 4 strength (str), 4 dexterity (dex), 4 luck (luk) and maximum intelligence (int) which if i'm not wrong is 13 points. this result is heavily reliant on your luck. not the in-game "luck" but the real luck. after all, it's randomised. getting this stats is basically very time consuming if fate has decided so. interestingly, this event has a lot more to it than even MrYanDao thinks he knows.
. two gamers, M and N, click on the re-roll button, both have one of two things on their minds. M's thinking, "i want 4 str, 4 dex, 4 int, 13 luk Assassin" and the other, N, is just "whatever" with any stats that look good. see the difference between them? M has a target and a career planned. N has no goals whatsoever, except maybe to have fun playing. lets discuss M first...
. M spends 8 hours and $41 on a new mouse (to replace his previous one destroyed by excessive clicking) trying to get his desired stats. finally he gets it, but he's too tired to play anymore for the day. the next day, he manages to get to the level (lvl for short) that he can choose his "job" or character class. with a vision in mind, he has no hesitation when it comes to the job selection; he chooses the Thief class, a pre-requisite for the Assassin job. and with every level-up, he adds his bonus stat points to luk, which is the main stat for the thief in determining damage. as its lvl grows, the character becomes stronger, and its damage is very high. he gains the respect and admiration of the gamers around him, but he lets it get into his head. he starts criticizing and belittling other players who are doing less damage than him. he turns into the public enemy number 1, and no one wants to be his "buddy" anymore. he is left alone, playing on his own. it isn't so fun for him now, but he keeps at it because he wants his damage to be even higher; he wants to be the best gamer, the player of the highest lvl character. at last, his goal is reached.
. now over to N. N just clicks the button once, out of curiosity. he gets a 5 str, 7 dex, 8 int, 5 luk character. quite good, he thinks, and immediately gets to enjoy the game. upon reaching the critical lvl for job selection, he falters. which job should i choose to be? fyi there are 4 basic classes, i.e. warrior, thief, bowman, magician. in turn, each basic job would split into two or three "specialty" jobs, like the assassin job. it adds up to be a total of 10 final jobs. so it is quite a headache for N to choose. he does some limited research and gathers opinions from online forums, and finally decides on the assassin job too. he is quite satisfied with himself at this stage. same with M, N's character gets bonus stat points per lvl-up. but being a little inexperienced, he does not know which stat to use the bonus points on. at a certain level, his character ends up having 40 str, 43 dex, 39 int, 38 luk. he thinks balanced stats are good, as they increase survivability of the character. doing it his own way, he has a lot of fun playing. with his charming personality, he makes a lot of friends online, and enjoys playing with them. his damage might not match up to theirs, but he does not mind. after all, i'm just playing for kicks, right? he thinks.
. the difference between them is vast. two people with differing mentalities, playing the same game, choosing the same "job", but playing for separate reasons. M plays to be the best. he aims for the top, and finally gets to the top, but the fun of playing got lost halfway. N, however, plays for the fun of it. he plays to relax, to de-stress. he plays it like a game. although he will never reach the top of the ranking list, he met his objective of having fun.
. we are just like that. we all live in the same world, playing the same game of life, all living as a member of the human race. but what is our goal in life? to reach the top? to live life to the fullest? to make another person's day good? or just take what comes along and have fun along the way? in view of M and N, there is no right or wrong way to live life. one tries and perseveres through hard times to be the best. the other accepts what his stats are and just plays along with a smile on his face.
. i think, we can all learn a life lesson from these two gamers (neither of them do well in school, but that is beside the point). what we all need is a clear goal, a vision, a reason for living. only with the end in sight, we can work towards it. if your goal is to constantly be at the top of the ladder, then by all means, get to the top of the ladder, even if it means changing yourself, re-rolling your "stats", or changing connections along the way. if you are satisfied with your current "stats", just go and have fun doing whatever you want to do. don't let anything stop you from reaching your target.
. take a look at your left palm. notice the line at the top, closest to your fingers. that is your life line (if i'm not wrong; but it doesn't matter which line. you'll see...). now close your palm. where is that line?
. where is that line??
. you hold your life line in
your own hand. now, notice that, near your little finger, there is a little bit of that line sticking out of your fist. you can never manage to close your fist over the entire line. that portion is under fate's control. now, there are some things that we cannot control. but how we react, and what we make of these situations will determine where we go in life.
. Maplestory differs from your average "life" in the sense that you can choose your character's attributes. imagine a couple deciding that their baby should have "4 str, 4 dex, 4 int, 13 luk" and grooming the poor child into being an assassin (please don't try this at home). it would be unnatural. which is another problem that genetic scientists have to prevent, but that's another story. right now, we are born without the re-roll button. more or less, some of our "stats" are already determined. but with increased experiences, we "level-up" and get an opportunity to improve our stats. which ones we improve, will define us as a person as time passes.
. most of you reading this are my friends, with a very important examination approaching. from now till then, where you add your bonus stats will have a great impact on the examination results. remember, bonus stats can only be attained through "leveling-up", and "leveling-up" requires lots of experience. what type of experience you get will ultimately affect the stats you end up improving. in full circle, it affects the yield of the exam.
. so it might not always seem like the situation is what you like it to be. but making sure it works for you in the end, now that's the most important thing anyone
can and
should do.
