{"id":638,"date":"2007-01-20T19:01:00","date_gmt":"2007-01-21T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/galaxyalex.com\/?p=638"},"modified":"2007-01-20T19:01:00","modified_gmt":"2007-01-21T00:01:00","slug":"final-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/galaxyalex.com\/?p=638","title":{"rendered":"Final Reality"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Why not live life by experience points?<\/p>\n

From their dice-and-paper roots to the modern user-generated worlds, role-playing games have always had to deal with the question of how a character develops. This is normally handled through experience points (XP<\/span>). Kill a were-turtle, get 5 XP<\/span>. Accrue 500 XP<\/span> and you gain a level. Et<\/span> cetera<\/span>.<\/p>\n

While certainly an attempt to recreate in some way a person’s actual skill advancement in real life, it would seem that XP<\/span> would work in the actual world similarly to the way it does in the digital. For example. Let’s take a skill you want to develop, say running. Set a series of levels in front of you, and choose XP<\/span> amounts for given tasks:<\/p>\n

Go for a 1 mile run, get 1 XP<\/span>. Go for a 3 mile run, get 4 XP<\/span>. Run in a charity event, 15 XP<\/span>. Finish within 1 minute of the leader in a competitive run, 200 XP<\/span>. Run a marathon, 10,000 XP<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Level 1: 30 XP<\/span>. Level 2: 500 XP<\/span>. Level 3: 3500 XP<\/span>. Level 4: 5000 XP<\/span>. Etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, you could get to high levels just by running a mile at a time, but getting there would take forever. Doing bigger things yields bigger numbers, and thus faster level-ups.<\/p>\n

Here’s a wrinkle: in games, a higher level means better stats. A level 2 character is stronger than a level 1, and that means an easier time killing beasties<\/span>. Aside from the fact that you would actually improve, how would this work in real life? I say you’d have to have your friends involved, and the bragging rights would do it. Either that or have specific level tasks, e.g. you can’t get to level 4 until you run the Turkey Trot, no matter how many XP<\/span> you’ve got.<\/p>\n

This could work for all kinds of things.<\/p>\n