Is society just a bad dnd campaign?
Being autistic in our world means for me that I have to behave a certain way, speak a certain code and keep certain aspects of myself hidden or risk to get attacked, verbally or physically. I repeat this over and over, day in day out.
Meanwhile I am looking forward to hosting another game of dnd this saturday and it just occured to me that our reality is sad and pathetic while turning to the internet and people outside this oppressive „society“ is like looking at a piece of art. Popping colors and various shapes and interesting objects to behold.
It might be seasonal depression speaking here but it was really palpable right now.
Anyone relate?
I have at least found that using DnD or other common RPG concepts can be useful in some regards. Dont take it too literally though, the real world obviously does not have a dungeon master.
You can to some extent view yourself as basically a character with stats, feats, skills and weaknesses.
It is possible to improve these over time, though how that works in the real world bears little resemblance to games.
But you can practice and learn new skills and they can end up being useful in niche situations.
Overall, Kenshi is closer than DnD to real life in that basically /everyone/ is playing by the same rules, you are not special, and trying to do something you are not prepared for can result in catastrophic failure.
Again: Do not take this hyper literally. There are similarities in some regards, but lots of stuff doesnt translate.
Theres a reason these worlds are generally designed to facilitate some kind of adventure and narrative creation: thats what many, probably most people desire.
There arent any roleplaying games I am aware of where the vast amount of /gameplay/ is doing a very boring and stressful job for low pay.
Because... that isnt fun. But thats the real world we live in.
So, yes, some concepts from roleplaying games can be beneficial to analogize to real life, but you have to be aware of the limitations.
You've obviously never heard of Offices & Bosses!
Yep thats true never heard of it.
Or Humans and High-rises! (Reddit HFY reference)
For it to be called bad implies any sort of intentionality at all, I think.
Reality just sort of is. Games are attractive because they have rules, they make sense. They're designed to be fun. The universe isn't failing at accomplishing those goals, it just never had those goals to begin with.
You can learn to master the rules of D&D. It's designed to be understood and played. Whereas reality is emergent, built up from so many nested systems that we don't even understand how they all fit together yet. We're all just trying to get by within it.
While I agree with parts, I think overall my message got lost on the way, which is exactly my experience every day. The connection between me and the world is broken in either direction. The only way either can relate to the other is massive effort which sometimes happens but not regularly.
I think gaming in general is a great way for socially awkward people to connect with others (maybe autistic people too, I don't know that I know any or understand it well, I just consider myself awkward). Socializing with other people is a messy, complicated set of social rules that most people have internalized and it's no sweat, but for others it's just mentally draining. All that stuff you're talking about: saying certain things for certain events, hiding aspects of our personality amongst some groups, having to be spontaneous and keep the conversation alive, the conversation just jumping around from person to person and going all over the place, not stepping on any social taboos, etc.
Gaming though (whether boardgames or RPGs or whatever), drastically simplifies the whole experience and makes socializing easy to manage. You usually have a set of specific rules & mechanics for how to handle different situations. I want to find out a thing from the barkeep: make a Persuasion roll with your Charisma modifier. I want to take over this land from you: make a dice roll and see if you score higher. You've got a very easily manageable structure for how you're supposed to communicate and interact with other people in a semi-controlled setting. There's specific phrases that you say when doing things or you let people know when it's their turn to interact and speak. It's just all very simplified compared to hanging out at a party with a dozen or so people you don't know, everyone talking over each other trying to say something.