I have been playing Final Fantasy for the past couple of days, gearing up for next month when the next installment comes out. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, the first Final Fantasy on Nintendo since the first one and the first attempt at a multi-player function. If you lose sight of me for most of the month of February, that’s why.At any rate, I was playing the original FF and I was having my guys run around in a field killing monsters and snakes and such to build up their levels and to earn some quick cash to buy weapons and armor. For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, your characters advance in levels (strength, dexterity, intelligence, endurance etc.) by gaining a certain number of experience points for every battle you are in. For instance, killing one snake will give you 30 EP, but killing two ogres (which is harder) will give you 98 EP. See?
It occurred to me that the characters were “learning” about things, hence the name “experience points”. We all learn things after experiences. That’s life. However, life does not come with experience points. I wish it did. It would be so nice to be able to look back on your evening or your week or at the past year and figure out just how much your experience was worth.
Taking stock of my own existence thus far, I think my college education would be worth ten points total, but the time spent in college having adventures with my friends would probably be worth almost 1000. A couple of broken hearts have got to be worth something as well as a couple of attempts at creation of art or music or writings. However, if you look at some of the time I spent on the couch watching TV, that would probably be worth about eight points altogether (with the exception of 9/11. I’m not really sure how that one would measure up point wise).
You also have to wonder about good deeds verses evil ones. For example, would I get the same points for helping my roommate carry heavy boxes as I would for knocking an ugly sculpture over in the city square? Does virtue count?
I’m obviously just rambling now (minus five points) but it’s something to think about. What is your job worth, point wise? Can you increase in levels just by giving blowjobs and letting the points accumulate? What happens when you reach a certain level? Would level fives get laid more than level threes?