If our reality is a simulation, then is our life just a game?
We can indeed think of life as a game, whether it’s a simulation or not.
A simulation is likely much more, as its creators may have had other purposes than creating a game.
Few games are "just" games. Not everyone gets excited about games, but many players find their games very meaningful. They want to play them, just as we all might have wanted to play this great game of life.
If our life is one big game, then is it worth wasting it playing other games? Yes, why not - we even have games within games, and we sometimes play those too.
But if we play on a computer, console, or phone, it's good to consider what exactly is the meaning we find in them? And above all, could we try to find that same meaning in this reality - this larger game - possibly in an even more magnificent way?
What is waste, then? This life is yours, you have chosen it yourself. Of course, it's your business to decide how you use it. You can play games, use substances, lie on the couch and indulge yourself to death watching the streaming services. You can also blame others for the misery of your life. Absolutely.
When your life in this reality eventually ends and you return to wherever you came from, how will you remember such a life? Would it have been a waste, or exactly what you wanted to do? What would your score be in this game?
Only you can decide that, and you can only decide it here and now. Is now the moment even you won't want to remember, or are you in this moment fulfilling your life's purpose, as you wanted it to be?
If life is a game, what if that game rewards violence? Are we all against each other here?
The idea may contain a grain of truth. Only we ourselves are responsible for our own lives. However, this doesn't mean constant warfare and extra points for headshots.
We play violent games. There's nothing wrong with violent games when they have no greater significance beyond entertainment.
But a game in which players are born completely oblivious of reality and even their true selves, and spend their lives pursuing their purpose, through great adversities and successes, forming relationships and founding families, always learning and teaching, only to finally die and then return to true reality? No, violence doesn't belong here.
The game of life is meaningful. It has a purpose. We wanted to come here, and we surely want to do so many times again.
If we use violence here, we interfere with each other's fulfillment of purpose. If we kill someone, their purpose can no longer be fulfilled. If we harm someone, we limit and prevent their chances to achieve their purpose. No one's chosen purpose is likely to be someone else's victim.
If we use violence here, we perpetuate a culture of violence. We promote through our example behavior that might also turn against us. That culture might still be strong when we return to this game next time. What if that time we're the victim?
Consider that this life of yours is a game. It is entirely a permissible thought.
Will you waste your game? Use it to destroy yourself or others?
Or will you make it your best life ever?