Dragons!

http://falvie.deviantart.com/art/Little-Purple-Dragon-351794548

Dragons! Huge creatures; mythical and majestic - and fun. At least if you play one of the several dragon themed games on Facebook or apps. Which I do, every now and then. It used to be a lot more until I got to a fairly high level, and now it's getting more difficult. But, you know, doing something a lot means you get to see patterns in it; and I was thinking that some of the patterns in this are a bit like life. Or, at least, could have some valuable lessons

Success Is Arbitrary (to an extent, anyway)
As I progressed in the game, I got to see several things I was doing that could count as objectives, and different ways of measuring success. The basic one was that, just in playing the game, in doing what you had to do, you got experience, and a certain amount of experience automatically raised the level you were on. and going up levels opened things up; allowed you to gain things or abilities. The other two were fighting (well, winning anyway), and collecting dragons. And I got to thinking-how often do we try to 'keep score'; to say we're doing better or worse (maybe than someone else), because we have done this, or not done that. For instance, on my day off, I sometimes feel good about life if I've been busy, because I feel that the day is productive-but that's not what days off are for. It's alright to rest and do little on them-as long as the things that need doing get done. Sometimes even then. To get back to the game, levelling up happens automatically, and, quite often, we may find life is like that; that we're just going along with life just living and gainingexperience, and then we look around and discover all these things that we can do, that at one point we couldn't. Or we discover that we're better at things, without making a conscious effort to do so. For instance, once I was terrible at typing; I'm still not very good, but doing this has got me better at it. And the other day, I mentioned that I'm better at using chopsticks than I thought I was-and I haven't even practiced that. I can only guess that in getting more flexible with my hands, it's allowing me to get better at a variety of things. And the most interesting one, collecting dragons is, well, interesting. As you breed dragons, you come up with some unusual and very surprising types of dragon-which leads nicely on to the second point. 

Imagination Is Important (if not vital)
The best part of the game, in my opinion, although I'm guessing I won't be alone in this, is the imagination integral to it. As if it weren't enough to have a game about breeding dragons, some of the dragons that they have designed are really quite... interesting. Like a steampunk dragon and a dragon made out of bubblegum. An electric dragon and a pirate dragon. Or a zombie dragon-I'd really like to see how that one grows. And life is like that-or, at least, should be. It's not about just making a living; it's about the colourful things in and around, the unexpected things. Like coming out of my front door to see a man with a couple of ferrets on leads. Nonsense conversations, walks in the park, and parties. The things which make life worth living are actually those which make it life, as opposed to just existence.

Things Work Better With Friends (or it could cost) 
The way the is set up, you can add friends, and then; not only can you see what each other are up to, but you can help each other. Most of the ways you can help are add-ons, in that you can continue playing the game quite well without them, they just give a little bit of a bonus now and then. However, there are times every so often where you have to ask for help, and if you don't get it, it's very difficult to proceed. In these cases, there is one other option-you can pay for the help you need, usually in gems. The problem with this is that it takes time and effort to earn the gems; and it looks like there are some very costly items in the future that you may only be able to get with the gems. So, if you have some way of not spending them, that would be better overall. And to apply that to life almost doesn't need any explanation-but it feels like cheating not to say anything at all. With the little ways, that's like the colour and imagination I've already mentioned; strictly speaking they're not actually needed as such, but it's part of what makes the difference between living and just existing. Relationships are important in life. And doing things together, with each other and for each other makes life more livable. Not just easier, but more fun too. And when it comes to the important ways of helping, we learn that not only does it make life much easier, to the point where it is even impossible without it in some cases; but, the other important point is that sometimes we should ask for help. There's nothing wrong with asking for help-in a sense that's how the game is set up. God created us to be interdependent; not independent.

Yes, I understand that not everyone on here does play or has played any online game involving dragons. but there are a lot of other games out there, and these principles can be applied to any of them. Indeed, there are probably more principles than this that you could figure out-if you want to come up with any, feel free to let me know.