To wander while lost, is to be delighted. To seek while lost, is to be enlightened. Exploration is the most interesting mini-game, and one that has only right answers. Every step taken forges a wider view of the world. Every wrong turn carves opposing routes to be traveled. Every journey that crosses paths with another traveler, creates new possibilities.
It’s your first day away from Tutorial Island and in a new, big city. The new guys and new girls on the block have a lot to discuss. They’re all asking questions like “Where are you from?”, “What’s your name?”, and “Where are you going?”
All of them, are creating relationships. They’re getting answers to their questions, sharing new things they’ve stumbled upon, and being a tour guide for others who are feeling uneasy about being in unfamiliar territory. It is critical to acknowledge how you feel, often and early, wherever you are. These feelings play a crucial role in directing your first steps toward all things new.
When you talk to people, ask yourself the following questions:
- Do you feel inclined to keep the conversation short?
- Do you feel afraid to ask “dumb questions”?
- Do you feel like this person can help you?
- Do you feel like you can help them?
If you answered ‘yes’ to either of the first two questions, you may be on the path for creating an individualistic journey for yourself. However, if you answered ‘yes’ to either of the last two questions, you may be on a path for a relationship-filled journey with others. Your feelings determine how you behave or engage in the gaming world, and in the real world.
In-game, while players of RuneScape may be of much greater use to you along your journey, you may realize other factors impact your experiences with them. Some players may take pride in offering up as much help and assistance to every passerby they see. Others may not be so generous with providing information to you. Eventually, you’ll learn that interacting with people sometimes requires a strategy.
As we continue to find our way around RuneScape, we are reminded that we have access to our toolkit. We’ve already learned the power of having intangible tools such as relationship building. Good relationships can be used like a compass, gently nudging you in the direction you desire to go.
On our leisurely stroll, we see other players engaged in a number of activities. Some are performing tranquil acts like fishing for shrimp, sardines, and anchovies. Remaining players are involved in more arduous activities, like cooking their latest haul of seafood from the ocean, or chopping down trees and harvesting wood. Your curiosity sparks a conversation with a lumberjack nearby, and you are told that you can find new improved axes in a neighboring city. Excitement sets in, and you immediately run off into the distance to go and find yourself a new axe!
Passing through a small village, you locate a craftsman sharpening a set of hatchets for aspiring lumberjacks. He asks you if you’d like to trade in your old axe for one of his new and improved axes, and you oblige. You then attempt to cleave at a tree just outside of the shop, and a message appears that says you must have a certain skill level to use your new axe.
This entire unfolding of recent events allows us to learn our first lesson in the world of RuneScape. When you are given basic tools, use them. The assumption that you must have the latest and greatest tools in order to begin putting it to use, is a mistake if you do not know how to use it. Basic tools require basic knowledge, and when you apply the basics, you create skill. You must always create with the tools you have, so that your tools serve as skill builders. Every tool you cannot use, is not yet useful to you.
The basics is all it takes to create something great.