We resurrect I Was A Goblin to bring you a link to this visionary post: “Personal Branding is a Real Life RPG”.
“Every person on this planet is playing the same game as you – the game of life. We are the ones who realize this and are thus able to take advantage by actively leveling up so that we can become the strongest players possible.”
Indeed! Life is like a RPG in more ways than the author enumerates. For instance, some players start with no gold, skills or weapons, while others have immediate access to vast resources and huge numbers of magic items. They must have used a cheat code.
But I can spot one flaw in the analysis – he doesn’t specify which RPG life is like. Oh sure, he airily mentions WoW and Final Fantasy. But what if life is a different RPG entirely?
Perhaps, for instance, personal branding is like Call Of Cthulhu. You battle hopelessly against vast dark forces you cannot hope to comprehend or defeat until you either go die or are sent mad by forbidden knowledge. Surely such a picture has little to do with the reality of global business?
Or maybe the game of personal branding is in fact Paranoia? You desperately attempt to obey the whims of a colossal machine while trying hopelessly to hide your flaws, peccadillos and secrets. That would be nothing like our open social media era, however.
Instead, personal branding might be closer to Vampire: The Masquerade. In-fighting among cadres of powerful beings who survive by draining the life from the herd-like mass of humanity. But only a cynic would see that as a parallel to the corporate environment.
No, personal branding is like the oldest RPG of all – Dungeons And Dragons. The way to win is through the violent accumulation of money and if you try to do something interesting people will squawk that it’s against the rules. I hope this insight is incorporated into future analyses from the business minds at Personal Branding Blog.