The Game of Life

At the risk of sounding a little glib -- life's a game.

Seriously.

Like all games, life has certain components.

Come with me and let's find out what they are.

1. Pieces

In the game of life, the pieces are people.  People like you and me.  People who bargain, bond, exploit, cooperate, form partnerships.

The first necessity is to defend your own piece, i.e. yourself.  Without the self, the game cannot be played.

The health of a piece is contingent not only on food, air, and shelter, but also on emotional attachment and cooperation with other pieces, i.e. people.

Companionship, friendship, and sex are all necessary to maintain the health of pieces.

2.  Rules

In the game of life, rules come in two forms.  Natural rules and social rules.

Natural rules are global rules -- the ones you are reading now.

Social rules are local rules established by powerful pieces extinct or contemporary.  Social rules have a power horizon; this is their ability to be enforced, or the extent to which pieces believe in them.  Rules can be: ideology, written law, or established habit.  The expectations of culture.  That sort of thing.

3.  A Time Limit

Death.  Unlike most games (except boxing) life's time limit is variable, and can occur swiftly and without warning.  Pieces can shorten each other's time limits (murder) or shorten their own (suicide), although such actions typically violate Social Rules (see #2).

4. Goals

Pieces have goals.  Goals vary to a wide extent, and can change dramatically over time.  Ambitious, petty, or career-oriented, goals can be as simple as changing a lightbulb or as crucial as raising a child or conquering a country.  Pieces have simultaneous, overlapping goals.  Often goals come into conflict, which necessitate competition or cooperation.

Maintaining of one's piece is a goal in itself (see #1) and in circumstances of scarcity, require the formation of strong teams.

5. Teams

In order to consolidate their efforts to attain a goal (see #4) pieces often co-operate in teams.  Examples of teams are: nations, families, dKos, and 4-H clubs.  Most pieces participate in more than one team simultaneously, and most teams have social rules established by team captains, however, since the shared goals of a community rarely align exactly with the individual goals of each piece, cheating occurs.

6. Cheating

Cheating, or corruption, is an important component of the game of life.  Although social rules frequently outlaw cheating, all pieces cheat to a greater or lesser extent.  Cheating occurs when a piece or pieces essentially violate the rules of one team (see #5) in favor of either the piece itself or the rules of another team.

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So thats all I can think of so far.  Behold the elements of the game of life.  Kind of like "The Sims" I guess.

I'm not sure if I left anything out, and I don't know what all this means.

It's really just a way of looking at the world.

Feedback from fellow pieces?

UPDATED:

I thought of a seventh component.

7. Risk

Actions taken by pieces or teams to progress towards goals involve a greater or lesser amount of risk.  Risk can be substantial--it can threaten the time limit of one's piece, or, in the example of cheating, involve the possibility of discovery by powerful team captains, or enforcers of social rules.