A video game I play has a number of different possible roles. This game is set in a fantasy world, where the challenges often involve fighting ferocious monsters. Or really angry goats. But usually, ferocious monsters. Many of the challenges can be faced alone, but there are some truly epic quests that require a team of players to cooperate. 

When a party of characters work together, they take on different responsibilities, based on their role. Someone in the party needs to be tough enough to confront the dangerous foes directly and keep their attention. A couple of characters whittle away at the resources of whatever beasties we’re up against. And one character is a healer, keeping the other members in the party upright while whatever we’re confronting throws all sorts of tribulations our way.

Rach role has its own unique set of resources, which grow and evolve over time. Learning how to make effective use of the resources at one’s disposal is the essential mechanical challenge of any given character. It’s kind of like real life in that regard. Consider that we have the resource of time at our disposal, but that resource has some limitations. We can only do so much with the time we have in a day. Using that resource in a way that accomplishes what we need to do to survive and also fulfills our sense of purpose can be a challenge.

But back to the game. I began my experience of this game as a healer. I know, it’s a bit on the nose. Wouldn’t I want to play something substantially different from the rest of my life? My therapist and I can unpack that another time. For whatever reason, I started off in a healer role.

Having the resources available to a healer was incredibly convenient, even when I wasn’t joining a group of other players to confront some horrific malevolence. Having some ability to heal means that I can keep myself upright when I’m facing challenges all on my own. The ferocious monster might cause some damage, but I can repair myself just as easily as I can repair another character.

Recently, I started playing a different role. I began learning how to use a different set of abilities. And I realized quickly that this meant I had to play the game differently. I no longer had the same resources. The resources I had were useful enough, but I had no way to heal myself. I had to be more cautious when I was on my own, and I had to be much more strategic about how I confronted challenges. My character died a lot as I was learning this lesson.

In a group of other characters, my play style shifted in different ways. When I was in a healing role, my focus was constantly on the other characters, watching what they may need from me to keep them up and fighting the good fight. But when I took on a different role and had a different set of abilities, my focus was on whatever danger we were confronting. Someone else was in the role of healer. I had to trust them to do their job (and try not to do anything reckless that would make their job more difficult than it needed to be).

It occurs to me that many of us are operating with a different set of resources than we once had at our disposal. That many of our organizations and communities are operating with a different set of resources. Not worse than the resources we’re more familiar with. Just different abilities than we’re accustomed to. And that means we may need to play differently. We may need to embrace learning and faltering a bit as we figure out how to do things in a new way. And we may need to trust differently than we have ever needed to trust before. 

It seems like a mistake to judge our past selves based on the resources we have in the present. But it seems equally misguided to expect our present selves to operate as if we had the same resources as our past selves. How have your personal resources changed? How do you think you might need to play differently than you’ve played in the past? 

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