The Game of Fate and Destiny

The philosophical question of scientific determinism, logical fatalism, and universal causality can be answered by playing video games. I’m not joking.

Philosophy has tried to answer the question of fate for centuries. Martin Luther King said, “By endowing us with freedom, God relinquishes a measure of his own sovereignty and imposed certain limitations upon himself;” while Vergil said, “each of us suffers his own destiny.” Both men were right but many have not been able to find the complete relationship between free will and destiny. I may have the answer with my own version of video game design philosophy.

This may sound absurd, but when compared to the problem of logical fatalism and the challenge of scientific determinism, fate and destiny are nothing but a video game. In reality the 20th century philosophers of compatibilism are right about the relationship of free will with destiny and the proper meaning behind universal causality. Modern video games are pointing toward the compatibilist view that free will exists, but so does our predetermined futures.

The hard philosophical question of, “if our fate is predetermined by the creator, then what is the use of exercising free will?” may be answered by something in video game design called “Game progression.” The compatibilists wants to “present us with a picture of freedom that allows our actions to be caused and constrained by natural laws and natural conditions outside our control and defines freedom in such a way that acting freely does not imply having been able to do otherwise.”

The question that compatibilists ask is if God knows you, then he knows what you are going to do before you do it, yet you have the free will not to do it, but you’re going to do it anyway. This opposed to the simplistic “Final Destination” view that no matter what you are going to do, you are going to do it because of a simple chain of predetermined events. So where am I going with this? It’s simple.

Fate works like a free roam video game. There are many missions ahead of you that you must complete, but unless you complete them you cannot carry on with the game. Now fate, or God, like the creator of a video game, allows you to complete these missions in any order, but eventually you will complete them and end up in the same predestined place every time you play however long you play.

Some missions are harder than others. Some missions are essential in your forward progress, while some missions you will perform better and receive a better score. Other missions you will lose certain items, while others may have bad glitches. Nonetheless, the missions are complete and move forward with the game, but like fate, you are predestined to carry on with the same predestined timeline.

I ask the question to the reader: Have you ever tried to not complete a mission in a free roam video game? In reality, the free will that you have in real life is based on how you play the game. Nothing really matters besides the progression of the game.

Your avatar may look a certain way in one timeline, or you may forget certain prizes in another, yet the game must carry on until the credits role. Generally, all game-play is the same for everyone, but in the real world everyone is playing a different game.

If life is a game, like many philosophers have described, I make the statement that, “fate is the game progression of life, in a highly advanced game, unique to our own perspective and reality. We are all playing different games, yet our game progression and the end of our game is predetermined.” 

What I have described by using video game design is the deep philosophical questions of destiny and fate. With my philosophy the philosophical question of Universal Causality is answered with complete logic and reason based off the advancements of technology. These are questions that great minds have pondered for centuries, but have not had the ability to see with modern advancements in something as simple as a game.

In finality, I ask the reader two questions to get their mind in the proper perspective to receive this knowledge that I have presented. How far along are you in your game? And where are you in your game progression?