Best speaker Magazine Issue 2 - December 2017 | 页面 67

the cave. Inside to the right is a beast
and to the left is a treasure chest with
a heart, kill the beast and then get the
heart. If you can’t kill the beast, try to
level up a bit before entering the cave,
but it really isn’t that hard (just use the
hit-and-retreat tactic)”.
Now, isn’t that wonderful? Not only
does it tell you exactly what to do at any
given point, it also reveals hidden treasures
and lets you know what your enemies’
weak points are. But this is merely a sample
of what a walkthrough is. As a matter of
fact, there are walkthroughs which are so
detailed that it can even tell you how to
beat a game with the minimum effort and
time.
I did not discover these walkthroughs
until I was couple of years into playing
RPGs. But from the moment I did, I never
played a game without a walkthrough to
help me navigate the game to get the best
results possible. I liked these nifty guides
so much so that I wished that somebody
could actually write-up a walkthrough for
real life. It could make life infinitely less
complicated. Unfortunately, I knew that in
reality, you can rarely find such short-cuts
to success.
In spite of my fascination with these
walkthroughs, I never once wondered
how they came into existence. To me,
they were simply easily accessible guides
that were just a click away. But on one
day, when I had nothing particularly
interesting to do, I decided to find out how
they were created. Imagine my surprise
when I found out that there are people
or groups of people, that are dedicated
to trying out these games once they are
released to the market and record each
and every move that they make so that
they could create a guide. Moreover, they
do it over and over again until they dig-
up every little thing in the game. They try
out every possible storyline, acquire every
possible weapon and object, discover each
of the hidden treasures (which are called
Easter eggs), record every single statistic,
and defeat every possible enemy. They
discuss strategies, tactics, and tricks that a
player could use to overcome a particular
situation. Ultimately, they produce a
walkthrough which would allow a player
to experience the best possible outcome in
a game.
After finding out how the walkthroughs
were created, I changed my mind. There
are walkthroughs for real life. Did you just
shake your head because you disagree?
Well, let me explain. If you consider what
a walkthrough really is, it is the experience
of a player who played the game before
you did. So tell me dear reader, how many
people have lived before you did? In
actuality, your parents, your teachers, your
siblings, your colleagues, and even your
peers who had experienced something
that you have not, can be the walkthrough
for your life. Because they can tell you
what to do and what not to do when you
are in trouble or simply desperate. But
being the self-absorbed creatures that we
are, we rarely look for these walkthroughs
in life but simply proceed as we wish.
But remember, there is no ‘Save’ point to
life, which means that if you fall from the
frying pan into the fire, you can’t restore
your life no matter how hard you wish for
it.
Another realization that I came to
about walkthroughs are that they are just
guidelines. Which means that sometimes
even if you did follow them to the letter,
you can end up failing. Not because the
guidelines are wrong, but because at
that point you don’t have the required
experience or the weapon, or because your
strategy was not good enough to defeat the
enemy, or simply because you timing was
off. In cases like this, you just need to take
a step back, reassess, and after finding out
what went wrong, try again. After all, life is
not so unforgiving as to not offer second-
chances to all of us. On the other hand, the
most important thing about a walkthrough
is that you can read it out, but it is up to
you to follow them through. No one can
make you follow the walkthrough but only
you yourself. Which means that it is up to
you to take that first step to do something,
whether it be to speak to a huge audience
or try out a new recipe. You may not be
100% successful in your first attempt, but
you can come close enough with proper
guidance.
But the best thing about a walkthrough
is that anyone can write one. As long as
you experience new things, as long as you
make the best out of the opportunities
that come your way, you yourself can be a
walkthrough to someone else. Because we
live in a society that believes strongly in
give-and-take, your personal walkthrough
can be an invaluable contribution. You
don’t necessarily have to create a whole
guidebook full of wise sayings, but a
couple of tips to get someone out of sticky
situation will work out just fine. So even
if you can’t choose your own strengths
and weaknesses from birth, or live your
life over and over again if you didn’t like
the outcome the first time around, or go
back and start over from a ‘save’ point
like in a RPG, a walkthrough is still
applicable in real life. Be on the lookout
for walkthroughs in your life but more
importantly, be a walkthrough to someone
else.
While I hesitate over submitting this
article, I have to remind myself that this
will be my invitation and my walkthrough
to you my dear reader. If you are reading
this, then I guess the “Hail Mary” worked
after all.
Over to you.
Gavelier CHRISHARI
GUNASEKARE
Faculty of Humanities