Nu Vibez and Roleplay Guide Magazine - December 2015 | Page 86
HOW TO BE A GOOD LOSER
Turning Adversity Into Opportunity
Journalist: Filipa Thespian
Recent generations are not taught how to lose. Little League and other sports
teams in some areas do not keep score so that the fragile psyche of a child does
not have to face the thought of losing.
ever came about without losing a
few the first time around. Without
setbacks and in some cases a terrible loss, can victory ever be satisfying and not feel hollow?
Photo Shared on the RPG Flickr Group by Halfwraith
They can leave a game feeling
good about themselves but that
only leaves them set up for later
frustration and disillusionment
when entering grown world
where losing is a very real entity
hovering above everyone’s head.
Entering into Second Life where
your every fantasy can come true,
not many give thought to what
losing can mean and how it can be
beneficial at times to let yourself
lose on occasion.
86 NU VIBEZ & ROLEPLAY GUIDE MAGAZINE
One of the most annoying people
we can encounter in Real Life or
Second Life is the sore loser. We
have all met this person in our
lives. The whining emotional attitudinal, “life is not fair” person
who once having lost, refuses to
accept the possibility, kicks over
the sandcastle, picks up his or her
toys and stomps off in a huff.
How arrogant, how utterly boring
is the person with the attitude of
“I win. I always win.”. No winner
Tarl Cabot our Gorean Hero of
the books lost many times but it
is how he handled loss and overcame it that made him a hero
and a winner. He lost women,
fortune, a Home Stone and even
his freedom, not just once, but a
few times. He struggles to accept
his fate, then rise above it to win.
This is what made him a winner,
not just winning the first time and
every time. That is what the epic
tales were about and made him
memorable. The process of loss
and victory make it all the sweeter
when the inevitable triumph happens.
Another classic example is Conan
the Barbarian. His parents were
killed at a young age, he was enslaved at the Wheel of Pain, crucified to the Tree of Woe, sold into
fighting slavery until he gained
freedom and climbed to being
a hero only in the end slaying
Thulsa Doom. If he had won and
always won he would have slain
Thulsa Doom as a child with his father’s sword then probably stayed