One of my favorite heuristics for life is: act more like a PC, less like an NPC. I was brainstorming with a friend of mine about things to remember to act more like a PC, and there’s what we came up with:
-don’t do the same thing over and over again
-when you see something you don’t understand, ask “what’s going on here”
-acquire skills
-coordinate with other PCs
-set quests
-optimize your inventory
-find walkthroughs for the boring stuff
-everything could be significant, so be observant
-you have everything you need
-there are very useful NPCs
-friendly NPCs wil give you stuff helpful for your quests
-there has to be a solution
-you might have to click every pixel on the screen
-the thing that you’re looking for will be highlighted, but you need to learn to look carefully
-have a high default level of entitlement
-be aware that NPCs will try to make PCs follow rules, always
-grinding is never the most expedient solution
-practice the most useful skills
-keep your HP high
-keep your MP high
-people have alignments
-NPCs are usually transparent about their alignment
-it is worthwhile to figure out the alignment of other PCs
-some NPCs are NPCs by choice
-bosses always have an exploitable flaw, so you can beat them whether you’re qualified or not