What Game World Would I Live in

            I have not been posting nearly enough this year and I want to steer back from that.  To that end I have found a 30-day blog challenge and will be writing out entries, hopefully I can get all thirty days without any breaks, and if I manage to do that (since August has 31 days) I will think of an additional entry to write about.  I have done a 30-day challenge before, it for movies, but that was a while back, feel free to read those too if you like.

            Today is day 15 and the topic is “What Game World Would I Live in?”.

“The Human Mind: 600 miles of synaptic fiber, five and a half ounces of cranial fluid, 1500 grams of complex neural matter... a three-pound pile of dreams,” he growled and stamped and swished his swagger stick.  “But, I'll tell you what it really is. It is the ultimate battlefield--and, the ultimate weapon. The wars of this modern age--The Psychic Age--are fought somewhere between these damp, curvaceous undulations.

“From this day forward you are all psychic soldiers. Paranormal paratroopers! Mental marines who are about to ship out on the adventure of their lives!

“This is our beachhead!” he said, pointing to a brain diagram.

“And this is your landing craft,” he continued, pointing to his own head.  “You shall engage the enemy in his own mentality--you shall chase his dreams, you shall fight his demons, you shall live his nightmares! And those of you who fight well, you will find yourselves on the path to becoming international secret agents-- in other words... Psychonauts!! The rest of you... will die!”

"What's with the goggles?"

 Psychonauts is perhaps the most richly creative concept to hit video games since Mario first started battling murder turtles with the power of mushrooms.  Even the incidental characters have voice and personality that makes the world feel alive and every bit as darkly hilarious as anything I could hope to dream up.  The visuals are not just beautiful but reflect the mental states of the characters and do much to inform the world.  There are a hundred subtle things in this game that make it not only fun to play, but fun to explore.

I have a personal fascination with dreams, as I have written on this blog before, and the idea of dreams features prominently in what little fiction I have managed to hammer out.  I like a world in which one’s thoughts can exact change and the exploration of ideas becomes a literal adventure.

While many people would point to “Harry Potter” as the quintessential narrative of the young person with special powers saving a magical world… I never got into Harry Potter, but I did get into “Psychonauts” and I wish it had been more successful, I wish it had been a multi-media success, I wanted to see more of it and this concept of psychic spies and adventurers.  I wish I could live in a world in which I could go into my own dreams and thoughts to explore and to go into the thoughts of others to help them do the same.

            What world would you live in?  What world captured your imagination?  Was it “Dark Souls”?  If so I think you need to take some kind of vacation and rediscover how to live without crushing misery and failure as your companions.  Or whatever.

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