Lake Wobegon...

The Lake Wobegon effect designates the human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities in relation to others (in academic sources this is more usually called the above average effect or the better-than-average effect).

Gameplay and game creation challenges occur in many different forms, but this one is more prominent forms that I'm interested in. This (I've been told) occurs most often in multiplayer games, in the form of players going in to a multiplayer match, expecting to do well, and being let down. The problem is that the player believes that their skills are far more superior than they actually are. I'm curious about how this would manifest in a singleplayer game. In what mindset do players come into a game? Do you, as a player start playing a game thinking that you can beat it no

Undercurrent...

What am I to do? This wonderful feeling of being in mental and creative restraint is, quite plainly, driving me mad. Part of it isn't even the feeling of restraint, but rather the feeling of inadequacy towards my works. It's proving hard to get past. The feeling that everything you've done, and everything you'll do won't matter. It's like you're being dragged down, thrashing, but try as you might, there's nothing you can do that will prevent the inevitable.

It's something I'll have to ignore. I'll take a break and come back to it. Not, long, but just enough. Focus on other things, and work towards other projects. I'll come back when I start feeling better.

End of Novels...

I'm surrounded by narration on all sides. Books, movies, games, fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, and reality. It's becoming harder and harder to write anything with every passing minute, as with each minute, a new story is being told somewhere. How can I write anything worth reading, hearing, seeing, or playing with the mass saturation of material that exists out there. Some of that material is very good, but most, is well... I'm not a critic, but quality is getting harder to find as well.

How does one write anything without treading on those that have came before, but still being interesting enough to read now. How does one achieve true originality that is so highly sought after, yet is so easily obtained by a select few.

True Grit...

I've finally settled on a final mod project idea. I just kind of came to me, in a way. It's to involve a bright, clean art style, reminiscent of Mirror's Edge, but it will contrast highly with some of the "underground" areas which are to be far more grittier. I plan on creating an over arching story involving one main character, code named "able" and his handler "fish". I plan on releasing it in episodes, with the first few (more or less) to be written and produced by me, with subsequent chapters written by other writers (yet undecided).

More details to come, when I get them. I'm in the midst of writing the design doc and will have that available when it's ready (promise). Once the design doc is out, I'll be looking for interested parties to man the different positions in the team, but more on that later...

Back to work.

Ease My Mind...

Where do I begin. My issues are too numerous to mention. How do I avoid the inevitable breakdown of information.

First off, I'm having dreams, dreams which somehow seem more real than my waking moments. I've mentioned these before, but have yet to speak much about them. They feel so real because I have emotions, which I express with precision and intensity that I restrain in real life. I actively communicate my emotions to these entities in my dreams, causing them to react in very realistic ways, showing equal precision and intensity, and strangely, a passion that I've never seen in anyone real, or imagined. I almost feel more alive in my dreams than reality, which is quite a dangerous notion, I can assure you. Should I see this as a sign that I must show more emotion to the real life equivalents of those figures from my dreams, so that I may see the same passion in reality as in my head? If so, it has been quite an eerie sign.

Secondly, I've been frustrated out of my mind about how I feel like I am unable to communicate anything with any precision of effectiveness, due in part to my lack of a full vocabulary, but mostly due to my inability to catch the words that evade my grasp, in which I then spend many moments trying to regain. The greatest loss for me, is the loss of words. This happens all too often for me. Perhaps it, too, is a sign. A sign that I don't exercise my vocabulary muscle too often. Maybe this is just a small cramp that one gets when he first begins regular exercise of said muscle, one just like any other muscle. I will not let this deter me.