I always considered myself a gamer. Not a video gaming gamer. A table top role playing game gamer. I loved playing D&D, the White Wolf games (before they did their reboot and wiped out the World of Darkness), and Arduin. I also played the modified systems my sister and her friends created to see if they could make their own gaming system based on Arduin.
As most of you know, I'm a writer. When
I was a kid, I wrote silly little things, mostly fan fiction (though
I didn't know that's what I was writing). When I was twelve and
started playing Advanced D&D (also known as 2nd
edition...THAC0 anyone?) something happened. Suddenly I wanted to
build worlds of my own, introduce creations based on my imagination.
When I was fourteen, I created Vassa,
the world I play in today. Now it's hardly recognizable compared to
my early efforts, and those things I stole wholesale from those books
and stories I loved have been either altered or removed altogether.
The stories of the teenager I was were full of angst and love at
first sight. Now they're more political with wars and more realism in
relationships both regular friendships and romantic liaisons.
The reason I'm mentioning all of this
is there are still people who say role playing games, video games,
and the like are tools of Satan to turn people to devil worshiping
and the use of black magic. I speak out against these every time I
see them but I'm labeled evil again because I write fantasy and
science fiction. I grow tired of these allegations.
Imagination isn't evil. Imagination
isn't a tool of a greater evil. Imagination is something that allows
us to escape our reality and enter another one. There are some people
with dark imaginations who use those dreams to cause a lot of
problems. But there are more who use their imaginations to create new
things. Authors and artists inspire dreams. Scientists forward the
knowledge of our world. Technologically inclined people create new
things that help us in our every day lives.
Imagination is key, and I believe that
it should be encouraged in children, allowed to flourish in
teenagers, and welcomed in adults.
Beautifully said. I couldn't agree more. Imagination is what helps shape this world.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think how empty life would be without people using their imaginations.
DeleteIt always makes me laugh when I see people who claim that games turn people to Satanism. Of course, they also said that about Rock and Roll, but it seems our parents' generation is a bunch of devil worshipers. But I'm sure stifling imagination would help people inflict their own notions of "right" on other people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you say here about the imagination, but I think the escape you describe here also allows us a clearer and more complete understanding of the world we're already in. The fictional worlds we create are pretty much always reflections of the very realities we think we're escaping. Great post--it really got me thinking.
ReplyDelete