Writing Through Gaming

Welcome back to my ‘writing through’ series. As I mentioned last time, these will be the posts where I plan to discuss how aspects of my life have helped me grow and develop as a writer.

This week’s topic is gaming. I started playing video games when I was around 9. At the time, I was mostly playing games that fuelled my Star Wars obsession, things like the Old Republic, an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game) that was set in the Star Wars universe. And, of course, the game had a storyline. One of those class-based stories that you can get immersed in and follow. It was somewhat customisable too, with dialogue options and romancable NPCs (Non-player characters). The fact that there was a storyline centered around my characters inspired me to build them more, to make a backstory for them, write fanfictions about how they dealt with parts of the universe that the game didn’t show… It inspired me to start writing. And yes, at this point, I was writing the two hundred years of nonsense fanfictions I spoke of last week. But I was writing for the first time outside of primary school assignments, which usually bored me.

Of course, I didn’t stop there. I wrote more, for various reasons, and I got some new games too. Even some outside of the MMORPG-style that first engaged my writerly imagination. But every game – indeed, every thing – can be inspiring if it speaks to your imagination at all. And a lot games are designed to do just that. Take The Sims, for example, a series of well-known video games designed to let you create your own characters, houses and interactions. I’ve used The Sims 4 to build a life for my characters outside of their main storylines before, and it presses me to think of questions I wouldn’t normalky consider, to know them better. What would they do if a band of neighbours turned up on their doorstep at an inconvenient time? What kind of music would put them in a bad mood? And sometimes, the game will do something hilarious and unexpected. I made two background characters a couple before because of a random flirtation in The Sims.

But The Sims is a big, complex game. So are most MMORPGs. Even a simpler game that anyone can comfortably play in one way or another, like Minecraft, can bring about some inspiration. It’s easy to mine and let your mind wander. Ideas will come, whether they’re inspired by Minecraft – What is Steve’s deal, anyway? – or just released by the theraputic feeling of playing.

There are many types of games, but they can all help unlock ideas. This is why gaming is one of my favourite ways to relax in between writing sessions.