Casting Shadows

Today’s question probably deserves a simple answer like “Flashing Blades” or “Psychobilly Retropocalypse.” You know, the game that flows around you and works with you to create wonder. Easy, intuitive, inspiring, flexible, and ready to do whatever you need.

Like most human endeavors though, it’s not that simple. All for One might be the perfect game for me, but not if I play it with the wrong people. The game, the environment, and the group all need to be in sync. Without that, you are just fumbling for satisfaction and being lucky to get it.

The good and the bad, the great and the terrible of a game are at least the sum of all the parts which contribute to making it. The game and the promise it offers help draw the group, the premise of the intended implementation helps give the group purpose and excitement, the actual play is hoped to keep them together, and the tales produced mark the memories of the game with shared enjoyment.

For me the perfect game is the slow experiments of alchemy. It is the catalyst which fans the desire to play, the different compounds which come together in the group that plays, the mixing of how they play, the careful blending in of what they play, and the gradual changes in each as the fire of inspiration, tempered by the enlightenment offered through the experience, begins to work its magic. For some, this mixture is the product sought, but for others like me, this is an intermediate. There are more things ahead for the group. Given time, transmutation of our base elements is possible, and not only the game and how we play it, but how we live may come to transform.

And it can be a fun and collaborative process.

Imagine.

I enjoy cookie dough, but taking the time to bake and serve the cookies is a pursuit which moves me to sense the closeness of perfection’s possibility.

How about you? What is your perfect game?