The Gloury of Escapism

    Tolkien put it best when he said that escaping to fantasy was for the average person as escaping jail was to convicts, and I couldn't agree more. Reality is a fact of life and everyone must live in it, but to what extent? The typical parents will condition children to live in a cold and boring reality, eschewing creativity in favour of something more concrete. To them it's preparation. To me it's murder.

    I was fortunate to have parents that respected my realm and mindset, even if they didn't understand it or didn't agree with it. I moved from story to story and game to game in search of the "perfect one." In the end it was never made so clear as to create my own. A universe complete with planets, locales, factions, and characters, all with their own history and part. 

    For the last decade I've been working on it, using video games as an engine just for the action aspect, where all the narrative, character, and motivation was mine to command. I'd play the game, but often completely ignore the story it had in favour of mine. I hope that doesn't sound too selfish, but I never really liked to idea of playing games for the sake of enjoyment. For example, I'd play Halo, then later play Rainbow Six. Obviously neither of these games have anything in common narratively. Well, through my own story, I can tie them together, since I made up my own technological setting, whereas Halo's and Rainbow Six's are vastly different. I hope that helps thin the ice a little.

    I've done this sort of thing for so long that it has become second nature to me, and I can now do it effortlessly, sometimes I don't even realize it when it happens. I hope Tolkien would be proud.