I think in your case, it''d be a good idea to read (or reread) Musashi''s Book of Five Rings. If you''re gaining interest in martial arts, and you come upon the idea that if you can defeat 10 people by yourself, then you can defeat 100 with 10 people, 1000 with 100, and so on, then perhaps you''ll look into the effect of that on the military aspects of your game.

As for what gives me inspiration, I have about 10 interests that I work on, and my enthusiasm seems to rotate between them, so I don''t have to worry about boring myself. I don''t worry about distributing my time evenly. If I''m more enthusiastic about one area, then doesn''t that mean I''d be happier if I worked more in that area? So why deny that impulse (unless you''re receiving pay for another area)?

Musashi''s Book of Five Rings is a classic and I read it when I was 16 (about 15 years ago) so maybe it''s time for a re-read. Sun Tzu''s Art of War is also great of course, as is the 36 Strategems. Maybe I''ll look up something by Clausewitz though, since I''ve never read any of his stuff.

I''ve been meaning to read up more on Chan (Zen) Buddhism as well as other philosophy and religious books. I think I''m going to start fleshing out my game world a little more because often as I start thinking about certain aspects of the game world it gives me ideas about game rules. For example, religious convictions might affect morale bonuses, or cultural customs might dictate a certain proclivity towards a certain kind of strategy or force build up. This in turn gives me ideas of how to shape certain game rules.

I actually think this is a huge reason why so many sci-fi and fantasy games have a hollow feeling, because the foundation of the game world isn''t strong and it lacks a consistent feel. The trick is getting myself motivated to READ up on stuff like this to give me inspiration on how to use these ideas for the game.

My personal favorite is to just remind myself that "Sloth Breeds Sloth".

I sit down, even if just for five minutes and figure some stuff out on paper, or write some code.
Then, next thing I know i'm sucked back into it, getting tons done.

Low tech solution to a low tech problem

Cheers!
- Jacob

[edited by - Kevlar-X on July 6, 2003 4:37:01 PM]

quote:I''ve been meaning to read up more on Chan (Zen) Buddhism as well as other philosophy and religious books

Buddhism, y''say? Well, then, let me share my favorite link. Nothing to do with the topic at hand, but insightful and interesting.

Clausewitz is very dry and very verbose. Not something I''d use for inspiration.

LtKicker-
I agree that just using someone else''s ideas leads to a stagnated game because it''s like an incestuous breeding of games....no "genetic" diversity leads to an eventual degradation of ideas.

However, nothing is new under the sun, and nothing is created in a vacuum. We all get our ideas and inspiration from something even if we don''t consciously realize how our own education and experience has created those ideas. What gets me is that it seems like too many games are just pitiful rehashes of the same game worlds and same gameplay over and over.

Partially I think it''s for commercial reasons, as being innovative and original can be detrimental to sales (look at Battlezone or System Shock 2 for example). So publishers will only back the tried and true for fear of losing money on something that people may not recognize...forgetting of course that almost all the truly ground breaking games that were massive sellers were highly original or had innovative gameplay.

Kevlar-X
Hmmm, good point, maybe I just need to put my nose to the computer screen and force myself to do something. Speaking of which, I still need to convert all my paper notes to XML (and translate them via XSLT) to get done with my homepage. So at least that''s a good learning opportunity for me since I''ve only been glancing at XSLT stuff...

Flarelocke-
Interesting website from what I''ve seen so far (though I''ve only read two articles). The trick with Zen is that although it''s neat to read about it, the real truth lay in experiencing it. That''s why I really want to get back into martial arts. When I move down to South Florida in about 2 months, I''ve already scoped out two possible martial arts schools. One is an Aikido school that looks pretty authentic and the instructors don''t seem too full of themselves and the other is a choy li fut kwoon that has a fairly impressive lineage and seems like it stresses the right attitude.

The nice thing is that Aikido teaches a sort of hybrid form of Zen thanks to O-sensei''s adherence to the Omoto sect of Shintoism. I actually like O-sensei''s world view quite a bit and if you ever get a chance to read anything by Mitsugi Saotome or Kisshomaru Ueshiba, I highly recommend it. Ueshiba constantly stressed that truth is something that we innately know but it must be experienced (much as Gautama taught), and the best way to experience is it is through kannagara no michi...nature''s harmony. Choy Li Fut is also well known for being a martial art that believes strongly in keeping in touch with Chan Buddhism since the founder was taught by a Shaolin monk who made him promise to learn Buddhism before he learned any martial arts.

There''s definitely going to be a lot of quasi religious/spiritual orders, especially monastic style fighting orders in my game.