The Pan in me...

I see that maybe I haven’t grown up nearly as much as I thought I had... bear with me =) I was looking through my blog the other day because I hadn't figured out how to make it so I was notified when someone left me a comment, and I was surprised to see a comment left by Lauren on my first post and this was it...

"This is a belated comment because I've only just started reading your blog, but I think it's funny that you say you hoped at one point to never grow up. I think you've maintained more childlike energy than a lot of people. Watching you interact with the little girl on the monorail, you were playing on her level in a way I've seen few adults manage out of thin air. Traces of days gone by or no, you're truly a great person, and you prove it with more and better examples every day. =)"

I just really felt the need to sort of reply to this comment in a way, first of all I think I've illustrated how highly I think of Lauren and how I continue to be inspired by her drive, but mainly she's a refreshing friend to have because she's as intellectual as I am, if not more. I constantly look forward to seeing her impute on ideas and such and her insight here really caught me off guard but in a really good way. For sometime now I've been focusing on blah blah blah growing up, responsibility, blah blah blah.... And have been relatively down because of it. Yet I'm touched to see that someone thinks that I've been able to maintain some child-esk charisma. Typically I believe people would think it an insult to be called childish, but in this instance I certainly do not. Thinking about it more now I think that possibly it's part of growing up but maintaining the child's eye of the world. Really what I'm talking about is keeping an open and inquisitive mind. Let yourself get excited by the small things! Be able to say WOW every so often keeps us young.

This whole train of thought has brought me full circle into actually thinking about some of my original gaming concepts and Lauren's and my game as well. I really want to shock and awe people, and I really think that Lauren and I can do that. Part of me feels as though a more mature approach would make the game both harder to make and have more impact if we're effective. Although the other part of me feels as though if we can combine our thoughts on a fanciful environment with some resonating mature themes, it could be very interesting. We need to shake it up a bit, and stay in scope as well =) I don't necessarily want too much a warm and fuzzy kind of atmosphere, but I don't want the opposite either... I think what I'll be pushing for is the contrast between the two, that'll make things interesting. If we can truly break away from a norm, get some nitty gritty details in an interesting environment in an interesting way... maybe, just maybe Lauren and I can get people to say "WOW." =)