Drowning in a Daydream: Can Fantasy Become Reality?

by Donnie Santos 

There are a plethora of mixed emotions in our lives as fans of role-playing games. For the masses, which most of us are part of, one of these emotions is surely helplessness. We sit back and are at the mercy of the trendy RPG company big shots to make decisions that will have absolute sovereignty over our future gaming. Many of us, perhaps all of us, have ideas of our own that we think would make the magnum opus of RPG playing. How many times have you said to yourself, "All I need to do is march up to the CEO's office at Square headquarters and tell him all these ideas I have, and voila! The perfect RPG will be in the works!"..? Well, this is what I tend to call "drowning in a daydream", thanks to Pepper Keenan of Corrosion of Conformity for coining this phrase =) Because the most that ever gets done with this way of thinking, is MAYBE adding your name to a meaningless petition, or if your really really lucky, an intern in the square mail room read an email of yours saying that you thought Chrono Trigger was the bomb, and you wanted to see a sequel. In the long run, 98 percent of the most devoted RPG fans, who in my humble opinion may be the best hope for truly great RPG creation in the future, end up just playing whatever they are dealt... No questions asked. I don't know about you, but this gives me a horrible feeling inside. Are we really helpless to the creation process in the gaming industry. It would seem so, but perhaps there is some worth after all in passion for, and understanding of, the simple things that make these games so great. Lets take a closer look at this.

The one thing I have noticed in this discussion forum, is that the Square designing room is not the only place in the world were great minds discuss the pros and cons of RPG playing to an almost religious degree. Many talented and insightful individuals have written some very comprehensive editorials here, which shows me that the future of creation and innovation may not be as set in stone as I previously assumed. For example, people such as Benjamin Avner, Shawn Bruckner, Robert Szkotak, John Ford, Mike Lenzo, and of course the infamous Andrews.. Namely Vestal and Church =) These people and many others have demonstrated excellent grasp and foresight concerning the wholeness of conceptual role-playing. Reading these excellent commentaries really renews my faith that perhaps we are not simply at the mercy of a popular culture's newfound moneymaker industry. We aren't just over aged, super-jaded, old school Metallica fans that have been swept aside because the artist that they loved decided to try and please a wider audience (pardon the bad analogy).

Anyway, my point is that the small percentage of us that even go so far as to participate in a discussion as such, should take it upon themselves to consider going even further. Next time you go through the scenario in your head about marching up to the CEO of squaresoft with your well-documented turbo pascal version of Final Fantasy 14, don't just brush off the idea as unrealistic. Ok well the part about going to the CEO is a bit much, but the desire and action of using your creative input to its maximum capability is most certainly never a waste, and is very real. Wether its programming, drawing, writing, or just creative brainstorming, I believe that this group of individuals that participate in dialogue here need to assert themselves however possible toward progressing the industry. I myself am hoping to get out there in the field within a couple years. Is it unrealistic that I'll ever accomplish anything of importance? Possibly. Will the games that I design in my spare time just end up sitting on my ping pong table? Probably. Will my ambitions to create my own software company that will rival Squaresoft be doomed for failure? Umm... yeah. But I can't find it in my heart to abandon the idea, and I hope you don't either. We have to go a bit further than discussion sometimes if we want to change things, or be part of things. Follow your dreams, don't drown in them. This is a great group of people here, and if a few of us organize together, perhaps we can change things after all. Maybe the fantasy truly can become a reality.