A most magic of candles.

I started earlier this week with the intellectual idea of re-visiting the games of my youth; to explore their themes with the eyes of a trained adult. It was to be a diversion and perhaps an interesting point of study for future work. But it turned out to be a lot more.

I wrote before of tapping into older WoW characters to get a read into my earlier mindsets; I then took the idea farther by moving them to Dark Iron and counteracting the ill-will I felt from my previous guild dramas. The concept is enumerated in various psychological works (although the circumstances vary.) and I feel confident in my data regarding the matter.

But this was much more then a simple walk a few years backwards. This was the era I had just begun to realize the power of words, and I was filled with an incredible passion for storytelling. The nostalgic power of the games reminded me of the unbridled potential of youth and equally limitless potential of the storyteller.

My first real exposure to the "fantasy" genre was via two very old computer games: "Champions of Krynn" and "The Magic Candle". To this day "The Magic Candle" remains one of my earliest and most powerful influences on the worlds I have created. This is something I did not even realize until I had played the games again after all these years.

T.M.C was one of the first open-ended (or sandbox concept games) of the RPG (or any) genre. There was no final boss, no linear storyline and very little "required" questing to beat the game.
Instead you have 1000 days to find a way to keep the lord Dreax imprisoned, each day the candle burns a little lower until he finally escapes.

It was a simple concept for a game, but the execution was where it shined. Many tasks required the party to break into groups... potentially dangerous with the agents of Dreax hunting you. It required strict resource management and has quite possibly the best-balanced characters I have ever seen for a game. The "weaker" combat characters have everyday professions and the game is nearly impossible without the extra gold they bring in. The right balance of fighting power, hunting power, money making and magical utility is quite difficult to strike exactly.

The intensity of the game didn't force me into an older mindset as was the case with Adul; instead I encountered something new: at first a raw emotional response. But the nostalgia of the game was a powerful catalyst for a fusion of thinking.

I was calm, felt no deep emotional pain or crushing despair over my current situation. Emotionally I went back to a different era completely. It was relaxing to delve into such a rich story without any distractions. With the clarity I found I could recall specific thoughts, threads of my earlier thinking. I followed it for awhile; linking the old and the new.

The fusion of old and new. Experience and passion. The application of new ideas to old problems stirred in my soul a kind of... yearning. There are new answers, new strategies and problems waiting for me to uncover. These problems before me now are nothing more then speed bumps and the pain and worry I have over them is without merit.