Video Games Vs. My Imagination

I’ve been a World of Warcraft junkie since December-ought-five, logging an impressive number of hours into several different characters. I don’t think I could really be considered a hardcore player, as I’ve accomplished much less than my peers in the same amount of time, but I spent enough time logged into the game or doing research related to it that it has consumed a pretty significant amount of my life in the last two years.

Recently financial circumstances have caused me to put my Warcraft activities on hold while I focus on other things and re-establish some financial footing. It’s been about two weeks without logging in, and I’m starting to notice some very interesting things that I believe are related to my absence from the game.

The most major thing that seems to be happening is that the number of dreams I seem to be having and remembering has increased dramatically since my time away from the game. It is worth mentioning that I haven’t been watching very much tv or watching many movies either. I’ve also noticed a dramatic increase in my visual creativity. This is extremely important because I am a graphic designer and photographer, so I live and die by my ability to translate my world into images.

I have a theory that the visual stimulus that we encounter in our daily lives, primarily in entertainment, can effect our creativity and our dreams. World of Warcraft is a pretty amazing visual fantasy environment that I would spend two to ten hours a day interacting with, depending on the circumstances. I’m beginning to wonder if a mind processing that kind of stimulus still feels the need to produce fantastic images of its own in dreams.

I’ve noticed that I’m quite a bit more motivated to produce visual art as well, and I’m becoming more visually sensitive again. Part of this is simple due to having more time to think about and create things, but I believe that part of it is due to the big cut-down of visual stimulus I experience.

Has anyone else out there experienced something similar to this? If so I would love to hear about it.

Slowing Down

As a creative, and particularly as a photographer, I find that it is so important to slow the mind down and really look around you to find the beauty worth sharing. Because that beauty isn’t going to go out of its way to knock on your door or jump in front of your car. You have to slow down the mind and shut out the distractions. Then I believe you will find that the beauty is abundant and surrounding you everywhere you go.