#Jung and gaming

[radiantmorningstar]

Solo Theory 6: Risking Vulnerability in Solo Gaming and Making the Unconscious Conscious

This post picks up where “Solo Theory 5” left off, the question still being why, after all these years of solitary TTRPG playing, do I now feel compelled to solo intensely RAW (rules-as-written)? I’m not sure I’ve adequately answered it yet.

The question arose from reading Geek Gamers’ Solo Game Master’s Guide, a really excellent, thought-provoking book, in which GG stresses that “for the soloist, knowing how, when, and why to ignore rules is imperative” (37). In fact, she suggests that, especially when using large rule sets, the solo gamer should go so far as to skip character creation until after an inspiring story idea starts to develop.

If we think about it, this makes an odd kind of sense. In a group game, the GM will often have a story or a scenario in mind well before Session Zero. The soloist has to be both the GM and the player. So coming up with something inspiring before character creation seems to mirror that. But moves like that makes me nervous. Why?

I can accept the wisdom and usefulness of GG’s approach. However, my initial answer to the above question was that there is a certain comfort in playing a game where everything is accounted for, measured, and predicted. Big rule sets like D&D 4e and 5e, any of the Palladium RPGs, Riftbreakers, Pathfinder, Runequest, etc. are easily comparable to MMORPGs in the sense that, while the illusion of free choice may be very convincing, the game will always be, more or less, on rails. Rules are always inverse to freedom. The more of the former you’ve got, the more you live in a sandbox police state. This means uncertainty (and therefore vulnerability) centered around creative freedom must be the real issue.

And yet, even though I agree with her when she writes, “ The rules you decide not to use, as much as the rules you decide to use, dictate the success of your sessions,” (66) I still feel an aversion to straying very far from my chosen rule set. After a lot of introspection, I’m beginning to suspect that it’s not just about having a sense of “safety behind walls.” My aversion may come from deep-seated self-doubt and insecurity that I’ll be able to sustain the dream-vision of my solo narrative.

The rules seem to provide a reassuring framework, a kind of over-arching continuity and emotional-creative safety net. I think part of me fears that if I hack them too much, I’ll have to patch the holes in the safety net with my own raw creativity, which I feel is prone to failure or is defective in some way. Consequently, I think I worry (largely unconsciously) that if I don’t have a dictatorial, all-encompassing rule set to follow, I’ll be more vulnerable, more likely to become exhausted, or let the story veer toward a place where my character has no way out. I might even lose interest or become disappointed with the whole endeavor. There’s real danger in that, since another part of me needs to solo RPGs and finds it extremely depressing when a solo campaign fizzles out or hits an impassable obstacle.

I wonder whether an insecure part of me wants to live in a police state because the anxiety that comes from increased creative freedom can be unbearable at times. This absolutely comes from childhood trauma in which love was based on achievement. I know that much about my mind. In other words, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that my solo gaming has unearthed my creative performance anxiety. Since the previous post, I’ve been tentatively exploring it through what is sometimes called Jungian “shadow work,” incorporating meditation, journaling, and tarot as a way to stimulate my mind and provoke insights. But all shadow work is hard.

Jung is famous for saying, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” And what is solo gaming but drawing visions from the deep well of the unconscious—from the active, visual, auditory imagination—and making them explicitly conscious? We might even say that solo gaming amounts to projecting inchoate, mostly unconscious aspects of the self into a rational, conscious, coherent narrative frame, which we then experience as a player.

This makes me want to add my own statement to the above-mentioned passage by Geek Gamers, in which she says that, for the soloist, knowing which rules to ignore is as important as knowing which ones to follow: knowing which rules seem essential and which ones seem superfluous may come down to knowing ourselves in a very profound way.

[bebx]

this photo is insane to me because it looks exactly like Gi-hun eventually joining In-ho’s side and both of them becoming Front Men who run the game together. the power this photo radiates is insane.

[typicalnameofablog]

[001x456]

THIS AU PLEASE

[celestiamour]

it’s so difficult not to babygirlify s1 gi-hun at his old ass age pushing 50, look at him, pookiest babygirl to ever babygirl, my bum wet rat of a malewife, my shayla 😭😭

[overalostpenny]

You know which game’s next, don’t you?

[mobiusmybeloved]

everyone watching the season finale:

[trashgyrl]

no reason to be doing all this btw

[anotherlikeyou]

Ah shit, here we go again

[inho-gihun]

will never be able to watch this scene the same way again after the intense sexual tension between these 2 in season 2

[memientom0ri]

Similarities between Inhun/457 and Hannigram; personal analysis of the attitudes that connect these characters 💭

Starting with actor Lee Byung Hun's face. I don't even need to go into details...

• Villain disguised as a hero;

Inho/001 x Hannibal Lecter

Both wear a good guy disguise to get close to and mentally and psychologically manipulate their "target" of obsession, taking actions to impress and defend the target that sometimes make us question their villainy towards the good guy.

Both Inho and Hannibal seem to be desperately searching for a trace of understanding and similarity in someone towards themselves. Hannibal became obsessed with Will when he saw this similarity in him (both characters misunderstood by society, mentally broken and with difficulties in expressing and understanding their own emotions), and just like the cannibal, Inho saw something similar in Gihun, therefore, feeling the need to, somehow, get close to him to keep him under his control.

"But Inho and Gihun are completely different", yes, just like Hannibal and Will; that doesn't stop the characters from identifying with each other psychologically.

In my opinion, Inho saw in Gihun an ambition and confidence that piqued his interest. "But Gihun is not ambitious or self-centered" No, he is not, not materially speaking. Gihun's ambition comes from the will he has over the things he sets out to do. He is ambitious about what he wants and this ambition is accompanied by a hyper-empathy bordering on masochism, considering that Gihun returned to the game not only because of his desire to end it, but because of the guilt of having survived when people died, because of the desire to prevent other deaths. This hyper-empathy also shows up in other scenes, and this is where Will comes in.

• The hyper-empathetic good guy;

Will Graham × Seong Gihun

Unlike Will's hyper-empathy, which manifests itself through his ability to put himself in the Assassin's shoes and mentally experience the murders, Gihun's empathy is blatant, making us feel a little angry and uncomfortable with the situations in which 456 puts himself by thinking more about others than about himself. A scene that left me in agony was in season 2, in the first game, where he runs from the safe area to pick up a man who was shot in the leg. The man would have been killed anyway, but he insisted on picking him up with less than 30 seconds to go.

Unlike 456's blatant empathy, which almost makes him seem naive in several scenes (like when he gives his only extra ammunition to Inho to save himself in the future), Will's empathy is more "dark" and firm. Will doesn't trust people easily, much less Hannibal, while 456 trusts Inho/001 right away and from the first contact they are inseparable.

• Jealousy, Control and Possessiveness

I think that after their faces, these are the characteristics that Hannibal and Inho have most in common. Neither of them want their good boys to have anyone other than themselves. We can see Hannibal eliminating the people who get close to Will throughout the series, but with Inho, we follow the stages and moments of this jealousy until it reaches its peak (the final episode that resembles Mizumono). Inho observed Gihun's interactions with Jungbae (Gihun's longtime friend) in silence, just processing each moment and creating a mental bomb that would explode in the future (like when Jungbae made Gihun laugh, at night in the dorms, and the scene cuts to 001 listening under the bed in total DISGUST).

• Mizumono

Both villains analyzed here need to control their targets of obsession, manipulating them and trying to build a home in their heads, and when they realize they have been "betrayed", that's when the bomb explodes.

Hannibal felt betrayed by Will when he learned that he was helping in a plan against him behind his back (but we know that Will was so confused about his feelings and morality that he didn't even know who to go with), and then killed Abgail in front of him after a heartbreaking speech.

Inho felt betrayed by Gihun when, during a shootout in the player vs. soldier attack, Gihun said he would go inside to find the way out. Inho asked: "Shall I go with you?", and Gihun simply said that Jungbae would go with him. Later, Jungbae asks 456 why he chose him and not 001 who is more skilled with weapons, and Gihun answers that he chose him because they are friends. The next scene suggests that Inho, disappointed, listened behind the communicator, but we don't know if the communicators were on or not...

It's worth noting the expression on Inho's face when Gihun said that Jungbae was the one who would...

(POOR GUY 456 APOLOGIZE TO HIM AND TAKE HIM WITH YOU NOW

The Mizumono between 456 and 001 happens thanks to this event, when, later, after putting on his masked Boss costume, Inho goes to Gihun and Jungbae on the stairs. Just like Hannibal, he says heartbroken words (less dramatic and more angry) and eliminates Jungbae in front of Gihun.

Both killed people close and important to their targets out of possessiveness and hurt, out of a sick and incomprehensible feeling of betrayal; feelings that only they understand.

How can little sweet creatures like this be so DESTRUCTIVE.

There doesn't seem to be a need and mutual dependence in 457 like there is in Hannigram (at least not yet, there's still one season left), the obsession and interest come from Inho, but there is a notable chemistry and tension, smiles and exchanges of OBVIOUS glances.

I know that Hannigram is complex and very intense, I'm not making an extremely serious comparison, but rather recording some points that I observed and since I love both couples, I wanted to do this. The depth of the characters is obviously different, we're just making a fan observation here. ♡

[player124s]

Squid Game text posts because I love this show ( pt 1 )

[ohyoungil]

why is this so funny to me?😭😭😭 dae-ho and jung-bae are literally “I’m in the death game and I don’t know what the fuck is going on between these two but why the fuck are they gay?”

[001x456]

alright which one of y’all runs the official netflix account???? 🤔 show yourself

[nickolashx]

Garage: Bad Dream Adventure (1999)

Garage is a surreal and nightmarish point & click adventure inspired by the works of Carl Jung, developed by Kinotrope and published by Toshiba-EMI in 1999.

Garage - This weird machine is said to create a bizarre dark world by working on the subject's subconscious mind.

You are thrown into a weird world by this machine. Can you escape from it?

[nikredd]

SIX LEG TEAM: Kim Young-mi (095), Park Yong-sik (007), Jang Geum-ja (149), Seon-nyeo (044), Cho Hyun-ju (120) 

Netflix's Squid Game Season 2 Episode 5: One More Game