I have "wouldn't-it-be-cool-if" experiences all the time -- can't say I remember most of them, but I will say that a lot of times it happens while I'm doing something rather mundane, like I dunno, walking down the street or in a shopping mall, and I think "wouldn't-it-be-cool-if this were a game world, and I could do just about anything and the consequences didn't really matter?" Unlike the GTA fans in the bunch I'm not keen on wanton murder and such, I'm just talking about, say, exploring areas one normally doesn't have access to or experimenting with different devices I find to see what kind of effect they have on the world around me.

Sometimes I have a dream and I think, "that would make a great game". Often I read a book or watch a movie, etc and think "that would make a great game".

For me, Story tends to come after-the-fact. For me Setting is the foundation, and the story naturally follows. I think in terms of what kinds of settings would be interesting to explore, to experience, to *affect* by my own actions. Characters tend to evolve naturally based on the setting, and situations tend to evolve naturally based on the Characters and their Environment.

Quote: Original post by irbrian

For me, Story tends to come after-the-fact. For me Setting is the foundation, and the story naturally follows. I think in terms of what kinds of settings would be interesting to explore, to experience, to *affect* by my own actions. Characters tend to evolve naturally based on the setting, and situations tend to evolve naturally based on the Characters and their Environment.

It depends on the origin of the idea.
Besides, everything is adaptive, it all depends on the reason why the character is in that setting in the first place. Otherwise it makes no sense.