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<blockquote data-quote="mlund" data-source="post: 4368376" data-attributes="member: 50304">Imagination tends to benefit from exercise. Much like physical exercise there are objectively better and worse ways to exercises for certain results.Exercising the imagination typically focuses on various levels of visualization and creativity. The more challenges your imagination faces the more impact the exercise has. Situations where the environment is &quot;on rails&quot; so to speak - such as with a comic book, fantasy novel, or video game lessen the challenge lessen the challenge to your creativity. You don't need to invent characters, backgrounds, or solutions. Media with extensive illustrations (video games and movies especially) limit the challenge of imaginative visualization.Games like Dungeons and Dragons have a lot of potential to challenge the visualization and creative functions of the human imagination exactly because they don't provide illustration immersion or a fixed environment. Sure, you can play a pure miniature combat game with a &quot;fixed&quot; world and plot-on-rails that only the DM builds creatively but ideally the players bring a bit more of themselves to the table than that.Does that mean that overly visual, less-creative media harm your capacity to use your imagination? I don't see why they would. Rather, you simply don't gain the benefits of exercising those parts of your imagination you would have received if you'd spent that time in a pursuit that presented a greater challenge to it. It is still &quot;worse for your imagination,&quot; but arguing that it is actively harmful seems like a big stretch.In the same respect, exercises that make large demands on people to create a visualize with very few rules or structures make for lousy exercising in developing tactical or resource-management skills.- Marty Lund</blockquote>

[QUOTE="mlund, post: 4368376, member: 50304"] Imagination tends to benefit from exercise. Much like physical exercise there are objectively better and worse ways to exercises for certain results. Exercising the imagination typically focuses on various levels of visualization and creativity. The more challenges your imagination faces the more impact the exercise has. Situations where the environment is "on rails" so to speak - such as with a comic book, fantasy novel, or video game lessen the challenge lessen the challenge to your creativity. You don't need to invent characters, backgrounds, or solutions. Media with extensive illustrations (video games and movies especially) limit the challenge of imaginative visualization. Games like Dungeons and Dragons have a lot of potential to challenge the visualization and creative functions of the human imagination exactly because they don't provide illustration immersion or a fixed environment. Sure, you can play a pure miniature combat game with a "fixed" world and plot-on-rails that only the DM builds creatively but ideally the players bring a bit more of themselves to the table than that. Does that mean that overly visual, less-creative media [B]harm[/B] your capacity to use your imagination? I don't see why they would. Rather, you simply don't gain the benefits of exercising those parts of your imagination you would have received if you'd spent that time in a pursuit that presented a greater challenge to it. It is still "worse for your imagination," but arguing that it is actively harmful seems like a big stretch. In the same respect, exercises that make large demands on people to create a visualize with very few rules or structures make for lousy exercising in developing tactical or resource-management skills. - Marty Lund [/QUOTE]

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