Video game memories and meditation

[Melooon]

Recently I've been taking more time to meditate for a few minutes in the afternoon, my method is to sit down for a while with my eyes shut and let all the fears and worries I have come to the surface, and then I imagine giving them a big hug, and after a while they sort of sink away.

It's been quite helpful and sometimes it leads to useful actions! For example I realized I was deeply stressed about the carpet being dusty, so I got a better vacuum cleaner and now the carpet has become undusty!

However I've started to notice an interesting occurrence, when a fear slips away, it almost always leaves a moment of awareness about something trivial like my toes or the carpet, and that thought always seems to quickly trigger a memory of a video game I played along ago.

Some examples:
Thinking about being afraid of too many people seeing mistakes on my site faded into a memory of a vampire town I once built underground on my old minecraft server.
Thinking about the carpet being warm and clean makes me think of one of the grassy routs on Pokemon Ruby on a GBA with the puddles mirroring clouds.
and curling my toes reminds me of Lon Lon Ranch in Ocarina of Time

I thought it was interesting that video game memories seem to float around at the deepest and perhaps safest parts of my memory, they seem to be like underlying spaces that I find myself in when the noise of stress is put away.

It makes me wonder if you can design video games around that idea, that the game itself could be made to create deep memories for future times.

What do you think?? 

[ThunderPerfectWitchcraft]

I have some fond memories to some virtual places - and they sometimes come up in certain situations; there is a ghost house in Zelda: Links Awakening, and the feeling and especially its music comes up within me whenever I'm confronted with the remains of the life's of people who were in desolate situations, but somewhat enjoyed their life anyway, and are now gone. Another thing that often comes up within me are the Lost Woods from OOT, the embassy from Mission Impossible, or the ghost houses from SMW. But I have similar links to movies and books.

I believe on a very fundamental level, our brain doesn't make a difference between real and virtual places - we encounter then, and make them a part of ourself. I don't think it is possible to force it - the only thing one can do is to give enough heart into making art, and hope that somebody who is open to it comes along.

[Indigo]

For me, it's similar to how books and movies leave memorable impressions on yourself after you are done with them. Video games are unique in the way that they want you to actively participate more into its exploration and that's why some of them have a longer effect on people.
I'm looking at this with my artsy brain, of course there are counter points on how this can be taken advantage of but I that's a big topic for some other time. 

For me right now, I do very much enjoy being in the world building of Hollow Knight. It's a game I have played on and off for a couple of years now so it's probably the slowest game progression I have completed to date. Getting through the tough levels, finding hidden secrets, and enjoying the ambience really started reflecting back on my daily life of getting more into and back into dark fantasy again. I just love those moments also of enjoying little things and overcoming hardships during tough times Hollow Knight depicts within its characters.