I do a lot of writing, I play a lot of games. Do games influence my writing?
 
The other day my housemates were having a joke that I don't really seem to do much all day but play video games despite the fact that I do a hell of a lot of writing when they're not home. One of my housemates quipped that I am probably just stealing all my plots from games. It was a pretty interesting thing to think about. I think that most creative people are influenced by a great deal of mediums. I consume many books, comics, films and of course, games. It only makes sense that these various mediums have an influence on my work.
 
Naturally though, games are a little more unrefined than the other mediums. What a lot of games do seem to get right lately though is plot. While dialogue and character in a lot of games may be a little lacking for the most part, most developers know how to structure a plot. Of course, more often than not a three hour plot will be extended out to make a 10 hour game and that can often make the story fell a little awkward. Anyway, I'm not saying anything new here, back to the question at hand.
 
So the other day I was plotting a story, could be a short story, could be a novel, I haven't really decided yet. As I was working on the characters and their motivation I sort of realised that my main characters situation was somewhat like that of a favorite game character, Manny Calavera. I don't feel like I should drasticly alter my character because of this for a couple of reasons. The first is that Manny himsel is a vessel for a number of film noir characters and that is the general feel I am going for with this work. The second is that the similarities are only really on the surface (employment situation) and even there they are minor. I feel like though that my subconscious led me down this path because I played Grim Fandango. 
 
Of course there was another time when my subconscious ran me into problems. I was reminded that my plot was a little too similar to something else causing me to put an entire project in the bin but that didn't happen here. It's just a matter of knowing the differences between influence and copy and being able to justify those influences if anyone ever asks.