Zen and the Art of Being Laid... Off.

(Perverts. Laid OFF.)

So my layoff took affect today. I'm about to go sign my severance agreement. It was a job. I don't really care that much. I can do lots of things, so I'm bound to find something to replace it. (PS: That's the crud I'm saying to myself to make sure I feel better about getting the boot. I'm still in the angry phase.)

I was reading a book about Mind Mapping. The short version - you take notes by drawing and coloring, starting in the center of a landscape page (I find it interesting for a method that is supposed to be breaking the rules that the book specified your mind map had to be landscape.) Regardless, it occurs to me that this might be an interesting way for us to create a sort of MMO landscape of goodness. The book and proponents of this method suggest that this strange ameoba type of brainstorming uses both the left and right sides of the brain equally. The result, they claim, is a more creative solution to whatever you're working on.

I didn't believe it at first, although I will admit that I was drawn to the pretty colors. But I did one of their exercises and it WAS more successful. I was completely surprised.

So... Since we don't have a share version of a mind map (although I'll set Azzy to the task of seeing if we could get it), I propose putting up one picture each day that represents part of the overall map. The center blob will be "The Ideal MMO". I'll commit to combining our efforts into a map each day (since I'm unemployed now and have nothing better to do). The idea would be that over time, we'd be able to identify the components of the perfect game. Who knows? Maybe if we do it the right way, we could actually get game developing houses to listen.

It's not an overnight project. It will be one that will take effort from all of us. Let me know what you think.

In the meantime, my mind map picture of the day is this: