I also get these kind of autism-like strange moods, and really I think that it has a lot to do with the way that I think and perceive the world.
It's interesting and also makes sense that so many people who get very deep into Dwarf Fortress are inclined to this way of being. Dwarf Fortress is an exceptionally deep game, in which the player is given an environment to carve essentially whatever they want out of the landscape and create something that's truly theirs, in a deep, complex, and introspective way. Dwarf Fortress itself inspires creativity on a scale beyond anything else that I personally have encountered in 25 years of computer use.
Since first playing it about 2 months ago, I am totally captivated by the game. I sit on breaks at work and make sketches of fortresses, calculate magma unit totals in order to make working forges, and so on.
Some unrelated strange moods that I've gotten into in the past (keep in mind that I am open-minded beyond reason and certified nutty):
Involving Kiersey Type theory, INFJ, INTP, all of that, and trying to map the 16 personality types onto a cube-based 3D representation (the latest theories on type theory involve 4 light and 4 dark functions for each individual, which interestingly can be seen to correspond to a yin-yang sort of duality, which when mapped 3 dimensionally could be seen to form a sphere within the 3D cube which when bisected [is that the word?] at the central point would have the appearance of a yin-yang symbol)
Another notion relating to Taoist ideas, and infinity - universal yin and universal yang, which could be represented as a simultaneous infinite root and infinite power; I also had some related ideas about mapping reality onto the matrix of a 3-Sphere, one mathematically represented by i(imaginary unit) * c(light), the other by m(matter) * c(light), and how this would fit in with Einstein's thoughts on the notion that if the universe were infinite, it would have to be quasi-euclidean, and therefore quasi-spherical.
I also had an idea for a party-based RPG where a group of gamer friends go into a haunted house and do a seance, and a djinn arrives who asks them their wish; they say they want to be in a computer game, and the djinn shrinks them into ant-size (at which point the game begins). They then must reverse the curse by adventuring within the haunted house or the world would be destroyed by the djinn's magic, which emanated out of the haunted house upon their shrinking. Probably a cool idea, but I'll never be a programmer, I'm more visual-based than mathematical.
I spent anywhere from a week to a couple months on each of these, developing very deep theories and models for each, a kind of a brainstorming and analytical process and definitely each could be termed a strange mood.
But the point is, yes, I don't mind getting crazy notions now and then, and every time that I do it conforms with the way that my mind works - extreme depth, extreme intensity of the analytical process, very thorough and concise querying into the heart of whatever the questions are involving the creation.
Speaking about this creationary fire, these strange moods, it takes truly intense creativity to make deep projects whose creative fire burns strong and bright and doesn't diminish. I think that people who can find a more pragmatic or real project to sink that creative power into within these bounds are quite lucky. You have to have that inner, introspective, deep, powerful fire inside of you to be able to create on the level at which Toady creates, or any other true renaissance artist is able to create.
You also have to have total belief in what you're doing, and to be inspired by the creation itself. You have to believe in yourself beyond doubt, and the project itself must be something which you know has something to it, and which you are passionate about.
I think that with the projects that stop halfway through, it happens for a whole variety of reasons. Some can be external, some can be internal. But true artistry is honest, it is all-consuming for the artist, and this is because there is something deep and inexpressive within it which yearns to be brought into the world and expressed. It's a passion, and it is a love affair with whatever essential, truly beautiful creation the artist is able to conceive of and perceive within their own mind, and the all-consuming passion is the desire for it to be real, within the world. To make a something within an empty space, and make that space the better for it.
You've got to reach in, grasp with all of your might, and wrest from the ether this beautiful creation. For some artists it's all that they really want from life, and this is the power of the 'strange mood' that we can be gripped with from time to time.
Think about it - when you kick at the end of your days, would you rather have said "fuck it, I'm going to go all out, no boundaries", or would you be glad to have made the choice to conform, do what everyone else does, and hope that you've met the status quo and done what had been done before.
In some real way, the people who have it in them to pour themselves into a single creation have found an 'it' which maybe not many people are able to find. If you've got the ability to see something through the dense underbrush which no one else seems to have found, seen, or made, this thing is an 'it' which is worth reaching in and bringing forth.
I'm trying to paint the picture of how people get inspired by these things, I've done my best, time to sleep. 
Side note - Check out my guitar blog/drawing blog if you're up for it, here's a link: Disheveled Guitar/Drawing Blog
I'm actually in a strange mood kind of mood lately, and I feel like I might get back to adding to those blogs. I know, more internet detritus, but oh well.
[ January 12, 2008: Message edited by: Old School Gamer ]
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Topic: Game design 'moods' and autism? (Read 17876 times)