A weird confession regarding conworlding...

[MysteryMan23]

I find myself doing better at some aspects of conworlding than others.

I often struggle with things that require drawing; particularly map-making. It took me a long time to get the coastlines of my continents the way I wanted them, and I still haven't been able to map out my world's climates. On the other hand, my world's video game industry is highly developed compared to the rest of my world. In other words, I know more about what video games my conworld's people play than how their weather is. That's kind of off-kilter, isn't it?

Has anyone else encountered this sort of problem? If so, how do you deal with it?

[elemtilas]

I find myself doing better at some aspects of conworlding than others.

I often struggle with things that require drawing; particularly map-making. It took me a long time to get the coastlines of my continents the way I wanted them, and I still haven't been able to map out my world's climates. On the other hand, my world's video game industry is highly developed compared to the rest of my world. In other words, I know more about what video games my conworld's people play than how their weather is. That's kind of off-kilter, isn't it?

Has anyone else encountered this sort of problem? If so, how do you deal with it?

Not so off kilter, really.

I'm just going to hazard the guess, not knowing you at all, that you're a gamer. (Close?) Often times it's true we fictionalise what we know best or what we enjoy most. (Mind you, in my case, that would rather beg the question!)

The only way to deal with it, really, is simply to explore other aspects of life in your focus culture(s) and also to explore lesser known regions. Questionnaires help a lot if you're stuck as they can serve to prod you into thinking about something you haven't considered, perhaps.

Consider food, for example. You know about the video games they play, well what about the snacks they eat whilst playing? Corn chips or strips of fried liver? Sugared mouse brains? Xechtai leaves? What kinds of furniture do folks have in their game rooms? In other rooms of their houses? For that matter, what are their houses like? You see where this line of questioning can go, just from a consideration of video gaming!

[LinguistCat]

With a pastime as broad as conworlding is, it would be difficult to be good at all the skills that we use for various parts of it. Some people on here only focus on the languages, some people are good at portraying things visually, others with words. The fact that you're less skilled or even just less inclined to certain parts just makes you a pretty normal person in that respect.

As for how I deal with it personally? I do my best with some aspects and, since I world build for stories, I ask myself if that aspect is something I actually need in order to write what I want. If it adds nothing and I'm not good with it, I leave it out. If it adds something but I'm not good with it, I make a note and come back to it. If it adds nothing, but I'm good with it, I might tinker with it when I need a rest from other things. And of course, if something adds something to my story and I'm good with it, I will focus heavily on that aspect.

This doesn't have to be just about writing, but it helps if you have a goal for your conworld. Then see how things you do enjoy match up with the things needed to reach that goal. Focus most on the things that satisfy both, but keep in mind both anything you're good at or enjoy working on, AND the things you don't enjoy but further your goal. Leave out anything that satisfies neither of those.

[Pabappa]

My interests have changed over time. When I was 6 years old I was all about maps, .... and I stayed that way for quite a while. not so imaginative back then...my main accomplishment was a continent that had the same shape as my bedroom, but oh well, I was proud of it.

I like the video game idea. I still have a story about 2 competing operating systems, each developed by a national government, which I can't use because I scrapped my futuristic world and made everything medieval and fantasy-like. But im proud of that too.

Collaborative projects would be great at piecing things like this together, but they don't seem to succeed very often. I think its sometimes better to go it alone, even if it means, e.g. having a world with an actively developing electronics industry but only vague estimates of the local weather patterns.

On the other hand you can always ask questions about basic things like weather here.... most of us know at least some. I've always been a fan of nonconformist weather systems myself , yet my main planet is extremely boring, so I can help with both realistic and fantastic climate setups.

[eldin raigmore]

I have something to confess, but I can’t think of a precise way to word it right now. I’ll try again later.

[elemtilas]

my main accomplishment was a continent that had the same shape as my bedroom, but oh well, I was proud of it.

You must have lived in an absolutely amazing house!

[Khemehekis]

I have almost 60,000 words of Kankonian and thousands more words in other languages, with a 144-page Kankonian grammar.

I have lots and lots of work done about the foods my conpeople eat.

I have also done lots of work on religions and systems of government.

And I've drawn hundreds of concreatures.

I haven't done much work on recreation in the Lehola Galaxy, though, except for music genres.

All I've done on video games, MysteryMan, is this bit on video games in Kankonia:

Spoiler:

The major video game manufacturers on Kankonia are Poertauvra (from the Povoian for "strength"), Zhitalio, Zoikops, Tushuhaug, Leni (for founder Zaag Yttrium Leni), Fonosnavend, Vrarz and Wahazastortur.

An early video game was Asteroid (Khoguz), in which players had to zap asteroids coming in from the right of the screen before they hit the giant planet at the left of the screen -- too many asteroids hitting the planet, and you lost.

In the video game Lef Agent (Asdvovant Lef, Zoikops), one plays a lef fighting terrorist activity on Saros, and trying to avoid hidden bombs or contracting xoset and other diseases from natives, aided by a Kankonian/Epselet dictionary. In Black Assassin (Fashadfash Karak, Zhitalio), you try to overthrow Danton, killing the heshra at the end.

One of the most popular games today is Happy Mango Friendship Weekend (Kyuzidil na Syalvyat Iyef na Itzan, Leni), in which your custom-created character hangs out with a group of friends as they pursue such activities as visiting the bistro or the candy store, hitting the swimming pool, holding a party on the couch, dancing, sleeping in the dormitorium, shopping for clothes, shopping for music, jamming in a band, auditioning for talent shows, or painting. The player character can develop her/his skills and be ranked on kindness, creativity, charisma, love, fun, and cleverness. Players may create their human custom character my choosing gender (female, male, transfemale, transmale), sexual orientation (lesbian/gay, straight, bisexual, asexual, questioning, bi-curious), height (very short, pretty short, fairly short, low side of medium, average, high side of medium, fairly tall, pretty tall, very tall), build (for females: emaciated, wasp-waisted, thin hourglass, pear, medium hourglass, Shaleyan, heavy hourglass, tomboy, average, baby fat, overweight, amazonian, on steroids, obese; for males: emaciated, slender, average, lanky, Shaleyan, bodybuilder, slightly overweight, beer-belly, overweight, large, on steroids, obese), head shape (round, oval, square, dome, triangular, rectangular, hydrocephalic), cephalic index (dolichocephalic, mesocephalic, brachycephalic), eye shape (round, almond, epicanthic folds, thin), nose type (straight-edged, broken, roman, aquiline, retroussé, bob, potato-shaped, small, broad, very fat and round), ear size (small, medium, large), earlobe type (free, attached), teeth (perfect, broken, some missing, a few), lips (thin, medium, full), chin type (single, double), cheekbones (medium, high), neck (swan-like, pencil, medium, thick), hands (big, medium, small), nails (short, medium, long, very long), dactyly (tetradactylous, pentadactylous, sexdactylous, heptadactylous), eyebrows (bushy, medium, thin, unibrow), eyelashes (long, short), skin color (melano, very dark brown, dark brown, medium brown, tan, olive, copper, carotenous, carotenous dark, blue, coffee, golden, peach, albino), freckles (brown on cheeks and nose, brown all over face, brown all over body, orange on cheeks and nose, orange all over face, orange all over body, none), hair color (black, dark brown, medium brown, light brown, dirty blonde, blonde, ash-blonde, platinum, sandy, red, reddish-brown, auburn, strawberry blonde, none), eye color (black, brown, hazel, green, amber, grey, violet, maroon, tortoiseshell, blue-green, blue, orange, heterochromatic green/blue, heterochromatic blue/green, heterochromatic green/hazel, heterochromatic hazel/green, heterochromatic hazel/brown, heterochromatic brown/hazel, aniridiate) and birthmark (none, strawberry, Port wine stain, milia, lentigo, café au lait). They then choose through the changeable variables: hair dyes (256 colors), hairstyles (completely bald, induction cut, buzz-cut, crew-cut, flat-top, straight somash, curly somash, wavy somash, fuzzy somash, straight ponytailed, curly ponytailed, wavy ponytailed, fuzzy ponytailed, straight short, curly short, wavy short, fuzzy short, straight long, curly long, wavy long, fuzzy long, straight mullet, curly mullet, wavy mullet, fuzzy mullet, wings, straight tetetza, curly tetetza, wavy tetetza, fuzzy tetetza, fingerwaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, long dreadlocks, Polish plaits, natural curly, natural wavy, natural fuzzy, afro puffs, small afro, medium afro, large afro, uphafti, rattail, boy's cut, bob, pixie cut, straight bowl cut, curly bowl cut, wavy bowl cut, fuzzy bowl cut, Kurt Cobain hairstyle, mop, straight shaggy, curly shaggy, wavy shaggy, straight very messy, curly very messy, wavy very messy, fuzzy very messy, straight pigtails, curly pigtails, wavy pigtails, fuzzy pigtails, flip, fade, straight one-eyed look, curly one-eyed look, wavy one-eyed look, spiky, mohawk, straight fauxhawk, curly fauxhawk, wavy fauxhawk, fuzzy fauxhawk, very high mohawk, porcupine, liberty spikes, ponyhawk, straight middle-parted look, perm, straight queued, curly queued, wavy queued, fuzzy queued, pigtail braids, medium braided, long braided, poiksi, beehive, straight earmuffs, curly earmuffs, wavy earmuffs, straight tif, curly tif, wavy tif, fuzzy tif, quiff, ducktail, straight with bun, curly with bun, wavy with bun, fuzzy with bun, Jheri curl, pageboy, Caesar cut, straight tonsure, curly tonsure, wavy tonsure, fuzzy tonsure, umangi, fuzzy umangi), beards if male (goatee, neckbeard, Uncle Sam beard, stubble, circle beard, imperial beard, split beard, none), moustaches if male (basic straight, basic curly, basic wavy, basic fuzzy, Hitler moustache, walrus moustache, handlebar moustache, villain moustache, Van Dyke), soul patches if male (soul patch, none), sideburns if male (thick, medium, thin, none) and tattoos, and put in piercings and other jewelry and pick out their clothes. Once they are with their friends, they develop their talents and have their friends rate each attribute on a twelve-point scale. For instance, if your player character and her friends are in the atelier together and your character is practicing her painting, a friend may rate her a 9/12 on creativity when she chooses the "Put it up" option (i.e. putting it up for voting). Or if she holds some clever comversation on the couch, a friend may rate her 12/12 on cleverness. Or if your character has swag while dancing, a friend may rate him 10/12 on charisma.

Happy Mango Friendship Weekend originally started out with five friends for your player character: Dzhusinda (a straight girl with a straight black ponytail, brown eyes, dark brown skin, triangular head, a straight-edged nose, small hands, short stature with a thin hourglass build and a tribal tattoo on her wrist), Lou (a gay boy with a Jheri curl and soul patch, hazel eyes, medium brown skin, round head, a retroussé nose, tall stature with an average build and broken teeth), Nelva (a bisexual girl with a red medium afro, brown eyes, carotenous skin, oval head, long eyelashes and nails, a Roman nose, average stature and Shaleyan build), Ashisha (a straight girl with dark brown, curly earmuffs, green eyes, blue skin with brown freckles over her face, round head, and broken nose, whose height is on the low side of medium and has baby fat) and Andy (a straight boy with a black poiksi, brown eyes, olive skin, sexdactyly, square head, a straight-edged nose, stature on the high side of medium and a Shaleyan build). Since then, additional friends that more often represent non-Kankonian types have been added: Hepa (a lesbian girl with a straight black pixie cut, brown eyes, tan skin, round head, a small nose, fairly short stature and wasp-waisted build), Markos (a bisexual boy with a straight black mullet, brown eyes, tan skin, square head, a broad nose, fairly tall stature, overweight build and Kolothan words tattooed on his chest), Pipi (a straight girl with a blonde straight ponytail, brown eyes, peach skin, an oval head, a bob nose, average height and tomboy build) and Tom (a straight boy with straight, brown, shaggy hair, blue eyes, peach skin with brown freckles across his cheeks and nose, round head, a straight-edged nose, average height and a slender build). Even more recently zhoar friends have been added, such as Adom (a straight Domehead boy with silver skin with blue stripes and indigo eyes), Nama (an asexual Grey girl with white skin and black eyes), Ounotz (a bisexual Grey boy with grey skin and red eyes), and Teg (a straight lef girl with coral skin) and Tsenza (a straight ilti boy with his renga in a bowl cut).

[Tanni]

... It took me a long time to get the coastlines of my continents the way I wanted them, and I still haven't been able to map out my world's climates.

You know how you want them at least!

[DesEsseintes]

I have something to confess, but I can’t think of a precise way to word it right now. I’ll try again later.

This is intriguing.

[Khemehekis]

I have something to confess, but I can’t think of a precise way to word it right now. I’ll try again later.

Hey eldin, have you ever come up with a way to word it?

[Curlyjimsam]

Obviously everyone's better at some things than others, and that's going to be reflected in their conworlds.

And people have different interests. I'm probably more interested in sport than most conworlders, so I have whole lists of teams and leagues. Plus quite detailed descriptions of the sort of programmes people watch on TV, and different types of railway locomotives and carriages.

[eldin raigmore]

I have something to confess, but I can’t think of a precise way to word it right now. I’ll try again later.

Hey eldin, have you ever come up with a way to word it?

I can’t even remember what it was anymore!

[Khemehekis]

Newsflash: I just did some more work with video games on Kankonia!


. . . And then there's Coconut Tourist (Salseno na Zekeno, Vrarz) wherein you play a tourist in the fictional tropical country of Apako, and have to understand the language (Apakowik) and the customs based only on purchasable dictionaries and other guides.

Fantasy games often take the tradition of the novel Honor Below the Lint. Ptortwatch (Ptortovai, Wahazastortur) is set in the ptort-inhabited land of Ksetharia, where the conlang Ehheron is spoken. Elehiy, also Wahazastortur, is set in the land of Apestria, with conlangs like Anagi for humans, Hepistri for unicorns, and Gordazhuph for gragions (a species of humanoids made out of stone). On Elehiy, you ride on the back of a unicorn. Budzhor, also Wahazastortur, also has gragions, but centers around budzhors, fairy- or sprite-like beings each connected with a certain type of precious stone. Korakhidz, Zhitalio, is set in the dragon-inhabited land of Kmardeson, and entails slaying evil types of dragon while building alliances with good types.