i believe that this state requires a low degree of thought. encountering 'interestingness' is the opposite of being the transparent, whole, integrated, 🌕 self. . . the complete graph . . .

hmm. what is the complete stance?

roleplaying a facet of the self, requires a relatable role. relating to the world. relating. connecting, being connected.

the emotion of getting in touch with the self, as it pertains to relating to other people... seeing yourself clearly and in a positive light. i guess you could call this life-affirming. maybe self-affirming? i'm not sure

'self-playing game,' not in the sense that the game plays itself but in the sense that the player plays a role, and in this case, the role is the self.

to play a role so well you need not make any interesting decisions at all. to play a role like you play yourself. i return like a refrain to the idea of a game as a series of interesting decisions... today i wonder, why in the world do they have to be interesting? maybe i am thinking about it all wrong? can the mindless obvious automatic decision be an interesting one?

one person responsible for keeping the action moving, knowing what's to come next. perhaps having exit options.
e.g.
 - the current scene is two characters fighting with each other
 - available follow up scenes:
     - the two characters on an adventure together
     - one character trying to revive the other from death, the other trying to come back from the dead (or not?)
     - the two of them separated, individual scenes

you can use this knowledge of 'available scenes' to help you notice dramatic 'seams'. openings, which would allow you to cut to the next scene appropriately.

secret meta-storytelling motivations
 - players (not their characters) have goals that help them push the story along in the right directions
 - perhaps seeded from character generation; suppose i want my character to die, what if that is a secret 'piece of paper' that is distributed to another player in the scene? if i write "Character will die dramatically", it might generate a few potential prompts... not only to make it happen in a scene, but also to foreshadow it happening? to bring into question whether it will in fact happen? to inquire thematically as to why or whether it will happen? the goal is . . . a feeling of things magically coming to pass, without speaking of them

i had a minor crisis of faith. why roleplaying games, why stories and narratives, why social games, when Databug is so fun?

but Kat (or, Rose Brie via Kat) keeps me on track:

"artistic works that engage their empathy and their humanity"

Databug is fun and compelling. true. i like the way it sits in my brain.
but it is not worth connecting with someone over, it does not help me grow, it is not important to me...
it does not activate my body, the way a nice breeze would.

while moving through the narrative you have the equivalent of a little rubiks cube toy to pull out and play? it doesn't have to be a narrative toy. the purpose of the toy is to expand and create blank space between moments. the toy could be a chat room too, but it is difficult to build one. or it could be something like cruel world's HACK command, where you opt in to an idle interaction. something simple, like that. something that turns you human again. "travelling by train..." // hey, what if you had to commit x time to exploring a certain direction? surely that would incentivize you to think about your explorations rather than doing them without thinking. oh, i do like that. hmmmmm. you leave the game open. it takes you away from your phone.