The Inspirations Behind GhostOps

It started with many hours of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and a few bottles of cheap hard cider. In my pleasantly relaxed state, I reflected on the character I was playing, wondering what kind of man he was and what, exactly, Ghost Recon was supposed to do (other than provide plot for a game involving lots of fun, high-tech weapons). And seriously, why call them Ghosts if they're nothing more then men in teched-out armor? I mean, if you're gonna call 'em that they should be more, well, ghost-like . . .

Then came a late-night viewing of The Mothman Prophecies in an old house in the back woods of southeast Ohio (not far from real-life Mothman territory) and the subsequent drive home alone. I don't get scared by movies easily, but that one spooked me because it was . . . accurate. It reminded me of the phantom black cats that used to stalk me and the night I couldn't put my box of matches away because something had convinced me they would light themselves if I let them out of my sight. And then I thought about the stange spiritual atmosphere that pervades southeast Ohio. It's a sort of sense of the surreal, as if normal reality were wearing thin in that patch of the world . . .

At this point, I had some ideas, but they hadn't clicked into a good story yet. The final pieces fell into place when I read two books: Blowing my Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy and The Men Who Stare at Goats. The former informed the atmosphere and main character. The latter gave me my inciting incident - in the form of assurance that yes, the US government will try crazy experiments that have the same chance of working as a cold fusion reactor made of banana peels. Psychics as intelligence-gatherers? Trying to teach soldiers to walk through walls? If they'll do that, anything I can think of is possible . . .

Add that to the practical aspects of spiritual warfare with which I have had to become familiar and the philosphy/theology of story and creativity I've developed (thanks largely to the backstory of the Myst games and a book by Madeline L'Engle), and you have the basic recipe for GhostOps.