Think of a grown man. Think of a grown man having imaginary friends—think of a grown man without imaginary friends. Most people would look upon the former as pathological, if not a bit odd…
But I have to ask, why? What makes a personal imagination more absurd than someone else’s imagination, marketed towards you? Why is it socially acceptable to drop $400+ dollars on a video game console, then $60+ dollars on individual games, but you can’t make up games in your head yourself and play them all on your own? Why is it OK to pay for movie tickets to watch other people’s pretending, but if you want to write a story it has to be “fiction”, and exist on a medium somewhere, to prove that it “exists” as a “work” (a product of labour) but you’re not allowed to invite these same characters into the real world, not engage with them in reality?