I had the idea for my first ever novel after playing Final Fantasy IX, and most of my protagonists are still heavily influenced by Lara Croft and Zidane. In the end the only thing left over once the whole story had been written out for this first one was the idea that the protagonist and his enemy are cloned brothers, as well as the magical elements, but the gist remains.
More recently I took the very basic Halo story and adapted it into a continuation from one of my other series (basically in the first series a space shuttle was launched off earth with monsters etc in it, several thousand years later a space ship finds it and the plot of Halo 1 ensues but with the monsters from earth.)
I use anything I read, play or watch in order to gather ideas. It's one of the reasons I actually prefer games with stories you can ignore or pay attention to, because your ability to add your own story to something like Left 4 Dead 1 can really help to exercise your writing ability without actually needing to write.
Oh, and I'll end with my usual plug when I'm talking about writing.
http://www.fictionpress.com/u/660278/MelasZepheos
More recently I took the very basic Halo story and adapted it into a continuation from one of my other series (basically in the first series a space shuttle was launched off earth with monsters etc in it, several thousand years later a space ship finds it and the plot of Halo 1 ensues but with the monsters from earth.)
I use anything I read, play or watch in order to gather ideas. It's one of the reasons I actually prefer games with stories you can ignore or pay attention to, because your ability to add your own story to something like Left 4 Dead 1 can really help to exercise your writing ability without actually needing to write.
Oh, and I'll end with my usual plug when I'm talking about writing.
http://www.fictionpress.com/u/660278/MelasZepheos