A user composes a message within a video game paradigm by hitting targets in the video game environment which are associated with message component candidates such as letters, words, and phrases. Each of the message component candidate has a relative likelihood of selection predicted according to language usage in general and specifically of the user and according to the context of any portion of the message already composed. Message component candidates which are more likely to be selected by the user are associated with targets or other objectives of the video game environment which are more easily achieved. For example, more likely message components are associated more frequently and more centrally located and slower moving targets.