John scrolled the list on the screen. A list of video games slid upward and more appeared in their place.
“Played it, played it, no, no…”
As the list moved upward a new title appeared he had not seen before.
“What is this? Moves?”
John click on the icon and the details page loaded.
“Take part in multiplayer virtual reality choose your own adventure!” the description said. “Choose from multiple characters.”
“I don’t totally understand this…” John thought.
He clicked on purchase and the game downloaded and started up.
John put on his headset.
On the screen were the names and bios of different characters.
John picked one and soon he was shown a first person view of the character, Zeb. The graphics were not as good as the characters in the cut scenes but that was normal.
“You have now joined the character Zeb” it said.
The scene loaded and in it was the character Zeb, standing in line at a coffee shop.
The camera glanced to the left at one of the baristas, the values in the corner of the screen changed. A mood mode was listed next to it with “Nonchalant” selected. It was clear that Zeb was interested in the barista. In the lower corner it had a viewer count and some other info that he didn’t recognize.
The customer ahead finished his order and now it was Zebs turn. Zeb said hi and made his order and then suddenly the screen froze and a prompt appeared with the title, “Dialog”. Beneath that were listed a few phrases and an empty text input was available that just said “Enter your own…”.
A timer was in the corner counting down. Quickly more choices started to appear with vote up and vote down buttons.
John didn’t need instructions for this. He read the dialog options and voted them up and down. Soon a few dialog options floated to the top and the timer ran down as the tallies came in.
An icon appeared on screen briefly and the scene started to play again with Zeb delivering the chosen dialogue.
The barista smiled in response and a heart appeared in the corner of the screen with a positive numeric value associated with it. Zebs value increased.
As the game went on different Zeb went through different scenarios. Sometimes certain actions Zeb took increased a metric or decreased a metric.
Some of the situations were funny, some were normal day to day events. John put the game away and returned the next day, feeling slightly invested.
As John played the game he entered a new level and with it a new option appeared. Feeling transfer.
“If that’s what I think it is then I want Zeb to do well.” he thought.
There was no instruction manual but John had picked up on some of the values. There was favor, likability, vitality and so on much like other games. It seemed as the players made good moves he was given more good moves. If the crowd chose low quality moves they kept going. But sometimes the choices didn’t make sense. Sometimes it was funny but sometime unsettling.
The second week Zeb was on the deck of a boat trip with the barista, who he was now dating. The crowd had chosen he take shots and near midnight Zeb and the barista were watching the stars on the deck.
Nature called, so to speak and Zeb excused himself and approached the edge of the boat railing.
Suddenly a prompt appeared on screen, “Select players only”. It was written in red. An option appeared, “Fall overboard?”. There were three players chosen. John was one of them.
The first vote came in. Yes. Then the second. No. Finally, Johns name appeared highlighted on screen.
John thought for a second. The game and character was fun but he was wanting to try other characters. The game not having much description John thought to himself, “What happens when a player dies?”
John moved the cursor over the, “Yes” option and clicked the button.
The “Fall overboard” selection displayed with the approved status state and the game continued. Zeb’s slipped and fell overboard. His splashing and screams were drown out by the waves as the boat moved farther from the spot. The screen then faded out. And new music started and the credits started to roll. John laughed.
The players were credited and John saw his name listed last. Next to his name he noticed a star by his name.
The next day he got home early from school. The rival school sports team had canceled their game. John normally liked real life sports but he also wanted to start a new character.
He started the game and clicked on the character selection screen.
At the top of the list was the list and lo-fi images of the characters. At the end of the list there was a new character and one that looked slightly like him. That’s odd, he thought. He clicked on the image and up came the description. “John. Nerd. Plays video games.” At the end of the description was the sentence, “…ended the last player.”
John’s head started to pound and he felt sick to stomach…
Near the bottom of the screen it showed players joining and a start button was there but grayed out. A countdown timer appeared on screen… “3, 2, 1…” John frantically looked for a close button. He grabbed the headset to pull it off but it wouldn’t budge. He saw, at the last second the join button wasn’t grayed out. The player count incremented and everything went black.
John slowly opened his eyes. He must have fainted. It was all a dream he thought. As he slowly started to wake and rub his eyes he heard a voice,
“Excuse me! Excuse me sir! Your order will be ready at the end of the counter…please, you can wait over there. We need to serve other customers”
