quote: Original post by Nathaniel Hammen
Oooh! I see the potential for a moral conflict! Is it right to delete millions of computer entities? After all, they aren''t real... but they think they are...

Well, actually, whether they think they are real is up to you. Are they being mislead, or do they know that they only exist in some computer?

um, the people don''t really realize that they are part of a computer. really, they don''t even think in such terms. or if they do, it is perfectly natural.

in the course of this game, however, the number of people you will meet will be very few.

as the player finds out later, the instructions you were supposed to carry out would have "ended" (bear in mind the player doesn''t realize its a computer himself, ending the world is more appropriately "formatting") the world, at the safest time.

the rest of the procedures were followed, whether or not you did your programming. In essence, all of the people have been categorized, saved, and removed. A couple "people" or files fell through the cracks, but for the most part all of them had been saved and stored. Your task would have done the next step, actually format the "world."

By not doing this, the entire process has grinded to a halt. Security protocals (in the form of garbage collectors, appearing quickly and quietly to eliminate threats to the computer) have been sent to find and eliminate Roy, believing that his failure was because he had become a virus.

in conclusion, computer terms won''t be used in the game. Everything will be represented more by concepts, and metaphors. that way, people don''t write it off as being the matrix until they are so into the game that they realize that they were wrong. eventually, the player will realize that Roy is a computer program, but only after gathering clues throughout the entire game.

Interesting story, but what immediate comes to my mind, is the Matrix, except the Hero, if you would, is actually a program within the matrix. Kinda a Anti-Matrix game.

I still think it is a great idea, and I have always been intrigued with the minor other players in story lines, rather than just the Hero. And seeings in my view, everything is cause and effect, stopping one little outcome could affect the total outcome with unexpectable results.

Hi, may I suggest a couple of things that felt out of place with one of the more important paragraphs for me.

Quote: Roy gets up, walks out the door, and crosses the street to his parked car.

This line creates the impression he lives in suburbia, or atleast, on the ground floor. No elevator, stairs, etc.

But we later learn he's living among tall story buildings, which conjures up images of sky-scrapers and innter cities.

Now, yeah it's possible, but it seems a bit unlikely that he's living on the ground floor in the middle of a city. I assume shops and things would want the ground floors (note I don't live, nor have I been in, a big city so I can only guess).

I know it's minor, but it broke the flow for me. So perhaps, simply mention that he takes an elevator to the ground floor or something.

Second thing,

Quote: Crossing the street, one small, indescriminate piece of plastic falls from the sky and knocks Roy unconcious.

I know it's altogeter different but this still made me think of The Truman Show. Dunno if that matters.

All up though, I think it's a good story, and could be quite enjoyable as long as it doesn't take itself too seriously.

- Roy gets up, walks out the door, and crosses the street to his parked car.

Taken in context, in this "scene" Roy is just leaving work, in his office building in the business area of the city. His home is in fact in suburbia. i do see what you are saying tho. presumably he does not work on the first floor of said office building. A minor error, on my part.

- I know it's altogeter different but this still made me think of The Truman Show. Dunno if that matters.

The squeegee? This is one of the examples of comedic irony that will envelop the player in the game. The fate of the world, altered by a device used to clean windows? The implications are overwhelming...

As this world is a symbol in itself (it is just representational of a computer) all things inside of it are symbols as well. The people are representative of computer functions, presumably the buildings represent larger computer programs, etc. etc.

The squeegee too is a symbol. Not all symbols will be explained, leaving the player to assign for himself what to think of various aspects of the game. Kind of like looking into an abstract painting.

And yes, by all means, this game will retain quite a sense of humor. As will be shown later, Roy begins to look at his world with incredulity and interesting situations will be sure to result.

I do believe that, unlike stated earlier, i will proceed to write a third installment. I am afraid, however, that it might arouse more questions than answers.