1st book edit
From
Lane "Stonehowler" Waldby@21:1/5 to
All on Fri Jul 18 09:50:42 2025
I put so much time into it that I can't even remember its name.
It needs an edit.
I have to remain blameless in the story, so telling the Saviour,
"Immersion," isn't going to cut it.
Filling in some blanks.
* * *
"Have you ever set any fires?"
"A few."
"What would you say your greatest attribute is?"
"Immersion."
"What do you mean?"
"These video games require our full attention. When I'm playing I try to
stay true to the scenario."
"I haven't heard of that, please explain."
"When I was 8 I used to go to work with my father. It was a way of
watching me without having to resort to a babysitter, which came later
in life.
"One of the activities I took part in at his workplace was engaging with
the game system on the terminal system."
"Oh like Space Invaders"?
"No I wasn't allowed to play Space Invaders game because it hogged
resources and slowed down terminals for other people.
"I played ADVENTURE, STAR TREK, and the ZORK DEMO."
"Hmm. Tell me about Star Trek."
"I was immersive in ADVENTURE, but STAR TREK demanded everything. You're
a captain out in a distant quadrant beset by Klingons. Weapons include
photon torpedoes and phasers. There were options to do just about
everything they do in the show, short range scanners, long range
scanners, and even a trajectory calculator to assist torpedo launches."
"What do you mean by immersive"?
"Well, I was pretty good at it. I would take out the klingons and move
on to the next sector, but I developed a bad habit".
"And what was that"?
"Those photon torpedoes were of such great power that one hit could
knock out the star in the system if there were one.
"It served no benefit, but I would take the time to launch a shot at
many stars, blasting them into oblivion. As far as I could tell there
was no penalty for this action".
"That sounds wasteful. You had to expend a torpedo for this"?
"Not only wasteful, but when I explained what I was doing to some staff
there, they flipped. They said, what if it were real and you blew up
our Sun."
"How did this improve your immersion"?
"They wouldn't let me play it anymore. I had to learn to respect the
game and to be a player.
"Immersion, like in Ender's Game, where they think they are playing
video games, but their actions are real, and that's how Ender defeated
the bumble bee menace."
"Julian, we've told you before to respect the bumble bees."
"So you're not going to rescue me from here?"
"I'm afraid not."
--
Hasbro
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