I want you to imagine the room I’m in right now. It’s dark, and square and small. Up against the wall there is large wooden cupboard, somehow hanging together despite clearing missing a large number of nails and door nobs. Next to it was a desk that felt very much out of place. You can find me here, in front of this desk; staring into a single window of light.
What was on the other side? You may ask: life. The only, cold blue, life was on the other side of this window.
I brutally assaulted the keyboard in front of me. The window was split into several smaller tabs; one tab was opened up showing moving images that responded to my keyboard. In these images, there were other people, my friends. In these images, hours of my life were presented as numbers, levels, stats.
In this game, I was the main character. The world moved around me, and I mattered. Like a god, I built. I travelled the world, fighting the monsters of the wilderness. Progressing into the very core of dungeons, I levelled up, again and again, allocating stat points and pushing my skills the absolute limits. Until finally I, cornered in dungeon, and desperate to survive, find myself facing monsters that I simply won’t be able to survive. I fell before the monsters of the dungeon and everything I had worked for was gone.
Life was meaningless without end. And with that another one of my lives ended. Perma-death: A brilliant and frustrating concept.
In this game, there is no way to win, simply survive and explore.
But instead of the usual “Game Over”, I received a new message: “Lets play a new game.”
Below this message was one option: “Okay”.
Almost on queue, my mother opened the door. “Honey,” She started uneasily, “don’t you have school tomorrow?”
I don’t respond.
“Alan?” She stood in the doorway, allowing light to pour into the room.
I finally press, “Okay”.
“Alan.” She repeated.
“What!?” I asked, glaring at her.
“Go to sleep.” She said starkly. The gloves were off and I could see that clearly. I knew from experience that there was nothing to do but comply, or at least let her think I was complying.
Closing everything down and turning off his computer, I got up, stomped towards the other side of the room and begrudgingly slumped into my bed, curling up into my duvets and facing away from her and the door.
Exercising well earned distrust, mother walked over to the computer, disconnecting the keyboard from the monitor before walking out of the room with it.
“Try to get some sleep,” She tried “okay,” weakly.
The moment the door closed, I pulled my phone out from under my pillow, immediately clicking into the wiki of the game. Dwarf Fortress was intended to be nothing less then a massive fantasy world simulator. It was massive and detailed yet nothing on the site alluded to the message that I had received. I knew for a fact that the version downloaded on my computer wasn’t anything new; it was at least several months old, so the idea that I was the only person to find this death sequence seemed unlikely.
I tried forums, scanning it for something new, only to find nothing of the sort, even posting a new thread, one asking if anyone else had experienced the same thing. After not receiving any replies at first, I decided to check the time.
It was 3:00am in the morning, a number that filled me with dread knowing that it would be hell to wake up in lease then four hours.
Realising this, I put the phone away and tried to go to sleep. I couldn’t, Lying there in the dark, there was no way I could get to sleep. My thoughts wondered, first on the new and strange message, then onwards to other random things.
I thought of previous encounters that occurred in school. I thoughts seem to gravitate towards a number of key elements: a girl, a bully, and himself.
Finally I drifted to sleep. My dream begins with the image of a beautiful creature, a girl, with flowing hair and big bright. Then there was another episode, one that seemed to play out in my head. Its context was lost to obscurity while this scene stuck with me. I was in class, Science. Sitting in the corner of the room and keeping largely to myself while many of the other guys in the room called out inside jokes that I simply didn’t get.
One of these, “FAKE.”
With that, a lot of the guys laughed out in hysterics. I looked up, across the room, and found everyone’s eyes on me.
“FAKE NIGGAR.”
“OOOOH, FAKE.”
“I’M SORRY FAKE.”
It was strange, at the time, it didn’t affect me, and I let it slide or completely ignored it. But in hindsight, this was a sharp knife that dug into my mind.
Then the image was gone. My dream had been replaced with oblivion. In the blackness a scream popped up.
[You have received the skill, the Gamer]
[You have received the sub-skill, the Gamer’s Menu]
[You have learned a new skill, Sleep]
With that, a beeping pierced through the blackness and rattled my brain into consciousness. Without opening my eyes I reached out beneath my pillow and gripped my phone, instinctively swiping at the screen in a way that turned off the alarm. A message pops up in the centre of my vision.
[You have learned a new skill, Auto-pilot]
This really woke me up as the floating window illuminated by vision. However it was gone before I could do much for it. It said I had learned a skill, as if this was some kind of game; I learned a skill and received a pop up.
For a moment, I consider dismissing this, but I can’t. A smile escapes me, I’m going to pander to this thing, was my first thought. So I speak out loud, “Menu.”
And sure enough, a menu opened up. A luminescent window built up of several tiles that seemed to lead off into other screens. Experimentally, I try touching the window, to my surprise, it’s solid and smooth. I tried touching a number of tiles, most of which flashed red at my touch. Finally I tried the only unique tile amongst them. This tile had a vaguely man shaped image that flexed when I touched it. When my finger retreated from the tile it widened up, pushing the other tiles out of existence, until it became a window of its own.
This window was my stat page.
[tr]{/tr]
NameAlan DoltanLevel1 (0%)Age13GenderMaleConditionMax Hp68Max Mp59Max Sp65Hp regen (P/Sec)0.4Mp regen (P/Sec)0.4Sp regen(P/Sec)0.3Hunger10%Rest62%StatusTangible AttributesStr6Vit10Con8Agi10Dex12App9Intangible AttributesInt11Wis8Cha6Luc12
[/table]
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At first I just stared at it, but after a while I really started to look, study the numbers and what they would mean for me.
[You have learned a new skill, Examine]
Interesting, it would seem that merely trying to do something could trigger me learning a new skill. So I try using it, out loud, I say “Examine.” While focusing on the window as a whole. Sure enough, a new message popped up on top of the window
[Info: This status page shows current stats of the person linked to it, in this case, a certain Alan Doltan.]
Huh, I thought, not bad. I tried a triggering my examine skill be simply thinking the word “Examine.”
Sure enough, it works and I use the skill to learn about each stat in turn:
[Info: Max Hp is an exact indication of how much damage “Alan Doltan” can survive. Max Hp seems to be determined by the Vitality (+1 Vit leads to +6 Max Hp) and Constitution (+1 Con leads to +1 Max Hp) stat.]
[Info: Max Mp is an exact indication of how much magic “Alan Doltan” can employ to use magic. Max Mp seems to be determined by the Wisdom (+1 Wis leads to +6 Max Mp) and Intelligence (+1 Int leads to +1 Max Mp) stat.]
[Info: Max Sp is an exact indication of how much energy “Alan Doltan” can expend via physical activity. Max Sp seems to be determined by the Vitality (+1 Vit leads to roughly +7 Max Sp) stat]
Initially I was amazed by the amount of detail given. I skipped the “regen” stats, as they seemed rather self explanatory. The next part was the Hunger, Rest and Status stats.
[Info: Hunger measures how hungry “Alan Doltan” is at a given moment, this in turn effects both HP regen and Sp regen]
I continued, noting that the other status related components that has similar effects on “Mp Regen” and “Sp Regen”.
Next, I started at some of the tangible stats. In a nutshell: “Str” was a measurement of the maximum amount of power I can expend; “Vit” was essentially my “life energy”; “Con” was a measurement of my endurance and toughness; “Agi” was a measurement of my ability to move, at speed, with control; “Dex” is a measurement of how well I can do complicated tasks while “App” is a measurement of my physical attractiveness.
All in all I found it really embarrassing to look at some of these numbers.
Finally, I finished off with the intangible stats. Again- In a nutshell: “Int” was a measurement of how well I process and recall new information; “wis” is a measurement of my decision making ability; “Cha” is my charisma or my likeability and “luc” is clearly my luck stat.
With that done I become aware of how much time had already passed and, getting out of bed, I ran downstairs.
“Good morning.” Mother and Father chimed.
I pasted them with a quick “Morning.”
I quickly pulled out a bowl, a box of cereal and a carton of milk. I poured the milk into the bowl and sent it into the microwave, in the minute of otherwise idleness I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. Then the milk was gone, I poured cereal into the bowl and sure enough received a message.
[You have learned a new skill, Cooking]
Remembering my one of my first skills I placed my bowl on the dinning table and sat down in front of it. Then I thought up, “auto-pilot”. It was a weird sensation, like I was in a quasi-trance. My vision blurred and my body felt numb, yet I was still very aware of everything happening around me.
I noticed that, oddly enough, nothing happened, my body just sat there for several seconds. Realising that nothing was going to change, I deactivated auto-pilot, taking control of my body all over again.
“Menu.” I called, with a word a window of tiles appeared in front of me.
Examine, I thought, checking each tile. Finally, after a little experimenting, I found another tile I could open. This tile had the image of a scroll on it for whatever reason. Like the stat page, it grow to a point where all the other tiles were pushed out of view, leaving a window that amounted to a list of skills.
* The Gamer Lv1 (3%)
* The Gamers’ Menu Lv 1 (32%)
* Sleep Lv1 (12%)
* Auto-Pilot Lv1 (0%)
* Examine Lv1 (21%)
* Cooking Lv1 (2%)
I saw “auto-pilot” and used examine on it.
[info: “auto-pilot” allows the user to set a simple tasked to be completed automatically. This skill does not consume Mana or Stamina. While doing so, the user’s mind enters a quasi-sleep like state.]
So, closing the windows I stated in my mind, “eat the bowl of cereal”, then turned on auto-pilot, sure enough it worked. While in the sleep like state, my body automatically picked up the spoon and started eating.
My morning didn’t end there. After showering I received the message:
[Your have learned a new skill, Wash]
What a useless skill.
After drying up I put on my uniform, finishing with my blazer. Checking the breast pocket of my blazer, I take out my timetable, a small folded up piece of paper which acted as a schedule for my lessons at school.
When I put the timetable back into my pocket it disappears and I receive one very exciting menu.
[You have learned a new skill, Inventory]