The Pedestrian

Semi Sci-fi and video games peice by Arran "Ace" Yarwood. Very good. Read. Now. Or forever ("SHUT UP!" - readers) oh, sorry. Carry on.

The Pedestrian

"Red."
"Red."
"Green."
"Green."
"Orange."
"No."
"I see orange!"
"No, you are wrong, the colour on the monitor is blue. There will be no more treatment today," said the doctor. "The administrator wants to see you after your rest period, so try to be on your best behaviour, and remember to watch lots of TV." Pressing the familiar button on his desk, the doctor deactivated the monitor which still was showing the final colour in the sequence, orange. The porters entered the room and began to un-strap the person inside. "Oh, and Mr. Thomas, The final colour in the sequence is blue. Please try to remember that for your next therapy session." Now fully un-strapped, the pathetic figure of Mr. Thomas, still wearing the plain and dull outfit of the toga like shift that all inmates are clothed in prior to their first therapy session. It was his twenty-third. So far he had refused to succumb to the dubious pleasures of the shopping network, which clothed many of the inmates in glorious finery. The porters escorted him to his cell. As usual the TV was on, blaring it’s meaningless psycho babble to the furthest corners of the room. The warders pushed him into the loud and vibrating room, and closed the door behind him. Moving to the TV he turned the volume as low as it would go, and turned the brightness down just enough to be bearable. If he turned the set off, it would just reactivate itself after a matter of minutes. Curling up on the plain and uncomfortable bed, he turned his face to the corner of the room. Behind his back, the television continued to quietly boast about its products, hyper helmets for 360 degrees of virtual vision! Or the super booster console that allows you to interact with the programs you see.

"If YOU are losing interest in any of our networks, please contact us for your FREE upgrade to keep you excited in all of your favourite programs!" These adverts and commercials were sifted through most of the networks, a few networks were even solely dedicated to these highly uncommon problems. Most people wondered ‘who could be bored with television?’ ‘They cater for everybody’s needs, after all,’ and they did. There were cooking programs, adventure stories, game-shows, documentaries, adult channels, soap operas, everything a viewer could ever want. Everything accept for actually being there, and doing it. That’s why Mr. Thomas didn’t like television. He wanted to go out walking himself, breathe the fresh outside air, not see some "Alpha grade citizen" walking around a fake set talking about how good it was to see it without getting your shoes dirty or getting tired. He had once thought about applying for an alpha grade citizenship. But he decided that he didn’t want a job in community service, even if it did mean not benefiting from the extra privileges offered. The set turned its volume up. He had been asleep for five hours. First time he had watched TV he was bored, the television set didn’t help. It never grasped his interest enough for him to sit down and get engrossed in a program. He turned the volume down again and settled for another five hours sleep. An alarm went off. He awoke and prepared for his meeting with the administrator. It was his periodical review, where the administrator and the doctor reviewed his case, and talked about methods of treatment for the future.

"Sir, he isn’t breaking down, the brainwashing isn’t working. I’ve tried to overwhelm his mind, but his will power is to great, he still insists that he sees the correct colour, despite weeks of shock treatment he still shows no sign of stress related fatigue. To put it simply, no matter how much we charge him, he still sees orange. No other patient has resisted that much. He should be swearing blind that it's blue he's seeing, by now."

"And on the TV front?" Inquired the administrator.

"Its not programming standards, controlled lab tests show that all programs are sustaining a high level of interest. It must be some kind of genetic resistance to the gamma level hypno-rays, as no alpha level citizens have so far shown signs of immunity. It could be because they have a sense of purpose because of their service to the administration and community," explained the doctor. "If you don’t remedy this situation and soon we could well be in trouble, you do realise what would happen if the general populace were left uninterested and unoccupied? It could spell disaster for the administration, indeed, even the whole federation. Imagine what would happen if all those millions of people who are as we speak gazing into their big, narcotic screens. Imagine them all standing up, leaving their homes and wanting explanations to how we’ve been controlling their world while they have been transfixed in-front of their TV sets. There would be chaos, there aren’t enough alpha grade citizens to control the masses. Due to budget cuts the number of below delta grade citizens out-number alpha grade security personnel in a ratio of 45:1. If the alpha grade citizens submit the only thing between us and total economical collapse is a couple hundred over fifties executives, and against the entire planets population I can’t see them fighting off a mob of angry, out of work, frustrated people who’s lives we have wasted. Now do you see the gravity of the situation? If you can’t crack him soon, you must research other methods, and if that fails, you must dissect him, check to see if there’s an anatomical reason for his condition. Remember, we must not fail!"

"Red."
"Red."
"Green."
"Green."
"Orange."
"Wrong, it’s blue."
"I see orange!"
"You just don’t get it, do you?"
"It’s no good trying to fool me, I see orange, and no matter how many times you shock me, I will continue to see orange," said the prisoner in a firm tone. "Are you sure you won’t reconsider?"

"Yes, your TV propaganda doesn’t fool me, I can trust my senses, I don’t see reality through a rose tinted screen. I know what I see." The doctor stared at him. He could feel the doctors eyes boring into his skull, unearthing the truth, he couldn’t see orange, but he didn’t want to be defeated, to have his freedom suppressed, he wanted to stay an individual. A suspicion had entered his mind. What if... What if they had changed the colour, what if it was blue on the monitor, could he be going mad? The tension mounted, as the doctor continued to stare him out. The seconds piled on 'till the friction could be cut with a knife. Then, at last,

"That is most regrettable," said the doctor. He walked to his desk and pushed a button on it. A new and unfamiliar button. He felt the air pressing in on him. He felt apprehension at the change in routine, after months of treatment, this was the first variance in his dull and repetitive existance. He continued to stare at this new and ominous button. Then the silence and tension was shattered as the door to the porters room opened. Soon, he knew, the porters would come to take him back to his cell again. But, they didn’t. One of the medical orderlies of the centre came in, wheeling a trolley with a selection of sharp, and unpleasant looking surgical instruments. A look of terror filled his eyes as the doctor donned his sterile surgical gear, and prepared for the task at hand. The last thing Mr. Thomas heard was, "Most regrettable indeed..."

So, what does this have to do with video-gaming? I hear you cry. Well, lots of interesting and deeply thought out things, that's what.

Are WE being brainwashed into buying lots of repetitve tosh, and old hat that we don't really want?

I only have one Real Time Strategy game. Command and Conquer: RedAlert is all I really need. Apart from "Dynamic Shading" and "Line of Sight" twoddle, which make next to no difference in gameplay at all... Infact, I think the control interfaces on these games have become "Sloppy." No more crisp "Commander" and Heavy tank-like moving and shooting. Its all floaty drifty hover tanks, which have no weight behind them...

Then there's First-person Perspective Shoot'em ups... I say that apart from a couple of Dull clones, there have only been a few stepping stones since Wolfenstein to Unreal.

Genre starts off with Wolfie, but then moves on to Doom, which is very similar, but captures the buyer's imagination enough to make it a sucess. There follows a ton of Dull clones whih may introduce one or two lame new features, but still falls short of the playability of Doom.

Look at Rise of The Triad: A few interesting touches, but a pretty poor game, and not as good as Doom. Heretic: Change of setting, inventory... But still not as good as Doom.

Then comes a big refurbishment to the genre: Duke Nukem 3D. Although not amazingly different o the format itself, it combines many of the previously seen devices (inventory, destructable walls, flight, realistic setting (towns, streets, etc.)) and with a touch of humour, makes a brilliant package.

Then comes Quake. It introduces Polygonation, and Doom clones will never be the same again. Although Quake had less versatility in the game than Duke3D(No inventory, crouch, destructable walls, etc.) the hype, generally good gameplay, mixed with good graphics, and a meaty (if un-inspired) selection of weaponry made it a success.

Once more, clones are at it: Hexen 2 uses the Quake Engine, and is DULL.

JediKnight comes out, and although not as popular, I consider it important in being a good example of a game which uses interesting weapons (The lightsabre being a first for the genre, and apart from fists and chainsaws, which aren't so much swung as "put in one place") and Force Powers, which can effect the balance and effectiveness of the weapons you have... Running for the biggest gun on the level won't help you anymore!

Quake 2 overlooked the oft un-noticed innovations employed in JK (Although it did use the "Multi-objective" format in Single Player mode,) and was pretty dull in its engine. Nicer graphics and hype triumph over innovation, and we see a playable game, which is (In my opinion) not as original as JediKnight.

You see, hype and graphics will sell a game better than Gameplay and originality, so its safe to clones, and bolt on an Updated graphics engine (Look at the buggy, and rather un-special Unreal) and Ba-zaam you have a success...

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