Proteus: A love story

It's been around half a year since I have posted something on my blog. I'm not the most motivated person if you could tell. There have been plenty of posts I've been meaning to write, but just too damn lazy and/or unmotivated to write. Here are a few of the ideas I have thought about:

- Comparison between new Paper Mario game and new Luigi's Mansion Game
- An honest, somewhat unbiased report on the PS4/XBone fight
- A new short story (which I've finished, just needs some touch ups)
- Rants upon rants
- A cracked article (On Cracked.com obviously)

And other ideas that I probably forgot about, lost to the endless black hole which is my mind. I had enough content to finish each one, but just nothing to push me; nothing to make me sit down in front of my laptop, avoid the endless choices of what is possible, yet unproductive, and finish something worthwhile.

Yet I just finished my first play through of the indie game Proteus. The first thing I did when I finished the game (it took a mere 45 minutes according to my roommate, more explanation later), I sat staring at my screen for a minute or so. I was flabbergasted. A slow survey of my room left me with no answers to the questions I was asking. Proteus left me with absolutely no concept of time. I got up, slowly stumbled to my roommates in the living room, and asked them how long has it been since I borrowed their headphones so I could play the game properly. It had only been 45 minutes.

After gracefully evacuating my bowels, I sat down at my laptop, and I knew what I must do; write down the impression this game left me with, which brings us to this article.

A short 45 minute game immersed me more than anything in my entire life. No video game, movie or book has done such an impressive job to put me into the world. What makes this even more impressive is that the entire game is in 2D... well sort of. Here is a screen shot of the game, about a few minutes in.

You move in three dimensions, in a world where everything is in two dimensions. All two dimensional structures follow the "always watching you" rotation so you never see an object as just a line. With such a beautiful world, exploring is the first thing you want to do. What makes this game unique, compared to most games, is that this is all you do. There is no plot, no characters (except for yourself), no names, no quests, you can't run, jump, or even use an action button. All there is movement, which means all you can do is explore.

At first, this can be jarring. Gamers are so used to following a plot line, or a specific path, that full exploration and no path guidelines can make the game seem like it has no content. Even games like Skrim still have a main story, even if you completely ignore it. Despite being able to spend hours just exploring, there are still concrete things that you can do. Once you get  past being awestruck at the in game world, what does Proteus have to offer?

Grandeur, fantasy, mystery, emotion, immersion. These are a few things that come to mind when thinking about this game. Your journey starts off like any new RPG world; curiosity of what the world is like. "Wow, this world is so beautiful! Look off in the distance, I probably can go ovIS THAT A BUTTERFLY? I'M GOING TO CATCH IT!" (My first experience in Skyrim). Instead of doing what I should be doing, like saving the world, exploration is the most enticing opportunity that presents itself. In Proteus, I have no idea what I should be doing, if anything, but damn it, exploration is still the most enticing. As the game develops, the enigmatic world makes you wonder. What is this world about, did I see everything I should see, or did I miss everything? How do I game? I asked this all while playing.

Some explanation of my gaming set up, during the play through is in order. I played this game on my laptop, at night, with my lights off, with a good set of headphones on. If any of you play this game, I recommend the same set up. The darkness is a great contrast to the vibrant colors of the world, and the nice headphones make the constant flux of the evolving soundtrack a much more complete experience (More on the soundtrack later)

At first, I wasn't too into the game, and I was completely aware that I am a guy, sitting at his desk, playing a game. By the end though, all I could notice was the brightly lit computer screen, surrounded by blackness. I knew that there was no way I could stop playing. To loosely quote Inception, I had to go deeper. There were parts that made me twitch, parts that scared me, parts that made me have a stupidly big grin on my face. There were many parts that made me talk to myself/the screen. At one point, I was tearing up, and I couldn't tell why. Constantly, I wondered about this incomprehensible world, and what secrets it holds, yet I know I shouldn't rush back to it, because it wouldn't be the same.

Honestly, that is the only downfall I see in this game. Nothing is going to be as magical as that first experience. I know I am going to go back and try to find everything (if there is more to find). I couldn't tell you as of now if that the game is truly free form and many things can happen in the world, or if the developers are masters at taking you down this one path of a "story". I put story in quotes because 1. there is no plot and 2. I feel like I could have been lead down a path. But if it indeed is a path, you arrive at that path, and travel it how you want, and who knows what I may find on that path, when I travel it again.

The graphics, while are not "next gen graphics", it is still wonderfully done. It's a stylized experience, making you experience a world that most are hardly well versed in. The colors feel alive in this game. Sometimes I would stop moving just to admire a beautiful view. Each time you play, the world is different, though there have to be some constants that will always appear in some place, beyond simple scenery and wildlife. The lack of physical interaction makes some of these constants feel empty, but what it lacks in this department, it makes up in the sound department.

If the beauteous world is half of the reason why this game works so well, the soundtrack is the other half. The soundtrack is the graphic's muse. As with an ever changing world with constants, so is the soundtrack eve changing, with constants. Chickens will make the same noises all the time, but when you encounter them, if at all, always changes. Your movements, what you are looking at, or what you pass by, all adds to the soundtrack of the game. The closest thing I can think of to a game that does this is Rez. Each thing you destroy in Rez, adds to the games overall soundtrack. Well, how your exploration goes also adds to the soundtrack. For every mountain climbed, odd stone passed, and cute animal chased, a piece is added to the music. It may fade away as quickly as it entered, or it may stay with you until it is no longer needed. A soundtrack like this makes the world it encompasses.

Proteus is a breath of fresh of air in today's gaming industry. In ways, it regresses the "progress" that modern games are making, while still keeping the graphical and technological limits that are given by the progress. It's a bewitching game that answers no questions that are not searched by a Google query. After one play through, you may be done with Proteus, or your journey may just be starting, but breaking your Proteus cherry is sure to be something you will never forget. It's Proteus: A love story.

The Horrible Implications of the Tron Universe

Okay, so this isn't a short story, but this is the first thing I have written in a while. It was an idea that came to my head one night while pondering the universe.

So, to give a little background, just in case you don't know anything about the movie Tron (or Tron Legacy).

Tron is a fantasy/sci-fi Disney movie (though it isn't like many other Disney movies), where a programmer gets digitized into the electronic world, where he finds out that what can be presumed as the internet is an actual world, where every program is a "person" per say. This society is in a weird dictatorship format, where the leader makes some programs fight in in a series of games where they fight each other in a "to the death" format, where death is called "Derezz"

So, in this universe, every program is a person. But it isn't like they are some old video game character, where they only say one or two lines and have no personality. They think, feel, and do for themselves. Most programs have a fear of being derezzed, like a lot of humans are afraid of death. They also have very philosophical talks about the "users", which is if they believe the users exist. In their universe, the users are the humans that create the programs, but to the programs, they are their Gods. They debate if they even exist, and give their reasons of belief or non belief. So they are rational, sentient beings.

This is about all the background you need for this.

Okay, so assuming we are in the canon of this movie series, and that the world that is mentioned in the Tron series is in fact the internet, which is what the movies made me believe, then we are ready to move forward. I do have reasonable suspicion that this world is indeed the internet, because if you break it down, it makes sense. When you code a program, it becomes a program. This program becomes part of the Tron world. This coding has to be stored somewhere. So this coding can be transfered from wherever it is at, to a flash drive. Would it cease being a livable program? I hardly can believe it to be. So thus, this world is more then likely the internet.

So, the internet is this complex society, with programs (people) living their lives. We don't know too much about how the infrastructure of this society works, but we get some ideas in Tron: Legacy, since they end up going to a bar/dance/night club in the movie, so we can assume a few things from this; there is organizations set up, more then likely there is a lot more then just bars. Programs also like to have fun, which gives them more depth as people. They can discuss the metaphysical, fear the unknown, and want to have a good time. We don't know how this World is formed, but the internet somehow does it.

This begs the question; what about non-internet capable devices? What happens to the programs in them?

For this idea, I am going to use the example of a remote. A simple remote that controls the channels for a TV. Now, there probably is remotes out there that connect to the internet for God knows why. Technology is really unnecessary sometimes, so lets exclude those from this example.

A TV remote. Push a button, and it makes a change on your television. This device is a very simple one (in comparison to other electronics) and though it is useful, it has a very limited range of abilities. Though, we all can clearly agree that it requires electronic parts, which involves some kind of computer or computer like technology. That in combination with the TV, there has to be at least one program in either or, if my understanding of electronics is even somewhat sound. Even if my views of remotes are totally skewed and preposterous to someone knowledgeable on this topic, and all of it is accomplished through use of electrical currents or whatever other plausible means, please just go with me on this one. I do not have the apropos knowledge to make a better comparison, but for the sake of the whole thing, the remote works pretty well. Even if it is wrong, and uses no programs, all of you should still understand the idea. A remote has to at least use one program, if not a few different ones.

Another thing I must define. A program is coding that is made to have a specfic purpose. If I coded in any computer language something that says hi when I hit enter, that is still a program. It is basically coding that has an output of some sort, or some sort of active purpose other then things like basic HTML.

So, this remote does basic functions, and has no connection to the internet whatsoever. In the Tron universe, this remote is still a standalone society, world, or even universe. It has anywhere from a single solitary program, to maybe a dozen. I'll be generous and say around that much. They are stuck in what I can imagine being a very small space. If the internet is the world, how small would the area of a remote world be? A city? A building? A bedroom? Any of those is still crazy without many people. A dozen people in a city? A single, solitary person in a lone bedroom?  Whatever the scenario, it seems absolutely awful. It is like in the old cartoons, where you see a guy stranded on a little Island with a single coconut tree, and nothing around but water. Lets just continue with that idea. One program in a confined area.

Without a connection to the internet, we have a confined space. This single program, is in a confined space, with almost nothing to do.

To bring in more necessary  background, programs do not seem to age as well. In Tron: Legacy, Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges character) creates a program named C.L.U. CLU is in his likeness during the beginning of the movie (the past), and looks exactly like his young self when he creates him. When the present time of the movie kicks in, Kevin is much older, but when he meets CLU, he hasn't aged at all. With this knowledge, we can assume that programs do not age. It is possible that programs are immortal unless they get derezzed, or deleted by their creator.

Back to this lone program. This program is stuck in a very small space, for nearly an eternity. And this space isn't like Chuck E Cheese. I doubt the electronics in a remote are made in a way to give a great structure like the internet does a world in Tron. This whole scenario is comparable to the punishment of solitary confinement in prisons and other establishments. You are stuck in a room, by yourself, without any other human contact for an extended period of time. Just look into the topic; it is highly controversial. People go literally insane from being place in solitary confinement for too long. And by too long, I mean as little as a week or two, to possibly a month. It has horrible psychological ramifications on the person unlucky to be placed in such a situation.

This program, this human, is put into an extremely similar environment,  but instead, it is for an eternity. The implications of this are horrifying. I need not even go on to what this means for the psyche of the program. If there is any kind of progression, or change with programs, like how humans change, evolve, learn, etc etc, then this program is going to degrade into the most psychologically scarred thing in existence.

It gets worse from here. This whole scenario is just the case for one single remote. What about all the other hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of remotes elsewhere? That is millions of programs going through life long torture, and that is just one specific electronic. Every item that has rudimentary electronics and a small purpose get similar treatment. There are literally millions more of different types of electronics, with millions more of each specific one. Sure, each electronic device doesn't have to have such a severe case as solitary confinement, but even if it gets the best out of it all, there is still a very small group of programs in a small and limited space; for eternity.

These, are the horrible implications of the Tron universe.

Edit: So I showed this to a friend, and just to try and point out a possible counter-argument. He brought up that this solitary confinement area doesn't have to be bad. If they were a single program born into this kind of existence, they never would have any social interaction so they wouldn't know what they were missing.

I agree this is an interesting counter-idea, but I still think my idea doesn't get messed up by this. When a program is... well, programmed, into existence, it isn't just a social retard program with absolute no knowledge or skills. They come into existence as a fully-functional adult (so to speak). If each millions of programs came into existence with no social knowledge, society wouldn't be able to function. Each program wouldn't not be able to keep teaching all the new ones how to function. On a more technical standpoint, when you enter in coding, it isn't like all the other coding needs to adapt and better the coding to function. Assuming the coding got put in right, all the other coding will be fine. And why stop at social skills? If it doesn't have those when coming into existence, what's stopping anyone from saying they don't have the skills to walk, or sit, or grab, or anything of that nature? It doesn't seem likely that a program could be born and have all these normal skills that a fully functioning member of society would have except how to talk to other people.

With that in mind, these programs most likely come into existence as a full being. It is as if everything I was didn't exist (I never existed), but then I just came to be. I am who I am, which includes this social knowledge. I may not have had specific experience, but I still know enough of the concept, which knowing in concept is all it takes. To back that example of, I never have fallen in love, but I know enough about the concept to surely say that if I never fall in love, I am going to go crazy.

So, I still stand by that these programs will go crazy from the lack of social interaction from the massive amount of time they will spend alone.

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