Friday, August 02, 2002 6:31 PM

I proclaim this territory in the name of, well… Me!

A funny sort of thing happens to me when I finally drag myself to the monitor and double click the icon in order to play some computer game. The ones that I am most fond of, (none of them thrill me that much, for that long, I continue wasting money on differing companies and strategies in hopes of finding an interesting one.) are the simulation games. I adore the Flight Simulator and continually thrill and finally slaughter whole plane loads of passengers as I try to bring that 747 down in a thunder storm at the Champaign-Urbana Airport. I manage in my Train Simulator to jar the line up and break the linked connections between the cars by flooring the throttle and neglecting the task of tightening up the individual cars of the train. (Did you know that even the most modern diesel engines have what is called a sander? It is very simply a device that can drop sand onto the metal track for added friction. Injudicious use, run out of sand, run out of friction and run out of stop, yes I have! Just another crash coming out of Baltimore through the tunnel heading for New York.)

There is Sim City (up to Version 3000 now) in which we have the control of the building of a city from the terrain up. My cities are sadly unsuccessful. The citizenry rails against the rapid increase of taxes (It’s for their own good and swells my neglected coffers) without giving them adequate fire and police protection. Once I had a perfectly good nuclear power plant render a whole area of my kingdom (I prefer the title King Joe to Mayor Joe) irradiated and uninhabitable for the rest of the game. (Hey, it’s the small price cheap power and progress!)

I dally with any number of Simulator Theme and Roller Coaster Parks, which don't, because of lazy graphic programming, run all that well on Windows XP. Oh well! Those damn park patrons are constantly kvetching because I don’t give them enough clean rest rooms! Go urinate in the bushes!

The funny thing that happens which prevents me from moving forward in the game is that I am far less interested in the rules of play than I am in the territory and wonder of the place. I want to start out on foot and explore this great land or plane or roller coaster. I want to meet people who are traveling and living there. In short I want a narrative to happen in combination with the creation of the cyber land. I want Story!

AHA! You may say, divining my direction. In Cyberspace I want an autonomy as well as some story. I suspect that I have found my guiding principles. The ways to proceed. My vision! Understand please that the cyber world doesn't yet have the technology and I in particular can only partially manipulate the programming code that is needed to achieve this end. It is a challenge. Which I will rise to meet, however flat footed and lame.

In cyberspace everyone can hear me scream!