edwardroosterHRVST Ch. 22: Ancient Games With New Players Remain The Same
Some games are still played because of their deceptive simplicity. The prize remains even if the players change. The outcomes are never certain, whether it was the first round at first light or the last round before the lights go out. Newcomers to the game can still defeat old masters. Luna, South Aitken Basin, On a train en route to Shackleton Crater, Hyperion “Shisima,” said the Captain. “Excuse me?” Tomassina looked up from her equipment check. The Captain thought about one of his moments ...
edwardrooster2062, Ch. 14.2: Landfall, Part 2
2062 Arcadia Planitia, Mars XIRANG ONE - CHINESE SETTLEMENT - ARCADIA PLANITIAThe bluish sunset marked the end of a long bad day. When night came, the work inside continued. There were injured people and damaged systems to tend to. A fitful sleep for most.Settlements everywhere, from the largest installations to remote outposts, wanted to make it through the night. It was one Martian day at a time. 1 SOL (EARTH CLOCK 24HR:37MIN:22SEC).Hayley rubbed aches, sipped her water to stretch out her b...
edwardrooster1648 4.23 Stupid Games, Bad Ideas, 2909
1960 Park Slope, Brooklyn He learned to read at 4, and he liked to draw his favorite cartoons. His mother encouraged art. At 7, he went to a private school. That year, he and his best friend made a children's book. Everything changed the next year. A car hit him, leaving him with a broken arm and internal injuries. While in the hospital, his mother gave him a copy of Grey's Anatomy. Soon after she was put in an institution. Despite the changes, he became fluent and literate in 3 lan...
Writer: future, fiction, finance, based on history, mythology, and technology
edwardroosterHRVST Ch. 22: Ancient Games With New Players Remain The Same
Some games are still played because of their deceptive simplicity. The prize remains even if the players change. The outcomes are never certain, whether it was the first round at first light or the last round before the lights go out. Newcomers to the game can still defeat old masters. Luna, South Aitken Basin, On a train en route to Shackleton Crater, Hyperion “Shisima,” said the Captain. “Excuse me?” Tomassina looked up from her equipment check. The Captain thought about one of his moments ...
edwardrooster2062, Ch. 14.2: Landfall, Part 2
2062 Arcadia Planitia, Mars XIRANG ONE - CHINESE SETTLEMENT - ARCADIA PLANITIAThe bluish sunset marked the end of a long bad day. When night came, the work inside continued. There were injured people and damaged systems to tend to. A fitful sleep for most.Settlements everywhere, from the largest installations to remote outposts, wanted to make it through the night. It was one Martian day at a time. 1 SOL (EARTH CLOCK 24HR:37MIN:22SEC).Hayley rubbed aches, sipped her water to stretch out her b...
edwardrooster1648 4.23 Stupid Games, Bad Ideas, 2909
1960 Park Slope, Brooklyn He learned to read at 4, and he liked to draw his favorite cartoons. His mother encouraged art. At 7, he went to a private school. That year, he and his best friend made a children's book. Everything changed the next year. A car hit him, leaving him with a broken arm and internal injuries. While in the hospital, his mother gave him a copy of Grey's Anatomy. Soon after she was put in an institution. Despite the changes, he became fluent and literate in 3 lan...
Writer: future, fiction, finance, based on history, mythology, and technology
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1983 Virginia
The big money, the product market fit, was in games, and some of them leaned hard into it. If you were a game developer you had to play by their rules if you wanted their users.
Humble beginnings with business customers and enterprise services led to consumer services. The official excuses were for information and "useful" services but it was all about games.
A handful of companies competed in the market for all those minds playing together, for market share and attention. Some played down how much time their younger users were on their networks, playing games. They spent more and more time there.
One of the hottest games users controlled avatars that could chat with other users, carry and use objects and money (called "tokens"), and travel around a virtual island.
A handful dominated access to online game and unreal realities.
Their names were well known:
CompuServe, Prodigy, QuantumLink, Delphi, and GEnie.
Then a few years later, there was something new, something different. Something alien to the giants. An "open" network.
The giants thought they could handle it and keep the cash rolling in as usual. But the game had changed and new rules were being improvised. Adapt or die. One of the giants adapted hard. QuantumLink became America Online, to message its reinvention.
"AOL" believed it would survive for decades as the market leader. After all, just a few years after the rise of the "WWW", half the country's homes with internet access used AOL. They were wrong.
Game Over. New game. New rules. New players are entering.
2871 MARS, Approaching The Rendezvous Point
They traveled with stealth measures in place.
The ground machines were built for duststorms. That would be cover. The airships were coated in stealthnano and ground controllers were using the few birds they trusted to play with the silent constellation of satellites above. Between the dust and disguised traffic, nobody would know.
“Gunny, we’re approaching the drop zone. All airships ready.”
”Everybody into the dropships. We’ll land and stow the dropships, forward ground crews to release control of rear beetle carriers. We’ll follow in the “beetles” after the forward crews do their sweep. By then, we’ll meet with the others at the rendevous point in the valley.”
“Aye aye Gunny. Units prepping and strapping in the dropships.”
Fernanda Marie Therese Roque checked her suit, and boarded her dropship, she took the seat next to the assigned pilot. They were taking no chances with the networks. Human operators only.
“Trusty, I want everyone to check their gear and count off.”
“Aye Aye Gunny. Drop Team Blue, sound and count off!”
”Blue Three... Blue Four... Blue Five... Blue Six...”
Fernanda listened and watched her monitors as the squad counted off. The same was happening on the other Drop Ships. They were on schedule.
Then she was suddenly in the middle of the sun itself. Fernanda felt like a giant hand smashed itself against her body in an instant. The Drop Ship was filled with heat, spinning, screams and blood.
She was confused and then saw the fire, explosions and smoke outside the cockpit. The pilot’s head was missing. That part of her that still breathed her old life took over.
She grabbed the controls.
1983 Virginia
The big money, the product market fit, was in games, and some of them leaned hard into it. If you were a game developer you had to play by their rules if you wanted their users.
Humble beginnings with business customers and enterprise services led to consumer services. The official excuses were for information and "useful" services but it was all about games.
A handful of companies competed in the market for all those minds playing together, for market share and attention. Some played down how much time their younger users were on their networks, playing games. They spent more and more time there.
One of the hottest games users controlled avatars that could chat with other users, carry and use objects and money (called "tokens"), and travel around a virtual island.
A handful dominated access to online game and unreal realities.
Their names were well known:
CompuServe, Prodigy, QuantumLink, Delphi, and GEnie.
Then a few years later, there was something new, something different. Something alien to the giants. An "open" network.
The giants thought they could handle it and keep the cash rolling in as usual. But the game had changed and new rules were being improvised. Adapt or die. One of the giants adapted hard. QuantumLink became America Online, to message its reinvention.
"AOL" believed it would survive for decades as the market leader. After all, just a few years after the rise of the "WWW", half the country's homes with internet access used AOL. They were wrong.
Game Over. New game. New rules. New players are entering.
2871 MARS, Approaching The Rendezvous Point
They traveled with stealth measures in place.
The ground machines were built for duststorms. That would be cover. The airships were coated in stealthnano and ground controllers were using the few birds they trusted to play with the silent constellation of satellites above. Between the dust and disguised traffic, nobody would know.
“Gunny, we’re approaching the drop zone. All airships ready.”
”Everybody into the dropships. We’ll land and stow the dropships, forward ground crews to release control of rear beetle carriers. We’ll follow in the “beetles” after the forward crews do their sweep. By then, we’ll meet with the others at the rendevous point in the valley.”
“Aye aye Gunny. Units prepping and strapping in the dropships.”
Fernanda Marie Therese Roque checked her suit, and boarded her dropship, she took the seat next to the assigned pilot. They were taking no chances with the networks. Human operators only.
“Trusty, I want everyone to check their gear and count off.”
“Aye Aye Gunny. Drop Team Blue, sound and count off!”
”Blue Three... Blue Four... Blue Five... Blue Six...”
Fernanda listened and watched her monitors as the squad counted off. The same was happening on the other Drop Ships. They were on schedule.
Then she was suddenly in the middle of the sun itself. Fernanda felt like a giant hand smashed itself against her body in an instant. The Drop Ship was filled with heat, spinning, screams and blood.
She was confused and then saw the fire, explosions and smoke outside the cockpit. The pilot’s head was missing. That part of her that still breathed her old life took over.
She grabbed the controls.
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