So... here goes... After opening 'the' heavy door I'm fading in again, or out, of inner-space... and can now see an idyllic view of a golden field up ahead, behind a closed, wooden farmland gate. It's not easy to see the gate because the field is so bright behind it under yellow sunshine, but I can see it must be windy as there's lots of movement everywhere, in this totally rustic scene.
I begin moving down a track inside woodland, drawn to this shimmering field beyond just... well, because. It's nice to see a field, you know.
But then I hear the sound of the Spiral door creaking closed behind me and I check back to see if it's disappeared. Then it does, slowly, and it feels more like a ladder being pulled up. My portal to back home, closing. I do wonder how I'm going to get out of here without bailing out... when... it all fades... away... anyway....
Hey...
Who turned out the lights again? Is this a beta bug, already? Glitch-land? Will I have to report this?
But... in the new blackness of my visor I can still hear the sounds from the world I was – just now – witnessing. Wind. Birds. A distant shore and waves crashing... somewhere. I listen for a short while, just at the mercy of this new... presence. Then: some starter words:
"How much shall I be changed... before I am changed?"
... before the visuals flood slowly back in again and I'm laying down, in the middle of a field; that golden one maybe... looking up at blue – really blue – sky.
You know, that voice was spooky, yet seductive... a girl's voice, in a soft whisper. It wasn't anything overdone though, you know. No reverb. Just almost like it was whispered in your ear, before departing... somewhere... It got sort of, merged, into the sounds from these surroundings. And it's a great tagline. It's still echoing in my head, as I start to look around. Everything seems now to have finished rendering and let me just say: it's overwhelming; awesome – in the original sense of the world. It's not just a field. This is a Fountellion field. I'm like a kid just staring at everything; feeling the movement; waking up to this land with all its promise. I'm here. I made it.
And I could be the first insider? The first official Beta player?
I see birds move in the sky caught in the weather variables. Insects, bugs, (tiny!) ladybirds are moving over nearby corn stems. I flick one of them off like I'm a kid, just to see the perfect touch-accuracy of the simulation. The ladybird is... flicked. Gone. A bumble bee buzzes by my ear – loudly – and it circles a moment, investigating me, before it actually avoids my presence, unlike so many worlds which would only partially bother to simulate that kind of attention... to detail. I feel like I'm a presence here. Existing. Persisting.
Standing up, I notice grassy bits sticking to my rough cloak thingy; must be my basic attire. But now I look around and see firstly the straightest line of the blue horizon, strangely elevated some way above green hills and a number of distant pine trees, shimmering slightly. I realise it's the sea behind them. The distant water is azure. A shining blue. This is escapist country. We're going free-roaming guys, that's for sure, and we're not coming back. Especially if it gets any better than this.
It does.
But first I put my hand out just to let wheat stems – I think it's wheat – touch against my suited fingers. I'm drawn again to the sea and the tiny detail on the waves moving into a wide estuary some distance below. Then I wonder: is this field 'virtually' growing? Will it grow persistently, just as in the Source?
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Fountellion in THE SPIRAL: Greenwise & the Nature of the Game
Science FictionA gateway to a long-awaited, always-online virtual island (an 'Autonomous World') has opened for those who've found a key. This includes Dan Harvester, a guy who lives in a run-down apartment with his cat and runs a gaming channel. He's almost done...
