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I was paid to test a game. I think they were really testing me...
A lot of people said they were envious of my job. It was easy to understand why... I played video games for a living. The envy of hordes of teenagers around the globe. I don't mean the monotonous slog of *testing* games in early development either. No. I actually *played* them for a living.
Two years ago I was one of the top competitive BaseKnight players in the world. It was truly an incredible time for gamers. Everybody was playing BaseKnight... and I mean everybody. Sure, before BaseKnight e-sports was a thing, but after it some players became bona-fide celebrities.
It was insane.
Unfortunately for me, I was not, one of those people. Although I had a small following and made a little bit of money from tournaments, I was a nobody. Once the hype died down, the money dried up. This happened to a lot of us.
That's why it was such a big deal when we got the offers.
I thought maybe it was a prank. The email said I had been hand picked to participate in the testing of a new game "Battle Guardian". I had never heard of the developer, but in the e-mail they mentioned how they had secured a sizable amount of funding from various investors who believed in the project.
At first I thought the whole thing sounded kind of... well, *trash*. The developer said that Battle Guardian was the most intricate combat game ever. I was going to delete the email and forget about it, that was, until I saw the compensation.
Thirty thousand; *with opportunities for bonuses.*
My live stream had long since fizzled out, but even when I had been pulling in hundreds of viewers a day I only made a couple thousand. Plus, the winnings from the tournament I won last year were already wearing thin. This was a no brainer.
I signed onto discord and joined one of the servers for high level comp players. Before I could even ask, I had my answer... people were already talking about the mysterious offer. After way too much digital chest pounding and trash talking we found out that around twenty of us had been invited. Of course all of us were high level players but it didn't seem like there was any rhyme or reason to the selection. Some of the rich players who had made it big from BaseKnight weren't interested, but others said they would participate just to see what the game was about.
***
For some reason the developer insisted we had to meet and play the game in person. I was only a couple of hours away from LA, where the office was, but they literally flew people out to test this game. Clearly money wasn't an object and I guess having some of the worlds best players to test your new game was an investment in quality.
The building was kind of inconspicuous and not really what I expected. They didn't even have a logo on the front. I saw a few of the guys I knew from streaming and we talked for a bit, all of us wondering what the deal was with this new game. A man with matted hair and eyes wired greeted us with a smile.
"Hey guys, good to meet you. I'm Zane. Welcome, welcome!" he walked around shaking hands and patting backs. He wore a casual Hawaiian shirt and skate shorts. He looked like a stereotypical game dev, one who had been up for one too many nights running solely off of cappuccinos and energy shots. He showed us to the testing room.
Immediately the group sounded their amazement. The room looked less like and office building and more like a world class lounge. There was even a small cafeteria we were told was complimentary. Large spacious desks with premium equipment were placed around the room. Zane told us his primary focus was to make sure we felt right at home. After we had all settled down Zane directed our focus to a large screen with what was presumably the Battle Guardian menu.
*"This, ladies and gentlemen, is* ***Battle Guardian!***" he proclaimed proudly as the game demo began to play.
If the group was impressed by the room, our astonishment at the game itself was double.
"*What?! Is this the new 'Unreal Engine' it looks like real life!"*
"*The detail in the map is c-razy, this must have taken years..."*
The compliments went on for the next five minutes as the demo played out. Some of the guys thought it was pre-rendered footage but Zane assured us everything we had just seen was 'in-game'. He told us this was the product of years of development and the entire team was really happy they could finally unveil what they had been working on.
We all took places at stations around the room and set up our controllers and peripherals. Zane told us we would start of with something fun and play some competitive multiplayer matches against each other. We decided on a 'battle royale' game mode as that was what most of us were used to coming from BaseKnight. I couldn't believe how realistic the game was, it was like they had thought of everything. I figured they must of have been using AI tech because if there were animations repeating I couldn't tell.
At the end of that first day the group was ecstatic. We had played for hours, all of us competing to be the best. Zane congratulated us and wished us a good night. We would be back early tomorrow.
***
The group excitedly poured into the gaming lounge when the doors opened. A few were trash talking each other, boasting about how well they would do that day.
Zane walked in cheerily "Hey everybody! Easy now, there will be time enough for competition later..." gesturing to those who had been arguing.
'Today each of you will be testing the core feature of the game... generative combat!" a murmur formed around the room evidently wondering what he meant by *generative* combat. He picked up on it and explained that today we would be testing the games single player mode. He said the game was able to generate new levels every time we played. It was clear most of the group was skeptical; we had seen other games with procedurally generated quests.
After Zane was done his spiel I clicked on the single player icon. The game spared no time in getting to the point.
OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE BELLIGERENTS: USE OF FORCE IS AUTHORIZED
I chuckled at how serious games took themselves nowadays. Although we had seen the multiplayer maps yesterday I stared at the screen in wonder looking over the detailed intricacies of the image on the display. This game was truly photo realistic. Of course there were the typical special effects and filters that made the game 'pop' but after I went into the settings and removed most of the enhancements it really did look lifelike.
Immediately I was impressed, everything seemed so fluid. The game had dropped me in the middle of nowhere. A flashing blip in the distance,'TARGETS' in bold red. It was in first person but everything felt so natural. It seemed like whatever I conceived of doing the game would let me do. I couldn't believe how seamless the parkour animations were when I climbed a tree outside of the village. I scouted the area, there was no one other than a few NPCs around a fire. It didn't seem like they had any pattern at all, I thought it must have been the new AI tools allowing so many animations.
I wasn't really feeling like a 'try hard' at the moment and wanted to see what the game was made of. I decided to forgo the objective and just wander around. When I began to walk towards the hills in the distance the game began to coach me back to the objective.
*LEAVING MISSION AREA, LEAVING MISSION AREA...*
***Lame.***
Eventually my character turned around automatically refacing toward the objective markers. I reluctantly walked towards the men around the fire. I didn't recognize where the game was supposed to be taking place. They wore generic looking middle eastern garb and spoke a language I had never heard. Suddenly the men stood up in shock and pointed to my character. What they were saying was unintelligible to me, but suddenly the game translated into English. I remembered seeing a similar mechanic in some older game.
"*Tie him up! Tie the bastard up!"*
"*He's one of them, I can tell. Look at his eyes!"*
I wondered what the lore of the game was about. For a generative mission the dialogue was kind of interesting.
"*He's the same as the one we saw last month!"*
"*Kill him! Kill him then!"*
The men seemed panicked. I was really impressed by the voice acting. I wondered if this was also generative as I had heard big studios were now using AI to voice characters. Suddenly one of the men picked up a shotgun from behind him and began to blast my character.
**CRITICAL CRITICAL CRITICAL**
I began to laugh at how ridiculous it was. I looked around the room at the other players who all seemed deeply immersed in their missions. I was surprised to see that everyone's level looked completely different. How many assets were in this game? Game-over appeared, only this one was unique. A stern looking woman in a ponytail and glasses scorned me from a secondary window in the corner of the screen.
"*Come on try harder! He got away!"* the second screen faded. I hated when games did this.
I had heard of developers using frustration in the equation when trying to find that perfect addictive game loop formula, but it still peeved me off.
Just then Zane walked over. "Hey buddy. Come on now, were not paying you to make footage for a gag video. I want you to actually *play* the game." he sounded a little passive aggressive.
"DIE DIRTBAG!" I heard one of the guys yell from across the room. Apparently he was enjoying it. I saw another laughing his head off.
"Look at their reactions! I'm 'tea bagging' the mark. Look at him!" he was almost in tears. A few of the other gamers looked over and started laughing.
"Have fun... but play the game." Zane said encouragingly noticing the players on the other side of the room cracking up.
"Yeah... alright Zane" I said sort of annoyed. *Micro management much?*
***
The next day a few of us expected to play multiplayer but Zane said to keep testing the single player mode. Some sighed, but the others were already logged in and loading up, eager to play. I don't know if it was Zane rubbing me the wrong way but after he got on my case the day before I didn't really care for the game. I mean it was incredible but I started to notice it was a little too focused on details and not enough on the fun.
For every few fun missions where I was able to just go in and fight a bunch of enemies there was an equal amount of slow reconnaissance levels where the game would basically force you to play exactly as it wanted. For instance, if there were enemies detected it would not let you even leave cover. It just kept saying something about how '*failure was immanent'*. A few of us complained but Zane said it was all for the sake of realism and we would grow to appreciate it.
After lunch Zane unveiled a leader board and said whoever was on the top it at the end of the day would get a thousand dollar bonus. I was impressed but I basically knew that wasn't ever going to be me. As fun as the game could be, the play style just wasn't really my thing. A few of the competitive players took it really seriously though. It was like they became completely focused on topping the board.
It wasn't just the stealth missions that bothered me. For one, every mission it seemed like the movement and aiming settings changed slightly. It was fine but had the devs never heard of customization? I also started to find the UI and voice 'companion' really annoying. It was like they would reprimand me if I didn't play the game exactly how it wanted. I talked to the others about it but they all seemed to be enjoying it.
What really bothered me though, and I didn't tell them then, but the game felt *too* realistic. I mean I had grown up with tons of violent games but this one was different. Not only were the graphics crazy good, the animation and dialogue were also so realistic.
One mission I was in some small village in Africa or something. I had to shoot through a bunch of soldiers but when I got to the target his dialogue really got to me. I mean, I get being accurate to life but this just felt unnecessary. I was about to complete the mission when the character model spread his arms in the air and said 'WAIT!'. He looked at me dead in the eyes and I swear it was the realest expression I had ever seen... and I don't just mean in a game. He was sobbing and his voice was hoarse, suddenly he said *'I have a son! Please'*. To be honest it freaked me out. I just wanted to be done with the mission.
I stared at the screen for like twenty seconds while the NPC just sat there crying. It was uncanny valley territory. Suddenly he got up to run. I didn't want to hear Zane complain about me 'not playing properly' so I shot him as he was jumping out a window... The thing that really messed me up though was when he started to cry out a name "My boy... *Abimbola*, *ABIMBOLA!"* he was shouting. I recoiled at the screen, did they have to make it this graphic? I would definitely bring this up to Zane.
MISSION PASSED appeared on screen in big bold gold letters with a tally of my score.
A+
I watched as my name moved up the leader board to second place. Hmm.... maybe I could get used to the game?
***
For the next week all of us played with fervor. I adapted to some of the quirks and was actually getting quite good. As I played different weapons were unlocked and I never saw the same mission. I mean of course some of them were very similar but they all were somewhat unique. We played battle royale most of the time but we would complete at least a few solo missions a day.
I rarely saw Zane and when I did he was generally on his phone talking in a hushed voice. I figured he must have been busy as the game was probably nearing release.
*At least all of this is what I had thought... until...*
That day was different. After we finished playing the royale mode I loaded up the single player. The game said it was a harder difficulty level then usual. I had to infiltrate a compound and take out their leader. It didn't seem too difficult; I weaved through the corridors stealthily dragging bodies away from detection.
Finally I reached the objective, some type of boardroom or office. My character slowly opened the door... then something happened I hadn't seen before.
Someone had slipped behind my character and tied me up. I watched as my player was bound to a chair. Then a strict looking woman in a beret walked in to the room gesturing to the door. They slammed it shut. I couldn't believe that what I was seeing was in game and not cinematic. She leaned in to the camera...
"Listen to me closely. Yes, you... you spineless coward. You killed a lot of my men back there. Do they at least pay you well?" she spit on the character with vitriol...
I recalled the oddly realistic mission from a few days ago.
"We've got five minutes. Five!? Do you hear me. We were able to hack into your connection remotely. Apparently they don't trust you enough to run a mission alone. How does that make you feel? Watching your every move. You must be real loyal..."
The dialogue was going on for quite a while. I figured it was a scripted mission but was starting to get confused. I looked around the lounge, the others completely focused, blasting away.
Zane was nowhere to be seen.
"SAY SOMETHING!" She yelled tossing a cabinet over in anger.
I stared stunned at the screen. Was there a dialogue option?
"Boss I don't think they are fitted with two way communication." a second voice said from across the room.
"Hmm... he must be able to do something. Nod if you can hear me!" she said.
I stared at the screen in disbelief. Was I supposed to move the camera around? I did.
"Listen you worm! Why don't you come and see me face to face! Instead of hiding behind these *killing machines*! Do you have no honor? No integrity!"
I was dumbfounded. Was this mission for real? This made no sense... killing machines? We're we playing as some kind of mech or something? My thoughts chugged along struggling to connect. If someone was looking me in the eyes right then they would have heard the old 'dial up tone' as they peered into my blank stare.
It was like a train hit me.
"Is this who you work for?!" she was holding up a picture of Zane.
I knew it then, I couldn't actually understand it conceptually but somehow I knew it. This game... it wasn't a game! These *were* real people... I thought of the man calling out the name of his son. I couldn't breathe, my ears started ringing, I could hardly see through the water pooling in my eyes.
I started to shake the mouse violently up and down.
"It's Zane..." she said bitterly.
"Innocent peoples lives are at stake here! Do you have no remorse!?"
Again I shook the mouse rapidly.
"You have remorse...?" she said in disbelief.
"Okay... so tell us then... *TELL US*? Where is Zane?"
"Is he in Asia?" she said.
I shook the mouse left and right.
"Middle East?"
I continued.
"This isn't gonna work..." she said and suddenly cut *'my'* hand loose.
"I'm going to give you this gun and we're going to leave the room. You are going to spell out for me where you are with bullets. Got it? Try anything and I will find you and gut you."
I nodded, scanning the room around me. Nobody aware of the fact I was a crying wreck in the corner of the lounge.
I looked up the coordinates of where I was online and sprayed them into the wall. Writing like I had done in countless games before, only this time, lives at stake.
***LONGITUDE XX LATITUDE XX***
I closed the program.
Zane entered the room looking directly at me and walked over. "Done for the day?"
"Yeah... I... my hands are acting up" I could barely speak. I felt like the room was closing in.
Suddenly Zane got a call. His brow furrowed as he put his ear the phone.
"EVERYONE WE GOTTA PACK IT UP!" He yelled more ferociously then we had ever heard. "NOW!"
Everyone eventually snapped out of it and made their way out of the building confused.
Zane said we were done for the day and everyone stared at him bewildered. After insisting, they all got into their cars and drove off. I faked walking off and hid behind some bushes across the street.
I watched as Zane and Co loaded everything into black trucks. If I wasn't scared out of my wits I would have said it was impressive. They peeled off in less then five minutes.
I sat there on the side walk coping with everything that had just happened.
From out of nowhere several vehicles skidded into the parking lot. Black clade figures in balaclavas armed with assault rifles rushed the building. They didn't look like any agency I had ever seen but they were gone almost as soon as they had arrived.
Zane was gone.
***
Everyone was pretty shocked when they realized the devs had disappeared. They complained on discord for weeks about how it was the best game they had ever played and that they couldn't wait for the release date.
Some wondered if the company had gone bankrupt, but we all had our checks deposited.
I still haven't spent a dollar of it.
Most of the time I just stare out the window thinking about what I've done. Did any of them realize what we did? We were all cold blooded killers now... they weren't the least bit aware...
Or were they? Their laughs haunting me, remembering as they tormented '*NPC*s', hysterical as they danced on the bodies and worse... I can barely bring myself to remember. They must have known... they must have...
I've tried to sleep but I can't, every night all I can see is the face of the man in the African village crying out the name of his son....
*'Abimbola, Abimbola...'*
I don't play games anymore.
source
A lot of people said they were envious of my job. It was easy to understand why... I played video games for a living. The envy of hordes of teenagers around the globe. I don't mean the monotonous slog of *testing* games in early development either. No. I actually *played* them for a living.
Two years ago I was one of the top competitive BaseKnight players in the world. It was truly an incredible time for gamers. Everybody was playing BaseKnight... and I mean everybody. Sure, before BaseKnight e-sports was a thing, but after it some players became bona-fide celebrities.
It was insane.
Unfortunately for me, I was not, one of those people. Although I had a small following and made a little bit of money from tournaments, I was a nobody. Once the hype died down, the money dried up. This happened to a lot of us.
That's why it was such a big deal when we got the offers.
I thought maybe it was a prank. The email said I had been hand picked to participate in the testing of a new game "Battle Guardian". I had never heard of the developer, but in the e-mail they mentioned how they had secured a sizable amount of funding from various investors who believed in the project.
At first I thought the whole thing sounded kind of... well, *trash*. The developer said that Battle Guardian was the most intricate combat game ever. I was going to delete the email and forget about it, that was, until I saw the compensation.
Thirty thousand; *with opportunities for bonuses.*
My live stream had long since fizzled out, but even when I had been pulling in hundreds of viewers a day I only made a couple thousand. Plus, the winnings from the tournament I won last year were already wearing thin. This was a no brainer.
I signed onto discord and joined one of the servers for high level comp players. Before I could even ask, I had my answer... people were already talking about the mysterious offer. After way too much digital chest pounding and trash talking we found out that around twenty of us had been invited. Of course all of us were high level players but it didn't seem like there was any rhyme or reason to the selection. Some of the rich players who had made it big from BaseKnight weren't interested, but others said they would participate just to see what the game was about.
***
For some reason the developer insisted we had to meet and play the game in person. I was only a couple of hours away from LA, where the office was, but they literally flew people out to test this game. Clearly money wasn't an object and I guess having some of the worlds best players to test your new game was an investment in quality.
The building was kind of inconspicuous and not really what I expected. They didn't even have a logo on the front. I saw a few of the guys I knew from streaming and we talked for a bit, all of us wondering what the deal was with this new game. A man with matted hair and eyes wired greeted us with a smile.
"Hey guys, good to meet you. I'm Zane. Welcome, welcome!" he walked around shaking hands and patting backs. He wore a casual Hawaiian shirt and skate shorts. He looked like a stereotypical game dev, one who had been up for one too many nights running solely off of cappuccinos and energy shots. He showed us to the testing room.
Immediately the group sounded their amazement. The room looked less like and office building and more like a world class lounge. There was even a small cafeteria we were told was complimentary. Large spacious desks with premium equipment were placed around the room. Zane told us his primary focus was to make sure we felt right at home. After we had all settled down Zane directed our focus to a large screen with what was presumably the Battle Guardian menu.
*"This, ladies and gentlemen, is* ***Battle Guardian!***" he proclaimed proudly as the game demo began to play.
If the group was impressed by the room, our astonishment at the game itself was double.
"*What?! Is this the new 'Unreal Engine' it looks like real life!"*
"*The detail in the map is c-razy, this must have taken years..."*
The compliments went on for the next five minutes as the demo played out. Some of the guys thought it was pre-rendered footage but Zane assured us everything we had just seen was 'in-game'. He told us this was the product of years of development and the entire team was really happy they could finally unveil what they had been working on.
We all took places at stations around the room and set up our controllers and peripherals. Zane told us we would start of with something fun and play some competitive multiplayer matches against each other. We decided on a 'battle royale' game mode as that was what most of us were used to coming from BaseKnight. I couldn't believe how realistic the game was, it was like they had thought of everything. I figured they must of have been using AI tech because if there were animations repeating I couldn't tell.
At the end of that first day the group was ecstatic. We had played for hours, all of us competing to be the best. Zane congratulated us and wished us a good night. We would be back early tomorrow.
***
The group excitedly poured into the gaming lounge when the doors opened. A few were trash talking each other, boasting about how well they would do that day.
Zane walked in cheerily "Hey everybody! Easy now, there will be time enough for competition later..." gesturing to those who had been arguing.
'Today each of you will be testing the core feature of the game... generative combat!" a murmur formed around the room evidently wondering what he meant by *generative* combat. He picked up on it and explained that today we would be testing the games single player mode. He said the game was able to generate new levels every time we played. It was clear most of the group was skeptical; we had seen other games with procedurally generated quests.
After Zane was done his spiel I clicked on the single player icon. The game spared no time in getting to the point.
OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE BELLIGERENTS: USE OF FORCE IS AUTHORIZED
I chuckled at how serious games took themselves nowadays. Although we had seen the multiplayer maps yesterday I stared at the screen in wonder looking over the detailed intricacies of the image on the display. This game was truly photo realistic. Of course there were the typical special effects and filters that made the game 'pop' but after I went into the settings and removed most of the enhancements it really did look lifelike.
Immediately I was impressed, everything seemed so fluid. The game had dropped me in the middle of nowhere. A flashing blip in the distance,'TARGETS' in bold red. It was in first person but everything felt so natural. It seemed like whatever I conceived of doing the game would let me do. I couldn't believe how seamless the parkour animations were when I climbed a tree outside of the village. I scouted the area, there was no one other than a few NPCs around a fire. It didn't seem like they had any pattern at all, I thought it must have been the new AI tools allowing so many animations.
I wasn't really feeling like a 'try hard' at the moment and wanted to see what the game was made of. I decided to forgo the objective and just wander around. When I began to walk towards the hills in the distance the game began to coach me back to the objective.
*LEAVING MISSION AREA, LEAVING MISSION AREA...*
***Lame.***
Eventually my character turned around automatically refacing toward the objective markers. I reluctantly walked towards the men around the fire. I didn't recognize where the game was supposed to be taking place. They wore generic looking middle eastern garb and spoke a language I had never heard. Suddenly the men stood up in shock and pointed to my character. What they were saying was unintelligible to me, but suddenly the game translated into English. I remembered seeing a similar mechanic in some older game.
"*Tie him up! Tie the bastard up!"*
"*He's one of them, I can tell. Look at his eyes!"*
I wondered what the lore of the game was about. For a generative mission the dialogue was kind of interesting.
"*He's the same as the one we saw last month!"*
"*Kill him! Kill him then!"*
The men seemed panicked. I was really impressed by the voice acting. I wondered if this was also generative as I had heard big studios were now using AI to voice characters. Suddenly one of the men picked up a shotgun from behind him and began to blast my character.
**CRITICAL CRITICAL CRITICAL**
I began to laugh at how ridiculous it was. I looked around the room at the other players who all seemed deeply immersed in their missions. I was surprised to see that everyone's level looked completely different. How many assets were in this game? Game-over appeared, only this one was unique. A stern looking woman in a ponytail and glasses scorned me from a secondary window in the corner of the screen.
"*Come on try harder! He got away!"* the second screen faded. I hated when games did this.
I had heard of developers using frustration in the equation when trying to find that perfect addictive game loop formula, but it still peeved me off.
Just then Zane walked over. "Hey buddy. Come on now, were not paying you to make footage for a gag video. I want you to actually *play* the game." he sounded a little passive aggressive.
"DIE DIRTBAG!" I heard one of the guys yell from across the room. Apparently he was enjoying it. I saw another laughing his head off.
"Look at their reactions! I'm 'tea bagging' the mark. Look at him!" he was almost in tears. A few of the other gamers looked over and started laughing.
"Have fun... but play the game." Zane said encouragingly noticing the players on the other side of the room cracking up.
"Yeah... alright Zane" I said sort of annoyed. *Micro management much?*
***
The next day a few of us expected to play multiplayer but Zane said to keep testing the single player mode. Some sighed, but the others were already logged in and loading up, eager to play. I don't know if it was Zane rubbing me the wrong way but after he got on my case the day before I didn't really care for the game. I mean it was incredible but I started to notice it was a little too focused on details and not enough on the fun.
For every few fun missions where I was able to just go in and fight a bunch of enemies there was an equal amount of slow reconnaissance levels where the game would basically force you to play exactly as it wanted. For instance, if there were enemies detected it would not let you even leave cover. It just kept saying something about how '*failure was immanent'*. A few of us complained but Zane said it was all for the sake of realism and we would grow to appreciate it.
After lunch Zane unveiled a leader board and said whoever was on the top it at the end of the day would get a thousand dollar bonus. I was impressed but I basically knew that wasn't ever going to be me. As fun as the game could be, the play style just wasn't really my thing. A few of the competitive players took it really seriously though. It was like they became completely focused on topping the board.
It wasn't just the stealth missions that bothered me. For one, every mission it seemed like the movement and aiming settings changed slightly. It was fine but had the devs never heard of customization? I also started to find the UI and voice 'companion' really annoying. It was like they would reprimand me if I didn't play the game exactly how it wanted. I talked to the others about it but they all seemed to be enjoying it.
What really bothered me though, and I didn't tell them then, but the game felt *too* realistic. I mean I had grown up with tons of violent games but this one was different. Not only were the graphics crazy good, the animation and dialogue were also so realistic.
One mission I was in some small village in Africa or something. I had to shoot through a bunch of soldiers but when I got to the target his dialogue really got to me. I mean, I get being accurate to life but this just felt unnecessary. I was about to complete the mission when the character model spread his arms in the air and said 'WAIT!'. He looked at me dead in the eyes and I swear it was the realest expression I had ever seen... and I don't just mean in a game. He was sobbing and his voice was hoarse, suddenly he said *'I have a son! Please'*. To be honest it freaked me out. I just wanted to be done with the mission.
I stared at the screen for like twenty seconds while the NPC just sat there crying. It was uncanny valley territory. Suddenly he got up to run. I didn't want to hear Zane complain about me 'not playing properly' so I shot him as he was jumping out a window... The thing that really messed me up though was when he started to cry out a name "My boy... *Abimbola*, *ABIMBOLA!"* he was shouting. I recoiled at the screen, did they have to make it this graphic? I would definitely bring this up to Zane.
MISSION PASSED appeared on screen in big bold gold letters with a tally of my score.
A+
I watched as my name moved up the leader board to second place. Hmm.... maybe I could get used to the game?
***
For the next week all of us played with fervor. I adapted to some of the quirks and was actually getting quite good. As I played different weapons were unlocked and I never saw the same mission. I mean of course some of them were very similar but they all were somewhat unique. We played battle royale most of the time but we would complete at least a few solo missions a day.
I rarely saw Zane and when I did he was generally on his phone talking in a hushed voice. I figured he must have been busy as the game was probably nearing release.
*At least all of this is what I had thought... until...*
That day was different. After we finished playing the royale mode I loaded up the single player. The game said it was a harder difficulty level then usual. I had to infiltrate a compound and take out their leader. It didn't seem too difficult; I weaved through the corridors stealthily dragging bodies away from detection.
Finally I reached the objective, some type of boardroom or office. My character slowly opened the door... then something happened I hadn't seen before.
Someone had slipped behind my character and tied me up. I watched as my player was bound to a chair. Then a strict looking woman in a beret walked in to the room gesturing to the door. They slammed it shut. I couldn't believe that what I was seeing was in game and not cinematic. She leaned in to the camera...
"Listen to me closely. Yes, you... you spineless coward. You killed a lot of my men back there. Do they at least pay you well?" she spit on the character with vitriol...
I recalled the oddly realistic mission from a few days ago.
"We've got five minutes. Five!? Do you hear me. We were able to hack into your connection remotely. Apparently they don't trust you enough to run a mission alone. How does that make you feel? Watching your every move. You must be real loyal..."
The dialogue was going on for quite a while. I figured it was a scripted mission but was starting to get confused. I looked around the lounge, the others completely focused, blasting away.
Zane was nowhere to be seen.
"SAY SOMETHING!" She yelled tossing a cabinet over in anger.
I stared stunned at the screen. Was there a dialogue option?
"Boss I don't think they are fitted with two way communication." a second voice said from across the room.
"Hmm... he must be able to do something. Nod if you can hear me!" she said.
I stared at the screen in disbelief. Was I supposed to move the camera around? I did.
"Listen you worm! Why don't you come and see me face to face! Instead of hiding behind these *killing machines*! Do you have no honor? No integrity!"
I was dumbfounded. Was this mission for real? This made no sense... killing machines? We're we playing as some kind of mech or something? My thoughts chugged along struggling to connect. If someone was looking me in the eyes right then they would have heard the old 'dial up tone' as they peered into my blank stare.
It was like a train hit me.
"Is this who you work for?!" she was holding up a picture of Zane.
I knew it then, I couldn't actually understand it conceptually but somehow I knew it. This game... it wasn't a game! These *were* real people... I thought of the man calling out the name of his son. I couldn't breathe, my ears started ringing, I could hardly see through the water pooling in my eyes.
I started to shake the mouse violently up and down.
"It's Zane..." she said bitterly.
"Innocent peoples lives are at stake here! Do you have no remorse!?"
Again I shook the mouse rapidly.
"You have remorse...?" she said in disbelief.
"Okay... so tell us then... *TELL US*? Where is Zane?"
"Is he in Asia?" she said.
I shook the mouse left and right.
"Middle East?"
I continued.
"This isn't gonna work..." she said and suddenly cut *'my'* hand loose.
"I'm going to give you this gun and we're going to leave the room. You are going to spell out for me where you are with bullets. Got it? Try anything and I will find you and gut you."
I nodded, scanning the room around me. Nobody aware of the fact I was a crying wreck in the corner of the lounge.
I looked up the coordinates of where I was online and sprayed them into the wall. Writing like I had done in countless games before, only this time, lives at stake.
***LONGITUDE XX LATITUDE XX***
I closed the program.
Zane entered the room looking directly at me and walked over. "Done for the day?"
"Yeah... I... my hands are acting up" I could barely speak. I felt like the room was closing in.
Suddenly Zane got a call. His brow furrowed as he put his ear the phone.
"EVERYONE WE GOTTA PACK IT UP!" He yelled more ferociously then we had ever heard. "NOW!"
Everyone eventually snapped out of it and made their way out of the building confused.
Zane said we were done for the day and everyone stared at him bewildered. After insisting, they all got into their cars and drove off. I faked walking off and hid behind some bushes across the street.
I watched as Zane and Co loaded everything into black trucks. If I wasn't scared out of my wits I would have said it was impressive. They peeled off in less then five minutes.
I sat there on the side walk coping with everything that had just happened.
From out of nowhere several vehicles skidded into the parking lot. Black clade figures in balaclavas armed with assault rifles rushed the building. They didn't look like any agency I had ever seen but they were gone almost as soon as they had arrived.
Zane was gone.
***
Everyone was pretty shocked when they realized the devs had disappeared. They complained on discord for weeks about how it was the best game they had ever played and that they couldn't wait for the release date.
Some wondered if the company had gone bankrupt, but we all had our checks deposited.
I still haven't spent a dollar of it.
Most of the time I just stare out the window thinking about what I've done. Did any of them realize what we did? We were all cold blooded killers now... they weren't the least bit aware...
Or were they? Their laughs haunting me, remembering as they tormented '*NPC*s', hysterical as they danced on the bodies and worse... I can barely bring myself to remember. They must have known... they must have...
I've tried to sleep but I can't, every night all I can see is the face of the man in the African village crying out the name of his son....
*'Abimbola, Abimbola...'*
I don't play games anymore.
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