A Life in the Day of the Game

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This little interactive story is to show you what a whole lifetime looks like in general terms. Other stories have focused on moments of life. This is meant to summarize the whole thing. And then some. I plan to revisit this sometimes to try to describe the general arc of game play as a career. From a player's point of view rather than an in game entity. [[Okay|play the game]]

OMG look at the time. I have an hour to myself at least. I think this would be a great time to try playing //Love is the Game is Death//. I open my web-browser and type in: faod.loveisthegameisdeath.game. . . . [[Boom! it works. |create account]]

A charmingly understated webpage loads up. It has some curious copy here and there. The developer clearly fancies themselves a poet. But despite their best efforts I am not discouraged. I decide to register an account. Should I create and account named j3zibl or yyanu? I'll let you decide. ''ACCOUNT NAME'' (this is not a character name): [[jezibl|register][$account to "jezibl"]] or [[yyanu|register][$account to "yyanu"]] Pick one for me please and I'll get on with the game.

I read the following text. //Welcome $account, to Love is the Game is Death. In this game you will live until you die. Before you die you may have the chance to leave a legacy in this world either by producing offspring, or adding to a beautiful shared culture, or by sharing your wisdom with others. After you die, you are invited to play again. When you play again there is a chance that you, in your new life will behold the legacy you left behind. But more about that later. Now it is time to apply to be born. You will do that from a place typically called the afterlife but on your first time playing is more correctly the 'pre-life'. Let's go!// Okay, this is fine. Let's go. [[Enter the afterlife (or pre-life) lobby|pre-life]]

//The afterlife lobby is like an airport. Sometimes buzzing with activity, other times it's rather dead. Another way it's like an airport is that it offers you a variety of destinations but depending on how particular you are about where you're going you might have to wait. Like if you want to be born into a particular family, or in a particular region, or to have certain characteristics you might have to wait until a life matching your requirements is ready to start. On the other hand if you'll take anything you can be born (or reborn) right away. // Some of the choices offered to me in the afterlife include: Whether to be born live or in an egg. Live birth I'm told requires an online parent to be available to give birth. I may have to wait. Egg on the other hand means I can be born as long as some viable eggs exist in the world. (If no other player has laid eggs lately then one will be spontaneously created for me.) //Choose your birth mode:// [[live birth]] | [[egg hatching]] ---- There were some other options that I sorted out on my own. I might tell you about them later. But finally I was ready to be born.

I am born as a tiny helpless body attached to Mother. Mother feeds me, protects me and teaches me some basics of the game. I learn that we can talk to eachother now but someday I will leave home. Once I become adult I will lose the ability to communicate with her plainly. This is hard to understand. I'm not Mother's only child. I have siblings. I learn that our nest is rich in both resources and wisdom. They say I was lucky to be born to Mother. Over the next five or ten minutes of game play Mother and my siblings teach me how to gather and hunt for food. I'm also taught how to avoid predators and hostile bodies. I learn about some natural hazards. One of my older siblings passes a certain age and is ejected from the nest. I learn the same will happen to me soon. I try to learn quickly so as not to waste the opportunities I have. Soon however the time comes to [[leave the nest and set out alone.| leave nest]]

I find out that being born from an egg is challenging because I have no one to feed me, protect me from predators, or to teach me. However I am lucky to have hatched in a safe, out of the way place with plenty of convenient food. The game offers me a hint system which gives me some direction and hints. I can leave this on until I choose to turn it off. From these hints and from my own experimentation I learn how to gather food and eat it. I also learn to hide from or escape dangerous predators. After a time though, the easy to find food is depleted and the hint system tells me to [[leave the area and set out on my own.| leave nest]]

I'm now a young adult body. I have a large world to explore. Based on what I've learned so far I should seek a place to make my home. I should also secure a food supply. Finally I may wish to find a mate or join a group. My next choice is which one to pursue first: [[Make a home]] | [[Find Food]] | [[Seek out others]]

Finding an ideal home requires a lot of travelling. I'll need to be well fed or plan to hunt along the way. However I can move slowly and cautiously from one potential shelter to another until I feel I've found the best one. [[NOW WHAT]]?

Plants and minerals are plentiful and easy to find but one has to keep eating very regularly. If I can make a kill, I can gorge myself and then go a long time without having to hunt or gather again. But hunting is dangerous. It is easy to become prey by choosing a challenging quarry or simply forgetting to watch your own back while intent on the chase. [[NOW WHAT]]?

Meeting others is a delicate process. I can use my senses to try to pick up clues about where others gather. If I find a plentiful food source I can expect others will congregate there too. [[NOW WHAT]]?

//Stopping here to re-evaluate what I'm trying to do with this IF. I think I'll rest for a night.//