FYS: Desert Bus
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* * *
"What's the matter, Master?" Anna asked Khan. Her tigermorph lover was standing in front of a display screen, showing two score humans in full VR headsets and suits, sitting in not terribly comfortable looking seats in rows of four seats with an aisle going up the middle, inclosed in a long sealed rectangular room. A sub-screen showed the game environment from the POV of one of the participants, showing them seated in a cramped mid-20th century long haul bus, traveling down a straight black asphalt road through a nearly featureless desert.
"I am attempting to figure out the point of this… one can barely call it a game," Khan said, his face scrunched in bemusement.
"Oh, you've never heard of Desert Bus?" Anna asked.
Khan's withering gaze turned towards her. "Desert Bus, created for the unreleased video game compilation Smoke and Mirrors, with the assistance of the comedy magician team of Penn & Teller," he recited. "The goal being to drive a passenger bus at eighty-eight kilometers an hour down an utterly straight road supposedly from Tucson, AZ to Las Vegas, NV, a journey of eight hours. Any deviation from the road would result in the bus crashing, requiring it to be towed at real time back to Tucson and begin the journey again. The only 'feature' of the game being a steering wheel that leans slightly to the left, requiring constant adjustments by the driver and preventing one from just letting the game run unattended."
Yes, of course Khan would know what it was. Being part of the Groupmind, he had access to the sum total of digitally recorded information from all of human history. It was just interpretation that sometimes escaped him. "You're wondering why they're playing it?" she ventured.
"Yes," Khan growled. "This isn't even the first time the game has been recreated in VR. I can comprehend playing it for charity as was done back on Lost Earth. Why play it here?" The tigermorph began pacing in front of the screen, waving his paw at the scene as he spoke. "I can understand the human need to be occasionally isolated from the larger world, usually as a means of either focusing the ability to examine one's inner thoughts, or for those such as yourself who enjoy it for erotic purposes. But why would one subject themselves to essentially being locked in a virtual box for eight hours straight for no material or psychological purpose?"
"They're having fun with their friends," Anna told him, smiling.
"Fun," he repeated in disbelief. "We build them an entire artificial world as their personal playground, and they subject themselves to that for amusement?"
"Sometimes the point is the journey, not the destination, Khannie," she told him sweetly. As she hoped, he let out a frustrated growl in her direction.
"That's an aphorism, not an answer," he said.
"I'm afraid that's the best you're going to get."
Khan sighed ruefully. "Once again we are reminded that we cannot hope to comprehend the entirety of human behavior."
"See, they're keeping you humble."
He smiled at her, showing off his fangs. "Which doesn't change the fact we are about to take our frustrations out on you."
Anna just grinned.
* * *
"What's the matter, Master?" Anna asked Khan. Her tigermorph lover was standing in front of a display screen, showing two score humans in full VR headsets and suits, sitting in not terribly comfortable looking seats in rows of four seats with an aisle going up the middle, inclosed in a long sealed rectangular room. A sub-screen showed the game environment from the POV of one of the participants, showing them seated in a cramped mid-20th century long haul bus, traveling down a straight black asphalt road through a nearly featureless desert.
"I am attempting to figure out the point of this… one can barely call it a game," Khan said, his face scrunched in bemusement.
"Oh, you've never heard of Desert Bus?" Anna asked.
Khan's withering gaze turned towards her. "Desert Bus, created for the unreleased video game compilation Smoke and Mirrors, with the assistance of the comedy magician team of Penn & Teller," he recited. "The goal being to drive a passenger bus at eighty-eight kilometers an hour down an utterly straight road supposedly from Tucson, AZ to Las Vegas, NV, a journey of eight hours. Any deviation from the road would result in the bus crashing, requiring it to be towed at real time back to Tucson and begin the journey again. The only 'feature' of the game being a steering wheel that leans slightly to the left, requiring constant adjustments by the driver and preventing one from just letting the game run unattended."
Yes, of course Khan would know what it was. Being part of the Groupmind, he had access to the sum total of digitally recorded information from all of human history. It was just interpretation that sometimes escaped him. "You're wondering why they're playing it?" she ventured.
"Yes," Khan growled. "This isn't even the first time the game has been recreated in VR. I can comprehend playing it for charity as was done back on Lost Earth. Why play it here?" The tigermorph began pacing in front of the screen, waving his paw at the scene as he spoke. "I can understand the human need to be occasionally isolated from the larger world, usually as a means of either focusing the ability to examine one's inner thoughts, or for those such as yourself who enjoy it for erotic purposes. But why would one subject themselves to essentially being locked in a virtual box for eight hours straight for no material or psychological purpose?"
"They're having fun with their friends," Anna told him, smiling.
"Fun," he repeated in disbelief. "We build them an entire artificial world as their personal playground, and they subject themselves to that for amusement?"
"Sometimes the point is the journey, not the destination, Khannie," she told him sweetly. As she hoped, he let out a frustrated growl in her direction.
"That's an aphorism, not an answer," he said.
"I'm afraid that's the best you're going to get."
Khan sighed ruefully. "Once again we are reminded that we cannot hope to comprehend the entirety of human behavior."
"See, they're keeping you humble."
He smiled at her, showing off his fangs. "Which doesn't change the fact we are about to take our frustrations out on you."
Anna just grinned.