What the game is arguing

The camera is the player character

You never walk up and talk. You frame. The television then tells the park what the frame meant, in a shouty headline. Hats spread because a hat was news. Fear spreads because fear was news. By the time a weapon appears, the headlines have already asked for a villain.

Case's post-mortem talks about loops and about weaving characters so that a small photo has a later echo. The lovers are the clearest echo: a cute photo, a cruel headline, a return as protesters, a quiet place in the candle scene. I tell that line on their page rather than stretching it here.

Kinder footage is allowed, and useless

You can photograph people being decent. The game will print a softer chyron. The crowd does not calm down, because the system Case built refuses to reward it. That is the argument, and it is also why there is no good ending to farm.

Four lines appear as the television's manifesto, one photo at a time: who watches people get along, then 'peace is boring. violence goes viral.', then a line about stories needing conflict, then 'GIVE THE AUDIENCE WHAT WE WANT.' I quote them on peace is boring. Draft lines that exist only as comments in the text file are not in the game, so I do not quote them as dialogue.

What I will not mix in

The title sentence has a life in Blake, in a biblical comparison people hope for, and in a tools sentence that belongs to John Culkin. Those are real, and they are not the plot. They are on the quote. Gamers With Glasses connects the game to Blake and also misdates a McLuhan book and a Blake line. I use that essay as a reading, and I do not copy its dates.

The scene order, if you want events rather than an argument, is the story table.

FAQ