Re: Bad Machine

["Avrom Faderman" <Avrom_Faderman@email.msn.com>]

Admiral Jota wrote in message <782oge$ihg@news-central.tiac.net>...
>Kory Heath <kheath@best.com> wrote:
>> [endgame spoilers for Bad Machine...]
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>> Admiral Jota wrote:
>> > Avrom Faderman <Avrom_Faderman@email.msn.com> wrote:
>> > You may want to play the game again though; there is more than one
>> > 'winning' ending. (I've seen two; Dan has told me there are others.)
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>> Ok, I'm finally going to break down and ask about this.  (I didn't want
>> to, but I haven't been able to get anywhere else on my own steam.)  I've
>> been able to break through the south wall near the lifter and go
>> outside, where it is "very bright, and very quiet".  Is this one of the
>> "winning" endings?
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>Yes.


It's the only one I've found.  I'm definitely going to go back and look for
more now that I know there are some, but...

>> If it is, I'd be interested in hearing how other people feel about
>> this.  My own feelings are mixed (or will be, if this is in fact an
>> "ending" :).  On the one hand, it's a gutsy move by the author, and I
>> like that.
>
>That's how I feel; I rather like the way this game is written. The
>enigmatic style of most of the text depicts the way the real world is
>being reflected in the mind of Mover 005, and the endings fit in perfectly
>with the rest of the game.


As I said before, I think that ending is brilliant...
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>> On the other hand, I'm not sure I like the total lack of
>> closure that this has resulted in for me.  I've been sitting in limbo
>> for weeks now, with no clue about whether I've reached an 'ending', or
>> still have lots to explore.  For all I know, there *is* a conventional
>> "kill the queen" story in there; if so, I'd like to see it (even if I
>> end up liking *this* ending better!)


...precisely *because* of the complete lack of closure, plus the effect of
the form.

You're inside the warehouse, and everything is continual, rote, almost
brutal activity and noise.  Crash, bang, whirr, zing.  Over and over again,
everything (except in some tiny part you) part of this great Machine--the
machine made of all the good machines, all geared towards Product.  One step
and...

...Outside it is very bright, and very quiet.

The end of the rules.  The end of the noise.  The end of everything Mover
#005 has ever "known" (if it in fact can "know").  Open space, with all the
exhilaration and all the terror of complete freedom.

>> If this is an "ending", and if all the other "endings" are similar in
>> style, I wouldn't call this a conventional IF story structure *at all*.
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>Well, I don't know about that. With respect to the ending discussed so
>far, it's not a 'find the object/defeat the villain' story, but that's a
>very Good Thing(tm) IMO. The story is the hapless hero, trying to escape
>the confines of the oppressive world around it.


Right;  that's what I thought.

The only sense in which it's not conventional is that it kind of ends in a
cliff-hanger.  What will Mover #005 *do*?

But that could never be written into an I-F piece;  not with the limitations
that imposes.  The whole point of the game is that the answer to the
question is "Whatever it 'wants' to."

Actually, there was something that worried me about this interpretation a
little bit:

If you use the "INDEX" command a lot, you find out that the warehouse isn't
as self-contained (minus the Transports) as you might have thought.  It has
extensive offensive capability.  I'm unconvinced that Mover #005 is as far
out of the world of the warehouse as it might "think" it is.

Avrom