“The GNE is not a game; it is, on all accounts, a Utopian extension of our own lives.”- Desi Quintans
The GNE ended at 5 past midnight PST after a five minute delay. The last 30 minutes were a cacophony of yells, numbers, URLs and many “I love you all!”–type farewells. As the above quote by yours truly states, the GNE has become a huge part of our lives, with some of us dreaming about it, taking it too seriously (or not seriously enough) and maybe even mixing it up with Real Life.
What we played was just a prototype with maybe 20 features out of what could be hundreds in the Big Game, and yet, we’ve fallen in love. GNE has pervaded our lives, our minds; and that ain’t a bad thing. Through the GNE some of us have found love, lifelong friendships and maybe lifelong enemies. We have met people we probably never would have met otherwise, and done things we could only dream of doing.
Who remembers the first time they stabbed a player with a marshmallow dagger, or their first purple, or the enthusiastic applause once we got to level two? We’ll never forget the feeling of accomplishment we had when we figured out where the Desire grew. It’s these moments, the small ones, not the bad players swearing at you or someone making you their enemy; save that for Oprah. It’s these moments when we truly appreciate being in a community and being around other people.
But while the GNE is usually a warm, happy place, there are things that go wrong. Events such as PARP stealing Satan is Santa’s souls and the wanton “consume_all” of piles, along with the late night anti-shorthand arguments are things we should really avoid in the Big Game. If I wanted to read expletives I’d go to a graffitti wall in the City.
But this talk. about making our own clan/cult/religion has interested some players, namely Satan is Santa, James Holloway and me. Satan wants to make a cult aptly and imaginatively named Satan’s Cult, which will commandeer banks and offer loans to players at a low, low interest rate.
James Holloway has again revived the infamous PARP (People’s Army for Revolutionary Principles), a renegade clan intent on destroying any present order in the GNE and then, almost ironically, creating a new, freer order, devoid of rules and inhibitance, and full of casual sex.
I want to make two organisations. My first will be the po-lice (pronounced “poe-lease” for that funky feeling), a clan that is pretty much non-existent in peacetime, but when things go boom the po-lice will (hopefully) restore order with their funk guns and marhsmallow daggers. Po-lice officers with at least a minor in Music will also be issued with an oboe baton.
The second organisation I want to make is the Cow Cult. It protects cows and tells cow-wranglers to release them instead of carve them. The Cow Cult provides may also extend it’s protection to other animals, namely chickens, to continue the proud work of Plurp (GOD rest ye well).
So that was a look behind the shoulder of a newbie who got lucky and made some good friends. A glance at the past and a little nip at the future.
