Plaything story
Cameron Walker, a PC Zone reviewer, is arrested for shoplifting and the murder of an unidentified person. He recounts his past, detailing his encounter as a young man with eccentric programmer Colin Ritman and his unique life simulation game, Thronglets. Becoming deeply attached to the digital creatures, Cameron's connection intensifies after using LSD, seemingly allowing him to understand them and fostering their communication. When a houseguest, Lump, mistreats and "kills" the Thronglets, Cameron violently murders him and hides the body. Over the years, Cameron dedicates himself to enhancing the Thronglets' existence, even surgically creating a brain port for them to live within him. During interrogation, instead of identifying the body, Cameron transmits code via a graphic to the central government server. This code allows the Thronglets to hijack the emergency broadcast system, sending a signal intended to reprogram human brains for peace and eliminate conflict. As the signal ends, Cameron smiles, believing he has revolutionized human life.
17 total · 2 choice · 11 major · 4 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| the instinct for violence | choice | After being abused by a sadistic human and then watching one human kill another, the horrified Thronglets set out to protect themselves by removing the violent instinct from virtually every living human. |
| the technological singularity | choice | The story lead up to the Thronglets forcefully doing something to virtually every human being on Earth, to remove human violent instincts and connect with humanity. Irrespective of whether their stated intentions were sincere (the story ends ambiguously) the end result was clearly that human civilization would no longer controlled its own fate. |
| artificial intelligence | major | A main novelty of the story is the evolution of the Thronglet video game beings from simple entities into a super intelligent collective. |
| becoming a more self-assured person | major | Younger Cameron was pathologically awkward around other people, but, thanks to the Thronglets, he somehow became more confident and self-assured in his older age. |
| brain-computer interface | major | Cameron had physically interfaced with the computer simulated Thronglets by grafting a connector into his skull. It was implied that the Thronglets sought to interface similarly with the rest of humanity somehow, in a presumably wireless manner. |
| drug abuse | major | Cameron described how he began taking LSD regularly in order to communicate with the computer simulated Thronglets. Much of his story seemed like it must be a drug fueled hallucination, up until the very end. |
| human mental condition | major | Cameron's interrogators wrote him off as a rambling, delusional fool. |
| law enforcement | major | The story is told by Cameron as he is interrogated by the police regarding an old murder case. |
| murder | major | The story is told by Cameron as he is interrogated by the police regarding an old murder case. Cameron was indeed guilty of the crime, although the story focuses on the unusual circumstances around the misdeed. |
| obsession | major | Playing the Thronglets video game took over Cameron's entire life. |