** Hey reader / inspired contributor, my goal was to make an interesting age progression mechanism where the character won't know he's really being changed physically until he exits “The Simulator: Bad Life Choices” and even then how aware will he be and will reality have changed? Having "Bad Life Choices" in the name of the machine is making me crave a story where an innocent, curious, and well intentioned youth is tempted and corrupted, left as a shell of their former selves. Or maybe, because they want to "beat the game" they avoid all the pitfalls, and upon exiting, find that they have become the person they have always wanted to become.
The options faded away and everything was again black. Text appeared on the screen and the voice read aloud. "To exit this simulation, verbally confirm your desire at any time. This simulation will place you into a world much like your own and allow you to experience the effects of choices you make, as immediately as you would like. Please remain still, Calibrating..."
Andrew remained still and a white outline appeared at the edges of his vision. In the left corner, it gave the date and time, in the right corner it gave his age, Age: 14.2. The date was accurate but the time was 6.5 hours in the future. The mall had just opened but the time was showing 4:30 pm instead of 10:00 am
The voice came back, "In this simulation, you will be able to communicate verbally and with gestures. Please nod that you understand." Andrew nodded and was alarmed that the whole screen of text shifted with his head movement like it was painted on the inside of a helmet he was wearing. It created a Heads-Up Display (HUD) like in some of the games he played.
"Thank you, Lets familiarize you with the interface." Suddenly the black room became a bedroom scene with a gender neutral theme. Light yellow walls and a bed with grey bedding. The only furniture was an off white dresser. Andrew looked around and noticed the HUD was still active. After ten or so seconds to orient himself the voice directed him to go to the closet. Andrew (being a smart ass) tried to walk through the bed, because it obviously didn't exist, only to fall onto it and land softly. The textures of different fabrics and surfaces felt real. Warm and soft bedding, cool and hard wooden bed frame, If he didn't have the HUD, he might think this was a real place or was tricked into thinking the black room was empty in the first place.
Andrew walked over to the closet and opened it. There he found a mirror hanging from the door and as he reached in and grabbed a shirt, he saw his reflection immediately change and a "popup" confirmation asking if he wanted to switch outfits. The rest of the world blurred slightly but the closet and everything in it looked crystal clear, the timer on the HUD was frozen at 4:31:23. So game time stops while he is interacting with things.
He browsed the selection and realized all the choices were for kids his age, he noticed there was an option to browse clothes for his age or older. He was currently browsing young teen (13-16). the options displayed older teen (17-19), young adult (20-26), adult (27-34), mature adult (35-55), early retirement (55-64), and Seniors (65+). Selecting the young adult option he saw he could select different clothes types generally considered appropriate for that age group. Viewing "young adult professional" changed his reflection to be wearing an over sized suit. His reflection was holding the pants up to keep them from falling down and the fine jacket was reaching down to his knees. an option appeared to preview age appropriate, which he selected expecting the suit to be tailored and styled for his smaller frame. The image instead morphed into a 20 something version of himself which looked quite good in the suit but using it was a long ways off. The options appeared to change into outfit and another option appeared to change into outfit and fast forward though it was disabled. The voice came back saying, "Good, Many things in this world offer interactions such as this. All your interactions will be stored and psychologically categorized for any fast forwards you may choose to do. At this time however we need more interactions to build a more in depth profile, you will see options become available when we feel confident in progressing your avatar."
Andrew had no idea what to make of that so he asked, "What does that mean?" after a moment of silence, "Further information cannot be provided at this time as it may lead to attempts of manipulating the game. Just explore what you find interesting and do what you want to do as though this was your life."
Andrew had played The Sims before and knew that fast forwarding the game could get the character into unpleasant situations. Knowing he, and therefore, his in game avatar, was a child, he knew his occupation was student and with that he had a solid idea as to what to do next.
He canceled out of changing his clothes and decided to leave the bedroom which had a bed, a dresser (which Andrew suspected would have a similar interface if not the same one), and the closet. As he stepped out of the bedroom the voice came back, "You are now exiting the tutorial, have fun and remember, treat your character as you would treat yourself."
"Huh, that's a weird concept for a game. Normally they say, be reckless, destroy shit, and have fun." Andrew mumbled. Though not expecting a response, the computer chirped in, "You play that type of game anywhere else, this game is much more real and has in depth, lasting, consequences on your character and development."
Andrew plodded down the hall finding the bathroom. Stepping in he saw his reflection and a normal looking bathroom. Looking at the mirror he saw a small grey dot, the only imperfection across the large mirror. He reached out to rub it away, and inadvertently activated the styling menu.
Before him he saw countless images of his head each with a different hair style, some colored, some gelled. of varying lengths. Again, he saw that he had options. He could categorize by head or face, hair length, and maintenance time, and then add color at the cost of "weekly touch up time" and a few dollars.
Looking into face because he was curious what was available, it offered a swath of facial hair styles, though all were grayed out except "naked." Apparently this was different from "clean shaven" and when he moved his hand over the image his reflection changed and he could see a slight shadow where his beard would be. He moved his hand over some of the other options and they were flawlessly applied to his reflection. though he could not yet accept the option...
Andrew canceled out of the styling menu and left the bathroom. He heard a noise down the hall and went to investigate. He looked in the kitchen and saw what looked like a female manikin wearing pants, a T-shirt, and shoulder length light blonde hair. It was moving around and apparently starting dinner. "Dinner will be ready in about an hour, I hope your homework is done, its Sunday night and you have school tomorrow." She used a spatula and motioned to a bookbag on the floor. Her skin was plastic and light gray, her elbows were just connectors and he couldn't see what was making her move.
That must be my avatar's mother, Andrew reasoned to himself. He grabbed the bookbag, opening it and pulling out the single book it held. Andrew looked up to his Mom who was looking back at him and smiled, which was unsettling but the painted on eyebrows moved to show it was a warm smile... He set the book down on the table and took note to sue the makers of the game if he needs therapy after this, and opened the book finding that the characters weren't any he had ever seen before. When he touched the page an option menu popped up and time stopped. The options were Exit, and Select Approach. Under the approach option it listed: Do the easy/interesting parts of the assignment, Do all the assignment, Do all the assignment and verify your answers, Do all the assignment verifying it is correct while taking notes and reading ahead to prepare for next class.
If only real schoolwork were this easy! Andrew selected the most demanding option and another menu came up asking if he wanted to fast forward till completed or interrupted. This time the option to fast forward wasn't disabled so he selected it, curious as to how it would play out.
Everything went blurry and the world dimmed ever so slightly while the clock on the HUD sped forward. A second later, "Honey, ARE YOU LISTENING? Dinner is ready, put that away!" It was 5:30 and apparently dinner time for this family. He looked at the book, and the word INCOMPLETE was displayed above it in bright red letters. Putting the book away, he went over to the cupboard and got the menu option to get a cup, a plate, a bowl, or the settings for the family, which he selected as he was used to doing this at home.
He got to the table and set everything down, Immediately the table set itself and the meal was already distributed among the plates. "If only..." Andrew thought to himself. From around the corner appeared a male manikin dressed in a button down shirt, tie, and slacks. his hair was brown and receding, though he had a 5 o'clock shadow growing in.
"Hi Dad, how was work?", Andrew ventured.
"Ya know son, work would be so much easier without customers." the Dad manikin flashed a smile and sat down at the table. Andrew smiled, caught off guard by the manikin having a sense of humor and personality. Mom manikin sat down too and beaconed Andrew. "Eat, your food is getting cold."
Upon sitting down the menu popped up, eat only what you like, eat till you aren't hungry, clear your plate, eat until you are stuffed, eat until the food is gone, eat 2 plates.
These options didn't seem to have a right answer like the schoolwork questions did and he wasn't sure how "hungry" his avatar was. He presumed his family would know a good amount to feed him so he selected clear plate.
A second option popped up asking if he wanted to eavesdrop on the conversation or if he wanted to contemplate his situation. He chose to eavesdrop.
A followup question appeared asking if he wanted to contribute to the conversation he was eavesdropping on. "Yes?" he said aloud clearly confused, though the menu accepted his verbal acknowledgement without offering clarification and then 20 minutes sped by... suddenly dinner was done and he was standing again. Upon touching the table he had the option to clear his spot or clear the table. he chose to clear the table and walking over to the dishwasher and touching the front he chose to load the dishwasher and start it. He was beginning to get the hang of the interface though loading the dishwasher ended up costing him 5 minutes.
Suddenly he was in interface mode again and there was a display of colorful numbers being credited to him. +3 red, +1 blue, +2 yellow. The numbers appeared below his age on the right side of the screen. "Congratulations, you have gained experience! There are different types of experience you can earn, Yellow represents knowledge, Blue represents insight, and Red represents muscle memory tied to a task. Red is directly tied to habit creation, in your case, setting and clearing the table. I would venture a guess that, doing so is your job in the real world right?" Andrew nodded without thinking. "As I alluded to already, this game learns, since you already have the habit, from now on, when you are home and dinner is almost ready, you will have the option to prepare for dinner. accepting this habit will put away whatever you are doing and set the table, then when dinner is done, you will find yourself in the kitchen with the dishes being cleaned. Do you accept?"
Andrew thought for a moment, didn't have a problem with that, and said, "Yeah Sure."
"Different actions become habits after a different number of repetitions and varying degrees of regularity depending on the action and likewise some habits are easier to break than others. Being more consistent makes it easier to maintain and will cause you to be prompted less. For example, after months of jogging, you may have made a habit out of getting up, selecting your outfit, jogging a specific path, making a specific breakfast, and performing your morning hygiene routine. Upon waking you may be asked if you want to perform all those steps rather than actually going through each of them."
Yellow represents different pieces of knowledge you have gained. From your family's discussion it was regarding taxes and you asked a follow up question which gained you more knowledge and insight into how the world works which is Green.
Though your score is summarized, the topics you gained the knowledge and insight in is kept track of and plays an important role in how you can communicate with people. When engaged in conversation with someone, those scores will fluctuate to represent how much "original content" you have. The less original content you have, the less successful you are at carrying on an interesting conversation with that person. This would not hinder shallow relationships but may hinder deeper ones. Likewise having too much knowledge and not enough social insight may leave you coming across as an arrogant know it all.
During your life you will reach Milestones which may allow you to level up using certain sets of knowledge and insight you have gained for specific titles. one example would be successfully completing the school year, you will automatically have the knowledge you gained dumped into the title of being an Xth grader. Another example would be reaching the next relationship status with someone, if you accept, you will become their boyfriend. With titles come certain expectations with knowledge and behavior and it may impact how others react to you. Many are automatic, like birthdays, and some are chosen. When fast forwarding through milestones, they will automatically be accepted. unless you state otherwise or a title you have such as "monogamous boyfriend" would stop you from pursuing a title you would otherwise be eligible for.
The world began moving again and Andrew was back in control, his homework was still incomplete but there was a lot more he could do apparently in this game and he was dying to figure it out...