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by Greatly. . 29 reads.

[Pegasia] Stev Barr’s Computed Games

January 18th, 1969, Prosperous, Greatly.

In the darkened basement of a recently constructed office building, a young man named Stev Barr was tinkering with a fascinating concept. He had been considering possible uses for the rudimentary “computers” housed in the building, mostly used to compute and store rather miniature amounts of data. Despite their paltry power, the structures were massive, radiating heat into the already-muggy air. And so it was in nothing but a pair of boxers and a sleeveless “Pacifism, Bro!” shirt that Barr formulated the idea that would so greatly influence Greatlyian culture and technology in the decades to come: the “computed game”, as he called it.

The general idea behind the “computed game” was that, if computers could take in and put out data, why could the user not interact with the computer, with them both working together to formulate a sort of activity for the user? This fundamental ideal of cooperation that had guided Greatly for so long was once again being repurposed and reinterpreted by another great mind, with the concept this time being applied to a bond formed between a computer and user, or “player”.

After discussing his idea with his sparse friend group, Barr scraped together his thoughts into a formal proposal and requested government funding from his boss, who worked on a floor of the building high enough that Barr rarely visited it. Despite Barr stumbling through the “presentation”, having never attempted something of this scope before, his boss took slight interest in this concept and allocated a bit of funding for Barr to work on his project.

Barr was mostly glad that he would be able to avoid doing what he considered actual work and instead put effort into this pet project of his. But little by little, he became more and more invested in making this “computed game” of his, and after quite some time, he had come up with something that he was actually somewhat proud of.

The game was titled “Pacifist Programming”. As Barr’s boss had directed, it was built to be a sort of interactive training activity. It showed a black-and-white screen devoid of sounds or images, only comprised of text occasionally formatted in such a way that the letters or symbols appeared to form a crude picture. The content of the game consisted of hypothetical scenarios designed to test interns on what they would do if the situations arose. They would then press a button to make their theoretical reaction to the scenario and the game would confirm whether or not they had done the right thing before moving on to the next question.

After this version was complete, Barr continued to work, dedicating time to adding sound effects, writing personalized success or failure messages, or even figuring out how to add actual images into the game. At the same time, more and more people took note of this project. The influence of the concept of the “computed game” had begun to spread.

Late January, 1969, Prosperous, Greatly.

After a rather extreme amount of time spent working tirelessly and constantly on “computed games” (informally shortened to the slang term “com-games”), Stev Barr had gained quite a reputation for himself for his diligent efforts. He’d risen through the ranks of the company where he worked with each new alteration and type of com-game, and seemed to show no signs of stopping or even slowing his progress.

He now commanded a small team of hard-working and inspired individuals, every one of them intrigued and fascinated by this new concept in the future of the fields of computers and education - things which were previously thought to be totally incompatible. The com-games they churned out rapidly and repeatedly ranged from every topic, from training employees on how to do make even more com-games to quizzes that could theoretically be used to test college students on their knowledge of certain subjects.

Still, Barr was not happy with these products - he still felt as though there was some untapped potential to com-games that he was completely missing. The little free time he had in the grueling 90-hour work week he had laid out for himself, he dedicated to making another type of com-game altogether - a game created solely for entertainment, called Ping.

Ping was a com-game designed fully for enjoyment; something absolutely unprecedented, at least in Greatly. In this rather unique game, you still entered inputs, but this time to move a small white dot around the screen. The dot represented the unidentified object you controlled through your four possible inputs, which was attempting to intercept a stationary, unspecified “target”. A basic “ping” noise sounded constantly, but more and more rapidly as you moved the dot closer to the target. Atop the screen was a small timer that counted down how long the user had before the “game end”. If the user managed to reach the target with their dot, the screen would reset, with the target in a different location and the timer starting once more at a lower number. A number in the corner would update as well, reminding the player how many times they had reached the target successfully so far. If the timer ever hit zero, the game would completely reset.

Ping was not a perfect game, or even all that fun, but when an exhausted Barr showed it off, peoples’ minds began to race - what sort of entertaining com-games could be made? What was the future of computed gaming?

February, 1969, Prosperous, Greatly

This is not the face of a sane man, thought the Greatlyian Head Propagandizer as Stev Barr hurriedly ushered her through the doors of the office building that was now almost entirely devoted to researching and developing “computed games”. Indeed, Barr’s skin was pale, his hands were cramped and twitchy, and his face showed clear signs of haggard exhaustion. Still, his eyes were bright and his manner agitated as he spoke about the leaps and bounds that were being made in the development of the com-game.

The Head Propagandizer took it all in with a tired expression as she was led around the office building. Although her workload was traditionally light - just about everyone in Greatly adored pacifism and the country’s peaceful lifestyle, making her job unusually easy - it was a lot more difficult for her to turn the concept on its head and quickly convince the entire nation that having a military would not, in fact, signal the end of the world and eternal torment for all. Although she did not have quite the insane workload that Barr feverishly tore through, she also lacked his crazed passion for his work, so her task resulted in her being far more exhausted than he was.

This was a routine assignment; throughout the past month, many of the government higher-ups had gone through a tour of the building that housed the concept of the rapidly-developing com-games in order to see if they could possibly aid them in their line of work. The government was beginning to seriously consider heavily subsidizing this fascinating new concept - if, of course, it was proven useful.

The Head Propagandizer was led through the offices of many diligent programmers making breakthrough after breakthrough in the field. She barely spared a glance for the entertainment com-game Ping, writing it off as nothing more than a useless distraction. However, when she got to the mostly text-based com-games, she became practically enthralled with them. She realized that these games could theoretically be used to sway public opinion towards Yingguo’s military presence in the country! Just regale the player with descriptions of the troops helping the populace, defending the nation from imaginary foreign invaders, even get the players to put themselves in the troops of the brave, dashing soldiers, and ta-da! Public opinion swayed!

She went through the motions for the rest of the tour, but afterwards quickly established a radio connection to explain her plan. If all went well with her plan, com-games were about to gain the eye of the entire Greatlyian public.

Spring 1969, Prosperous, Greatly

The engineer stepped cautiously through the front doorway of the imposing building complex that had only recently finished its hasty construction, gazing around in awe at the sprawling complex of beeping devices and hard-working employees, many of them professionals conscripted to work by the government, which had apparently taken a liking to this “com-game” concept.

The engineer cautiously approached the front desk, which was really a sheer slab of a computational device, and timidly spoke up.
“Er... pardon me, but where might I find Mr. Barr?”
The receptionist glanced up from her desk skeptically, before shaking her head and refocusing her attention on the computing device she was operating.
“Mr. Barr has twenty hours of his day fully booked through to the next two months,” she replied stoically. “Your appointment should hopefully be lodged sometime before December, though I wouldn’t count on it.”

Swallowing nervously, the engineer spoke up once more.
“I’m here to speak with him about the oscillator tech. The Head Propagandizer told me that an appointment was scheduled for me... for, er, today?”
The receptionist glanced at the computer screen again, then looked back to the engineer once more, sizing them up in surprise.
“Well, all right... you’ve got approximately 18 minutes to speak with the man, so I’d recommend getting a move on.”

Upon hearing this, the engineer dashed to the elevator, taking it all the way to the top floor of the main building of the complex Barr commanded. As the elevator rose, they nervously reviewed their notes on what they would say to the Stev Barr who had skyrocketed to fame and success so quickly for his legendary dedication and technological innovations. As the elevator doors opened on the highest floor of the building, the engineer was taken aback.

Stev Barr’s office was a sight to behold - no proper lighting, presumably to preserve power for the blinking lights and flashing screens coating the room, empty instant food containers littering the floor, a thin blanket spread out over the top of a massive data storage unit in the corner, and in the center of it all, hunched over, was Barr.

Though by all accounts disheveled and emaciated, Barr still clawed at the keyboard in front of him with stiffening hands, bloodshot eyes scanning the screen in front of him, pushing the computed game further and further towards its technological limits every day.

Barr snapped to attention when the doors of the elevator opened, quickly greeting the engineer.
“Name and purpose?”
“Oh, uh, Max. I’m here to talk with you about the potential of com-games on the os-”
“Oscillators, right. Oscillators available, with Parley available on them.”
“Par-”
“Parley, yes. Game about negotiating. Represents the diplomatic game with a sort of tennis spin. For two people at once. Made it in my free time.”

Throughout this entire exchange, Barr had remained absolutely rigid and unpausing, completely focused on the task on the computer screen before him. The engineer managed to scrape together enough words to form a response to Barr:
“So, install oscillators around the city and allow people to play the com-game on them? Well, I suppose that might help introduce the people to it...”

Barr did not respond, but instead just kept tapping away at the keyboard like a man possessed. Taking this to mean the conversation was concluded, the engineer stepped back into the elevator and went down to the ground floor.

As they walked to the front door, head still spinning from the encounter, they considered Barr’s idea. Could com-games truly become a consumer product, something for the everyday Greatlyian? I suppose, they thought as they exited the building into the sunshine, there’s only one way to find out.

[/i]1971, Prosperous, Greatly

Prosperous Propaganda, Issue 89: Com-games Develop Towards Modern Happenings!

Over the past few years, com-games have spread across the streets of Prosperous and the international community is clamoring for a slice as the technology continues to develop. The Recent rocket launches from the nation of Cowbridge have taken the nation by storm, and programming legend Stev Barr is reportedly happy to oblige Greatly’s fancies with a new game - Space Stationery, where the player sends diplomatic messages and organizes theoretical “space programs” with other nations. Barr continues to work long hours through the crippling arthritis and loss of eyesight that have recently been plaguing him - a true model Greatlyian! In other news, facetious reports of the government attempting to artificially decrease opinion of Greatlyian anti-technological and pro-pacifist heritage have been 100% guaranteed disproven!

Prosperous Propaganda takes pride in its loyalty to the government of Greatly. Any complaints should be directed to a subordinate of the Head Propagandizer. Peace and prosperity to all.

Greatly

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