COLIN AND JASMINE IN THE COMMAND CENTER

"So all of the teams are facing the same mission?" Colin asked. He and Jessalyn were the reporters for the challenge. Colin had no idea why people would want to watch a LiveSteam of the game. Yeah, maybe the behind the scenes stuff was interesting, but… he thought with satisfaction, they all get to see me.

The question was directed to Jasmine Lens, project director for the Space Opera Challenge. This was her second year running the challenge. It kinda helped to have her bosses here, but at the same time she wished they would all go away. Just let me do my job! And who’s brilliant idea was it to do interviews???? Colossally stupid!

“Yes and no,” she formally answered. “While they all have the same scenario parameters, how they approach the scenario and how they interact with the world and people, both AI and human, can be very different."

"How so?" Colin asked. He struck a pensive pose, leaning forward with his head tilted at just the right angle while his hand gently stroked his chin and he held a certain questioning look in his eye.

It took Jasmine a moment to answer, she was too struck by the pose. Seriously? Do they take a special class on posing? Okay, beefcakes, today we are going to practice looking pensively. Tomorrow we will cover sadness…

She shook her head ever so slightly to clear the image in her head. "Take team Bloop for example,” she said. “They have two members of team MyndBendz with them,” there was a slight pause. “Team Dirtknights has the rest of team MyndBendz and their own players."

Colin was quick with his follow up. "That means?"

"That means in this challenge, the teams control much of their destiny” she answered. “Much like they control their own interface gear."

“I’m not sure I understand.”

Beefcake without brains. How can he not understand. “Let me break it down a little more,” she said out loud. “Each team has the same parameters. That means that they all run across an enemy.” She paused. “The specific enemy is different for each team. I can’t have them all running into the same enemy.” She took a breath. “That would pose problems if they all met Marina and all of them killed Marina.”

“Who’s Marina?”

“That’s the thing. Team Bloop might meet Marina, but team Death Knights might meet Juan.” She rubbed the side of her face, a nervous tick she had developed. “All of the teams face a similar scenario, but the parameters are different.”

“So they all run into the same type of scenario and they all meet the same kind of people, or AIs, but the individuals are different?”

Finally! She thought. “That is correct.”

“But, the player, the human player,” Colin emphasized. “XMAN235 from team MyndBendz who is with Team Bloop is dead. Does each team or group have a dead player?”

No, not finally, she sighed internally. “No,” she answered firmly, “some players have been killed, most haven’t. That’s up to the players, that is not scenario specific.” God in Heaven above make this moron understand!

"How do these scenarios test the VR control equipment?"

Jasmine blinked at the abrupt change of topic. Before she could answer one of her techs came up to her. He leaned in from the side and whispered in her ear.

Jasmine smiled at Colin, this interview is over. I have to remember to get Carlito a raise. She stood up and said “Team Bloop is reaching phase point delta. I want to see how they deal with it.”

She got up and walked over to the big screen monitor. Kline was standing there. He looked at her and rolled her eyes. He smiled and inclined his head. Colin was standing right next to her. I guess beefcake here is going to watch with me. She sighed.