Bond of Code

Story

Bond of Code

By Graham L. Wilson

First written with gedit 2.28.3 on Fedora 12.

February 26, 2011 - May 4, 2011

Copyright (c) 2011-2012 Graham Wilson.

Edited on November 14, 2012

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included at this link: “http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html#TOC1”.

Note: as a creative exercise, here is a story lacking any character names. This is also partly because that would make some of the personal allegories too obvious.

I tapped at the edge of my table in what one of less discerning tastes might describe as rhythmic. If it was not for the fact that I was waiting to give someone a job interview I would have began to feel that I was being jilted. It had been the employee-to-be's idea to meet at a restaurant and I had not questioned it. All I had said is that we had to talk and discuss how she would fit into the team and here was as good a place as any for that discussion. Finally the door to the cafe opened and in walked a short black haired woman. Her unsure blue eyes darted across the various tables before she spotted me and proceeded towards our arranged corner.

"Good evening" she said courteously as she took a seat.

"Same to you" I replied in kind, before taking another sip of water. She wrung her hands together nervously.

"Where do you want to begin?" she asked quietly.

"Well, you won the contest and so of course we want you to join the group" I replied, "I think someone of your talents will turn out nicely for us."

"I still can't believe you liked my submission" she said, "it can't have been as good as all the others..."

"I'm not necessarily saying it was" I replied. She looked back at me confused.

"Then why..." she stammered, "surely you're not saying you chose dishonestly..."

"You misunderstand me. Art is subjective you know and, despite what those 'established' might think, game design is an art."

"But game programming is engineering..."

"True, but the mark that way is efficiency of implementation and given all the designs submitted are different how am I to compare?" She winced before replying.

"Alright, just tell me if you really liked mine or not."

"Fair demand, yes I did. You showed ingenuity" I assured her.

"It was a clone" she said simply.

"I did not say original. You did take an old concept but you innovated on top of it and more importantly you did a good job with the basis." For the first time since she approached she let out a little smile.

"If you say so."

"I do. Too often have I heard that a game, or an entry in any other medium mind you, is too ordinary - too simple in graphics and too derivative in game-play. We do need those that push the limits of the visual spectacle and those that define new expressions for the interactions, but at the end of the day I tend to judge one based on how well they can do implementing the tried and true. It seems a more fair test." She looked me squarely in the eye.