(Chapter 3 - The Amusement Park)
GameDev looked around in surprise, and found out that he was standing in the middle of a small plaza.
"Where are we?" He asked.
"We are in the Amusement Park, the place where only fun and smiles are allowed," answered the square.
He observed his surroundings and saw a carousel, a clown handing over lollipops to children, and a myriad of colorful cabins embellished with cartoon characters and scintillating rainbow orbs. Over the roofs, colossal roller coasters were pouring gushes of joyous scream into the void.
The square shouted with pride. "Don't look so distressed like that. This is the place of pure happiness. You must have fun, and fun only, with a big smile on your face."
GameDev looked away in sheer confusion. On his left, he saw a horde of bumper cars jostling like nervous mice. Their passengers were throwing bouncy beach balls at each other, laughing frantically.
"What is the meaning of this?" He asked.
"You are literally seeing games - lots of games," answered the square proudly. "Look at the Ferris wheel over there, the pirate ship over here, and the spooky ghost house right behind you! Every ride you see here is a game you can enjoy."
"Games are supposed to be interactive," insisted GameDev.
"Are they?" she responded with a grin. "Or is it merely an illusion of interactivity you are talking about? People play games not to interact, but to see what they want to see."
GameDev disagreed. "A game still needs to involve interactions in order to let people choose what they want."
Upon hearing this, the square mused for a bit. There was a round of fireworks going on over the Amusement Park's iconic castle. Once their thunderous claps were dispersed, she spoke up again.
"A decent game gives the audience free will. A competent game gives the audience what they want for free. Remember that convenience trumps hard-earned happiness; one's freedom of choice is nothing more than a moral fantasy as long as one is not willing to choose."
"What do you mean?" GameDev asked.
She moved forward and continued to speak. "Being able to make decisions is indeed an alleged virtue of those who feign their intellect. Yet when it comes to choosing between an easy treat and a hard treat, the vast majority will pick the easy one. And the best game is one which promises to feed you spoonfuls of sugar without forcing you to think."
"It won't work in the long run," said GameDev. "People are smart enough to discern such a condescending type of psychological exploitation."
"Oh, you have no idea," exclaimed the square. "In the world flooded with countless games, only a few which fulfill the player's gluttony in the most embarrassingly blatant manner will win the race."
She moved aside to let him watch his surroundings once again. There were various rides all over the Amusement Park, all busily undertaking their soulless mechanical movements to entertain their visitors. Their perpetual clockwork ceaselessly inhaled and exhaled waves of people. This left GameDev dumbfounded.
"Every one of these rides is a game chosen by the crowd," said the square melancholically. "It does not matter whether these rides are simply repeating the same old ritual; people chose to ride them anyways, and your definition of what a game is supposed to be has no voice here."
GameDev tried to say something cynical in response to her speech. While he was about to do so, however, he saw a child tapping a gigantic red button to crack open a piñata which was placed right before an automatic slapstick. He became pensive.
After a minute or so, a sudden flash of wit crossed his mind. "Although focusing on the player's utmost desire is indeed an effective means of selling the game," he suggested, "such a method quickly gets old. Besides, since so many games are taking such a route, coming up with yet another silly ride is hardly going to make any profit unless it is aided by an enormous marketing budget."
"The majority's voice is always right," mumbled the square, "when it comes to popularity. You may fancy that novelty is a hidden path to success, but from a statistical point of view, nothing beats mediocrity. The average is the average for a reason."
"But competing will be too hard unless I try something different," he protested.
She responded grimly. "The size of your potential audience will surmount the weight of such a drawback. You may invent something revolutionary and write a whole new page of history out of its legacy, but the fate of a rebel is lifelong ridicule. It all boils down to the matter of chance. You are very likely to fail if you do not follow the norm."
GameDev interrupted. "Is this the only advice you can give to me?"
"No," answered the square. "I am not done yet. These 'games' you have seen so far indeed reveal part of the truth, yet they do not represent the entirety of it. I will show you that there are more things going on behind the stage."
She moved away a bit and made another humming noise.