(Chapter 7 - The Cave of Enlightenment)
The mist illuminated itself in strange ways, first in cyan, then in magenta, and then finally in yellow. A brief interval passed by and the mist went out of sight all of a sudden. Both the square and GameDev were immured in inexplicable darkness.
"Is there light somewhere?" GameDev asked. Within a few seconds, however, his inquiry was answered by an abrupt ignition of a long row of torches on the wall. He looked around and realized that they were standing in a small cave.
"Okay, what are you going to show me this time?" He asked in a suspicious tone.
Instead of directly answering him, the square simply said, "Just observe where you are and behold what it tries to show you."
He made his eyes scan the curved stone walls and soon noticed that they were decorated with colorful graffiti, which mostly consisted of motivational quotes as well as portraits of bearded indie musicians.
Suddenly, a band of hairy men entered the place via one of the tiny holes on the floor, and sat down near GameDev as though they were close friends.
"Visitors!" One of them shouted jovially.
GameDev hesitated for a moment, but decided to greet them. He said, "Hi, I'm GameDev. Who are you?"
The strange man got awkwardly close to him and spoke. "We are cave-dwellers. We have been living in this sacred womb of spiritual ascension since time immemorial. I am so glad that you are here to join in, and let us share messages from higher dimensions with you."
GameDev asked, "What do you mean?"
One of the man's companions rose up and discharged his words of passion. "We have been searching for eternal bliss, and so should you. We are all part of this grand journey, which is made out of pure love and everybody is promised to be saved from sorrow."
Before more conversation could take place, all of these strange men evaporated themselves in a surreal manner. They became what one would refer to as amorphous blobs of glistening vapor. Shortly after, they merged into a single mechanical gadget which resembled a hookah. It emitted an enormous puff of rainbow smoke, which rapidly filled the entire cave.
GameDev felt intoxicated. He found himself dancing amidst a flowery garden, embraced by a plethora of beautiful phantoms which looked like fairies.
A panorama of emotional upheavals swept across him. He recalled the most piercing memories of childhood, which brutally dismantled his system of rational worldview. By the force of some inexplicable divinity which occupied his heart, he was impelled to contemplate upon the most embarrassing parts of himself.
Then, a sequence of wondrous visual blossoms unfolded before his eyes, and displayed a landscape of euphoria which cast light on his faint seed of hope. He cried with rapture, feeling a vivid yet unspeakable form of joy he had never experienced before.
And all of a sudden, everything was over. The garden was gone, the smoke was gone, and even the hookah-like device was gone. Only he and the square were left in the cave.
After recovering his senses, GameDev asked her, "What just happened?"
"You were playing a game," answered the square. "It was not an ordinary game, but more of a purely emotional experience."
"I just had an uplifting moment," he replied gravely. "It was tearfully charming. But here I am, once again back to the unforgiving stake of reality."
"It definitely touched your heart, did it not?" She questioned.
"Oh, it indeed squeezed the last drop of passion from my heart, for sure," he murmured bitterly. "It was such an ecstatic vision. However, I also realized that the pleasure I had was nothing but vapor, only meant to stay for a glimpse of imagination and disappear as soon as the dream goes away."
"Why so serious?" Insisted the square. "It was just a game, and since it pleased you while you were playing it, the purpose was served."
GameDev faced her and said, "It is utterly devoid of real values because the joy it bestows on me is irreproducible elsewhere."
He paused for a moment and continued. "And those cave-dwellers are clueless; they are just worshippers of mere hallucination."
"Interesting observation," she commented ironically. "But are you sure that other people will agree with you? In the world of professional attention-seekers, one cannot simply deny that there are reasons why the majority prefers caramel over oats."
"I don't deny the virtue of immediate satisfaction," he responded in disgust. "I just believe that a game should contain something solid - I mean, some kind of story, or lore, which persists beyond a mere state of emotional tantrum."
The square asked curiously. "What you are demanding is a fictional world which exists on its own. Can you assure that building such a world is worth the effort, that people will pay attention to it if it is rich in context?"
"Yes, I can assure," he said.
She flickered a couple of times, temporarily changed her color to pure green, and resumed her original appearance. An earthquake shook the entire cavern, destroying everything.