What a joy, thought Jack in a rush. He had been doing mild acrobats for some time, walking around and occasionally jumping up, sometimes stalling in midair with the aid of a thin plastic bag. The gamescape was blandly urban, a motley collection of variably-shaped polygonal objects representing buildings, these being offset by a sprinkling of grassy, open squares.
It's a little unfinished, but I'm having a lot of fun, Jack thought. Gazing up at a group of taller buildings, he decided to find a way of boosting his jump height so that he might scale the structures. It would be a fun, emergent-style activity, the kind only possible in an open world game such as this. Although, he wasn't completely confident that the developers had implemented the tools he'd require.
At this, he thought of a separate but startlingly exciting game design idea. He turned and explained it to the lad.
"Wow, that's great," said the lad happily. The two continued to talk as they walked towards the small building where the senior developer resided.
"So, I'm going to release this new class soon. It's a gadgeteer," explained the lad.
"Sorry, what was it called again?" Jack asked distractedly; he was allotting only a minimal amount of his attention to the conversation.
"A gadgeteer."
"Oh, right. That's, like, a tinkerer, right?"
"Yeah," said the lad excitedly. By then they had reached the building. The senior developer stood inside an otherwise empty room and nodded as the lad explained his ideas.
"Ok, so you want to have a presence in the game, as a way to have constructive player-developer dialogue?" asked the developer.
"Uh, well..." stammered the lad. Jack inexplicably lost his last shreds of interest in this exchange, and instead looked up at the skyscrapers.
"This isn't like developing a website, you know, where you produce the package and release it, finished and complete, to the world. You are developing piecemeal, testing, prodding, adjusting, all the while taking feedback from the player base, you see?"
"Oh, yeah..." Music began playing, lending a dully punitive tone to the scene. Jack thought the developer might balk at this decision later; it was clear he didn't intend this conversation to be disparaging.
To Jack, the lad seemed tragically small-minded, the kind of person who would achieve little and be happy doing so. Jack always felt odd when thinking such thoughts, both shocked at his own egoism and vaguely content in his contempt for the subject.
The underwear commercial began again. Jack listened to the simpering audio.
"Sam and Penelope are in love, and while the tide turns, Sam wants Penelope to play as his Juliet..."
