| Computer Game |
February 5, 2018
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| The computer game company had a hard time to create new games. The company started small a long time ago, and now it was one of the leading video game companies. But even so, in this very competitive business environment, they had a hard time to make games which earned a good profit. Their strong game genre were shooting games and martial arts games. Before, the shooting game named 'Gunman' was a big hit. The player walked ten steps then turned around and shot at the opponent. If the gamer was able to shoot the opponent faster, the opponent would get a fatal wound, and the gamer would win. The drawing time of one's gun and the hitting place of the bullet gather a certain amount of points. But soon, the same type of games, 'Gunfighter' and 'Gun Shooter', appeared from other companies and the sales of 'Gunman' declined. 'Lion Mask' had been another success. The gamer was 'Lion Mask' who was a legendary wrestler wearing a lion-shaped mask and fought in the ring. If the gamer's mask was  taken by another wrestler, the gamer would lose the game. The number of opponents the gamer defeated was based upon the points. After a while, other similar games, like 'Rabbit Mask' and 'Bear Mask' appeared and the sales of 'Lion Mask' declined. The president of the computer game company came up with the idea to have a competition that game creators could apply from all over the world. The company set a huge prize purse, and 1391 games entered. After examining all the games, the top three were decided: [Third place (Bronze medal)] Prize: 100,000 dollars Game Title: Little Match Girl Rules: The gamer is a little match girl. She has to sell as many matches on Christmas night. She is starving and cold. Notes: If the match girl lit her matches in order to warm her cold body, the number of the used matches will be withdrawn from one's point total. If the match girl uses some obscene action or language in order to attract the customers, the game will be over. [Second place (Silver medal)] Prize: 200,000 dollars Game Title: Ninja VS Samurai Rules: The gamer, a ninja, throws 'shuriken' (palm hidden small pointed daggers) at a samurai. The number of the daggers that stick in the samurai's bodies counts as the points. Notes: If the samurai dies, the points will be doubled. If the ninja reveals his/her face, accidentally or the samurai takes it off, the game will be over. [First place (Gold medal)] Prize: 500,000 dollars Game Title: Great Escape Rules: This country is ruled by a dictator and his government. Citizens can't eat suitably. They don't have freedom to choose their living places and jobs. Citizens are force to watch each other. If one reports another's plan to escape from the country, the reporter will get food, the escaping planner and his/her family will be sent to a labor camp. Citizens can't get information from other countries, they can't go abroad, they can't watch foreign TV programs, they can't connect to the Internet, they can't use email and smartphones. The government has a strong police system and army. The goal of the gamer is to let as many citizens escape until the government finds him/her. Notes: If the escaper is captured, the number of the escaper plus his/her family members will be withdrawn from the total number of escapers. The company sold this game as a smartphone app and it became a big hit. The gamers thought about various methods to let citizens escape. One gamer negotiated with the government and made a railroad from a neighboring country with the reason to transport food aid, thinking to transport escapers on the returning trains. Another gamer started to dig a tunnel from the neighboring country. One gamer used a submarine. A different gamer used drones. But each method was not that good. Citizens were forced to live far from their borders so the tunnel idea was not realistic. The government had many check points on the roads and railroads and soldiers with heavy weapons guarded them. Drones can only carry one person at a time, and there were many cameras on the borders, so it was very difficult to move many people. Submarines also had a small capacity for the escapers. After some trials and errors, the gamers started to focus on 'privileged class people'. The dictator couldn't rule the country alone. The dictator had a lot of followers, subordinates: privileged class people. They varied from high officers, diplomats, professors of universities, researchers of various agencies, to leaders of various companies, organizations, communities, farms, etc. They had a strong loyalty to the dictator because the dictator gave them privilege, a good salary, a good house, a car, kids' higher education, and more importantly, they could eat as much as they wanted. Their households had electric appliances which normal citizens couldn't have. And, in addition, if they didn't obey the dictator, they would go to a labor camp with their family. But there was another reason that they didn't betray the dictator. For example, if they planned a coup d'etat, and if it succeeded, the citizens who would be newly freed would probably demand that the privilege people be punished. Little by little, some gamers started to have limited success to access to some people in the privileged class to cooperate with them. Privileged people were able to use the Internet because of their work. Some of them even used English. The more the gamers succeeded to negotiate with the privileged people and let citizens escape secretly in the game, the more the real-life dictators became uneasy, thinking it could be happen in their own country. The real life dictators ordered their governments to hack the game company and break 'Great Escape'. The company fought back using all of their engineers and business resources. The 'Great Escape' creator willingly cooperated with the company, and other game creators followed suit. |
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*competitive :競争の激しい
*genre :ジャンル
*martial arts :格闘技
*opponent :相手の敵
*draw :抜く
*fatal :致命的な
*decline :衰える
*purse :財布、財源
*withdraw :差し引く
*dictator :独裁者
*subordinate :部下
*diplomate :外交官
*privilege :特権
*betray :裏切る
*coup d'etat :クーデター
*follow suit :倣う、続く