Player: A Short Story of Multiplayer Gaming

Halo Reach

When I was a kid, I remember sitting in the living room with a bowl of Frosted Flakes, watching cartoons with an eager hunger every Saturday morning. In addition to the classics such as the Super Mario Bros cartoon or Captain N, I was fascinated with the show Reboot, which takes place entirely in a virtual world. Since then, I think I’ve always had a desire for even more fiction that revolves around gaming, which is surprisingly seldom encountered even two decades later.

However, today I stumbled across a short story that a friend of mine wrote over at Prolific Novelista, so I figured I would share. Player is the tale of one man’s quest to beat an anonymous gamer online, and the way our competitive edge kicks in whenever we deal with strangers in multiplayer settings. It’s a piece that I think all of us can identify with. I know that one of the most shocking things for me when I first entered the realm of online gaming was realizing that I was just a mediocre fish in a sea of badasses with itchy trigger fingers. The desire to beat an opponent at a game you pride yourself in is a strong one, and we’ve all encountered it at one time or another.

So yeah, I think you guys should read it. Definitely entertaining and familiar. I would also suggest you guys check out Ready Player One, a novel I keep hearing about that takes place inside of a video game. Thoughts, gents and ladies? Go!

Prolific Novelista

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I write about samurai girls and space marines. Writer for Smooth Few Films. Rooster Teeth Freelancer. Author of Red vs. Blue, The Ultimate Fan Guide, out NOW!

3 thoughts on “Player: A Short Story of Multiplayer Gaming”

  1. There was a guy today on CoD and his name was Moridin-Naeblis, which is a Wheel of Time reference.

    And he was a camper.

    After he cheaply killed me a few times, I made it my life’s work to destroy him.

    After the game ended, I turned on my mic and told him, “Even the Dark One despises campers. Don’t be like Demendred, hiding the shadows. Be a man!”

    A winner is me.

  2. I can totally relate, I thought I was so good at games. Until I got Xbox Live. Also if you’re looking for a good video game related book, Mogworld by the game critic Yahtzee Croshaw is fantastic. The main character is an NPC at a dungeon boss’s castle, and it’s hilarious to see him comment about the “adventurers” that are constantly attacking the castle, and how you can tell someone is an “adventurer” if they have perfectly still movements, a heroic stance, and abnormally deep breathing. And for some reason they are obsessed with things called “quests”. Great writing and satire, couldn’t recommend it enough.
    http://www.amazon.com/Mogworld-Yahtzee-Croshaw/dp/1595825290/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1325953425&sr=8-1

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