Hi DJ, I resonate with your hint that there is not a whole lot one can safely do to crawl away from the scene of the carnage and jump out of the epicenter of destruction. Given that we are all carbon based animals sharing similar gene lattice, the resonating frequency for implosive explosion is the same for all. This is the exact meaning of ‘systemic collapse’.
In my on-line 3-D Unreal Tournament death match game, there is one unusual episode/map titled “MyHouse” where as many as 24 combatants are dropped into one single life-sized room. Each combatant is fully equipped with all manner of weapons, in order of nastiness, pneumatic shock hammer, machine pistol, bio-sludge gun, sniper rifle, spinning blade launcher, laser shock core rifle, multi-barrel rocket launcher, grenade/shrapnel launcher, but not the nuclear tipped camera-guided Redeemer Rocket. The average survival time for most combatants is around a few seconds per life. The first one to score 50 kills wins the game (killing yourself by deliberation or accident counts as a negative kill).
I had once tagged along via “observer mode” with the best player, and amazingly, he scored 50 kills and only died 12 times. He knew the secret chamber above one particular corner of the room, and when he is there, he simply drops grenades through the opening on to the room below.
In the room below, other normally good players were firing wildly, jumping frantically, seeking health packs desperately, cloaking themselves in invisibility shields opportunistically and cladding their body corporate in armour fruitlessly. None of their strategies, tactics and actions made an iota of difference. They were all busy with dying, without so much time even for a decent blood-curdling scream.
I do not willingly participate in the “MyHouse” episode, but my mostly under 18-year old cyber opponents sometimes ‘vote’ to have the server offer up the killing room. I prefer the episodes/maps that allow time for understanding the opponents, test out different strategies, improve on various tactics, thinking, fighting a fair fight and then running away.
The vote is in and the server is downloading the map. We are about to drop into MyHouse financial market, and we need to find that chamber fast, for the carnage is about to start.
I suspect Joel and DAK are already there, whereas Pezz is busy switching weapons from sniper rifle to grenade launcher and back again (a shadow is creeping up on him from left flank, shock hammer in hand), CB is faking death, David is putting on anti-gravity boots, Maurice is reaching for his cell phone, ACF Mike is frozen in place, Elmat opted out by going to Bangkok, and Carranza2 did a missing in action on us.
Chugs, Jay |
