Two Worlds at Once is the effect, and here’s what brings it about: you’ll have noticed that as you run an Orb, your attention slowly drifts from screen and hands to the interior view of the screen. In short, you find yourself staring in almost total lack of disbelief at the situation and environment of the in-game character. You have become, as we say in the trade, “identified”.
This is not altogether a Bad Thing, although Gurdjieffians who are into their catechism would disagree rather strenuously on the subject. Let them wax eloquent, I say that there’s a darn good Work Reason to harness the process and condition of “identification”.
For one, it enables you to run a character better. Not more intelligently; not more effectively. Just better.
So, the net effect is that as a runner runs, the attention and “cursor” or identification point, tends to drift away from the eyes and hands at first to the screen, and then eventually, after some time in-game, the runner sees the environment inside the computer as fully dimensional; the runner instinctively knows that something will bump or be bumped, that contact with a wall will create a collision, and that contact with NPCs will bring communication.
The effect works by “drift”, the same phenomenon that affects FM reception and AM transmission and reception. What happens is that the “station” tends to slowly drift through a relatively close range of spread, back and forth, back and forth. It never stays on a single frequency without that drift. The reason for that is that the drift is caused by magnetics and atmospherics.
Anyhow, the runner will tend to drift away from the “this life” character toward the in-game character until he or she is all the way there, or all-but all the way there.
That’s identification and it’s at that point that a runner will generally cognate on the idea that the in-game character has a life of its own.
This can be very unsettling, but imagine the in-game character’s reaction to discovering its situation which from inside the game has to be a great deal more unsettling than your cognition.
Identification is not your enemy; it can be harnessed and is a great potential ally. Just re-think the situation and you’ll agree. Make friends with this skill, but don’t get caught in its alliances, griefs and struggles.
So, from now on, if you find yourself running around in an Orb wondering where the keyboard went, don’t panic! I’ve built keyboards and comm systems into every Orb — each becomes a valuable Key in the puzzle, the Central Sun of which is called The Hubbb.
The process of identification also causes instant bilocation, and that’s the main secret behind Trans-Dimensional Travel; well, there are a few other skills and secrets, but not that many.
See You At The Top!!!
gorby