Serge Bronstein
The first time I met Serge Bronstein, to interview him for this magazine, he had two black eyes and a broken nose- something which at the time was not uncommon for him. Bronstein was a computer game designer whose latest game, ‘Lost Days’, was so frustratingly difficult that complete strangers regularly came up to him in the street and punched him in the face. An overreaction, some might say, but I could empathise with these people. I felt the same way. It wasn’t just that the game was difficult – it was darn near imposible to complete (There were rumours of course, of people who had completed it, but despite months of investigation I never found any evidence to support this), and there was no way of saving your progress, so after losing the game you had to start again from the beginning. Now, this may be considered acceptable in a game like the original Prince Of Persia, which only takes an hour to play, but Serge’s games are total immersion reality games, which require being plugged directly into the mainframe and fed intravenously for upwards of a month. The game is expensive, you have to take most of your annual leave to play it, and once you emerge from the virtual world, physically weak, eyes unused to the light, and overwhelmed with feelings of utter failure, you have to wait another year before you have either the time or the money to play again. So as far as I’m concerned, a certain amount of hostility was understandable.
This was all a long time ago, and in the years since the hostility has faded somewhat. The game is still virtually impossible, but the death threats against Serge and his family ceased long ago, he is rarely mentioned in the news media these days, and even the satirical hit single ‘(I Want To Punch Serge Bronstein) In The Face!’ by The Inflatable Boys seems like a distant memory. This may all change in the coming months – apparently the bastard’s bringing out a sequel!
Rivka Jacobs
I’m so bad at playing video games, that I hate all of them. Except Myst.
But this is a funny, clever story. Nice job!
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