These points of data make a beautiful line.
Here is the thing, though.
Oh, to make a Slinky of your thoughts!
Blue becomes orange, distance becomes time, ceiling becomes floor becomes ceiling again.
Absolutes clash against conflicting absolutes.
Let me give you a quick example.
Portal is a sandbox.
Floor becomes ceiling becomes floor.
But then, wait a minute!
(Or is it the floor.)
But this week, I went back.
I went back in!
Above all else, Portal is just really, really fun.
And more specifically, it’s still surprising.
And I mean surprising in a very specific way.
Maybe they always are!)
Why doesn’t COD end this way?
Is there someone there?
This again is maybe incidental to its greatness though.
And it’s honest about one thing in particular.
Games are weird - even, and perhaps especially, when they’re trying to be normal.
Portal takes all that and builds an entire adventure around it.
It makes the tricksiness that allows virtual spaces to exist an entertaining thing in and of itself.
Look at this world!
(That thump in Portal is so important: it grounds you after each magical journey.
Back in the room!)
I know: I have probably had too many hits from my Captain Tom memorial bong by this point.
They shoot through walls they have lured into becoming absent.
This is heartening to me.
Maybe that sounds great!
- was its poise and brilliance.
But it’s not the case, thank Lucifer.
Just the stuff to make a glorious Slinky of your thoughts, I reckon.
