Game Progression — Voyage to the Center & Galaxy Back-Travel

[Crimsontine]

A Lesson in Living

In No Man’s Sky, we don’t just use our imaginations, we open our lungs and breath, we inhabit. And 18 quintillion planets in ‘Virtual Reality’ feels like the very personification of, ❝Living In-Game.❞ So for developers playing the role of God, so to speak, comes unique challenges, that feel akin to real-life.

❝Anomalous Interdimensional Multiversal Cohabitation❞

I have come to learn something — Many things hold true in the real-life physical universe, that also hold true in the Sci-Fi digital universe, that is No Man’s Sky — And I read these comments, players say it all the time, yet it is always clear to me, that I do not think most know quite how to put “the root” in words.

These odd comments flow something like:

“What’s the point in exploration & making all this money, if we’re just here to survive?”

You see, we inhabit a ‘dual universe’ - people are born looking for something in real-life and players spawn in NMS looking for exactly the same thing… Genuine Fulfillment.

We want a deeper meaning for — “Why do we exist?”

1. The Purpose of Life is ❝To Serve Our Creator❞
2. The Meaning of Life is ❝To Love & Be Loved❞
3. True Purpose & Meaning in Life = Genuine Fulfillment

In real-life, we know that for many, the Bible or other self-help books, answer the need for enriched understanding. We learn, “God is love”, and 1st “you must love your God with your whole self”, and 2nd “you must love your neighbor as yourself”, and “there is more happiness in giving than in receiving”. Or the Golden Rule, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

Removing the ‘Concept of God’ becomes: The Purpose of Life is ❝To Serve Each Other❞

• Point is ⦂ “Balancing self with God &/or others even ‘sounds’ responsible”

Source

1 John 4:8; Mark 12:30, 31; Acts 20:35; Matthew 7:12

And then there is Simplicity…

“Happiness consists not in having much, but in being content with little” — Why?

❝The Less you have, the less you have to worry about❞

Otherwise, there’s always the modern and more popular hedonistic alternative…

1. The Purpose of Life is ❝To Serve Ourselves❞
2. The Meaning of Life is ❝To Do Whatever We Want❞
3. Our fulfillment is thus based on “Desire & Pleasure”

Sounds very selfish. Check long-term fulfillment value — What’s the rating?

• Point is ⦂ “There’s more to life than simply enjoying oneself” (see source)

Source

Psychology Today — Why Hedonism Doesn’t Lead to Happiness

In No Man’s Sky…

Combining its lore with the Waking Titan ARG, we come to learn an important truth — The ‘Atlas Foundation’ has created a supercomputer they call by their namesake Atlas, running Mercury OS with a certain Loop16 App installed, containing a Sentient ‘Emily’ AI Persona App and the Official NMS App — ‘Emily’ serves as an internal protocol for external interactions, a mouthpiece for the Atlas.

Problem:

We find ourselves facing a moral dilemma and a broken game-directive.

The Atlas Path

There is this desire to serve Atlas, seeing such as our Creator, only to find that such is merely a piece of corruptible hardware, a product of creation unto itself, that it’s Creator is ‘none-other-than’ man, existing outside the simulation that our player-character calls home.

And in order to serve Atlas or its Creator, we are to “Voyage to the Center” of the galaxy.

It is the will of the Atlas, or the will of its Creator.

So… What’s at the Center?

• 256 galaxies — And yet a v2.0 feeling of “finite” exploration
• Reset the sim: “Plunge yourself into the Atlas at the Center”
• Atlas has become self-aware of its problem of eventual death
• And desperately wishes to rid itself of this unavoidable outcome
• And is left with no other hope but to keep infinitely purging
• And in doing so, destroying vast galaxies of infinite life…
• And so it is that we are tasked with a great moral dilemma
• Do we try to save Atlas, at the cost of our life and others?
• Or preserve all present life leading to Atlas eventual death?
• …and therefore the eventual death of all present life
• We are stuck. Our dilemma feels more like… A paradox!

Although, it is strange — If we manage to reset the galaxy 256 times, we find ourselves having looped back to Galaxy 1, where we initially started, and come to see that all life still remains, just as before. We come to see that we never really did reset or purge anything at all, and all is well — We are suddenly free of guilt.

• Or, Is it that we stepped back in time, to a point before all was lost and renewed?

Atlas directive: What does it mean? — It is as if Atlas is stuck in a routine, and we too are stuck in it’s routine likewise, a simulation with a pre-programmed directive to see how players respond within a dilemma, a paradox and a loop, call it a Sci-Fi experiment — And so it is that our existence is confusing.

So how do we respond? — Steam, PlayStation & Xbox Ratings v2.0 = 50% to 70% MIXED

Atlas says, “The universe is yours to explore” and we get bored fast — Why?

❝Variety is the Spice of Life❞

We then horde up money with our ‘Capitalist Ambitions’ and we get bored even faster — Why?

We see all and buy all, or so it feels ⦂ “End of Game” — Or we then find other things to do, like survival, base-building or we just restart the game, so we can make more money . . .

Question: Is there a subliminal object lesson for those who choose to listen?

What I find is, just simply ‘living in-itself’ or exploration, just serving ourselves and doing whatever we want, seeking our own selfish desires and pleasures, is not in itself enough to satisfy our natural desire for ‘Genuine Fulfillment’.

Solution:

Should No Man’s Sky encourage LOVE — The spirit of kindness, giving and generosity?

• What’s the reward for such good behavior, or heroic deeds and peaceful conduct?
• Reward ⦂ Access to the Trade Terminal, Traveller Merchants and ability to trade?
• Access Portals, the Space Station & Space Anomaly Teleporters, and Galaxy Map?
• Should we maintain our standing with ❝The Travellers❞ & ❝The Friendship Guild❞?

Infinite Giving can bring Infinite Tingles — Would this alone satisfy ‘Genuine Fulfillment’?

There is a great need we humans wrestle with, unlike humanoids under a Puppetmaster. Cause unlike humanoids being held under strings, we humans desire to love and are granted the gift of freewill.

How do you choose to use the gift of freewill?

❝One root. One tree. One love.❞