USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FOURTH ASSIGNMENT (PHILOSOPHY)- 'The Door'

From the ground, a black speck, tearing through the clouds, mostly unseen, or wirtten off as bird or plane.

Neo lands upon the Metacortex building, and looks all around. His phone rings, and when answered a voice speaks slowly and firmly in authoritative terms.

"Neo. This is Morpheus. What do you see?"

A world of green code, all around... if he concentrates, even the air itself just dissolves into endless walls of code. But too much to take in. He sees nothing.

"I see... I don't know. I can't see it. I can only feel it."

"Focus, Neo. Feel your way. Nothing is impossible."

Neo looks, feeling something is very wrong

And he glances towards the Mountains...

---

Well then., You asked for it and you got it. Here we are in the second of our lovely Philosophy Journeys!

I believe we have two returning faces from last time, but only one of which stayed the course, Azrael. In as much as you could win or lose it, Azrael won it last time, so I hope he can muster enough time to engage with this one- though oddly enough time was just as pressing for him last time and I believe he missed most of the consequences.

THIS time, I feel Heph, who in the end retrated from the Journey last time, is determined to make his mark. He's done well to put himself centre stage- he got the key. That very well COULD have been Azrael. But Azrael has not been entirely silent; it was he who met the Hunter. And the deal with the key is now rather done! Now you have to deal with the result.

The rest of you folks are new to this sort of thing. Hmmm. Well, I am sure some of you have read it up, and some of you are keen. What exactly are we about here?

Ok. First of all, we are not about lecturing, enforcement, the setting of things as they ARE. What the Philosophy Path is about is the setting of a certain situation and the gauging of youyr reaction to it. Last time, just to put the icing on it all, this decision coincidded with a crisis of self-identity that could well have been fatal.

A bit different this time. There is no life or death conundrum. There WILL, in fact, be an intellectual exercise to solve at the end of the presented segment- you can;t fight your way out of the problem- but that really is about working out a puzzle, a problem, a practical issue; it's not really a matter of Philosophy. It's there because the Philo path has the issues you have to think your way out of, rather than fight.

So,, what about the Philosophy itself? Well, as I say, it is being done a little differently. We don't have one life or death issue. At the heart of it, there will be one big question which may well determine future action, but the issue may seem a little academic; you may feel you are compelled to act a certain way even if you believe another. Worry not. I am more concerned about your thoughts and beliefs than how things eventially pan out.

Other than that, there are LOTS of little questions all around, forming the landscape of the Philosophy Path of this story. To keep you thinking, one has already been offered- would you open the Door? Many said yes. One, at least, had reservations. If you did not make your thinking on that issue clear, please do so very quickly before you learn too much about it and so contaminate your answer forever! Fewer experience points will result if you 'miss the bus' there.

Durung the Philo path you will be bombarded with facts and maybe questions. Those in last time will be familiar with the basic format. Yopu are actively encouraged to cvomment, ask questions, and even dispute assumptions. Please remember, however, that in the end, the Philo Path is not offered by the unquestionable God, but by situations and people in-game, and should you totally disagree with something, you may simply have to accept that your character does not agree with the presented fact and move on. Arguing a point to death is unhelpful once your opinion is made clear. It's your opinion I am interested in, not your ability to engage in rhetoric.

Beyond that, this is a game, the game was written by my brohter, adapted by myself, and we try to be as neutral as possible but some assumptions are vital to gameplay- last time there was a large argument about whtherthe Machinea are truly sentient, and all we could say in return is- it is one of the pretexts of The Matrix as a franchise that they are. Without that, half the point falls away. It may be that future official Matrix material contradicts situations we advance here. But every effort has been made to make it all consistent with what we feel the spirit of the films to be.

So, how to pass or fail, if there is no central conundrum? You will be judged on your ability to engage with ALL the issues raised, and at the end of the Path, have a clear and coherent strucutre in your head about what you think of it all, and why you are either happy or unhappy to be acting the way you now are. Right now you are vague and confused. Your objective, basically, is to become sure and certain, armed with knowledge and having thought things through. The Combat Path people are going to have to rely on you to be sure about what exactly to do next in this big mess. Their job is to keep you alive in the meanwhile. After that, all direction in the game is up to you.

If anyone at the end is seriously confused about what they think about the plan to go to X and do Y... then it didn't work out. I will be the final judge, of course.

Now. A lot of this might TOTALLY pass you by if you are not careful. You can engage with what is presented- that's the easy part. But you wouldn't go into battle without your powers loaded or without yoyr weapons, if any. You cannot improvise your way out of everything. You come prepared and armed.

And you may find yourslf unable to make a truly meaningful response unless you forearmed yourselves as well. So...

- Did you listen to what the Oracle said? And I mean REALLY listen? Because responses to things so far tell me that you have not.

- Were you paying attention during things that seemed trivial? Maybe some of those battles were making points beyond the basic one made. Maybe there was more purpose to the museum than you thought.

- Beyond the words of Lo Qi and Sennacherib, were you bearing in mind underlying reasons and meanings? Did you compare and contrast? What didn't add up? What definitely SHOULD have been pursued further? I worry because, for example, no one even questioned the Hunter when he said that the Agents could not guard the door itself. That issue has now been discussed after the fact- but he actually told you in advance. Maybe there is a lot that has been missed like that.

In a way, you guys on Philo have always been playing from the moment you stepped into the Museum. with all the talk of the Door it was easy to get sidetracked. Perhaps that was intentional, of course. Question is, do you want to keep being played? Or play well yourselves?

Time to wake up.

And so, to our first issue... what in the hell have you found?

---

The rough-looking man stands and squints, his eyes not used to the light.

"No..." he says. And he advances out the door at a brisk pace.

Oh, and one more thing...

It may become apparent during this game that you are all screwed, and you will wish you were with the Combat Path.

I just want to state, just to everyone is comfortable... yeah. You're screwed. Of course, it is when you are most screwed that we can best see a person's true self. You chose to come to this point, of course. So we shall see the consequences.

"You are a Machine, right?"-Melkor starts with basic question.

Berserker looks up and down the man and then scanning the room he was in.

It's a stone cell, Berserker.

"Machine?" says the man. He looks puzzled, and then shakes his head.

And advances outwards down the white corridor.

Actually, Ush, I could argue that we didn`t have full choice in opening the Door, since there were events beyond our control. At the end, Melkor felt that opening the door is inevitable, but didn`t think he can make a fully concious decision and preferred to put responsibility into the hands of the Hunter.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
It's a stone cell, Berserker.

"Machine?" says the man. He looks puzzled, and then shakes his head.

And advances outwards down the white corridor.

"What are you? Who are you? You are not human, right?" -Melkor is puzzled by this weird being.

Originally posted by Lord Melkor
Actually, Ush, I could argue that we didn`t have full choice in opening the Door, since there were events beyond our control. At the end, Melkor felt that opening the door is inevitable, but didn`t think he can make a fully concious decision and preferred to put responsibility into the hands of the Hunter.

There's always a choice.

You advanced one alternative.

Meanwhile, he's just moving onwards.

"Wait! Those outside may be your enemies! Agents, they serve the System! The same System that imprisoned you here, it seems."- Melkor is desperate to gain some connection with the "stranger". He will carefully try to put a hand on his shoulder.

He turns.

"Agents. Sentient programmes inserted into the Matrix to police it as a contingency to the possibility of unstable elements. Have they changed?"

"Their purpose hasn`t changed. They are unbeatable inside the Matrix, at least to us, humans. Many of them tried to kill us before we could free you. Do you have reasons to fear the Agents?" -Melkor is glad that he is establishing more communication.

"And you are a sentient programme as well, right?"

"How many?"

"12, I believe."

A pause.

"Not enough."

He turns and resumes his way down the corridor.

"What do you intend to do? And there is another- an unstable code that cannot be destroyed...."- Melkor will describe how the Hunter looks like to the "Stranger."

"But he helped us to reach the Door."

"Everything can be destroyed."

"Do you wish for destruction? You seem very powerful." -Melkor is a tiny bit nervous that Stranger just claimed that he can overpower 12 Agents.

"Why wish for destruction?"

"If you have enemies, you have to be prepared to destroy them. But it is better to try to understand each other, and work to prevent causes for conflict. This is what I believe, and why I want to understand sentient programmes more."

Melkor wants to learn as much as possible about Stranger without pissing him off. Though he is working on assumptions here.

Berserker continues to follow the man when he realizes that he seemed like a dictionary with the Agents.

"Friend do you know about the Oracle?" Berserker asks.