Game Development Reference
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The security guard by the wall turns toward us and stares slack-jawed in
disbelief and, after two seconds, reaches for the gun at his belt. The girl
in the pink dress says, “Look at the man with the dark glasses, Mommy! His
hat is stupid!�
After displaying our nifty squirt gun trick to the bank patrons and employees
(and shooting an annoyed look at the little girl with the big mouth), we
leave the bank.
Later in the day, we return to the bank, which (surprisingly) still contains
20 customers and 5 employees. We approach the middle of the lobby and
begin yelling loudly that we are robbing the bank. The woman to our left
shrieks in terror. The man to our right drops to the ground and assumes
the fetal position. The teenager in back looks up from her phone where she
is text-messaging, shrugs, and looks back down. The security guard by
the wall turns toward us and stares slack-jawed in disbelief and, after two
seconds, reaches for the gun at his belt. The girl in the pink dress says,
“Look at the man with the dark glasses, Mommy! His hat is stupid!�
Wow. That's odd. Did I just step into my own version of the movie
Groundhog Day
? What's
with
these people? That's exactly what they did
earlier today! Wait a minute… let's try this again.
We step outside onto the sidewalk and count to ten before we reenter the bank
lobby. We approach the middle of the lobby and begin yelling loudly that
we are robbing the bank. The woman to our left shrieks in terror. The man
to our right drops to the ground and assumes the fetal position. The
teenager in back looks up from her phone where she is text-messaging,
shrugs, and looks back down. The security guard by the wall turns toward
us and stares slack-jawed in disbelief and, after two seconds, reaches for the
gun at his belt. The girl in the pink dress says, “Look at the man with the dark
glasses, Mommy! His hat is stupid!�
My guess is that you, my ever-gentle reader, skipped the last paragraph of our
little story above. Why? Because it was stale the third time around. You knew what
was going to happen. You had already seen how each person was going to react to
our declaration of impending robbery. If I asked you what the woman on the left
would do if we reentered the bank and once again made our threat, you would be
able to tell me with unflagging certainty that she was going to shriek in terror. After
all, we have been presented with the impression that she
always
shrieks in terror.
Every time. Without fail. Why would we think anything else?
