OldCloneWorld

Real-Time Suicide

Sort of a parody of Real-Time Strategy games. Sort of a script for a comic. The comic may actually get drawn someday, but after 30 years of development, I wouldn't hold your breath.

The characters are individual units in a fictional Real-Time Strategy game. The expendability and interchangeability of the characters are major themes. Each character type has a distinct personality, yet they die like flies and are replaced by identical characters that seem to share memories with the deceased. Questions about identity are toyed with but not answered (except perhaps toward the end). Are we seeing a succession of characters being created and getting killed, or is each character type just a single persona spread over multiple expendable, replaceable bodies? Should the characters be experiencing existential angst or not?

The fictional game is a mish-mash of elements stolen from real RTS games so they can be parodied. The game will probably include some First-Person Shooter and Role-Playing Game elements so those can be parodied, too. There is a strong element of the Lemmings video game in that missions often involve units sacrificing themselves, often in rather stupid ways. There is a lot of sadistic "black" humor in the game. The developers appear to enjoy coming up with nasty ways for the units to die.

World background info

• The Players. A bunch of pimply-faced, 14-year-old h@xxorz. They never appear "on screen" but are known through their 733t-ridden screen messages to each other. Nasty kids who enjoy making the game units do stupid, suicidal stuff just for kicks. Named after the Team each controls: Blue Player, Green Player, Red Player, etc.
• The Developers: may never appear, even in dialog. May just be referred to by the other characters as an undifferentiated group. If they do appear in the comic it'll be Omniscient Council Of Vagueness style -- nameless, faceless silhouettes.

Major teams:

• Team Blue Theme: modern-day military. Designated heroes. Primary resource: Orichalcum, a kind of unobtainium.
• Team Green Theme: jungle, monsters, "savages." Primary resource: wood.
• Team Red Theme: WWII-era military. Unit designs suggest both Nazi and Japanese units from WWII without being definitely identifiable. Led by "mad scientist" type NPC named Doktor Reichter, who has read and memorized the List. Designated villains. Primary resource: uranium.
• Team Brown not really a team, not player-controlled. Wild animals, including dangerous predators, a few minor monsters, unaligned NPCs. Primary resource: grass.

Less important Teams

• Team Aqua: aquatic
• Team Grey: stereotypical aliens with flying saucers. Crashed saucers are a source of Orichulum.
• Team Maroon: demons and undead. Primary resource: "blood blooms," plants that grow in the bloodstains left by explosions
• Team Purple: reptilians. Primary resource: meat, including dead bodies.
• Team Silver: robots
• Team White: angelic elves, basically

Story

Copyright © 2007, 2008 by Richard C. McCluney, III