“Why the name?” asks Harold. “Picture Frame?”
“Ah!” says Belinda. “Well, when you start playing — ‘playing’ — I don’t believe I said that. Maybe it is a game. Anyway — when you start, you think you’re in someone’s apartment, and you work your way around in it, checking things out — you can look into her diary, listen to the messages on her answering machine, read some of her mail, look at the art on her walls, and so on. So you learn a lot about her. But the best thing you discover is that she’s got a computer. You start it up, and there’s a lot more you can discover about her there. But one of the things on her disk is Picture Frame. This game. When you open it up, though, it’s not the same. You’re not in the same apartment. You’re in someone else’s apartment.” Belinda’s a little breathless. This is the first time she’s explained her game to someone she doesn’t know. She’s excited and anxious.
“And I’ll bet he’s got a computer, too,” says Harold.
“She. But you’re right. And much later, after you’ve been here and there, you find out that when you first started you weren’t really in an apartment at all — you were wandering around in a picture of an apartment. A snapshot that’s lying in a desk drawer in a room in an inn on an island. And so you can go right back to the beginning. So the question is, when have you been in the picture, and when have you been in the frame?” She’s done. She reaches for her glass and is surprised to find that her hand trembles.
“This would drive me back to drink,” says Gwen.
“Probably,” says Belinda, with a venomous smile.
“But why do you do it?” asks Harold.
“Oh, I just started fooling around,” says Belinda. “I have played a lot of computer games, and I thought it would be interesting to try to do something that was set in this time, instead of the usual medieval epic — ”
“No, I mean why does the player do it — keep playing?”
“Hm?”
“I mean, what’s the point?”
“Well, it’s intriguing — I hope.”
“Forgive me, but I think I can give you some advice. You know, you’re touching on my business here. Mine and Matthew’s. So I think I can give you some help. You’ve got to have something to keep up people’s interest. Put yourself in the position of somebody who might play this Picture Frame. Somebody who might buy it. Now suppose that’s me. Why should I care about this? Why should I spend my time on it? What do I get out of it? Usually, if I’m going to sit at a computer, I’m going to be doing something practical. But you’re asking me to sit there just out of curiosity. I’m not going to make more money by playing this. I’m not going to improve myself. So why should I bother? You see what I’m saying? You need some mystery or something to keep my interest. Throw in a body. A dead body. That’s what you’ve got to have. Keep up the interest.”
[to be continued]
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🎧 467: “Why the name?”