It wasn't the sight or the sound of it. Those had been done before, often in deeper vibrancy than real life. It was the sweet and foul smells from the market, the cacophony of hundreds of players and NPCs rushing about. It was the hot, sticky wind that swirled through the valley the city sat in. It was something unlike anything I'd ever played before.
None of the journals and reviews had conveyed why this game was so new. It wasn't the interactivity or technical brilliance. Those were old hat to a seasoned gamer my age. This had what the others lacked, something so obvious about real life that no one had thought to put it in a game: the teeming chaos, confusion and imperfection that makes life real. Left out until now, that is.
As I swatted an alien-looking insect that landed on my arm and cringed at the weird blue splat it left behind, any doubt that Lance Quaid was a stark raving genius left me.
