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argurotoxosDuring my freshman year of university, a time when video game stores were still stocking used pc games, I took a bus trip to a mall and was captivated by a jewel case with a black cover. 'Thief: The Dark Project.' I'd never heard of it before, nor had I played any stealth-based games. Nevertheless, the title intrigued me and it was only $6, so I pulled out the money and a love was born.
After playing the tutorial and feeling the rush of excitement from something different from anything else I'd ever played, I introduced my roommate at the time to the game, too. With the intention of finding another copy of the game for her, I headed back to the mall. There were no more copies of The Dark Project to be had, but there - in another jewel case - 'Thief Gold'.
In what was one of the most harmlessly stupid things I've done, I returned Thief Gold after it refused to install on my laptop; I hadn't yet stumbled upon the existence of the TTLG forums or the dedicated core of Thief fans and the fan mission scene.
Fast forward one year. I had now completed The Dark Project and begun playing Thief II: The Metal Age. I'd learned about fan missions and installed DarkLoader. I found out that Thief Gold was something of a director's cut edition of The Dark Project, complete with four new missions and the level editor, DromEd. Morever, I learned that Thief Gold was out of print and more difficult to find than either The Dark Project or The Metal Age. D'oh.
After several years of watching Thief Gold used prices on Amazon marketplace hover in the $45 range, they've recently fallen to the $30s. I took the chance and ordered a copy from the same seller I had obtained Thief: Deadly Shadows from. [Happy early birthday/Christmas, me.] I've no doubt I'll have to tweak it before it will run on my current laptop (I even had to tweak The Dark Project and The Metal Age before they ran properly, which I hadn't had to do on my previous two laptops), but my Thief collection will finally be complete and I'm looking forward to trying out DromEd, though I know I have a lot to learn. Thief Gold will be joining my installations of The Dark Project and The Metal Age, my dual installation of Thief: Deadly Shadows (one for the editor), the fan-created Thief2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, Thievery, DarkLoader, GarrettLoader, and over 200 fan missions.
RIP Looking Glass Studios. (One day, I will finish the System Shocks.)
I still haven't written any kind of review for Deus Ex, but there is one conversation I thrilled at the first time I heard it which addresses many of the central themes of the game. It takes place relatively late in the game -- the main character, JC Denton, has completed the last of his quests in Paris and is in the home of Morgan Everett, current leader of the Illuminati. In a small side room guarded by an electronically coded door, JC discovers a prototype of an echelon system named Morpheus. You can watch or read the conversation below the following cut:
(direct link)
--text--
Morpheus: JC Denton. 23 years old. No residence. No ancestors. No employer. No --
JC Denton: How do you know who I am?
Morpheus: I must greet each visitor with a complete summary of his file. I am a prototype for a much larger system.
JC Denton: What else do you know about me?
Morpheus: Everything that can be known.
JC Denton: Go on. Do you have proof about my ancestors?
Morpheus: You are a planned organism, the offspring of knowledge and imagination rather than of individuals.
JC Denton: I'm engineered. So what? My brother and I suspected as much while we were growing up.
Morpheus: You are carefully watched by many people. The unplanned organism is a question asked by Nature and answered by death. You are another kind of question with another kind of answer.
JC Denton: Are you programmed to invent riddles?
Morpheus: I am a prototype for a much larger system. The heuristics language developed by Dr. Everett allows me to convey the highest and most succinct tier of any pyramidal construct of knowledge.
JC Denton: How about a report on yourself?
Morpheus: I was a prototype for Echelon IV. My instructions are to amuse visitors with information about themselves.
JC Denton: I don't see anything amusing about spying on people.
Morpheus: Human beings feel pleasure when they are watched. I have recorded their smiles as I tell them who they are.
JC Denton: Some people just don't understand the dangers of indiscriminate surveillance.
Morpheus: The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms.
JC Denton: Electronic surveillance hardly inspires reverence. Perhaps fear and obedience, but not reverence.
Morpheus: God and the gods were apparitions of observation, judgment, and punishment. Other sentiments toward them were secondary.
JC Denton: No one will ever worship a software entity peering at them through a camera.
Morpheus: The human organism always worships. First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipotent observation and judgment.
JC Denton: You underestimate humankind's love of freedom.
Morpheus: The individual desires judgment. Without that desire, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization. The human being created civilization not because of a willingness but because of a need to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning. God was a dream of good government. You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands. I was made to assist you.
After playing the tutorial and feeling the rush of excitement from something different from anything else I'd ever played, I introduced my roommate at the time to the game, too. With the intention of finding another copy of the game for her, I headed back to the mall. There were no more copies of The Dark Project to be had, but there - in another jewel case - 'Thief Gold'.
In what was one of the most harmlessly stupid things I've done, I returned Thief Gold after it refused to install on my laptop; I hadn't yet stumbled upon the existence of the TTLG forums or the dedicated core of Thief fans and the fan mission scene.
Fast forward one year. I had now completed The Dark Project and begun playing Thief II: The Metal Age. I'd learned about fan missions and installed DarkLoader. I found out that Thief Gold was something of a director's cut edition of The Dark Project, complete with four new missions and the level editor, DromEd. Morever, I learned that Thief Gold was out of print and more difficult to find than either The Dark Project or The Metal Age. D'oh.
After several years of watching Thief Gold used prices on Amazon marketplace hover in the $45 range, they've recently fallen to the $30s. I took the chance and ordered a copy from the same seller I had obtained Thief: Deadly Shadows from. [Happy early birthday/Christmas, me.] I've no doubt I'll have to tweak it before it will run on my current laptop (I even had to tweak The Dark Project and The Metal Age before they ran properly, which I hadn't had to do on my previous two laptops), but my Thief collection will finally be complete and I'm looking forward to trying out DromEd, though I know I have a lot to learn. Thief Gold will be joining my installations of The Dark Project and The Metal Age, my dual installation of Thief: Deadly Shadows (one for the editor), the fan-created Thief2X: Shadows of the Metal Age, Thievery, DarkLoader, GarrettLoader, and over 200 fan missions.
RIP Looking Glass Studios. (One day, I will finish the System Shocks.)
I still haven't written any kind of review for Deus Ex, but there is one conversation I thrilled at the first time I heard it which addresses many of the central themes of the game. It takes place relatively late in the game -- the main character, JC Denton, has completed the last of his quests in Paris and is in the home of Morgan Everett, current leader of the Illuminati. In a small side room guarded by an electronically coded door, JC discovers a prototype of an echelon system named Morpheus. You can watch or read the conversation below the following cut:
(direct link)
--text--
Morpheus: JC Denton. 23 years old. No residence. No ancestors. No employer. No --
JC Denton: How do you know who I am?
Morpheus: I must greet each visitor with a complete summary of his file. I am a prototype for a much larger system.
JC Denton: What else do you know about me?
Morpheus: Everything that can be known.
JC Denton: Go on. Do you have proof about my ancestors?
Morpheus: You are a planned organism, the offspring of knowledge and imagination rather than of individuals.
JC Denton: I'm engineered. So what? My brother and I suspected as much while we were growing up.
Morpheus: You are carefully watched by many people. The unplanned organism is a question asked by Nature and answered by death. You are another kind of question with another kind of answer.
JC Denton: Are you programmed to invent riddles?
Morpheus: I am a prototype for a much larger system. The heuristics language developed by Dr. Everett allows me to convey the highest and most succinct tier of any pyramidal construct of knowledge.
JC Denton: How about a report on yourself?
Morpheus: I was a prototype for Echelon IV. My instructions are to amuse visitors with information about themselves.
JC Denton: I don't see anything amusing about spying on people.
Morpheus: Human beings feel pleasure when they are watched. I have recorded their smiles as I tell them who they are.
JC Denton: Some people just don't understand the dangers of indiscriminate surveillance.
Morpheus: The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms.
JC Denton: Electronic surveillance hardly inspires reverence. Perhaps fear and obedience, but not reverence.
Morpheus: God and the gods were apparitions of observation, judgment, and punishment. Other sentiments toward them were secondary.
JC Denton: No one will ever worship a software entity peering at them through a camera.
Morpheus: The human organism always worships. First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipotent observation and judgment.
JC Denton: You underestimate humankind's love of freedom.
Morpheus: The individual desires judgment. Without that desire, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization. The human being created civilization not because of a willingness but because of a need to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning. God was a dream of good government. You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands. I was made to assist you.
