With the growth of Internet, revenues in the video game industry have sky rocketed in recent years and have started to surpass the film industry. The figures are astonishing: according to the latest statistics, it is the fastest growing component of the international media sector. Growing annually at a rate of over 9%, it stood at $48.9 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach $68 billion in 2012. While precisely comparable figures for the film industry are hard to come by (depending on what you include in them - for example video/DVDs, television), there is general agreement that annual revenues from film entertainment is around $65 billion, evenly divided between the US and the rest of the world.
But one shouldn't overlook the fact that sometimes the video game industry cross-cuts with the film industry, as the release of some films lead to the creation of video games and vice versa. A recent example that comes to mind is the hugely successful Prince of Persia, but there are many others.
Ours is a society given to playing games – a video game society: we love to play, we love to be entertained at any cost…So here is a story inspired by what is fast becoming a major aspect of our digital lives.
But one shouldn't overlook the fact that sometimes the video game industry cross-cuts with the film industry, as the release of some films lead to the creation of video games and vice versa. A recent example that comes to mind is the hugely successful Prince of Persia, but there are many others.
Ours is a society given to playing games – a video game society: we love to play, we love to be entertained at any cost…So here is a story inspired by what is fast becoming a major aspect of our digital lives.
Hacker inside (Photo credit: Wikipedia)THE GREAT HACKER HEIST
“When I woke up, everything in the house was stolen!” The woman sobbed. “Everything!” she wailed. The lines around her mouth and on her forehead were so deep that her face looked like a Greek mask of grief.
The husband, much older, didn’t seem to share in her pain. He just kept patting her hand, like a father might do to calm an excitable daughter, and murmuring “my poor darling…”
The policeman squared his shoulders and settled his beer belly in the armchair, reflecting that he was facing a bizarre trio: a hysterical middle-aged wife, an apparently unruffled husband, and a third rather enigmatic character, a young lawyer with close-cropped hair and a know-it-all smile. So far the lawyer hadn’t said a word, beyond introducing himself and his clients.
“Ma’am, I need to understand what happened…” said the policeman, his hand raised towards the computer’s touch screen. The morning sunshine hit his eyes, and he got up to pull down the venetian blinds.
The woman complied, without waiting for the policeman to return to his computer. “They took everything!” she said, her tinny voice rising to a crescendo. “My paintings, my carpets, my new white leather sofa. A beautiful sofa, top of the line, it cost me a bomb! And the newly installed aquarium. I hadn’t even had time to buy fish for it. And the billiards table – you know, it’s so convenient: it doubles as a dining table when guests are coming. All gone in one night. I tell you, they took everything!”
“You mean the whole house was emptied?” said the policeman, sitting down. He tapped the screen of the computer and with a graceful wave of the hand, he called up the standard form for depositions.
The woman nodded, wiping her tears. “Empty. All six rooms of the house: totally empty. They didn’t leave one piece of furniture behind. Just the dog. My poor sweet Muffy. He was there, all alone, walking around in the empty rooms. He was moaning. You should have seen him, his eyes drooped, his ears too, he looked so sad…” And she started crying again.
The policeman sighed. He hated it when women cried like this. It made it so difficult to take their deposition down. “Was the dog hurt?” he asked.
“No…no, I don’t think so.”
“And he didn’t bark in the night?”
“No. He never barks at strangers.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve trained him not to!” said the woman with pride.
“Maybe you shouldn’t have,” grumbled the policeman. People were really stupid. If it didn’t bark, why did they keep a dog for? “Look, Lady, let’s start from the beginning,” he said. “Let’s go at it, one step at a time. Let me ask you. When, to the best of your knowledge, did this theft occur?”
“Last night.”
“Ok, last night, that means Thursday October 12, 2020." He tapped the date on the screen. "But let’s try to pinpoint the time a little better. When did you go to bed?”
“I didn’t look but I usually go late, after my husband. At what time did you go to bed, darling?” she asked, turning to her husband.
“Oh, I was tired and I went around ten, as usual,” he said. The policeman wondered why he looked so grim. “But darling, you never come up with me,” he added, looking yet more sombre, almost accusing. “You always stay all evening in front of your computer!”
“No, I don’t!”
“Yes, you do. You must have come up around midnight,” he said. “That’s what you usually do. But I didn’t hear you. Who knows. You might have come in even later than that.”
“Yes, Officer, he’s right, my husband’s right. I have to admit it: I’m a computer addict!” she said, with a winning smile, perhaps designed to assuage her husband’s bad mood. “I…I don’t know at what time I went to bed.”
“Right. Okay. Let’s put in 12 pm,” said the policeman, entering the time with a tap on the screen. “Did you notice anything strange, out of the ordinary?”
“Nothing.” Her bright blue eyes looked straight at the policeman and he was certain she was telling the truth. Then he noticed yet another tear pearling in the corner of her eye and he hurried on with his questions. “Did you hear anything, any strange noises? Anything woke you up?” he asked.
She shook her head and brought out some paper tissue to dab at her eyes.
“You mean they carried out all that damn furniture and you heard nothing?” He was perplexed. Amazing how soundly people manage to sleep. His own sleep was very light – at his age, he was near retirement, he had this problem with peeing. Nobody could ever have emptied his house during the night without him noticing it.
She shook her head again and dabbed at her eyes some more. With all that dabbing, her eyes were becoming very red.
“I can’t believe it! A billiards table and a sofa, these are big, heavy things!”
“ I know,” she sighed. “And they even took my new Jacuzzi whirlpool! And the bathroom mirrors! I spent more on that bathroom than on anything else in the house!”
“They walked off with a Jacuzzi? You don’t say!” The policeman stared at her, and at the husband and their accompanying lawyer. This really was most unusual. Fun even. He’d heard of a lot of house robberies in his time, but never one which involved unscrewing and unplugging a Jacuzzi. What with all the pipes and the electricity to cut off and the tub to carry through the door. And a whirlpool Jacuzzi had to be a damn big tub.
Phenomenal.
“I’ve never heard of such a heist. These were true professionals!” he exclaimed, and a hint of admiration could be detected in his voice. “How could you have heard nothing at all?”
She shook her head once more but all of a sudden she looked guilty. Ah, thought the policeman, here we come. Here’s the explanation.
“I did make a mistake”, she said. “I left my computer on.”
“Your computer was on?” The policeman looked at her aghast. What did that have to do with anything? Yet both her husband and the lawyer were shaking their heads knowingly. As if the computer was the thing that explained it all. That was weird.
“Yes,” she said. “It was on. I forgot to turn it off. I never forget, but last night I forgot. My fault.”
“Ma’am, I wouldn’t worry so much about it. I sometimes forget to turn off this office computer at night, and it’s still running in the morning when I come back. And nothing’s happened.”
“Lucky you!” she said, and started to cry again.
“But Ma’am, there’s something I don’t understand. If they took everything away, how come they didn’t take your computer?”
“Of course they didn’t. That would have been impossible.”
“Impossible? What do you mean?” roared the policeman. These guys were pulling his leg and he had enough of it.
“Officer, please, let me explain,” said the lawyer. He had a soothing manner and it took all his diplomacy and tact to calm the policeman. “Mrs. Johnson is a member of DHC, the Dream House Community, a game on Facebook…”
“Dream House? Never heard of it,” grumbled the policeman.
“Naturally you’ve heard of Facebook, haven’t you?” said the lawyer, and seeing him nod, he continued. “There is a group on Facebook that plays at building their dream house. A big group actually, some fifty million people across the world. They put their dream house up with the help of virtual architects and interior designers. They plan it so that their dream house is perfect, with everything they love and dream of having, including pets. Some have cats, others have dogs, or even cheetahs, pumas and baby tigers. Nice, since they’re virtual, they don’t eat you up or mess your house.”
“Naturally,” said the policeman, who hated to look stupid or uninformed.
“And all the furniture people need for their dream house is acquired in virtual shops,” said the lawyer, not noticing the interruption. “All the knick knacks, paintings, sculptures, curtains, rugs, everything. And some of that antique or contemporary art can be quite expensive. Because Dream House Community members have to pay for it.”
“Not quite” said Mrs. Johnson. “One does make money when friends come and visit the house. They have to pay an entrance fee. Quite a few people visited mine,” she added proudly. “But I never earned enough. In the end, I had to put in my own money. I spent two hundred dollars to furnish my dream house! I want that money back!”
The policeman looked confused. “So you have come for a two hundred dollar theft?”
“Either the money or you find my furniture!” said Mrs. Johnson.
“Find virtual furniture?” said the policeman, hesitant. His hand tapped nervously on the computer’s screen. Noticing that it caused the screen to waver and blur, he took it quickly away. He couldn’t think of any deposition form that would fit that kind of robbery. Good thing he was retiring next year – this was fast becoming an impossible job.
...Curious to know the end of the story? You'll find it in DEATH ON FACEBOOK, Short Stories for the Digital Age (it's the second story in the collection - eight stories in total). Click here to buy (it's only $2.99):
Footnote: I hesitated a long time about posting tidbits of my writing on my blog but then decided it was probably the way to go, seeing other writers do it regularly.
I would love to know what you think of the idea? And if you like my short story collection, can I ask you to go back to the Amazon site and click that "like" button? They help me as a writer in gaining attention on Amazon and I'm really grateful for all the help you can give me - of course, reviews are also welcome but I realize they are far more demanding on your time...
And I'm deeply grateful to those who have taken the time to write and post reviews. I have just had two new ones and they're so positive, they have warmed my poor writer's heart!
Believe me, the writer's life is a lonely one and it's wonderful to hear from one's readers...
Are you interested in what I'm up to as a writer? I just spent the last three days in wonderful Matera (that's a small, very ancient town in Southern Italy). I participated in a writers' retreat and plan to post about the experience very soon - but that's why you haven't heard from me, fellow twitterers, sorry for the silence! I was holed up in Matera discussing books with a dozen writer friends and one savvy literary agent. More on that in my next post!
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