[projectaon] Re: Editor's Companion Submission
- From: Timothy Pederick <pederick@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: projectaon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 4 Dec 2009 14:50:29 +0800
2009/12/3 Thomas Wolmer <angantyr@xxxxxxxxx>
> Er, no. You (LW) may lead the Prince's reserves to help save the Eruan
> Palace Guard, but then you *don't* fight together with Prarg. What you
> do together with Prarg is to gather scattered soldiers to help save
> the Lencian knights in their struggle at the bridge.
>
Unfortunately, situations like this are inevitable. As the gamebook theorist
Erwin Schrödinger described in his famous thought experiment, "Schrödinger's
Wolf", all of the possible paths from a given decision section exist
simultaneously, in a kind of state vector. It is only when a player actually
comes to, and continues from that section, that this state vector (often
depicted by use of a state vector graph, or SVG) collapses to a single
outcome.
That, of course, is the *player's* perception. But what of Lone Wolf's? From
his perspective, all possible outcomes *do* occur -- and not foreseen by
some precognition, as some have supposed (based on an obsolescent theory of
the workings of the *Sixth Sense* line of Disciplines), but occurring
simultaneously. Therefore, from Lone Wolf's perspective, at the Battle of
Cetza, he *did* lead the Prince's reserves to save the Eruan Guards, *at the
same time* as he was fighting together with Prarg at the bridge.
Dever tries numerous (ingenious) ways to cause the state vector to collapse
in a manner that will appear consistent to the player -- primarily the use
of locations (Cetza, the Isle of Ghosts) or of objects (the Crystal Star
Pendant, the Platinum Amulet), rather that referring to specific people whom
Lone Wolf would remember both meeting and not meeting! On this occasion,
however, he has bowed to reality somewhat: he has chosen to depict Lone
Wolf's confusion of mind, by saying that Prarg *was* there leading Prince
Graygor's reserves.
I really don't think we should tamper with such an artistic solution to the
quantum gamebook paradox.
--
Tim Pederick
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