As I grow older, I become more sentimental. I tell myself that this is normal. Though is it also normal that I become more and more susceptible to the simplest forms of emotional manipulation in fictional media? I know what buttons cheap writers push, when and why. And yet, I find myself increasingly defenseless against what these bastards do to me. 25 years ago, I would have laughed Tender Loving Care off for its cheap soap opera themes and its lack of interactivity. When I played it now, it touched me much more deeply than I ever thought possible. So far that I had to stop playing several times to catch a breath, distract my mind with other things, because it got just too intense.
One of the most exciting things about unravelling a mystery is piecing your clues together and trying to make sense of it all. Just think of the fun you can have while coming up with your own interpretation of what is going on or your very own version of the truth. You do not have to be right, on the contrary coming up with a theory which turns out to be wrong can be even more entertaining because it only makes the mystery deeper. And the deeper it gets the more curious and therefore involved you get.
The universe of good computer game ideas may be large, but it is nowhere infinite. Ingenious ideas don't grow on trees, but they are rather rare like pearls. So it is not surprising that programmers – and those who wish to become one – often fall back to trusted and tried concepts instead. When one's own creativity is added to it, the original hopefully turns into an original clone. In this gaming universe, one well known means of transport is Space Taxi, which inspired a number of clones.