User blog comment:Urkelbot666/Experiments./@comment-5934310-20140707204457/@comment-5934310-20140708210556

Yeah, that's what I did with my Zelda 3 Prototype story; there's no reason that obtaining the game can't be a pleasant experience. As for games that seem like they might be bootleg, I think I actually might buy them, out of curiosity. There's a huge weekend flea market about five miles from where I live with over 1,100 booths (according to their website), with everything from a dedicated baseball card/TCG shop to people renting booths to operate what are essentially yard sales. It has these two big... I guess they're dollar stores, on either end, which are filled with crates of cheap products from Hong Kong. Once or twice, I've seen them selling bootleg Pokemon games. These kinds of places exist, and if you describe them well in a story, you can engage the reader rather than making them roll their eyes. I wasn't interested the last time I saw one, but if I went this weekend and they had Pokemon Saphyra or whatever for five bucks, I'd probably pick it up.

There's also potential in legitimate mass-produced games without breaking the cliche bank. Omikron: The Nomad Soul is a game made by Quantic Dream, and the player, sitting at their computer, is a character in it. The basic idea is that the player transfers their soul into a cop in the game's world. It's a clever way of dropping the player into events already in motion, and letting them investigate and discover what's going on without there being stupid exposition like, "Hey look, here comes Telis. You know, your wife". The player really feels like they've entered someone else's life, with the people around them not knowing any different. I don't think I need to tell you what kind of implications this could have for a creepypasta.

There's also the potential for developers adding things to the game that most people just haven't found. It's silly when people try to do this to games that have been completely deconstructed, like Pokemon Red or Super Mario World, but I think there's still room in the world for this kind of creepypasta. Everyone knows that Hironobu Sakaguchi was mourning his mother's death while developing Final Fantasy VII, and came up with the Lifestream as a way for the spirits of the dead to retain a purpose. While I don't like the idea of using a real death as the basis for this kind of story, you get what I mean. Maybe you buy a brand new game, and what you name your character happens to unlock something.

I always try to introduce logic into these things, for some reason, and disregard the supernatural. Maybe you could use supernatural elements, but properly explain them. How about that classic trope of "angering a voodoo priestess" while on the way home from buying a video game? Actually, I'd rather not see a story like that... but hey, maybe someone is skilled enough to pull it off without it being hokey.

...I'm coming to realize that when it comes to creepypasta, I less "comment" and more "write essays"...