Save File Corrupted

"Loading save": a familiar message for every RPG gamer with a completionist, indecisive or morbidly curious mind. Simulated consequences are rendered null, as the player is provided with the ability to rescind regrettable decisions and return to a previous save state as if nothing happened.

This concept of accountable immunity was a troubling obsession for Corey; an anxiety-plagued young adult whose paralysing remorse lay primed in his tortured soul, disarmed solely by hollow distractions that remained constant. Unforeseeable variables and alternate scenarios gnawed and clawed at his battered conscience whenever he seldom allowed himself to reflect on his beloved kin's pointless deaths: a fatal mishap orchestrated by an adolescent Corey when he negligently left his car ignition pumping toxic carbon monoxide into his family's home via the adjoining garage. Accidentally poisoning his only living relatives had eroded Corey's character into an irreparable insomniac with a debilitating phobia of making another mistake.

Jobs were hard to come by for mentally ill youths but Corey found himself contently operating high octane fairground rides - a role which provided an uneasy sense of responsibility but in practice required very little input from himself. However, when the sun abandoned him every day at dusk: roleplaying games were hastily enveloped as a convenient and desperate means of diversion from guilt-ridden idle thoughts during those suffocatingly quiet nights. In none of these imaginary worlds did Corey ever fear a modicum of regret piercing his escapist armour.

In these interactive, complex plotlines; all stakes were extinguished by the omniscient foresight Corey had poached from exploitable save scrubbing in most roleplaying games. He evaluated every possible outcome and determined the most desirable resolution to every problem that the narrative presented.

After many years of disingenuous triumphs: the non-player characters became a nuisance to Corey. The self-absorbed drones spouted redundant exposition at their fucking God that had the power to manipulate space and time as if rewinding a show on Netflix. How could Corey possibly feel pride in his achievements when his only witnesses were insignificant troglodytes? Without hesitation, he had saved his progress and apathetically exterminated an entire game's NPCs in one night.

Malevolent inquisitiveness consumed Corey's roleplaying. Where save games were once abused to achieve a favourable outcome for the fictional world's inhabitants or the player character's own benefit; save games were now manipulated to perfect and sew virtual genocide over and over again like a nightmare-fuelled sequel to Groundhog Day. This seemingly inconsequential display of gratuitous cruelty served as a catalyst for Corey's festering shame, corrupting his sleep-deprived grasp on reality.

Corey found himself roleplaying as a fairground ride operator; one of the least interesting worlds he had found himself immersed in as there were very few inputs his character could make that would have an impact on the immediate game world. The only redeeming factor: the tantalising button to deactivate the locks on the ride's harnesses and subject the joyful children riding, so blissfully ignorant, to the cruel force of gravity.

"Save successful", Corey mumbled.