RTS COMBINE EST

There are about twenty small, metal boxes with little turbines inside of them sitting in rows on tables. Next to each one is something like a television screen, only much thinner. It’s hard for me to move around in the room; everything is so cramped together it’s like a rat maze. There’s machinery everywhere, just left out and exposed. Even though I walk, almost stomp on the wires I know it would take someone much bigger than me to break them. It makes me twitchy to be here; too much machinery out in the open. The people don’t care about it. In fact, they’re all about the machinery. They’re staring at the bright lights and the big explosions on the screens. It was something new from the Combine.

These new machines are better than the old fog machine. A guy can be having a bad day, it can be the worst day of life, but when he sees those machines, a smile goes up on his face. He thinks, “By God, I’ve had some shit today, but I got a second to step away and forget about that for a bit.” And even if it don’t give them a smile, someone convinces them it should. But it ain’t the Combine: it’s the patients. Because the patients who love these machines are on the fence about themselves. The Combine has planted a seed that grows every time they use the new machines, but you can’t see it. So when one of them talks about how great these things are, they don’t see the Combine behind them. The patients convince each other that this is for the best. It’s so much more discrete than the old fog but with the same effects. They can sink back into the world the machine made the way we could sink into the fog. Everytime they sat down in front of the screen you could see them grow smaller and smaller until you could hardly see them. When they were done they would suddenly grow huge, too huge for this tiny room and go on about what they saw and what they did. The ceiling began to crack and for a moment you could see the pipes and wires and valves beneath the surface.

Despite being in the ward for so long, surrounded by the Combine’s equipment, I felt nervous and exposed here. I watched over the shoulder of some patient on the one of the machines. I couldn’t make any sense of what was going on, but the patients always left acting calm or upset, like the first couple of rounds of the Shock Shop. At times, it seemed like they felt nothing at all after a session in front of those screens. It was the fog, EST, and lobotomy all wrapped up in one efficient package.

The room described is the RTS room in the bottom of Roberts. I chose the room because of how dominant technology can be or currently is in our lives, particularly video games. While some games can be simple, amusing activities to pass the times, very serious games can consume a multitude of hours. They sets out goals, allow you to interact with other people with the shield of anonymity, and offer something real life cannot. But perhaps most importantly, it is a network. It is a web of connections that is monitored and maintained. As the Chief says, however, it is a choice to join this web. By making it alluring and interesting, the Combine stays hidden, making seem as though it is the patients idea to join its cause and its elaborate system.