“The Game of Moving Injured Part”

When I was a child, I played a game. I would lay awake at night and pretend that I could not move. In the game, I pretended to try to move while pretending that I could not. I would play the game until I became afraid, and only then would the real game begin. Was it possible that I was not pretending to be unable to move, but only pretending to pretend?

But, eventually, I would fall asleep, and in my sleep, I would dream, and in my dream, I would move, and when I would wake up, I would find that I had either moved or been moved, but I could not be sure what had happened.

Eventually, I forgot how to play this game. It became the memory of a game I once played. Inspired by this memory, I found another game to play. I would pretend that I never played the original game. In the game, I would pretend that it was a memory that I had invented. I would pretend that I had invented this memory of a game I once played while pretending that I was not pretending. I would play this game until I would become afraid, and only then would the real game begin. Was it possible that I was not pretending to have invented the memory of playing a game in which I would pretend to be unable to move, but that I was only pretending to pretend to have invented this memory?

But, eventually, I would fall asleep, and in my sleep, I would dream, and in my dream, I would pretend to move, and when I would wake up, I would find that I may or may not have moved, or been moved, but I could not be sure what had happened because I had forgotten where I started.

Now, I have forgotten if I am playing that game. It has become a story of a false memory of a game I once pretended that I once played. Inspired by this story, I have found a final game to play. In fact, I am playing this game right now. In the game, I pretend that I have not forgotten that I am playing a game. I pretend that I have only pretended to forget that I am playing a game in which I pretend to have invented the memory of a game I once played in which I once pretended that I was not pretending that I was unable to move while pretending that I am not only pretending to pretend until just now, when I have become afraid that I know that the real game is about to come to an end. Is it possible that the game I have been pretending to play is not only a game, and that I am not only pretending to play it?

But, eventually, I must fall asleep, and in my sleep, I must not dream, because in my dream, I will pretend to pretend to play a game, or to have been moved to play a game, and when I do not wake up, I am afraid that I will find out whose game I have really been playing all along— or that it was never a game, or never only play, at all...

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An incomplete game coerces the player into committing an act of completion to produce a satisfying conclusion, but the act of coercion itself defers any possibility of true satisfaction. Ultimately, a different sort of act is required, something other than simple completion.

Only by flipping from “story mode” into “fight mode” can the player reveal solutions to the incomplete game that do not require its completion.