Grinder games, which underlie the major economic activity of the Game, are firmly grounded in twentieth-century psychology. Rather than simply furnishing a framework for “productive work,” grinder games are designed to facilitate a state of “flow” in the player. Flow, first proposed by positive psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is a state of consciousness where you are so immersed in your activity that you lose yourself in the “doing.” You lose your sense of time, replacing it with a state of energized focus. People who experience flow later report a sense of well-being and accomplishment.
Spanker games, by their very nature, send players effortlessly into flow, while it takes everything from sound psychology, engineering, and perhaps even a touch of inspiration to design a grinder game that facilitates flow. But I assure you it is worth it. Game software has not only the potential to maximize the productivity of countless “workers,” but can instill the greatest gift of all-happiness.
Todget grudgingly awakened. How could he sleep with that female thrashing and moaning next to him? He asked himself again why he slept in the same bed with that creature. Their humble apartment consisted of only a single room with an attached bathroom, but he could always sleep on the floor. That would be easy for him. Years ago when he was playing the running game in the Land of the Stag, Todget slept wherever he needed to. Crushed ferns placed beneath him provided more than adequate comfort, and with a blanket of heavy evergreen branches and some debris from a rotten log to provide camouflage and to mask his scent, he had himself an honest night’s sleep.
Sleeping in a bed for the last two years had made him soft, but Todget felt compelled to keep Lily as close as possible. Todget, like all of his tribe, was strong, fast, and cunning. He would protect her. We only have each other, he often reminded himself. As fugitives, they were pitted against the entire world. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before they were caught and killed-or worse yet, taken back. Nevertheless, he would keep her close and safe until his last breath.
Todget lay quietly, scanning the numbingly familiar room. The living fiber that enclosed his chamber changed color depending on the season, and the walls even allowed some sunlight to filter in through its strange, waxy membrane. This was helpful because their dwelling was not furnished with any artificial lights. Lily had told him that humans did not need lights in their lairs because they could see in the dark. Todget, however, had no such skill, so he had purchased a small, inexpensive hand lamp. Lily insisted that he only use the lamp on its lowest power since bright lights could attract attention.
Generally speaking, Todget did not mind bare walls. Since he knew they might have to flee at any moment, decorating seemed pointless. Lily, however, had been adamant on making changes. One day she brought back some slimy seeds and smeared them in dark patches on the walls. Within a day or two, flowers began sprouting from the patches. At first Todget had been very annoyed at this, having to duck his tall, muscular body underneath the flower stalks lest he be chided for his oafishness, but he soon grew fond of the red and gold spotted flowers. Sweet honey juice (Lily said the humans called it nectar) collected in the bulbs, and every morning Todget would drink from these bulbs like a newborn fawn suckling its mother.
Todget’s eyes wandered to the luminescent ceiling. Today the color of their dwelling was red with subtle bluish swirls. He hoped that he would live to see them turn bright green again when the air was at its warmest.
Todget and Lily always slept during the day, while the shiny-eyed humans played their pretend games outside. The frazzled players would storm up and down the steps, shouting childishly. Once the moon rose and the night was at its blackest, all but a few would retire indoors. That is when Todget and Lily would awaken. Although not completely dark yet, Lily seemed to be suffering during this day’s sleep, whimpering and gently flailing as though drowning in slow motion, so Todget decided to wake her early.
“Lily, wake. It is only a dark vision.” Todget shook her as softly as he knew how.
Lily’s blond hair was splashed about her pillow and partially covered the soft curves of her face. Her lips, thick and pink, were slightly parted as she gasped, and her forehead, normally smooth and without blemish, was furrowed. He shook her again, this time with more force. Her blue eyes suddenly shot open, and her breath stopped. A moment later a slight smile came over her, but then it disappeared as her eyes closed again. She then whispered in halting breaths, “I saw a man. He was tall and cruel. He had no eyes, no mouth, and no nose, just skin stretched tightly over where his face should have been. He wanted us.”
Todget did not understand dark visions. He never had such visions when he went into dark time. Lily did not used to have them either. It was only after she started working for that human-that professor, the one who implanted the machine in her head-that she had begun to experience these visions. At first the visions had been pleasant, but not recently. Todget had warned her to not work for the human, but she was stubborn.
“Was it like the one…the one before?”
Lily’s eyes opened up again as though fully recovered from her recent terror, and she said, “Todget, do not worry yourself. It is not a bad omen.” She smiled sweetly and mussed his hair.
The young female swung out of bed and stood up quickly to reach for her gown. Lily slept in light undergarments but kept her robe nearby. Todget watched her carefully. As a Star Sister, Lily was supremely toned and shapely, although her muscles were smaller than Todget’s mate back home. Since the Sisters were, athletically, a near match to the females of Todget’s race, by appearance alone Lily should be a suitable breeding partner-suitable enough, at least, since Todget had been having intense breeding urges lately-but Lily’s scent reminded him that she was not of his species, at which point he always felt ashamed and told himself to not think about her that way. But he still noticed how the human males watched her. Everywhere they went, men-and many women-followed Lily with their eyes.
“Humans have dark visions all the time and they mean nothing,” Lily commented while donning her robe. She turned to face him. Her face glowed with health, tan but not weathered.
“How do you know that?” Todget asked.
“I asked one,” Lily returned to bait him.
Todget felt his heart speeding up. “What? Who?”
Todget didn’t understand Lily’s social interest it humans. It was bad enough that she chose to work with them. Granted, they could use the money, despite the handsome sums Todget himself brought in from the tournaments. Still, living discreetly in this human land, even modestly, was very expensive. Privacy and protection had their costs.
Lily put up her hand reassuringly. “Don’t worry, I’m not out talking to random humans. It was just Professor SlippE. He said that almost all humans have these visions. Humans call them ‘dreams,’ except that when they dream, they hear things. Some even feel things or smell them.”
Todget looked at her with a blank expression.
It was times like these that Lily spoke as though to herself, assuming that Todget was not listening. “Thank Stag I only see visions. I would hate to know what the vile things in my visions smell or feel like.” Lily’s face contorted in revulsion.
“What kind of things? What are these words you come home with?” questioned Todget with irritation.
Lily raised an eyebrow, surprised that Todget was listening. It brought her out of her short-lived reflection. “Vile. It means terrible. As in, you don’t want to be around it.” Lily gave a little smirk and then asked, “So what are you and I up to tonight?”
“I have to fight tonight.” He looked up at the clock. Its numbers glowed dimly. It was the only human construct that decorated the wall.
Lily frowned. “Is it high stakes?”
“Yes, the money will be good.”
She walked slowly to him, leaned over, and tenderly kissed his wide forehead. “I wish I had not asked.”
“And you?” Todget grunted.
“I’m not working today.” Lily’s voice was flat as she walked toward the bathroom for her first shower of the night.
A strange creature she is, Todget thought. She always took two showers a day. Todget would not shower at all if it were not for Lily pestering him to do it before she would get into bed with him. It was for the best. He did not need to draw human attention to himself on account of his smell-a smell that Lily teasingly assured him was “most foul.”
Normally, Todget started off the night by working out his muscles and stretching. He would spend over an hour contorting and lifting his body. For extra weight he would get Lily to lie on top of him. Lily would also work out, but later, right before her second shower and bed. Tonight, however, Todget had a fight and needed to save his strength, so he spent the entire hour stretching and clearing his mind in preparation. Although he didn’t tell Lily, only one of the fighters would leave the ring alive.