Writing Exercise
Dear Creator of the Universe,
First, I'd like to say as a long time user of Universe '75, I'm extremely fond of the product and have purchased many other products from the same line. All of them have had their various bugs and problems, but like many other users, I've grown fond of their quirks and in general, I believe the benefits have outweighed the annoyances. What's Chicago weather and April Fool's Day Blizzards compared to the perfect sunny days and spectacular thunderstorms produced by Weather 4.4? Sure, those black holes are kind of annoying, but Space Unlimited also gives us daily sunrises and sunsets. But with your latest product, Life 1.0, I've run into an issue that I quite feel simply ruins the OS.
Free Will
I have three problems with this one function. First, is that it seems to be everywhere. Free Will is involved in everything, from brushing the avatar's teeth in the morning, to deciding if the President will push the button. Does it really need to be that ubiquitous? Some of those decisions seem so trivial, perhaps a skip or auto-choice option might be added?
Second, for something so omnipresent, it can be hard to realize when Free Will is involved. I'll be working with the program, and then-BAM! Free Will Choice will just pop up out of nowhere. I've tried buying some instructional manuals, like 'Psychology' and 'Religion' (I know, they're not published by your company), but I just got more and more confused. If you can't remove the Free Will function, could you at least include a manual for it.
And finally, my last problem is with the Consequences Bug. Sometimes, the result of using the Free Will function won't be what I intended. Or the short-term results will be fine, but the long-term ones will be wildly different. Or the results will impact other users. Or be unfair. I'm especially disappointed with when the results turn up as 'Failure', 'Imprisonment' and 'Death'. The point is, Consequences make the results of Free Will really hard to evaluate ahead of time, tend to be negative, and can't be undone. I know you must have really liked the Free Will feature, given that you're using it as the main selling point of this program, but this is really the worst part.
So, my suggestion is to just remove this feature with the next patch. Or at least publish an instruction manual for all us.
User
Dear User,
I'm sorry you feel that way about the Free Will function in Life 1.0. Here are few suggestions that may make things easier for you.
First, the inclusion of Free Will in everything is quite necessary. There are several versions released internationally, and almost universally, users with reduced functions of Free Will rate their satisfaction is worse than those with more ubiquitous programs. Indeed, sometimes their reactions are downright . . . revolutionary, if you pardon the pun.
Second,there's a very simple way to tell when Free Will is involved with an action. When the action is voluntary, then Free Will is involved. Everything else is circumstances, and does not excuse the use of Free Will. You can use to walk down a dark alley at night in a bad neighborhood, but you can also choose to Mug and Rape another user. Instruction manuals like 'Religion', 'Psychology' and 'Ethics' and other similar publications can help you with those choices, but they really all come down to Free Will.
As for your third complaint, I can't help feel that you may be using the program in a manner that is not optimal. Consequences is not a bug in the program, but rather the main feature. Consequences are what give Free Will meaning, otherwise the function would just be an exercise in the hypothetical. With Consequences, even a choice not to choose is important. That's why I suggest taking extra care and caution when exercising Free Will. Besides, there are positive results possible with Consequences, i.e. 'World Peace', 'Masterpiece Painting' and 'Happiness'. It's the same as earlier products, such as 'Nature Beta'.
You've suggested publishing a manual, but that would completely destroy the point of Free Will. I suggest purchasing more non-producer ones, just be careful. Some of them, especially 'Religion' can produce very unusual effects on Consequences.
Finally, if you really are having problems, I recommend you upgrade to the next product in the line. Just be aware, that once you've upgraded, you can't return you system to the previous OS.
I'm certain to see you again as a user of Death 1.0.
Creator of the Universe