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Lovely, dark and deep. To be honest: I expected sth. about "Disco Elysium" - which has a cryptid-side-quest. :D https://erikhoel.substack.com/p/the-future-of-literature-is-video

On encountering the cryptid, one might be able to talk to it; when one asks: Are you the "miracle"? - it answers: No. You humans are the miracle.

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I will check out that link, but on the face of it a title like ‘The future of literature is video’ puts chills up my spine.

Disco Elysian is something I’ve wanted to play for a long time, though I might end up reading everything about it before that actually happens.

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relax, it's "video-games" ;) and Erik's thesis a bit over the top. Novels and movies have much in common, anyway.

The game: on GOG now for a tenner. Read Erik's footnote about what is wrong with the game-play. He is right - do not expect it to be too awesome! Still: Fine voice-acting. Fine art. The story ... is fine. too. But one can read it at different levels of understanding. As a "who-dunnit" it may disappoint at least twice. I found it still enjoyable to replay, at least once.

There is a kindle-book with all possible ways the story/dialogues can go. ;) as Erik's full title said:

"The future of literature is video games - Or is it the other way around?"

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>it would offer it’s believers

Typo, "it's" should be "its".

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That typo is now a cryptid.

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Nice. And your conclusion seems sound.

On a couple of prosaic notes, 2 cognitive factors may also be significant. The gap between the payoff you imagine, when wanting, and the perceived payoff when getting. There’s lots of research & theory on this that suggests your intuition is right about the need for more cryptids if Bigfoot et al really turned up one day.

The other, even more prosaic, is that we just love a good story.

I’ve a new agey friend and it seems sad to me that the Angler fish and Higgs Bosons of this world aren’t enough for her.

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