I won't be awake for that - I like, y'know, actually sleeping - but I've been actively trying to see as much of this weird virtual world before the doors close and the Giants roll up the islands and put them back where they came from.
It's one of the biggest cliches out there, that you don't know what you've got until it's gone, but I kind of feel a bit more like I've tried to know Glitch more over the past few weeks simply because it'll all be over, soon.
There's a completist in me, too. Which is handy, because there's a lot of badges for being a completist.
This is my excuse, anyway, for having completely covered thirty-one regions in two days, including one that's really recalcitrant about giving out the completist badge.
Seriously.
Since yesterday, I've compulsively visited every location on the map (and a few others that weren't) because, while I'm asleep tomorrow, this world is just going to vanish.
For sure, it'll be backed up on some servers somewhere, but the doors will be shut and locked (electronically), so for some reason it mattered a lot more to me than maybe it should have to actually go and see the world.
It was fun, too. Along the way there were some beautiful sights, but it was - to be frank - quite a lonely pilgrimage, bumping into people being such a rare occurrence.
I wondered at this at the time, then realised this evening; it's all down to the whole time zone thing. Because now, late at night my time, the whole place is jumping.
It's still kind of sad, but at the same time... I think it's worth sharing something that Tiny Speck put together to help the grieving process in a uniquely Glitch kind of a way.
For the uninitiated, a recent addition to the game were Feats, which were global events that everyone could participate in (assuming they'd completed something called The Last Pilgrimage of Esquibeth, but let's not get into that now).
One of the first feats was, naturally, Streaking. (Although censor bars were allowed.)
This feat, however, on the day before the end... It's kind of floored me in the simple elegance with which it helps people cope.
The First Glimmer of the Giants' Awakening
Repeat the absurd incantations in as many locations as you can, with at least one other person present.
The first person must say "This game is absolutely preposterous." (1 point) and then a second person may say "I agree wholeheartedly!" (2 points, but only if it immediately follows someone saying the first line) and a third (distinct) person adds "And yet, I will really miss it." (3 points, but only if it immediately follows someone saying the second line in immediate response to someone saying the first line).
It's kind of You Will admit that this is coming to and end, but you'll have some fun doing it, recognise the nature of the game, and also cope with the oncoming end.
Because Glitch was preposterous. Everyone agreed this was true. And yet, as players, we will all really miss it.
So.
Once the majority of my explorations were done, I logged back in today wondering what else to do.
And then people started grouping together for the feats, and travelling the world, intoning the incantations. I got into two groups doing this, and got to see most of the world all over again, while we all said how preposterous it was - wholeheartedly - and that we'd really miss it.
And it was truly, genuinely, fun. Not that Glitch was ever anything but fun, but... Being given the opportunity to form these chanting groups of three and travel the world talking about preposterousness and loss was just a really nice way to do things.
The requisites for the feat - the points generated by our actions in-game - were filled with two minutes to spare.
And that was when God started talking to us.
No, really. Here's the transcript.
GOD Phew, that was close — down to the wire, one might say. I wasn't sure you'd make it!
GOD In fact, I'd sort of given up on seeing you reach the goal and I was ready to reward you all with a beer and a hearty slap on the back. That would've been nice, huh?
GOD Soooooo I dug some of this stuff up for everyone at the last moment... let's see, there's a broken cubimal, and, um, something dusty? And some other stuff. I don't really know what it is, but I hear you might enjoy it.
So God gave me and everyone else a bundle of stuff. And then, because this is Glitch, God took his trousers off of his head, went outside - the neighbours having previously complained about his lack of trousers - found us some more rocks, and gave them out.
This is the kind of sentence you end up typing when you've been playing Glitch for a while.
I've played it for around ten hours, on and off, today.
Just to see the world, and talk to people, before tomorrow. Because tomorrow is probably going to be grief, rather than joy, which today ended up being.
There's two more things I'd like to talk about tonight before my brain shuts down from sitting in front of a monitor kind of quietly grieving and being joyful at the same time.
One, I finally - finally - managed to get the upgrade I needed to learn the last skill of the game. My character had previously managed to learn all the others, which was kind of cool, but this last one required a specific upgrade card.
Except that the learning time would have been two days after the end of the game.
So I spent a lot of icons - little medallions embodying the Giants ('gods') of the world - to up that time and now - and I'm curiously emotional about this - my little Glitch avatar will meet the end of the world with all the knowledge I could give him at his disposal.
Two... I don't think I'll ever complete the Noticing the Unnoticeable quest, so my Glitchen will go on to whatever's next not knowing what the last ghost would have said.
Note: that isn't the original second point I was going to write, but my brain is mush right now.
But, as someone said to me earlier... See you around the end!
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