The Sense of Permanence

What makes it all seem real?

Several months since I last logged into No Man’s Sky, I returned to my homeworld, a bit forgetful of the controls, yet still familiar with my homebase. I still recognized everything as I walked inside the structures that I built months ago. The sense of permanence — that I own a little homestead on a lonely planet somewhere in the galaxy — is now taking a foothold in how I see this game. My home planet, base, ship, freighter (and the latest addition, my exocraft) — all these virtual constructs seem so much more than imaginary now. Specially after finding that these imaginized jawns are still here, even after my long absence.

I know all too well that these are illusions. They do not exist in the real world. They only exist as information in a database stored as ones and zeroes in a drive somewhere. Yet the effect that they bring into my psyche now makes them ‘real’ in some sense — owing to the fact that a planet never truly exists in the database unless a player stumbles upon them or discovers them. From then onwards, the game’s backend infrastructure kicks in to bring about their ‘persistence’. (See what players have done in mapping star systems and planets in a story about the Galactic Hub Project.)

I do not know if others feel the same way. Maybe this is simply just a game for other people. I know it’s just a game too, but perhaps there must be something more to it . Is it just because of imagination that causes me to see it as an adventure worthy in its own right? For sure, it is truly more enjoyable playing this game within a wider context of a community. I now just noted down the coordinates of my home planet, RETER-0918:007A:0557:0079 to give me a bearing as I chart my next adventures in the Galactic Hub. (Note: these coordinates matter now that we have apps like the Pilgrim Star Path.)

I believe it is the Story — my own story that I carve out in this simulated universe that makes this game worthwhile to keep coming back to. Because somebody once said, “the Universe is made of stories, not of atoms” and that’s enough to keep me going. After all, many centuries from now, long after we’re gone, our descendants will look back and see that we have become mere stories in an ever-unfolding universe.