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Q&A How do I prevent a structure-breaking character from being seen as a fourth-wall-breaking joke?

I am unofficially "fixing up" a video game through modding. The game's Big Reveal is that the game world is actually a simulation, that the characters and population are all AIs, and that the vill...

3 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by The Great Duck‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:41:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/25029
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar The Great Duck‭ · 2019-12-08T05:41:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
I am unofficially "fixing up" a video game through modding.

The game's Big Reveal is that the game world is actually a simulation, that the characters and population are all AIs, and that the villain is the programmer who created them all.

Here is my problem: because the player is _playing a game_, which is then revealed to be... a game, this Big Reveal might be taken as a fourth-wall breaking gimmick. That it might be seen as meta-humor, going "Oh, this was a computer game all along, _of course_."

But that's not what I'm aiming for. There's a clear, coherent plot. As long as the player takes the Big Reveal seriously, he'll understand the Big Reveal - not as a joke, but as something the game has been building up to.

**How do I keep that from happening?** How do I cue the player to take the Big Reveal seriously, and not just dismiss it as a gimmick?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2016-10-24T17:56:48Z (about 8 years ago)
Original score: 4