# re heavily armed quality air control on steam > the simulacrum is never that which conceals the truth - it is the truth which conceals that there is none. the simulacrum is true > ~ jean baudrillard simulacra and simulation a video garming role play scenario for n players: some (citation needed] say the air control cult all started with a post on a largely unknown blog about air control - but then they'd be no more or less right wrong or confused than anyone else // video here what beings as a strictly theoretical dialogue about the current mis-perceived lack of quality control by valve on steam (mis-perceived because user-based curating is all part of valve's big ongoing plan) quickly segues into a wildly speculative / imaginative flight of fancy surrounding the often justifiably-maligned video-tic experience "air control" by the semi-mysterious kiiljoy garmes inc consider the whole ongoing debacle around arbitrary garmes itself another new contested form of emergent 'imaginary garme' people online are playing now perhaps the mere existence of the true awfulness of / on display in "air control" is already a sign that reality itself is infinitely out of wack - far beyond anyone's attempt to do anything but sark troll whine or (if all else fails) blog or even play about it (ie. reality and-or air control; unsure if these are even somehow remotely separable) it's mostly entirely obvious that what modern players call a video garme does not begin or end with the strict binary pressing of a start button or running an executable file - but that the whole general notion of play implies the whole fuzzy organic process of analog engagement with complex systems of intense electronic experience interaction and alienation often as not what's more actually being played is everything except teh garme itself - which rather than some mythical chewy centre now takes the role of another neural node in a steamy cloud of abstract encounters with polymorphic notions of the real // video here in the case of the video garme air control the spurious if seductively curious suggestion is that its ultra low-grade jerry-rigged look points obliquely (yet strongly) to the existence of a unique digital garme-space reality being shared by everyone who's ever thought about how certain uncertain ideas make them feel all tingly-weird and excitedly uncomfortable inside **+** ballardian black boxes **+** don delillo's falling man **+** the phrase "air of unreality" air control and half life one mod heavily armed flying on a large commercial plane has always been a strange almost other-worldly experience. there's an cool amazingly bad mod for half life 1 called heavily armed which perfectly captures this feeling while entirely awful and virtually unplayable it features an ending of truly mind bowling proportions after a series of endless empty offices and surreal staircase climbs you ('pilot one') suddenly find yourself sitting in a plane in the air waiting to land - only to discover after several disquieting minutes (it seems like hours in-garme) that the whole thing is in fact a badly constructed model sitting inside a large industrial hanger - that what you thought were clouds flying past is in fact a long loop of white cloth with blue clouds printed on it being turned mechanically by invisible alien (/states of) being from another parallel dimension conducting neo scientific research note: the bit about aliens was made up // video here one often considers the unique social spaces in which they play real; likewise the real shock of finding oneself not in a plane but merely inside a bad simulation of one is sublime to a shocking degree - in the exact same way playing the wider garme of / that is "air control" has perhaps something vital to say about the distinctly artificial-feeling nature of garmes and play which continually point us toward unknown meanings > there's a delicious undercurrent minimalist dread alienation and paranoia that wafts over you - an uncomfortably cool breeze over the back of your neck - the only passenger entering bland data on your chunky obsolete laptop in business class. suddenly there's a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach. jumping from your seat you run up to the pilot cabin door you kick it open to find both seats empty and that the instrument panel dials are mere static back-lit graphical stickers > slowly it dawns on you that your only entire reality (in this aircraft) is only minutes from impact with terminal beyond - that the once reassuring voice of the pilot was only a pre-recorded message - that the arms of the loved one now gripping you ever tighter till the point you can't breathe are really automatic electronic arms - and all the terrifyingly complex set of chemical reactions in/as brain won't mean jack as this lumbering electricity guzzling pile of virtual metal plows into an unknown filed of genetically modified sentient data at 6000mph with you strapped inside like the dim meat puppet you were. stand by > ~ storming the reality studio larry mccaffery // video here suggested improvements for air control despite legitimate complaints there's still something about air control that's cool and unusual. it's like a garme waiting to happen a proto-garme or collective aesthetic response with huge narrative potential. here are some potential improvements invent a backstory: doesn't matter - pull one out of your shady arts - heck why not have several running simultaneously the three great policy makers have gathered to fight over who controls the air (reality) and now battle for air supremacy. join them in ir bizarre quest or hinder ir progress by finding and exploiting as many glitches as you can. upload your findings to youtube for social points - take part today in the grand role playing platform that is air control! return everyone's money and make the entire garme free and open source; let the community develop it don't patch out the unique jankiness on display but increase the number of interesting ways teh garme can fail - display scenes of unplanned awkward weirdness aka skate 3 imagine air control as an ongoing sketch by andy kaufman who upon purchasing a unity engine licence repeatedly projectile vomits ir multi-hued genre-based nausea into a leaky paper bag of airline garme development with the maniacal glee of a surgeon simulator **+** oculus support (a must) **+** a split screen with two garmes running that interact with each other **+** a massive ship to explore with some odd cabins / passengers to discover **+** multiple useless / unsavoury tasks for the cabin crew (you) **+** food poisoning resulting in zombification / power gore showers **+** illegal drugs in the bottled water **+** out of order toilets which eat people **+** contagious idiot disease **+** odd / inappropriate videos on view screens **+** a stealthy serial killer **+** nun infestations / alien invasions **+** ridiculous in-flight conversations **+** extreme post-processing effects with deliberate overall lo-fi aesthetic **+** unlikely crash landings / 'desert (of the real) survival' over at the awesome errant signal fellow ludonaut chris franklin says some are buying (/into) air control 'for ironic hipster cred' - as opposed to what? // republic of bob