Centre Bienheureux
[ Another strange cult for 2320. This was inspired by Naoki Yamamoto’s manga Believers. ]
The Centre Bienheureux is one of the newest, and if its detractors are right, most dangerous cults of the French Empire. But even the critics would be amazed at the bisarre truth.
The core idea is a program to cleanse oneself of cultural, emotional and spiritual “taint”, becoming able to experience the world directly, possibly gaining what looks like psychic powers but at the very least achieve perfect contentment. To achieve this a number of “modes” are used. Some are traditional: meditation, chanting mantras, reading teachings again and again, various forms of isolation and fasting. Some are more unusual, like isolating small groups on islands or in underground bunkers for a long time to allow them to fully open to each other, or spending half the time sleeping, half the time writing down the dreams week after week.
Le Arrivant
The most unusual mode is the computer game Le Arrivant. This was the origin of the cult: a “conversation game” where the player simply talks to a character on the screen. The genre was popular in the noughts, but mostly involved romance or drama, often involving social intrigues or trying to lead a team. Le Arrivant instead had a single, apparently depressed character lying apathetic on the floor of an apartment. As the players slowly gained his or her confidence part of the characters’ background and situation would slowly be revewaled – but only if the players also revealed things about themselves. As the game progresses the dialogue becomes a tool to try to break free from the dross of the past, and winning consists of walking out of the apartment together with the character.
The secret of Le Arrivant’s success was both a very well constructed set of “plots”, a fairly realistic psychology engine and especially an unusually sensitive voice stress analysis subroutine that detected when the players were lying, hesitating or not quite believing what they were saying. While game critics either raved over the depth of the game or found it boring, many players reported that the game had helped them understand themselves better or overcome depressions, anxiety, grief and other psychological problems.
The creators of the game were a small gaming and VR company in Nancy, Présence d'esprit SA. The creative team included Louis Soubeiran, the main programmer, and Irène Trésaguet, the psychology designer. Both became convinced that they had not just made a good game, but actually realised some fundamental truths about psychology and how it could be trained. They developed two sequels, Deuxième chance and La nouvelle alliance, taking the technology further. Unfortunately they were not hits, and when DivertissemenTech Inc (the owners of Présence d'esprit) wanted them to develop other games Soubeiran and Trésaguet quit.
Centre Bienheureux
Trésaguet founded Centre Bienheureux to continue the development of the technique. The game had a sizeable cult following that soon flocked to the lectures, courses and retreats the CB organised. Soubeiran developed a number of variants of the basic game to train people more deeply into the tenets Trésaguet developed. These modes were not just training, they also helped the CB monitor progress – people’s score on the game modes determined their rankings in the centre, and their responses were reviewed by CB assistants. While members were encouraged to play the modes at home, they were encouraged to join various group retreats at the centres to discuss their experiences, hold marathon sessions and train the techniques on each other.
As CB developed it took on an increasingly cultish style. The organisation preferred stark, uncluttered environments. Members often wore the CB symbol (a highly abstracted serene face) on white shirts, doing group exercises in perfect synchrony. They developed a particular internal jargon distinguishing members from non-members. Trésaguet was known as le maître: her increasingly mystious statements were studied, repeated and chanted. Surrounded by devoted followers she ordered various investigations – strange projects whose goals were not known to the participants but obeyed without question. Soubeiran was le spécialiste: the seldom seen master of the ever-growing system of modes and software that unified the organisation. Somewhere out in the tainted world was the Enemy, an ill-defined force representing everything CB was against: corruption, superficiality, neurosis and consumerism.
Members are expected to be totally honest, especially about themselves and their wrongdoings. Concealing anything to another member is wrong and leads to various disciplinary punishments to help “clear out” the problem, just like disobeying orders from higher-ups. Whenever they are in a small group the highest ranked member become président and the second highest coprésident, responsible for reporting progress, problems or anything else to the higher-ups.
Members carry portable computers at all time (or use dermacomps or neural implants) to keep in touch with le matrice, the internal communications/gaming/ranking system of CB – if they are in doubt, have a question or need help they can send requests. Conversely the system keeps track of them and their activities. Soubeiran’s real masterpiece was making the ongoing games learn: they adapt the individual games to the personalities of the players, but also learn responses from them all. The mindset and problems of the game characters are now automatically based on experiences from thousands of members, making them extremely realistic. As an added benefit, the software makes use of the tracking, voice analysis and personality models to help the organisation leadership coordinate. If something needs to be done it can suggest the right people for the task – as well as how to make them want to do it.
CB has been extraordinarily successful in recruiting the underemployed and unemployed. Many are people living unfilfilled lives, often feeling inferior or that their true abilites has not been allowed to flourish. Often they encounter the centre online through offers of free games and personality tests. Many of the underemployed have plenty of time to waste on mastering games, and the challenge and psychological punch of CB’s Le Arrivant clones is a good hook. Once they join, they also find that they can regain their self-esteem by fitting in with the organisation, and that it offers them hope to become the bright, successful people they have always wanted to be. Other people have a competitive side they can use in their pursuit of points: as long as they conform to the ideals of the organisation and work hard they can get the social recognition they have always craved.
“The dawn is near”
[ Another strange cult for 2320. This was inspired by Naoki Yamamoto’s manga Believers. ]
The Centre Bienheureux is one of the newest, and if its detractors are right, most dangerous cults of the French Empire. But even the critics would be amazed at the bisarre truth.
The core idea is a program to cleanse oneself of cultural, emotional and spiritual “taint”, becoming able to experience the world directly, possibly gaining what looks like psychic powers but at the very least achieve perfect contentment. To achieve this a number of “modes” are used. Some are traditional: meditation, chanting mantras, reading teachings again and again, various forms of isolation and fasting. Some are more unusual, like isolating small groups on islands or in underground bunkers for a long time to allow them to fully open to each other, or spending half the time sleeping, half the time writing down the dreams week after week.
Le Arrivant
“What you can see exists, what you cannot see does not exist. Reflection is the enemy.”
The most unusual mode is the computer game Le Arrivant. This was the origin of the cult: a “conversation game” where the player simply talks to a character on the screen. The genre was popular in the noughts, but mostly involved romance or drama, often involving social intrigues or trying to lead a team. Le Arrivant instead had a single, apparently depressed character lying apathetic on the floor of an apartment. As the players slowly gained his or her confidence part of the characters’ background and situation would slowly be revewaled – but only if the players also revealed things about themselves. As the game progresses the dialogue becomes a tool to try to break free from the dross of the past, and winning consists of walking out of the apartment together with the character.
The secret of Le Arrivant’s success was both a very well constructed set of “plots”, a fairly realistic psychology engine and especially an unusually sensitive voice stress analysis subroutine that detected when the players were lying, hesitating or not quite believing what they were saying. While game critics either raved over the depth of the game or found it boring, many players reported that the game had helped them understand themselves better or overcome depressions, anxiety, grief and other psychological problems.
The creators of the game were a small gaming and VR company in Nancy, Présence d'esprit SA. The creative team included Louis Soubeiran, the main programmer, and Irène Trésaguet, the psychology designer. Both became convinced that they had not just made a good game, but actually realised some fundamental truths about psychology and how it could be trained. They developed two sequels, Deuxième chance and La nouvelle alliance, taking the technology further. Unfortunately they were not hits, and when DivertissemenTech Inc (the owners of Présence d'esprit) wanted them to develop other games Soubeiran and Trésaguet quit.
Centre Bienheureux
“Let us work hard for our compatriots!”
Trésaguet founded Centre Bienheureux to continue the development of the technique. The game had a sizeable cult following that soon flocked to the lectures, courses and retreats the CB organised. Soubeiran developed a number of variants of the basic game to train people more deeply into the tenets Trésaguet developed. These modes were not just training, they also helped the CB monitor progress – people’s score on the game modes determined their rankings in the centre, and their responses were reviewed by CB assistants. While members were encouraged to play the modes at home, they were encouraged to join various group retreats at the centres to discuss their experiences, hold marathon sessions and train the techniques on each other.
As CB developed it took on an increasingly cultish style. The organisation preferred stark, uncluttered environments. Members often wore the CB symbol (a highly abstracted serene face) on white shirts, doing group exercises in perfect synchrony. They developed a particular internal jargon distinguishing members from non-members. Trésaguet was known as le maître: her increasingly mystious statements were studied, repeated and chanted. Surrounded by devoted followers she ordered various investigations – strange projects whose goals were not known to the participants but obeyed without question. Soubeiran was le spécialiste: the seldom seen master of the ever-growing system of modes and software that unified the organisation. Somewhere out in the tainted world was the Enemy, an ill-defined force representing everything CB was against: corruption, superficiality, neurosis and consumerism.
Members are expected to be totally honest, especially about themselves and their wrongdoings. Concealing anything to another member is wrong and leads to various disciplinary punishments to help “clear out” the problem, just like disobeying orders from higher-ups. Whenever they are in a small group the highest ranked member become président and the second highest coprésident, responsible for reporting progress, problems or anything else to the higher-ups.
Members carry portable computers at all time (or use dermacomps or neural implants) to keep in touch with le matrice, the internal communications/gaming/ranking system of CB – if they are in doubt, have a question or need help they can send requests. Conversely the system keeps track of them and their activities. Soubeiran’s real masterpiece was making the ongoing games learn: they adapt the individual games to the personalities of the players, but also learn responses from them all. The mindset and problems of the game characters are now automatically based on experiences from thousands of members, making them extremely realistic. As an added benefit, the software makes use of the tracking, voice analysis and personality models to help the organisation leadership coordinate. If something needs to be done it can suggest the right people for the task – as well as how to make them want to do it.
CB has been extraordinarily successful in recruiting the underemployed and unemployed. Many are people living unfilfilled lives, often feeling inferior or that their true abilites has not been allowed to flourish. Often they encounter the centre online through offers of free games and personality tests. Many of the underemployed have plenty of time to waste on mastering games, and the challenge and psychological punch of CB’s Le Arrivant clones is a good hook. Once they join, they also find that they can regain their self-esteem by fitting in with the organisation, and that it offers them hope to become the bright, successful people they have always wanted to be. Other people have a competitive side they can use in their pursuit of points: as long as they conform to the ideals of the organisation and work hard they can get the social recognition they have always craved.
