Shoplifting
Videogame modification, 2003.
This project was presented in an installation at the Laboratorio de Arte Alameda in Mexico D.F., inside the exhibition 'Stand by, listos para actuar', curated by Martí Peran. February-May 2003. My participation in this exhibition was planned as a short residency at the Multimedia Center of the CENART.
In this game, a group of characters, united under the player direction, explore a
supermarket with the specific mission of shoplifting different products
running away from the security guards.
I used the Baldur's Gate II engine (infinity engine), making a mod of the original game. The result is a playable new game with new rules: the game is not anymore about managing the own resources to get more goods while working or making some productive task inside the simulated world. Now, you have to avoid buying or producing.
How is this possible? I used the Baldur's Gate II engine because it allows to write scripts where the characters interact, negotiate, discuss. We can 'convince' the assistants of the supermarket to 'refund' us the money of an item that we just shoplifted... Or we can sell the shoplifted objects to others.
The protagonist group, formed by 5 characters, just landed in Simu-City from the Forgotten Realms. The fellowship is formed by:
-Contestant. He can 'guess' a lot of important information.
-A. to the teeth. A palladin that struggles for any lost cause.
-Invisible woman. The fact that she's there makes no difference.
-Terrorist. He's got a secret plan.
-Ecologist. He's in harmony with nature.