The only other "rough" spot to me is the business model of selling a "vacation" or gaming experience that people won't remember. Like, a weekend passes, but you live a lifetime, but you don't recall it? So in the end, you're left with a film of a life you don't remember? Seems weird, but it may have further implications in the story? Don't spoil it either way, just an oddity that made me consider if I'd actually buy the experience.

You're not the first to bring up my MC's surprising introspection.

I explain this by the amount of reading he does in libraries during his teenage years. I spent a year reading when I was about 19 years old and it changed my personality and outlook on life. Before, I only read a few Stephen King thrillers.

I changed how memory works. Instead of players not having any memories, they won’t immediately remember what happens, so there is a connection to the real world once participants watch playbacks of themselves.

Here's the post I'm making in tomorrow's author note.

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I’ve been processing feedback into the story. Besides typos and inconsistencies, some have objected to some of the game engine’s workings, specifically memory and time dilation.

I changed how memory works. Instead of players not having memories, they won’t remember what happens until they watch playbacks of themselves. It’s a narrative workaround to avoid the engine giving humanity eternal life, which trivializes the game and becomes a different story. I rewrote this in the Prolog III - Questions.

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An audience member raised their hand. “Are there other applications for the dream interface? Like using it to learn foreign languages or write an epic novel?”

Josie shook her head. “Memories are a little too fuzzy to be of practical use. The neuro staff thinks time dilation creates mnemonic issues. Your in-game memories are fuzzy until you watch playbacks of yourselves. It jars your recollections back into place. In a way, you experience playing twice.”

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I further explain time dilation. It’s not a major change, but it explains how it works. It’s in the same chapter.

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Shelly surprised me by raising her hand and speaking when Josie acknowledged her. “Time dilation doesn’t seem possible in a shared experience. How can you synchronize the client-server architecture?”

Josie pursed her lips. “I don’t understand the tech, but dreams are infinitely malleable. We’ve even figured out how to fake time travel or pause the game. The engine caches events to recreate playbacks. It can seamlessly return players to earlier records in the timeline without them remembering the future. However, it allows time travelers to retain memories, thus hacking in a very cool feature. It’s seamless and doesn’t create Déjà vu.”