Tech has changed quite a bit since this reporter’s awkward stage. When we were in middle school, you were only cool if you had more than 75 people on your AIM Buddy List and you could wield a tilde with *~sTyLe~*.
And, you probably spent a solid five hours a day after school playing The Sims.
With The Sims, you used a special code (“rosebud !;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;” ad infinitum, not that we memorized it or anything) to unlock unlimited imaginary money. Then, you constructed the pseudo-Grecian-contempo-Victorian-mid-century-modern mansion of your dreams. In it, you placed a family comprised of yourself and your crush, and waited for the digital alter egos to fall in love.
No, just us? Okay, sure, fine. Either way, there is a new way to force fake digital people to make out, and this time, it involves screenwriting. Plotagon, PSFK reports, “is a movie-making tool that creates an animated movie from the screenplay you write,” using five characters and six environments. More characters can be purchased in the affiliated online store, and Mr. Lee is developing even more.
It’s basically SecondLife mixed with every fanfic writer’s wildest dream. And it’s free. We are so glad this didn’t exist when we were in middle school.