Tiny
Tower; a Description of Transporting a Bitizen to a Virtual Floor on
the Virtual Elevator
In the free, Smartphone, game ‘app’ entitled Tiny Tower, a small red square with two
white, oppositely facing, slightly-spaced-apart equilateral triangles
positioned in the middle of it (the direction wherein the apex of both
triangles is ‘pointing’ representing the two opposite functions of the virtual elevator,
travelling up and travelling down) frequently appears in the bottom left of the
in-game screen [just above the tally of the game’s virtual currency of player-earned
coins, which are in a state of perpetual increase – unless the game has only
just been initiated by the player or the game has been reset, both of which
contingencies indicate a functional virtual store has not yet been virtually constructed
after the necessary player-performed process of purchasing a virtual floor with
the Tiny Tower virtual coin currency and
selecting a virtual floor type from five options – “Creative”, “Retail”, “Recreation”,
“Service” and “Food” – and subsequently either waiting for its completion,
which is a longer period of time the higher the number of the virtual floor, or
by using one of the Bitizens (which are very small, human-like virtual-organisms
ostensibly composed of ‘bits’ (hence their name), who have randomly generated appearances with potential variations in
gender, skin colour, hair colour, hair style, clothing colour, clothing style
and accessories, for all of which variations there are an enormous amount of further
micro-variations, which means an enormous potential for individual uniqueness (according
to the NimbleBit developer, Ian Marsh, as of the 1.1 update, there are 4,294,967,295
Bitizens, rendering the chance of Bitizen duplication effectively negligible), though
of course limits all Bitizens to exactly the same height and ‘physique’ (regarding
the latter, they are all 2-Dimensional and have the same width)) called the Construction
VIP Bitizen, which is one of the five types of VIP Bitizens (the others being a
Celebrity, whose virtual function is to attract a crowd of 50 Bitizens to the virtual
store whereto the player delivers them; a Big Spender, whose virtual function
is to virtually select one item at the virtual store whereto the player has
delivered them and purchase its entire virtual stock; a Delivery Man, whose
virtual function is to reduce the virtual stocking time of the virtual store whereto
they are sent; and a Real Estate Agent, whose virtual function is to inexplicably
conjure and then ‘move in’ as many Bitizens to the virtual residential floor previously
designated by the player as there are virtual vacancies in that floor) whose virtual
function is to reduce the time required for the virtual construction of a virtual
floor by precisely 3 hours – due to the constant virtual profits which result
from the constant virtual purchase of virtual items by Bitizens, and/or the virtual
profits resulting from the transportation of Bitzens to the floors they desire whereto
to be transported (as represented by a
number which is positioned above the Bitizen when they are in the virtual elevator),
and/or the virtual profits resulting from transporting a Big Spender to a
virtual store and him/her purchasing all the virtual stock, and/or the virtual
profits resulting from the exchange of the other in-game currency, BitBux (which
are earned randomly and sporadically instead of virtual coins after
transporting Bitizens to the virtual floor they desire whereto to be transported,
or after completing a virtual floor’s virtual construction, or after virtually employing
a Bitizen in their Dream Job (whereof they all have only one, which is listed
in their compendious individual summaries, which can be accessed either by
pressing the floor whereon they are stood and subsequently selecting their individual
thumbnail-photo, or by pressing the small green rectangular-shaped Menu button
located in the bottom right of the in-game screen and subsequently selecting
the button in the top row out of the four rows of buttons on the far left out
of the columns of buttons with a picture of three ‘multi’-racial, ‘multi’-age
male Bitizens as its symbolic representation and the word “Bitizens” below it
and which, once pressed, triggers a screen whereon there are pictures of all
the Bitizens in a list with a length determined by the amount of Bitizens
inhabiting the player’s virtual tower, each of them replete with their ‘Bio’:
name, current virtual employment, virtual skills (described in a numerical rank
out of nine in the 5 colour-coded virtual store types), Dream Job, and current
virtual mood (represented by an emoticon with three variations – red and
frowning for ‘sad’, cream-coloured and horizontally mouthed for ‘neutral’, and
green and smiling for ‘happy’ – all of which is based entirely on whether they
have the appropriate virtual skill for their virtual employment or whether they
have their Dream Job), or as a reward for enduring a voluntary advertisement
for another game (a method of earning BitBux not always available to exploit),
or simply after purchasing them using real-life currency) for coins in the
virtual Bank (which can be accessed after pressing the green Menu button
located in the bottom right of the in-game screen and then the Bank button
which appears in the Menu screen as a button in the second-row-from-bottom out
of the four rows of buttons on the far right out of the three columns of buttons
with a picture of stacked coins as its symbolic representation and the word “Bank”
below it and which, once pressed, has four exchange options: 1 Bux for 250
coins, 5 Bux for 1,500 coins, 20 Bux for 20,000 coins and 50 Bux for 100,000
coins, each available simply by the press of a button))] indicating that
someone is waiting in the Lobby, waiting to ascend the virtual tower. Once the
button is pressed, the screen either shifts downwards or remains stationary,
both, depending on the previous screen positioning, ensuring that the player is
looking at the Lobby level of the screen where an inexplicably conjured Bitizen
is standing with an impassive expression inside the virtual elevator, waiting
to be transported to one of the virtual floors, whose specific identity is elucidated,
as aforementioned, once the part of the screen whereon the virtual elevator is
projected is touched by the player (the action triggers a floor number to
appear above the Bitizen) a process which also triggers the appearance of two
large buttons just to the right of the virtual elevator, one an ‘Up’ arrow and
one a ‘Down’ arrow – both redolent of the symbols contained within the
elevator-notification button aforedescribed – either of which the player presses
depending upon whether they desire to go Up or Down, both of which buttons the
player may be required to alternate effectively in order to deliver the Bitizen
to the desired virtual floor (though the ‘Down’ button is usually superfluous because
the virtual elevator is programmed to drop gradually into precise stationary
alignment with the virtual floor whereto it is nearest when the upward movement
is stopped by the cessation of the player’s digital pressure on the Up button) and
if it is the virtual floor whereto the Bitizen desired to go, he/she will
alight from the virtual elevator, and, as aforementioned, the player will
acquire either virtual coins equal to the virtual floor’s number multiplied by
two or 1 Bitbux as a reward for this action, the latter of which is rarer, whose
rareness means that if the player acquires it, it is followed by the sudden-appearance
of a ‘Pop-up box’ informing them in a congratulatory tone, as conveyed by the
exclamation mark on the end of the sentence, that a Bitizen has “tipped” them 1
Bux.
This tip stimulates a rush of dopamine to player’s brain,
maintaining their interest. The player knows, of course, that if they can
acquire enough Bux, they may perform a number of other actions beneficial to
the development of their virtual tower. For example, they may upgrade their
elevator.
Consequently, the player sits and stares at the screen for
minutes and hours on end, performing the endless, ceaseless transportation of Bitizens
up the virtual elevator chute, up this floor and that, up and down, up and down,
inanity perpetuating itself like the constant accumulation of virtual coins on
the bottom left of the screen.
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