Page 137 of Glitched Play

She pushes up on her toes and kisses me sweetly on the lips.

“Well, I haven’t made that part yet, but you inspire me.”

“Aww, you’re a softy, Witt O’Ryan,” she teases.

I hand her a controller. "Prepare to lose."

She raises an eyebrow.

"That's cute. I’ve been to like four hundred baseball games, a thousand practices and have been known to get into the batting cage from time to time out of sheer boredom.”

Ten minutes later she accidentally runs the catcher into the mascot, celebrating after tagging my runner out at home, and somehow discovered a glitch that launches a referee twenty feet into the air.

She laughs so hard she nearly drops the controller.

"I found a bug!"

"You created a bug."

"Details."

I make a note in my phone.

She notices. “Are you seriously documenting my mistakes?"

"I'm documenting valuable user feedback."

She flashes a big smile as wide as the Grand Canyon and my stomach does something loopy.

I like her finding my mistakes but even more, I like watching her play.

twenty-seven

. . .

Maci

Game Chat Rune

Every game begins long before the opening whistle. Preparation. Then execution.

I don't remember the last time I was this nervous.

Not before job interviews, college presentations.

Not even before the biggest software launch I'd ever worked on.

Those were all things I could prepare for.

Today, thousands of people are about to experience something I helped build, not an abstract software system but a public launch of an expanded SGI e-football league.

The moment I step into the Gaming Pavilion, I stop.

Even though I've watched this come together over the last two weeks, seeing it completely steals the breath from my lungs.

The pavilion doesn't feel like a small arena—it feels like stepping inside the future.

Towering LED walls wrap around the circular space, displaying animated team logos that ripple across the screens as if they're alive. Spotlights sweep overhead while music pulses through hidden speakers, vibrating gently beneath my feet. Above the center stage hangs a massive, suspended scoreboard rotating live statistics and player profiles in every direction.