Friends come first

It seemed like the easiest pick. I needed more friends, and it’s also the cheapest of the ones that I liked. Not sure what it will tell me to help, but it’s still a day or so away, so future Harper can deal with it.

I clicked on the “Friends come first” box, which sends a pop up saying I don’t have enough, and will need to save up for it. Well duh, that’s by design. Great job devs, way to talk down to your users.

If this is a beta app, there’s some feedback for them – treat their users like people, not idiots.

I scroll down to ‘Invest 5 hearts’ and then confirm my purchase.

Awesome, remember that small increases over time are what it will take to get major improvements in your life. This was just the first step. You will need to commit more love towards these upgrades before they will impact your life.

Don’t worry, that was your last action on the tutorial, just a bit more info before giving you full control to make the improvements to your life.

As this is a Beta project, please note that some changes are likely to happen, and there may be bugs or unforeseen interactions. Please be sure to report these to the Devs. Reports that result in a major bug fix are likely to be rewarded by the Dev Team to ‘return the love’ that you showed them.

Also, the only way to test the limits of the app are to spend spend spend! As such, all hearts not spent by the end of the day will be spent by the AI of the app, looking for interactions that will build upon the life you are setting up for yourself. However, this AI is still not fully developed, so we recommend spending all of your hearts yourself, or face the consequences.

Finally, there is no way to return or turn off any improvement at this time. Please take care to think about your choices before selecting them.

If there are any other questions, there is a link to contact the devs in the “contact us” tab at the top of the app.

Thanks for reading through all of that. As a final reward, here are the 10 hearts you spent during the tutorial back, please continue to spend!

<3 The Devs.

(+10 hearts, current balance: 25 hearts)

Oh, looks like it’s just some training ground for new AIs. But at least they did the normal thing of giving me back all the hearts they made me spend. Maybe I should turn a few more things on. I mean, it’s not like it would hurt to see what this new AI thinks about improving life. Can’t be much worse than what I am doing.

But, not wanting to spend the entire day on the app, I closed it down to continue with my evening plans - heading out to dinner with friends, well ‘friends’. Better than eating alone. And since it’s at the dinning hall, it’s not like it will cost anything extra. Probably should try to be more social.

The rest of the day passed without thinking again of the app, until already in bed, then a small light in the back of my brain clicked on.

Oh shit, I need to spend the point or it will be AI’ed. Humans still have to be smarter than AIs, especially one developed by the people who made this app.

Opening back up the app, see that nothing has really changed and click back to the upgrades tab to burn off the last few points of the day. However, there is something new, a new tab “Levels”. Of course, let’s see what that is. There is only one item listed:

Memory Enhancement 2 (10) – user’s memory will improve, allowing a deeper retention of data from a single reading.

Well, something did help you remember to spend points tonight, and that sounds like new tips for studying, that couldn’t hurt. Purchased! The app did say ‘spend spend spend’ so might as well.

Once it was purchased, the new level shows up. At least the app is predictable.

Memory Enhancement 3 (20) – user’s memory will begin making connections between facts and data, allowing for a deep understanding of intertwined variables.

Damn, that sounds nice, or at least confusing enough to seem nice, but a bit too advanced for now, and I only have 15 points, er hearts, left for the day. But it is getting late, it’s already 11:45. Not enough time to look around more.

Let’s drop 10 more poi.. hearts into saving for the Friends thing from before, that will get half way there. The last five for physical improvement, that seems like it can help if the 153 weight is actually true.

Confirm the two purchases, then plug the phone in and head off to sleep.