Headscratchers / Star Trek: The Next Generation S5 E6 "The Game"

• The episode conspicuously avoids ever actually showing Geordi playing the game. Given that the Game works by projecting stimuli into your eyeballs, Geordi's VISOR would raise some questions about how it would work on him.
  • Presumably he simply took off his VISOR to use it. The game's ability to generate a pleasure response suggested it connected into your brain and that it was most likely projecting images into the user's mind, rather than showing you images by shining light into the user's eyes (probably just using the eyes as a way to connect into their brain). The Game could have basically connected to his visual cortex via the same connections used by the VISOR.

• Why didn't Troi sense any deception from Riker when he was convincing her to play the game?
  • He wasn't really trying to deceive her; although you have a point that she should have detected something was "off" about him, as he was already addicted by that point.
  • His emotional state would have basically reflected that he was telling the truth about the Game being an enjoyable experience; he may have just been so far under the influence by that point that he wasn't demonstrating anything that would make Troi concerned.