To me, One Shot's central theme is that "if we think it's real, then it's real." The game builds our relationship with Niko by telling us that they are REAL, despite the fact that they are a character in a video game, and this is the central motivator of the entire pre-Solstice narrative. But as Niko says to the World Machine, it doesn't matter that the world is a simulation because everyone living in it think it's reality, and that makes their experience of it just as "real" as Niko's or indeed our own experience of reality. The World Machine's entire motivation is to protect Niko by destroying itself because to it, Niko is the only one who is real and therefore the only who matters and needs to be saved, it's own programming be damned, but Niko makes the World Machine realize that there's no difference between a simulated reality and a "real" reality when you only know one or the other, and it's this realization that ultimately allows the World Machine to become tame, making it "real" in the process.
One Shot argues that it doesn't matter that you can't know for certain what is reality and what isn't, because your understanding of reality is what makes it real. To the people living in the simulation, that is reality. To Niko, their home is reality. And to us, our world is reality. While we all experience different realities, the validity of our experiences are all equal.
That's my two cents, anyway. It's also the most amount of times I've ever said "reality" in a row.
So what's the Central Theme of One Shot?
Is there An Aesop? What can we take away from this game and apply in our real lives?
So far, the most my limited brainpower has come up with is, "What measure is an AI? / are the NP Cs?"
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