Be a Pest Controller, Be Unique

No aim, and no brain. I’m a Wilson main.

It’s true, I play one of the…least-picked characters in Over-Botch. I think because it’s such a vivid experience, so people like to choose some glamorous job in-game. So you’ve got construction workers, and rocket engineers, and lifeguards. Things that are EASY to screw-up, hence why people choose those roles. Also, I’ve chosen a career path to do with insects, and a lot of people don’t even like those things in virtual form. Don’t mind them myself.

That’s why I’ve taken on the role of a Rosebud pest control agent, since it’s close to home for me. Now, as everyone knows because Over-Botch is an international phenomenon, the point of the game is to do a BAD job. It was created by a bunch of psychology majors who thought they could train people to do jobs AND make it fun, but employing reverse psychology and teaching people in reverse, as it were. So basically, my time in the game has been spent leveling up by accidentally using the wrong chemicals, tearing down walls only to find that there are no insects inside at all and giving people horrible advice when it comes to keeping their home pest-free. In my last session I told a family that ants are actually attracted to wooden work surfaces, and that covering them in bread crumbs actually kept them away.

And then, I said that termites are actually not as dangerous as people think, and they should just be left to chew away at someone’s home as much as they like because they’ll get full eventually. Yes, there’s a strong ‘DO NOT USE THIS GAMEPLAY IN REAL PROFESSIONS, EXCEPT IN REVERSE’ message. Fortunately, the pest control people in Berwick and around the place actually know what they should be doing. But I do think it’s a fun way of learning. Plus is just got Wilson to level 62, ‘Master Screw-Up’.

-Grey

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Maybe the Pest Control of the Future?

I am seriously running out of ideas for pest control, and by that, I mean it’s starting to affect my work.

And by affect my work, I mean it’s getting REALLY hard. We got a government grant for this research, but we’ve had to totally change our methods from the stated goal, and now…I’m really not sure if we’ll have anything by the deadline. Everyone wants more efficient ways of doing everything, all the time, because that’s just the world we live in I guess. Still, I thought we were onto something. We’ve got the support of Frankston based pest control companies, who also have a stake in being able to do their jobs easier. Still, the first method was a complete disaster. We designed this little bomb type thing that you place in the middle of a room. It would explode upon contact with water- it was just a prototype, mind you- after which it would release quite a lot of gas into the room. It was pretty much harmless to humans, but it would kill any insect it came into contact with. Thing is, it was TOO reactive to water. Even the slightest drop from any source and the whole bag of them would just explode.

Jeremy came up with this idea of a big whistle, too quiet for humans to hear but it would be heard by the termites and such, drawing them out of their holes. Turns out he lied on his resume, didn’t have a clue what he was doing and bluffed his way through the whole thing, wasting all of our time. Apparently whistling isn’t an insect thing. Good to know.

Maybe one day, Mornington’s best termite inspections can benefit from one of our great inventions. And when I say ‘one day’ I mean sometime in November, because that’s when our deadline is. Maybe my idea of a tiny, automatic pest controlling trebuchet will take off?

-Sue

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