| abstract
| - Better Than Life is a computer game which allows the user to live out all their fantasies and desires. When in the game, one has the ability to mentally command into existence any object, person or environment (in the realm of the television show). The problem with the game in the television series, however, is that it also detects subconscious desires: if the user subconsciously hates himself then the game will eventually detect this and subject him to specifically-tailored masochistic tortures. Total Immersion Video Games - though not specifically Better Than Life - are later encountered in the Series V episode, "Back to Reality" in which a group hallucination makes the Red Dwarf crew believe that the previous four years had been a video game fantasy. "Back to Reality" is often cited as being the best episode of Red Dwarf. Better Than Life plays an important role in the novels Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life. The novel version of the game has far greater abilities and far greater bugs. Unlike the television series, which is based on the original, nonaddictive version and which is only briefly mentioned in the novel, the novel version causes the user's imagination to develop semi-plausible explanations for certain events. For instance, in early versions of Better Than Life, the user could make a large, expensive car appear out of thin air. In the books, the user's imagination would create a scenario where they won the lottery, or created a successful business, so they could buy the car. The danger of the game is that once the user starts to play, the game forces them to forget they actually started to play, so they believe that they are still in reality. Their conscious mind only perceives the reality of the game, and all signals from their real body, except for those of extreme pain, are completely ignored. A person like Cat who has such a huge ego that he truly believes he could get ANYTHING, can get anything, while Rimmer's initial fantasy, while still egocentric, had to create the semi-plausible explanation of him using the crew's initial offers to advertise various products and sell their stories so that he could earn the money to fund research into a 'solidgram' body for himself. However, Rimmer's own self-loathing caused his fantasy life to be destroyed, resulting in the collapse of his business empire and the loss of his body to the extent that he was trapped in a female body and faced being pimped out by violent escaped criminals. Lister on the other hand had a fantasy far more mature and healthy than those of the others, just needing somewhere comfortable to live with somebody he loved who would love him in return. Unless cared for in the real world, a user (or "Game Head") dies very quickly. While it is certainly possible for friends to forcibly remove the headset that contains the game, this results in instant death from shock. The only way to exit the game is to figure out that you're playing the game, develop the desire to leave it and then command an exit.
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