Interface reflections

I received this comment on one of my chapters posted on RR.

Uhh... The system that's supposed to be helping him does nothing to help him and then mocks him for being stupid?

Excuse me, what the fuck?

This reasonably innocuous comment triggered a bit of self-reflection. First the paragraph in question.

Stop being so stupid. [MC voice]

There was a sense of agreement and the image of a gun, a single bullet going into one of six chambers. The chambers spinning and the gun being held to a head.  [System voice]

Yep, playing Russian roulette seemed like a bad life choice.

Two separate thoughts came to me :

1. Why did I make the interface mocking?
2. Is the system supposed to be helping?

To answer question 1. The interface is mocking because I needed it too. On a basic level, I sort of stuffed up the structure of the book by having the main character exploring the world by himself for so long. Made the initial world building easier but still left a single character alone in the world. To offset this, I needed to add more personality to the interface or else the whole first half of the book would end up being action / personal reflections which lacks the variability needed for an engaging story.

Then, to add personality, I had a choice of an unintentionally funny AI or a snark style. I would like to say snark style was chosen purely as homage to the genre, but that would be misleading. The fact is to pull off a mocking tone all I just have to draw on my childhood ribbing my mates, the AI option on the other hand. Well, that would require exquisite writing skill… enough said.

So why did I make the interface mocking again? Because I stuffed up the book and am not good enough to fix it with other approaches… [insert appropriate emoji here, maybe one poking a tongue]

The second thought is more nuanced and will get partially addressed partially in book 1 and with increasing detail in later books. However, on a high level ‘The System’ helps the collective not the individual. It also exists as a blunt instrument that needs to be adaptable for avian hunters, solitary aqua herbivores, packs of primates and everything in between. Basically, you have a scattergun approach of personalities and approaches. The main character just got lucky.