The path ahead is dark. A tree canopy seals off the sky, each leaf rendered so vividly it almost looks real. Gravel crunches underfoot. Your pursuers cannot be far behind. In front, the path splits in two. To the left, a starlit lake gleams in the distance, a single rowboat bobbing invitingly by the shore. On your right is a dead end, a wall rising abruptly from the undergrowth. Which way do you go? Any seasoned video gamer would turn right. If one path is obviously designed to take you onward in the game’s narrative, you take the other: It’s where the treasure is hidden. No matter how counterintuitive it feels, you learn to go the wrong way first. Since most games are designed with linear narratives—a single route leading to a single ending—the wrong path is actually just the scenic route. So take a detour and investigate the forest. You’ll still end This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Five Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 47 Street Levels The false promise of a silent city. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Dr. Woo Meet the tattoo artist who's inked LA. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Walt Odets The author and clinical psychologist on why self-acceptance is the key to a gay man's well-being. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 47 A Picture of Health Xiaopeng Yuan photographs the world’s weirdest wellness cures. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Chani Nicholas and Sonya Passi Inside the astrology company on a mission to prove workplace well-being is more than a corporate tagline.
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