Once upon a time (not very long ago), a man moved from one apartment in London to another. He dutifully notified everyone of his new address, including his bank; in fact, he went to the bank and filled out a change-of-address form himself. The man was very happy in his new apartment.

Then, one day, the man tried to use a credit card but couldn't. He discovered that his bank had invalidated his credit card. Apparently, the bank had sent a new card to his old address.

For weeks, the man tried to get the bank to acknowledge his change-of-address form. He talked to many bank officials, and filled out new forms, and tried to get a new credit card issued, but nothing worked. The man had no credit, and the bank behaved like, well, a bank.

It's a sad story, one that gets replayed every day for millions of people worldwide. Of course, sometimes it's not a bank at fault: sometimes it's the postal service, or an insurance company, or the telephone company, or an airline, or the Government. But all of us, at one time or another, feel persecuted by a bureaucracy.

You begin Bureaucracy in your new house. As per the letter in your package, you will fly to Paris (for business and pleasure) just as soon as you get some money to take you to the airport. That money should be in today's mail, so you should be off soon... unless, of course, there's some problem with the mail.

Oh, by the way: The man in our story about the bank was Douglas Adams, the principal author of this game. The bank finally did send him a letter, apologizing for the inconvenience - but they sent it to his old address.

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