By David C. Daoust
Chance had been playing too long. He’d been sitting in that same chair for hours, doing nothing but gorging, smoking, and holding down a tiny ‘forward’ button. He really hadn’t realized this yet. All he knew- was that he was not having fun anymore.
Everyone was talking at once- he couldn’t understand anything they were saying. Before, no one was within range. Now the whole player base was in the same vicinity, General Chat was useless. He got so many invites to group with people, that he didn’t have the chance to actually accept any. Each one canceled the last. They just kept popping up. He tried telling them to chill with the group invites, but with the state of general chat, he doubted anyone could pick out his voice.
It’s just horribly designed.
Really ruining his fun, even more than Penn and Colbert were.
People actually had some form of etiquette within a proper group. The anonymity of General Chat tended to mask who was doing what, to an extent that no one was going to judge someone for adding to the insanity- even chuckle, if they recognized a voice.
Chance would have to make his own group, maybe find some chill people to hang with.
The Farwall before him displayed the inside of the virtual cockpit. It depicted an elaborately designed console, which took up the lower portion of the image. Complete with directional controls that his sprite’s arms shifted with his button clicks. This game was first-person, so that was all he saw of his own sprite. Of course, he was in control of the ‘massive beast’, he was actually parked on top of the creature’s head, which he could just barely see the top of. ‘Splicer Cords’ could be seen sprawling from his Spidermecha, which had drilled down into the creature’s skull, taking control of its brain. The cords were positioned in such a way, to enforce the fantasy of the spidermecha being able to ‘mind-control’ native creatures. Having control of it, robbed him of the ability to fly and much of the free motion that was the norm of the Spidermecha’s game play. He could shift the head side to side, and it would take the creature in a new direction. He couldn’t seem to look up or down. The whole thing was fairly limited, but he supposed that was to be expected.
The Arachnoid moon took up the rest of his display, rocky and barren below, with a swarm of Spidermecha filling the skies in front of him; All buzzing around- come to witness his massive beast.
He switched functions, called up his friends list.
Rowdy –still- was not on. This disheartened Chance. He was getting tired of sitting there, and his buddy still hadn’t gotten to join in on the fun. Chance recognized other names, but before he could start sending invites, he realized the Mechas were fighting each other! His mood lightened immediately, and his grin returned to his face.
“Oh man!” Chance said into general Chat, “What the heck is going on?”
Chance couldn’t get much from the raucous din that was General Chat, but he figured out Penn and Colbert were up to their old antics. Apparently there was an Arachnoid on the scene! A single arachnoid had appeared out in the middle of nowhere. He hadn’t seen any outside of the town wall, at all, the whole time they’d been playing. Only inside, when they all ran the raid on the nest, and then, later, when he stealthed back in to steal the Beast.
From what Chance could learn, Penn and Colbert blew up another player, and started to protect the monster! Apparently they’d dubbed the Arachnoid, ‘the Sheriff’.
Chance chuckled, ‘these guys were SO high!’
At least the group invites finally stopped popping up. Now that something new was happening, the other player’s attention was called away from ‘Chance the Splicer and his Massive Beast’, and on to the pvp battle, that suddenly erupted among them.
Not all of the Mechs joined in the fight, but it was a pretty big battle. Penn and Colbert were doing well, too.
Amongst it all, Chance finally got a look at the supposed lone Arachnoid, racing under the aerial battle. His grin grew twice as wide. He shifted his ‘Massive Beast’ in its direction, fully intent on trampling the Arachnoid beneath him.
It wasn’t enough though. He wanted to razz Penn and Colbert while he was doing it. Chance already had his friends list open, locating their names, he sent out a request to join their group. They responded immediately…
His Farwall flickered, the display jumped from the normal game world, to, like, a whole ‘nother world. The virtual cockpit was gone, the whole interface vanished. It was just a clear image. Chance was not sure what he was looking at. The dark barren Arachnoid Moon was replaced with a brightly lit desert. The sky’s were blue, and a massive orange orb dominated the horizon. The Arachnoid was gone, replaced by a boxy little vehicle with the word sheriff typed across its hood.
There were people inside the vehicle!
Just as he was about to overtake it, Chance pulled back, hard, on the controls.
“Chance, you Chowder-brain,” Colbert was yelling at him over group chat, “Stop that thing!”
“Chance,” Penn snuck in under the other player’s rant, “What can you see?”
“What just happened?” Chance asked, having pulled the vehicle away from the racing Sheriff vehicle. “How is this- how’d you change the game?”
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