By David C. Daoust
Colin Vice sat comfortably in his private chambers, high up in the refurbished Crucible known as Halfhull. Named by the many workers that once lived and worked here, a name which called into question the quality of the space-stations most important feature, its hull.
The brief chat with Chance was somewhat enlightening, but mostly bewildering. Chance was clearly more interested in whatever he was doing in game. Colin finally just agreed to join him in game, even though his mind was still puzzling out how these things were related.
The implications were endless. Chief among them- the Battle Drones, that completely obliterated the port town Grady, which he’d smuggled onto the small moon Twin Crown, were in reality being controlled, not by a foreign AI, but by unwitting gamers.
Gamers that thought they were playing through a game– In a game world, built in the Hub.
Colin had no real choice, but to log-in if he wanted more information.
Clicking through buttons, he opened a pathway into the Hub.
Normally he would avoid playing through his Farwall, but he wanted to get an idea of what was going on without rousting all those nurses that helped separate his mind from his body.
First, he had to buy the game in the Hubs Market.
His sprite, which matched him physically, appeared facing away from him. Before his avatar was a long winding path that snaked its way up a mountainous path. Having to navigate with a controller, created this weird disconnect from the world; A virtual world for which he experienced fully most other times.
The entrance to the Market was obscured by an extensive forest of virtual trees crowded around a mountain which reached high up into the virtual clouds.
The path was a horribly annoying addition to entering the virtual marketplace, around each bend was another advertisement. Advertisements that really ruined the virtual flora that someone, over the centuries of the Hubs existence, had designed for this spot.
The only good news- once you made it through the pathways and the market, advertisements were banned; all some sort of compromise between what people should be allowed to do, and what people would stand for. Colin couldn’t say what a single one of the ads was for, he was just that used to ignoring them.
Finally, he reached the base of the clouds. Once his sprite disappeared within the fog, the image shifted to a crowded bazaar. Series of booths lined each side of a wide cobbled road which appeared beneath his sprites feet. Small start-up companies were selling all kinds of shoddy little programs from the booths and stalls. Behind the booths were small ‘brick and mortar’ shops, owned by larger, more stable, companies.
The shops looked like undersized cartoon representations, no bigger than a hut, yet Colin knew they were much larger on the inside. Over each door hovered, either product names, or the name of the company which designed them.
The myriad of people were an eclectic mix of strange looking Sprites. Avatars that resembled either cartoons, or more realistic people, or even monsters. These were all controlled by other gamers, the Sprites were as unique as the individual that used them.
Colin knew, while his normal connection to the hub was unique, not all these people were playing through their Farwall. Some used holo-devices, like Holopads or even a Holostage, which brought the Hub out into the real world. While those with less Coin to spend, just used a Visor.
A lot of times you could tell who was using what device by how well their actions were integrated with the Hubs environment. Farwall users tended to be stiff, never really looking at anything in particular as the Sprites eyes weren’t really being used by the gamer, and were just being moved about with little buttons. They tended to cycle through pre-programmed actions and emotes. Visors tended to have more head movement going on, yet the body was still stiff. While those with the holodevices, were the most fluid, yet occasionally interacted with objects not represented in the Virtual World until they were picked up directly; disappearing, reappearing snacks were a common sight.
Among the thrall could be found the four armed humanoid bots in their home world, with the occasional animal type bot that were known to wander about. They all milled about, going about their business, just like Colin wanted to do, yet he suddenly realized he wasn’t sure who made the game.
He quickly called up the forums. A small window opened up, blocking the virtual world from view. He knew his sprite now stood there casually flipping a virtual coin to any that may witness him accessing the forums; it was a programmed action he selected for when he was ‘away’.
Top of the forum list, read ‘Arachnoid’- the thread was on fire. Skimming through, it did not take him long to find the game company- ‘Theo-BOLD Games’. This was a game designer he had never heard of before, and he’d played a lot of games.
It was not hard to fathom, this name was derived from one ‘Theobald Grey’, the very same engineer he had been investigating to try and learn more of the rogue Battle Drones he’d unwittingly brought to the moon’s surface. Who knew all he need do, was visit the Hub?
Clicking a link, the forum window closed, and the environment around the small form of his sprite suddenly shifted, before him was the Central Square of the Market Place; prime realty. One of the tallest shops Colin had ever witnessed appeared, it was more of a spire really. A huge ‘Theo-BOLD’ sign hovered above its huge turn-style door, and a vertical ‘Arachnoid’ sign ran up the spire.
Someone’s paid top dollar for this much space in the Market.
As Colin’s sprite vanished through the turn-style, before him appeared a high ceilinged Great Hall– totally oversized! Colin never understood why bigger was better in these types of environments. It would be so much easier to just buy the dang game through the forums. Yet having a presence in the Marketplace, made a company, somehow, more official. Or, at least, that is what they thought.
The Hall was jam-packed! A long line formed from a help desk, where a company bot stood flustered trying to calm angry gamers. Colin suddenly regretted not reading more in the forums; it was likely something was going wrong in the game if there were so many people visiting the ‘help desk’.
Decorating either side of the massive hall, stood the elaborately detailed, Arachnoid Mechas he’d witnessed within the vid that sent him down this path. These, of course, were much larger, as they were depicted to the gamers as massive hybrid machines that they could pilot through the game world— or what they thought was the game world. Colin did not understand how this overlay worked, ultimately, the thought created more questions than answers.
Finally, Colin made it through to a kiosk, where he could actually make his purchase- just to be informed Theo-BOLD Games had ‘temporarily’ stopped selling copies of the game!
Colin sighed as he was diverted to the help desk.
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