As the light turned on and my room was illuminated I went over to my bed and opened the box. Sitting at the bottom, underneath a cookie-thin layer of styrofoam was an unopened game CD case with the cover art for Champions of Asteria on it. It showed a classic looking image of typical fantasy races, elves, dwarves, were-people and demons facing off with very non-typical fantasy races on both sides. There was a cloaked figure with his back turned that was faded and transparent behind everyone and above the title. Each character featured on the box had a username floating above their head, the names used were created by closed beta players. Supposedly the characters featured were also the same.

It only took a moment for me to pull the case out of the transparent, plastic sealed wrap and open it to remove the CD. Placed the CD in my best computer’s optical drive and let the machine read the disk. When the notification popped up asking what to do with the program on the disk, I clicked “Run” and then grabbed my VR headset and laid down on my bed.

“Headset on.”(Rowan)

After a few seconds I felt as If my body went numb. I laid there tingling as I waited for the game to load. How long does it take to load a VR game, though it IS VR so… that might be why.

A few seconds later and I saw the game logo fly across the sea of black that was my vision. The tingling stopped and I was treated to the game’s first-time start-up trailer that acted as a sort-of mandatory tutorial to teach you how to play the game.

“Welcome Champion, to Asteria!”(System ad)

“Explore a vast, open-world map made with voxel support to imitate terrain damage and restoration with our prided physic-engine”(System ad)

“Experience a world several times larger than our own, procedurally generated before the games official release”(System ad)

“Enjoy the game with friends using our friend system, send messages and gifts to each other without needing to be right next to one another”(System ad)

“The game can be progressed by crafters and warriors equally. Using our profession system crafters can achieve similar growths to warriors and magicians without needing to engage in combat.”(System ad)

“Come enjoy Asteria Champions. Have fun in a new world.”(System ad)

> | I am not good at writing advertisements apparently. |

After That brief advertisement the actual tutorial started up. Finally.

“Champions of Asteria uses state of the art VR technology to simulate the sense of touch with the body. By interrupting the neural connection between the user’s brain and the everything below their neck, we can replace those signals with our own and ensure that the user can operate their avatar as if it were their own body.”(System)

“This system of controls naturally concerns some people, and many of those concerns are very valid.”(System)

Yeah being told your ability to move your arms is being “interrupted” would be very concerning.

“However the Headset doesn’t interrupt the signals in the user’s head. The user may use voice commands such as “Headset on.” or “System logout.” or even “Headset off.” to control the state of the headset and by extension the state of the neuron controller.”(System)

That wouldn’t always work though.

“Additionally, the headset leaves no lasting impact on a user’s ability to move their body should the headset be removed while still powered on. Having an additional human to remove the headset for you is another way to leave the game without being able to control your body.”(System)

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

What if you didn’t have any friends or family that could remove the headset for you?

“You could also, maybe use the headset environment’s shut-down button. It is located behind the user when they first start the headset before selecting a game.”(System)

Uh huh.

“In the event that all else fails, the headset will automatically shut down if the computer or other connected device is unplugged from the wall outlet or otherwise switches to battery power. Additionally, the user may set a timer on their computer or other connected device that will automatically shut down the headset, by default this timer is set to 8 hours.”(System)

I’m going to have to change that timer, 4-5 hours on weekdays and 9-10 on weekends.

“Now on to game mechanics.”(System)

The scene shifted, showing a person doing yoga exercises.

“Champions of Asteria uses the human mind as a game controller, this means the user’s avatar may be controlled as if it were the user’s real body. Additionally, the game may send sensory feedback to the user that doesn’t impact or injure the user’s real body. This allows the user to feel the game environment more clearly.”(System)

“This of course means that controlling the user’s in-game avatar is as easy as thinking about wanting to move or do specific things.”(System)

The image changed, showing a dabbing person before shifting to show a warrior wielding a large sword.

“Using weapons, both melee and ranged, is as easy as it is in real life, and having real-world skill with a weapon translates into the game and vice-versa.”(System)

So basically, if you already know how to swing a sword you’ll have an early-game advantage over everyone else because you have skill, and also learning how to use a sword in-game makes you good at using it in real-life huh?

The scene changed and now showed a magician casting a spell.

“Asteria’s magic system can be used by any user, so long as they have the requisite knowledge to make use of it. There are multiple racial traits, acquired traits, and skills that facilitate use of magic in the world of Asteria.”(System)

So basically, as long as you have the skills for it you can use magic, but it’s meaningless if you don’t actually know how magic is used in the game world.

The scene changed again, this time showing a few diagrams meant as a visual aid for the following descriptions.

“When you level up your base attributes increase and you gain a number of attribute points to spend as you wish or save for later. Base attributes are determined by your race and improving them improves your physical capabilities within the game. Traits are passive abilities that do not increase their effect and can be acquired either as part of the avatar’s race or by spending attribute points. Skills are representations of player skill within the game and increase based on player proficiency with that skill.”(System)

So that’s why being skilled at something in real life translates into the game, the more skilled you are the faster your proficiency in said skill rises until you catch up to where you are IRL. An ingenious system I must say.

“Titles are cosmetic changes to the stats menu that provide a small bonus effect. You get titles by collecting achievements. Titles that provide similar bonuses do not stack. Instead, titles with better bonuses are given priority and have their bonuses used.”(System)

Basically, if you have a title that gives you a +1 damage against goblins and another title that gives you a +3 damage against goblins, you do not get a +4 damage boost against goblins. Instead, only the +3 damage against goblins gets used. Easy enough to understand.

The scene faded to black and I found myself standing on a large grid that felt like solid ground.

“We will now begin the character creation process. During the process, basic instructions on how to create your player avatar will be given. If you have further questions during the character creation process, please direct them at [System] and I will try to answer your questions as clearly as I can.”(System)

A human figure appeared in front of me, it had my face and was my height but wasn’t very accurate besides that. Other figures stood on either side of the first, the one on the left looked like an elf version of the first figure and the one on the right looked like a half-dragon. They kind of faded out at the far sides. On the right hand side of the far right figure there were two large boxes, the top one read “Random Race” and the one on the bottom read “Create Custom Race”.

Wait what?!