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Did you know?

Worldwalker Online is still in early beta, be sure to report any bugs or balance concerns so that our wonderful team of developers can get them fixed as quickly as possible!

Thank you for your patience!

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"So you got any games lined up for the break?" Scarlet sighed, flicking through her social media feed as the voice of her best friend filtered through the video call. Already on to video games huh? "I mean, if the whole 'rebuilding the school' thing is supposed to take half a month you're going to be done with the home studying in like, two days tops."

"Come on Carlin, this only came up on Sunday. Of course I don't have anything lined up. I don't keep a huge backlog of games I'm never going to play like you do."

Carlin snorted and rolled his eyes. "Only because you won't get any game store accounts for us to buy you some."

Scarlet sighed, "Come on Carlin, you know I need to focus on my schooling."

"Oh yeah? Why aren't you doing your schoolwork right now, then?"

The tiniest smirk tilted at the edge of her mouth, "I already finished it."

"...You're kidding right? The entire homework assignment? I haven't even gotten mine in the mail yet!"

Scarlet shrugged and did her best to hold her smile smug as she continued scrolling. The truth was she had already finished because it was just review work instead of the lessons cut out by the unscheduled school break like everyone had been expecting, but Carlin could wait to learn that until he got his copy.

"There's no way even you got it finished that fast, Scar."

"Instead of whining because I actually do my homework first thing, how about you give me some suggestions for games to check out in my downtime?"

Carlin huffed and leaned back in his chair. Scarlet kind of envied him for that, all leather cushions and smooth wheels. She was lucky VR games worked fine in bed. Carlin hmmd to himself, then shrugged. "Well, you could check your email. Worldwalker's supposed to be sending out the beta invites today."

Scarlet raised an eyebrow. "The MMO you made us all sign up for the closed beta lottery of?"

"Yeah that one. I didn't make it in but if you did..."

Scarlet sighed and rolled her eyes. "I'm not really the MMO type, I'm going to be honest Carlin. I don't like taking that much time out of my day for video games."

Carlin bonunced back and forth in his chair, "Come onnn that's what the experience dilation stuff is for. It can't hurt to just check your email."

"Fine, I guess I did let you talk me into trying already. I'll just go look at that rejection email and..." Scarlet flipped over a tab and paused. Right there at the top: "Congratulations on signing up for the Worldwalker Online VRMMO closed beta!"

Carlin rolled his chair back in close to his camera and tapped his desk. "Helloooo, earth to Scarlet. Knock knock?"

"...It says I got in."

Carlin spun his chair back away from the camera, "Wooooo! See? Was I right or was I right?"

"Carlin can you stop knocking your chair into every piece of clutter you own? I'm trying to read the email."

"Sorry."

Scarlet did her best to ignore Carlin's impatient tapping. "...I don't know if I'm actually going to be able to play this. Some of the features it's rattling off aren't supported by low end rigs."

Carlin leaned in again. "What? Can you switch to screen share so I can read it?"

Scarlet nodded and tapped to change the video feed, and leaned back in her own creaking seat. Carlin tapped his chin, a look of concentration slowly creasing his forehead.

Scarlet spoke up when Carlin started tapping his elbows, "Is... Something wrong?"

"Maybe? I have literally never seen any VR game list all these features as selling points at once, let alone an MMO. And one hundred times experience dilatation? Even on the best rigs nobody's been able to go up past twenty without making most people ill."

Scarlet blinked, "Wait a hundred? So like, a hundred hours in-game is just sixty minutes in real life? Does my rig even support that kind of data flow?"

Carlin shrugged, "I dunno, maybe? Scroll down, it doesn't list the recommended specs this high in the email." Scarlet pushed the email down, reaching the bottom in short order. "Ahh. Hm. That's not too bad but..."

"More than my rig handles?"

"More than your current rig handles."

Scarlet paused again. "Carlin you better not..."

"Scar, if this is all for real you just lucked into the hypest game beta of the year, there's no way I'm letting you pass this up. Put your shoes on and be ready in ten minutes, I'm buying you a new VR Rig."

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Welcome to Worldwalker Online's closed beta! Enjoy your stay, and be sure to submit suggestions, bug reports, and complaints to the in-game menu!

The colorful animated logo of the game floated overhead in the blank void of the login lobby. It seemed to be pretty standard so far... Info popup boxes, a timer so the experience dilation doesn't make you lose track of time too much, even options for the game to notify you if you get messages outside the game.

The sensory suite was already top notch though, she couldn't even feel the muffled heat of her room. Nothing but the crisp clean air of the login room through and through. It took her a few seconds of marveling at how much difference a good VR rig made to remember that she was supposed to be making her avatar.

Notice: choosing an avatar too different from your own body may invoke feelings of discomfort, disorientation, dysphoria, or general nausea and dizziness. Please be sure to return to character creation if completing the tutorial course is difficult or uncomfortable with the avatar you've created.

Scarlet blinked and read the warning label again. That was certainly unusual. It seemed it would be best to stick to something closer to her real life body shape then... Though, she wasn't really planning on doing anything too far from that in the first place.

Character creation was very in-depth but quite intuitive, with a tall and lithe auburn haired woman quickly coming together. Lengthen the hair a little past the shoulders, darken the green of the eyes a little, flatten the chest a tad, and everything was just about perfect. All that was left was to set up the stats and then choose a username.

Scarlet pulled up the class list, and contemplated her choices. The game menu made note of the fact that changing classes in game was possible, but even with that it was difficult to narrow down what she wanted. A shieldbearer for good personal durability? A mage for spellcasting versatility? Even with the starter classes all being simple and straightforward there were more options than she was used to.

Finally, one of the descriptions caught her eye:

Starter Class: Archer

This long range DPS class focuses on Dexterity and Perception to identify and hit monsters' weak spots from a distance, using terrain and clever positioning to maximize damage output and minimize damage taken.

A tactical positioning oriented class? In an MMO? This game was already full of pleasant surprises and she hadn't even chosen her name yet. Scarlet selected the archer class, tweaked the stats just a bit from the suggested defaults, and took a step back to look at the avatar she had created.

Slowly rotating in front of her like a meticulously lifelike mannequin stood her avatar. Clad in simple medieval clothing and a dark green cloak that came down almost to the top of the boots, the avatar was just about perfect, but Scarlet still felt like something was missing...

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She snapped her fingers and jumped back to the character creation, drawing a curved scar down the face of her avatar in a familiar spot just to the side of its left eye. Exactly what the avatar needed, and thus the Crimson Scar was born.

In order to ensure that your character is playable, please complete the tutorial sequence. Remember, you may return to character creation at any point if you find that your avatar and build are not to your liking-it will be much harder to alter your choices once you enter the main game.

Confirm / Go Back

Scarlet hit confirm, and felt the sensory blur of a scene change. When it passed it took a moment to realize that she felt... Different.

"Whoa..." Scarlet held up her hands, and looked down at herself. She felt taller. It was a tiny bit disorienting actually, having six extra inches of height to maneuver. And her vision! She was used to her sight being a little bit fuzzy even with glasses or VR, but as she looked around the wooded training area she could make out all kinds of details in sharp clarity.

She tapped open the menu, "Is this because of my Perception stat...?" She opened up the character screen and, noticing that the stat change buttons were still unlocked, poked her perception stat down a few points. Sure enough, the world got just slightly less clear at distance. Not only that, she could tell the difference in the sound of the wind and the rustling leaves overhead.

"I was intrigued. Now I'm impressed." She set her stats back to where they were before and finally looked up at the tutorial notice in front of her.

To begin, perform the exercises presented on the board at the far end of the courtyard.

Scarlet tilted her head, and looked around the edge of the info box-just a blank wall made of wooden posts. Turning around instead showed that a large notice board was waiting at the end of the clear courtyard, odd to put it so far from the starting spot wasn't it?

Scarlet walked across the courtyard, feet crunching on leaves fluttering down from the overhead trees. She could feel the slight bounce in the dirt under her feet and the coolness of the wind blowing past her face, and when she closed her eyes and breathed in her lungs filled with the crisp feeling of springtime air. "That's some attention to detail... A girl could get used to this."

She opened her eyes and bumped face first into the notice board at the end of the training area. She felt the paper on her forehead just as clear as everything else but more importantly she staggered backwards and with legs just a bit longer than she was used to stumbled and fell on her butt.

"Ow. Okay Scar, watch where you're going in the future." Scarlet pushed herself back to her feet and looked over the notice board. Each of the papers tacked to it had a set of basic physical exercises with a number of repetitions, plus a small reward in in-game currency listed under it.

Scarlet tapped her cheek and contemplated her recent fall. "I get it now. By 'playable' they didn't just mean 'able to fight monsters' they meant 'will you actually be okay playing the character you made'."

Scarlet began going through the exercises posted on the board; stretches, aerobics, and balance practices. After each one a few copper coins were deposited into her inventory, and an info box would show her around the UI and menu a little bit more. Bit by bit she memorized the less familiar buttons and gestures, and grew accustomed to the slight differences in her avatar's shape from her own body.

Finally, every paper on the notice board had a green checkmark plastered over it, and Scarlet found that she was moving in the body of Crimson Scar as naturally as her own. She rolled her shoulders as the next info box appeared in front of her.

New Quest: Resource Harvesting

You're almost done! All that's left are a few of the game's main activities. To start with, locate and collect some rope from elsewhere in the course. Resources can be acquired in a variety of ways-monster drops aren't the only source. In fact, many resources can't be obtained from killing things at all!

Objective: Obtain 1 Rope Coil.

Reward: 5c, Simple Straightbow, Stick-bolt Quiver

The rope was simply back at the start of the area, hanging on one of the exposed nails in the wall that Scarlet hadn't even thought to look twice at. The rope felt rough against her fingers, and as she checked along the barky side of the wall the other stray nails were just as solid to the touch as the one her objective was hanging on.

Scarlet looked at one of them up close, and put the rope into her inventory. Ignoring the quest completion popup for a moment she pulled on the nail. It twisted slightly, but even pulling at full strength it didn't come free. She opened up her character sheet and went to reallocate statpoints to strength to try a stronger pull but-

Notice: Altering your character now will restart the tutorial. Are you sure you want to do this?

Scarlet huffed and closed it back out. Instead, she made her way along the wall to find another nail that looked looser, trying the ones that stuck out further until finally she found what she was looking for. The nail strained against the wood, but finally pulled free.

+1 Rusty Iron Nail.

Sweet! "...Ten minutes spent trying to steal a single nail. Great time management there, Scarlet." She muttered to herself and finally turned in the rope quest.

New Quest: Basic Combat

While fighting is not strictly required in Worldwalker Online, you should at least know the basics. Go try out your new weapon on that dummy. Remember that monsters will typically fight back when attacked!

Objective: Kill 1 Pathetic Training Dummy

Reward: 5c, Simple Waterskin [Full].

Waterskin? Did this game have survival mechanics? She thought back to her experiences with other VR survival games and shuddered. Hopefully this was just an aesthetic item or a consumable.

She shook her head to clear the thought, and called the bow to her hands, scanning the training area for the training dummy. It was, indeed, pathetic. A sack of hay held up off the ground by an arrangement of sticks and twine that looked about two seconds from falling over whether she attacked it or not, and a hunk of wood she supposed was probably intended to be its head was balanced on top.

She strummed the bowstring with her fingers to feel and hear the thrum, then pulled it up and drew it to full length beside her. Then remembered that this game had the ammunition as a separate equip and did it again with an arrow (really more of a straight and sharpened stick honestly) actually nocked.

She could go for the headshot, but... Her eyes drifted downward. The "head" was just for show here. With how much detail went into this game, wouldn't the weak point be...

She let loose her breath, and let loose the arrow. It soared with a satisfying whoosh straight into the knot that was holding the dummy's structural twigs together and the entire thing fell apart in a clatter of sticks and bark, then disintegrated into glittering polygons.

Skill Unlocked: Pinpoint

Identify and highlight a weakpoint on a single targeted enemy in line of sight. Physical ability. Thirty second cooldown.

Unlocked by manually identifying an enemy weakpoint in combat.

+1 Bag Of Hay.

Quest Complete!

Scarlet couldn't help herself and let out a small cheer. "An unlockable skill already! I'll need to check that out once I fight some actual monsters. First though..." She accepted the quest rewards and tapped open her inventory.

Item: Simple Waterskin

Filled with: water - 1/1 space filled - 100% durability

A simple but serviceable container for holding water that can be refilled after use at springs and rivers. Only accepts water type drinks. Water above a certain quality level will be reduced to "water" upon storage in this vessel.

Drink Consumable: Water

Grants drink slot buff for 30 minutes:

+20% Stamina Cap

+40% Stamina Recovery

+5% Heat Resist

Oh now that was interesting. The game had noted that heavy activity like combat, sprinting, or climbing drained stamina, but active use physical skills usually didn't have an extra cost while magic used MP instead. It looked like drinking did actually make a difference, but more "nice to have when out doing things" than "you will die if you don't". She could save it for later... Or she could see how good taste was on the sensory suite.

Scarlet pulled the waterskin out of her inventory and put it to her lips. Then she coughed and reflexively scrunched her face up. The water was lukewarm and tasted kind of stale, almost like old bottled water. Eugh, nevermind, that could wait until the buff would actually be useful. Next quest?

New Quest: DIY

This is the last quest of the tutorial, once you're finished the door will open and you can enter the main worlds. There's a variety of options for crafting your own gear and equipment, so try it out by using the crafting materials you got from doing the last two quests at the workbench by the exit. Go make a Bundle Of Soft Kindling, and have fun in our game!

Objective: Craft 1 Bundle Of Soft Kindling

Reward: 10c, 1 Basic Ration

Finishing up with crafting huh? Scarlet supposed that made sense. At the workbench the tutorial UI led her through some of the basics, it seemed like while there were actual Skills involved so was manual dexterity and actually doing the crafting. It was a simple process of pullingg the hay from its sack and... Wrapping it up in the rope? It was still a video game she supposed, it came out as a tightly wrapped bundle of straw instead of the grassy hay that had been in the original bag.

Quest Complete!

A fresh weapon, a fresh character, 100 copper coins in her metaphorical purse, a free meal that she wasn't really intending to eat, and a completed tutorial. How long had she been playing again? Surely it had been a while.

...Not even two minutes of real time. That was some seriously good dilation. Well, if she still had that much of her gaming time left... The way out of the tutorial was open, and the wall of fog beyond it beckoned.

She stepped out, and a warm soft light filled her senses.

Welcome to Worldwalker Online, Crimson Scar!

We sincerely hope you enjoy our game.

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Open Thread: New MMO Beta

>Yo did you guys hear about the new MMO on the market?

>Classic or VR?

>Dude who even plays classic MMOs anymore?

>What about WOG

>WPW

>HFISKEGRJR

>wow

>Having trouble buddy?

>Just use the edit button stop spamming the thread.

>Okay let me rephrase, nobody except old grognards who still think gaming peaked with Nintendo plays classic MMOs anymore.

>and people whose parents still think VR consoles are eeeeviiilllll.

>You don't understand if you die in the game you die in real life!

>lol

>Guys they posted the thread three minutes ago and you've already gone off topic twice.

>Okay he's right let's get back on topic

>She

>check the profile dude fr

>Fine she's right. How many of you chuckle****s have heard about the new MMO that everyone's watching?

>If there's anyone here that hasn't heard of Worldwalker yet I'll eat my hat.

>Oh yeah?

>Correction: if there's anyone here that hasn't heard of Worldwalker yet I'll eat the guy above me's hat.

>I can do you all one better-I actually got into the beta.

>Yo you serious?

>Niiiiice whats it like

>As far as I can tell literally everything they advertised in the promos is legit.

>What

>no way

>You gotta be messing with us right?

>I'm dead serious it was like I was actually there and not just in VR.

>hows the food

>dude, that's really where your first thought goes?

>Like actual food. The default rations taste like actual hardtack. I'm not sure if I'm impressed or disappointed with their dedication.

>why do you know what hardtack tastes like

>Jeez, I'm going to have to buy this sucker as soon as it goes open.

>hahaha yeah no kidding.

>Mmm VR biscuits...