Today is the day that I will finally be able to play the newest Virtual Reality game, Pulsar. It was first advertised nearly a year ago, and everyone has been waiting for it to come out. Pulsar is the first Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Game, or FIVR-Game. A new company called Equinox Industries developed the Virtual Reality Drive Units, or Pods, that will allow a persons consciousness to enter the game and experience everything as though it was completely real.
My Pod is supposed to arrive in the next hour and I cannot wait for it to arrive. I pre-ordered the game, and the Pod, which cost an astounding $20,000. Luckily because of my inheritance I am able to afford the game right off, unlike most people who have to save for a long time to be able to pay for the new Pod.
After waiting for what seemed to be a lifetime, my doorbell finally rings. I rush to the door and throw it open. “Hello, we are here to install your Virtual Reality Dive Unit. Where would you like us to put it?”
“Just throw it in the living room, I have already cleared the required space for it against the wall.”
The technicians quickly install and set up the pod, and I sign the receipt saying that I have in fact received my Pod. “Just so you know, you will need to replace the food and water modules once a week. The Unit will automatically feed and hydrate you so that you will not have to worry while you are in the pod. You will receive a reminder while in the Unit when it is close to the time that you need to replace the modules. If you have no further questions for us we are ready to leave.”
“No, thank you but I believe that I understand everything. Thank you again, and have a nice day.” As I walk them to the front door and shut it after them.
Finally, I will be able to play Pulsar. I quickly get back to my Pod, and I start it up. “Before entering the Unit, please remove all clothing.” Comes from the speakers on the Pod.
I strip down and lay down on the pod and close the lid. As the pod closes over me, everything goes black, and in what feels like a few seconds I am within a white expanse, as far as I can see. “Hello, welcome to you Pod Home. You can customize this area to your liking, as this area will serve as your entry point every time you enter the Pod. From here you are able to access any games or services that you have installed into your pod. Currently Available services are the Pod Store, where you can purchase new items for you Home, or other programs, and Entry into Pulsar.”
“Who is this?”
“I am your Pod AI, Anna.” Says a petite 5’3” brunette, that just appeared in front of me. “I am here to assist you in anything you need while in your pod home, and will act as your Interface AI while you play the game Pulsar.” She looks to be about 20 years old with an amazing figure.
“Ok. Well than, I’m Collin, it’s nice to meet you anna. Is it possible for my pod home to just have the look of my apartment?”
“Of course.” Then everything around me changed to look just like the living room of my apartment, the only difference being is that instead of the front door, there is a door that looks completely black, except for what appears to be a pulsar right in the middle.
“Thank you, well I am assuming that I just go through that door over there in order to go into the game?”
“That is correct, just enter that door whenever you wish to play Pulsar, and you will be transferred to it immediately. Also, while inside you Pod Home, time moves at a 4:1 Ratio compared to the real world. That means that for every 4 hours that you are here, only one hour passes in the real world. This is the same time compression for Pulsar as well.”
So every four days is really only a day, this is awesome, I can play so much more in here, not that I actually have anything that I have to do in the real world. I thought to myself. Its not that I am lazy and don’t have any jobs or anything, it’s just that as I was growing up, in all the games that I played, I would sell in game items for real money, and I made a lot of money off of it. That money along with everything that I got from my parents I would invest, and now at the age of 22 I have a fortune of my own, so I never have to work another day in my life if I don’t want to.
As I enter the door to the game, everything goes black again and then a futuristic room appears around me, complete with a desk with a woman behind it.
“Welcome to Pulsar, a massive universe filled with many different races of beings and hundreds of thousands of systems. Let us begin with the Character Creation. Please select a race from the list of playable races.”
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Human
The Human race has no penalties or advantages when played. They are one of the most populous races in the galaxy, found on almost any planet. Their high adaptability lets them survive in almost any environment.
Elves
The Elvish Race is a sub race of Humanity. When humanity was reaching for the stars, the Elves settled on low gravity planets, and over time their skeletal and muscle systems lost mass, and they became taller and lither at a people. Elves have excellent talent with Psi, but also have weaker physical abilities when compared to many races.
Dwarves
The Darvish Race is a Sub Race of Humanity. When humanity was reaching for the stars, the Dwarves settled on much higher gravity planets. As such over time, their muscular and skeletal systems became much denser to help compensate with the higher gravity, and their stature decreased. Dwarves have poor Psi talent, but they have excellent physical abilities.
Uvelt
The Uvelt are a race of Bipedal Lizards. With the same stature as an average Human, they are nonetheless incredibly quick and dexterous. They are covered in small scales that help increase their physical defense naturally, and they come in almost any color. The Uvelt are a Cold Blooded species, and as such they thrive on hot worlds, but have a very hard time in colder environments.
Android
The Android Race, are sentient humanoid robots. While they have no innate ability with Psi, and have weak bodies initially, as they continue to upgrade and improve their bodies, they can gain any ability that the flesh and blood races can achieve.
“Hmm, while I think that it would be interesting to play a space elf or dwarf, I definitely do not want to play as a lizard, haha. The android option is intriguing to say the least, but it sounds like it would be rather expensive to play as, especially in the beginning. Therefore, I think that I will just play as a good old-fashioned Human. That way even though they do not have excellent talent with physical and psi abilities, I will still be able to achieve both.”
“You have selected Human as your starting race. Please customize your character at this time.”
As that was said, an exact image of myself appeared in front of me. Now while I am not what many would call amazingly handsome, I am also not ugly. I am 6’1” tall, with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes. I might be just a little bit overweight, but I am not obese. Hmm, what should I change. Well let me get rid of the fat, add a little bit of muscle, more definition than mass.
After about 15 minutes of editing, I locked in my avatar. Overall it looked like me, just me in better shape. I didn’t change anything on my face, I only changed my hair style to be a shorter more military looking style. I didn’t go and add a lot of muscle, I just made it more defined, overall, I look what I would if I worked out, instead of playing games most of the day.
“Character appearance complete. Please select your Character Name.”
“Hmm, I will go with Cal Warren.”
“Character Name Selected: Cal Warren. Please select a starting skill package: Fighter, Mechanic, Pilot, or Medic. Please note that this is not your class or your profession, and you have the ability to gain any of the skills from any of these packages while playing the game. This is just a base group of skills to get you started when you enter the game.”
“Well, I am just going to go with my gut here, and get mechanic.” While getting the pilot skills or the fighter skills right away sounds cool, I prefer to play a more self-sufficient game style at the start of all the games I play. Also, I can always pick up those skills more easily than the various mechanic skills I bet.
“Skill Package: Mechanic has been selected. You may now proceed with the tutorial for Pulsar, and the various Mechanic tutorials until the game is released. You will be able to re-enter the tutorial until the game goes Live.”
Over the course of the next month, real time of course, I proceeded to use the tutorials for the various mechanic skills. Unlike most games where you would usually be able to just learn a skill and then the system would automatically do anything that you wanted it to do within your skill level, Pulsar required you to actually know what you were doing, and to do it all yourself. Therefore, you will not be able to just sit down and have your character build you ten plasma rifles for example, you would have to painstakingly assemble each rifle, and then test them, because if you do not build something correctly, it will not work.
Another interesting thing that I learned about the game during this time is that the pain threshold is set at 90%. I learned this when I was building an energy rifle and I forgot a part. When I went to the range to test fire the rifle, it exploded and “Killed” me. My character was instantly resurrected and I received a system message telling me that while in the tutorial you will be instantly resurrected, but when I enter the game proper, it will require one full day outside of the game, or four in game days for my character to resurrect at the nearest medical facility.
During this last month, my A.I. Anna, was my constant companion in the training. It appears that she will be able to help me during the game, as a companion of sorts, really a voice in my head to help me remember things, and to provide what aid she is able. She was able to help me prevent future mishaps with the items I assembled, and thankfully I did not have to experience any more death during the tutorial.
Finally, after a month of practicing my skills, which are not to shabby anymore if I do say so myself, I will be able to enter the actual game.