Billy’s first big break at ACME had been during mediated contract negotiations when a group of aligned labor unions accused ACME of breaking promises made during the last round of negotiations. The head of the ACME delegation was late; the judge was angry and about to rule in favor of the unions. Billy had stood up and, with little knowledge of the details, made an impassioned speech that swayed the judge in their favor.
"Your Honor, much has been said about what these people expected, what they think we said, and what promises we made. They argue about logical assumptions one could jump to and whether or not insane decisions agreed to by them are legal. These are fine things to discuss in Law School, at a bar, or around a campfire. But they should not be brought before this court. This court judges the merits of each case on what is agreed to in this written and signed contract and whether each side's actions are consistent with the contract."
"ACME Corporation will uphold what is in this contract for their part. We expect the other party to do the same. None of us should be arguing about anything except for what is written down. If these people are angry, they can be angry with themselves. Perhaps they should learn to read before they sign things - or learn to suffer the consequences."
That had been his big break and got him moved from obscurity and a small paycheck to the hell that was middle management and the chance that any week might be your last. But if you could handle the pressure, moving to upper management set a person up for life. The money was good, and you could blame all your screw-ups on the people who worked under you. Billy wasn’t there yet, but he was ambitious enough to try for it. He had a reputation for thinking quickly on his feet, taking chances, and fighting back viciously when challenged.
When his sometimes-mentor, Vernon Throckmeyer, had decided to move to the new division, he’d come with him. Uncle Vern had a keen eye for opportunities, although he wasn’t so great at capitalizing on them. Billy was faster to recognize cracks in a plan and, more than once, had pulled Vernon’s ass out of the fire when a project wasn’t earning what it should. Billy had been content to let Vern take the credit while he moved up in the ranks, using Vern for cover. But this new project offered him a chance to break away from Vernon and shine on his own. He only had to outperform all of the other middle managers in his division, along with nine other competing mega-corps and hundreds of smaller ones who would be competing for land in the new game world and the revenues that came with it.
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Ozzy and his roommates didn’t have to do a lot of work before starting their new jobs. No one who lived in the habitats owned much. Living space was at a premium. The designers of the massive arcologies claimed that there was space inside for a quarter million people to work, go to school, shop, and enjoy recreation. Maybe the first one had been set up that way, but not the hundreds of similar buildings erected around the world. Jobs were scarce, and if you lived in a Hab Block, you probably didn't have one. The cheap labor available in the habitats only appealed to certain types of manufacturing, and retail stores wanted customers with money, not those living in poverty. There was little manufacturing in a habitat and next to no retail shops. So, the design changed to fill the office and workspace with more people. Schools can be left out, too, and just shift every kid to online learning from his home. Room for more people. Eventually, each Hab Block held over a million people. If they were full, that is. Most had decayed so much that many sections were unlivable. But living in a Hab gave someone a place to sleep and three meals of synthetic food a day. You might be born, live, and die, and never leave your Hab.
The larger apartment the four of them shared was considered luxurious by the standards of most families, with each person having a small 8’x10’ bedroom. They wanted to keep the apartment, so they piled all of their belongings into one room. Ben and Rolly added locks to the door while Suzette negotiated a deal with a family she knew needed more space. They got the apartment for five years and would keep out squatters and ensure no one broke into the locked room. Some of the meager weekly salary that ACME would pay them would keep up the rent on the apartment. The next day, they left for their new jobs with only a small bag of clothes. They expected to spend little of the next five years offline.
ACME had scrambled to acquire and refit a large building in Philadelphia. There were ample buildings in the old downtown area sitting empty. But instead of renting one of the unused skyscrapers left over from the last boom cycle, they chose a huge, squat building made of cement that had been a prison up until the last century. After its use as a prison, it had been used as a secure storage area, and a biotech lab. In an ironic twist, ACME would be using it for all three of those purposes, housing thousands of workers who were comatose in medical pods. Tall brick walls topped with barbed wire surrounded the tight group of ugly buildings with thick concrete walls and few windows.
Exiting from the habitat at street level, the group made its way to the subway station that would deposit them a few blocks from their new home. While the building looked ugly and sterile to most people, habitat residents found it not much different from where they’d lived most of their lives. After a half-hour wait while their ID was checked against a list, they were escorted inside and put into a large auditorium. Orientation began in four hours. The obligatory tour of the facilities by a bored ACME intern quickly showed the new arrivals the locations of the dormitories, the medical station, corporate offices, the recreation hall, and the cafeteria. Each of these rooms would hold only a fraction of the people working here, with most being in their pods at all times.
There was little to do while they waited. Ozzy sat in a corner with Suzette leaning against him, sleeping. The travel had taken a lot out of her. He was just content to sit and wait while Rolly and Ben raided the snack table for whatever they could find. Finally, they filled a whole tray and brought it back to where Ozzy and Suzette were seated.
Six hundred and twenty-five people took their seats on the hard metal benches, and within a minute, two dozen middle managers from ACME walked onto the small stage placed at the front of the room.
The first person to speak was familiar to Ozzy.
Billy Horvacs had a winning smile and eyes that said, "Trust me, I'm here to help." This had made him a highly successful recruiter of new employees and occasionally helped him get three steps towards the door when his current girlfriend decided she wanted to be his ex-girlfriend.
"Welcome, friends. Glad to see how many of you made the right decision. It thrills me to see each of you here because you trusted in me or another ACME manager and trusted in ACME Corporation." This was actually the truth since each person here meant a small bonus for Billy. He was VERY happy to see all 625 of them.
"For some of you, I'll be staying on here as your employee liaison. Other groups will have one of these fine managers you see here on the stage with me. We'll get you settled in tonight, make sure you sync up nicely with your pods, and get you online. I know you're itching to see where you'll be working. And don't worry; we'll be available to you in-game as well. If you have a problem, it means we have a problem. We'll get things fixed for you; trust me on that."
"Now, let me turn over the podium to one of our supervisors. Mr. Throckmeyer is in charge of all Contract Workers working for the ACME Corporation inside of the new game, Genesis Engine." The older, heavy-set man approached the podium. A few people nervously clapped; most simply watched, hoping to get some info about what their online roles would be.
Vernon Throckmeyer adjusted the old-fashioned microphone, scowling. Talking to the hired help really wasn't his preference. "Right. Let's get this over with. I'll be honest with you and tell you that I'm not happy. Neither is the ACME Board of Directors. And I doubt you'll be happy either. But we're in this together, so let's put aside any complaints until we can get online and fix these little problems."
"We assumed this game would be starting out similar to how EQO 1, 2, and 3 did. In those games, Corporations and Guilds could buy virtual land and buildings and do business immediately with virtual shops selling real-world merchandise and services. Players could take part in the game and afterward go shopping in the large cities without leaving their real-world homes. But that’s not the case with Genesis Engine. We don't have access to large cities, and beyond the Empire's capital and the four Ducal strongholds, we're not sure if there even are any."
"There's nothing but small rustic villages in the areas assigned to us. They double as our entry point and a starting area for players. Right now, ACME's head office is a small hut that used to house goats. We put our logo on the door and hired the goats." A few people laughed, mostly the managers on the stage.
“What’s been proposed is a world-building competition that will last for years. Each corporation will score Building Points based on their efforts to build up villages, create industries, set up trade routes, and manage the natural resources we find. We can spend those on improvements to our areas or to set up businesses that can handle transactions for real money. And for that, we need help. That’s where you come in. And it won’t be easy at first. While some of you may have expertise in specialized jobs, we aren't using you in the roles at first. We've got no need for a Castellan if we don't have a castle. We don't need secretaries without offices. And we don't need actors if we don't have a stage. We need hard manual labor - builders, ditch diggers, masons, and bakers."
There were a few groans at this, but less than Vernon expected. People living in the habitats were used to a lot of hard work.
"But there's a silver lining to all of this. The other Corporations have it just as bad—worse even—because they don't have the knowledge and drive we have at ACME Corporation. We'll get ahead and stay ahead, claim the land, and build the cities. And we won't forget those people who had to work their fingers to the bone to make it happen!"
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"And don't worry if your character seems a bit limited in skills. This is because we need you to focus on your job and get better at it. We've moved things around a bit on your character sheets to make your jobs easier. Pruned some things you could do so we could give you special abilities that even the players don't have. Speaking of which, let's get Billy back up here to tell you about some of those bonuses; I’ll be the first to admit I’m not up to speed on these new games. They're all yours, Billy."
"Thank you, Mr. Throckmeyer; always great to work with you. I’ll only go over the basics for now. You'll get more detailed information when we get online. I just want to go over the changes and special stuff. Once you log in to the game, it’s going to feel real, more real than any other VR experience you’ve had before. Those of you who worked the other night at the Grand Malkavian got just a taste of it. Be prepared for a small shock as you get used to the reality of this game.”
"First off, ignore anything you hear from the players and anything you read online. You aren’t players. Your classification is ‘Contract Worker,’ and the rules for your characters are different. Players start with a standard class but can exchange some abilities for other options; we expanded on that idea. As part of your contract, which I know you all read, ACME Corporation has the authority to make those changes for you. We had a group of our top-notch gaming experts work with the game designer to give you some pretty awesome abilities in exchange for things you won’t need. You won't have to design your character at all. We've done all the work for you! And every Contract Worker gets these nifty abilities that will make your job easier, and make you more productive.
"Sleepless in Seattle is a perk that essentially counts each hour of sleep as two. You should only need about four hours of sleep a night, which will count as eight hours. That gives you more time to finish your work or more recreation time to unwind."
"Endure is a mental buff. We saw those in EOQ3. A cleric would bless a raid, and everyone would be ready to charge a dragon and not run in fear. You won’t even notice this buff; it’s very subtle and diminishes negative emotions and effects. You won’t feel as tired, sore muscles won’t bother you, and when it gets really tough, you can easily keep going and make your quotas. Remember those ten-hour energy drinks we all chugged down as kids for the rush? Think of it as an endless supply of those whenever you need one.”
"Push onward is also stamina-related. It's a boost to your stamina and strength that lets you keep going when you run low. Be careful, as it will burn down your health in the place of your stamina or mana if you run out. You'll hurt the next day, but you'll be able to finish the job."
"Dig II and Haul III are pretty explanatory. We need a lot of manual labor done. These skills will enhance your physical ability to pick up and move anything and to dig and shape the landscape. Many NPCs have these abilities, and players can get them by spending their enhancement points. You start with them for free."
"I could do this all day!" gives you a three times multiplier to your stamina. This makes the job so much easier, even when you have to work a little overtime now and then. You will literally have three times the stamina of any player of your level. And it comes with an enhancement for your strength. Point for point, you can move and lift more than any player.”
"Finally, my favorite! Tastes like chicken! The food isn't going to be that great at first. We won't have tasty synthetics - and you can only eat so much boiled grain and vegetables before you go crazy. This skill is awesome. It took a lot to get it designed and implemented, but it's worth it. Basically, any food you eat can be turned into tasty boiled chicken as it goes into your mouth. Isn't that great? Who doesn't like chicken?! Plus, you’ll always benefit from a nutritious meal, no matter what you are eating.” A few grumbles were heard. Ozzy had the foresight to place his hands over Rolly's mouth to muffle his scream. Rolly had never been a big fan of chicken.
“Now, I’m sure you’re all excited about these benefits that make your jobs easier. It won’t even feel like work most of the time, and you’ll be several times more efficient at your jobs compared to normal players. That will let your managers meet their goals and let ACME become the dominant force in the game world. And when that happens, you can bet there will be some extra money added to your bonus at the end of the first five years! And for those of you who want to re-enlist for another five years, you’ll have options for much better jobs in the better world you helped build.”
Billy paused, and someone Ozzy didn’t know stood up and asked a question. “You mentioned we were giving up things to get these abilities, things we won’t use? Can you tell us what those were?”
Billy didn’t like questions from the audience, but these were new employees, and only twenty-five of them would be his problem in a few hours. “Good question! And I wish I had an exact answer to give you, but I wasn’t part of that committee. What I do know is that the game developer was adamant about ‘fair trades’ and making sure each of you got the benefits you deserve. Once you see your character sheets after logging in, you’ll know more and be able to ask for clarification from the manager of your group. But we got a good deal! Anyone else have a good question? We’re nearly out of time, and I know you’re anxious to check out the new Mark VII pods and take them for a spin, so how about just a couple more?”
A small woman stood on her chair and raised her hand to get Billy’s attention. “I’ve never liked the idea of ‘mental buffs’ that some of the games used, and I don’t like the idea of using one now.”
Billy smiled and shrugged. “As a matter of fact, we anticipated that. You can opt in or out of the Endure ability. If you’d rather suffer from the drudgery of manual labor, sore muscles, and depression, that’s up to you. But you still have to do as much work as the people smiling and whistling while they work. Up to you.”
The woman sat down, not seeing a lot of support from those around her.
“Last question!”
Several people stood up or raised their hands. Billy looked around and spotted one of Ozzy’s group with a familiar face. “Ah, Benjamin! I remember watching you in The Haunting of Halcyon-7. That was a great show you put on. The ending was hysterical. One of my favorites growing up. What do you want to know, Ben?”
Inwardly, Ben groaned. He’d spent a lot of his time online acting out small parts in huge adventures where players paid to take on the parts of the characters in the story. This one had been a mystery on a huge Star-liner with murders happening every night. Crazed messages drawn on the walls claimed the ship was cursed and haunted. The show was supposed to be a horror mystery set in an outer space setting. Ben played the bungling Inspector Benjamin Clulas, with the job of helping the players discover clues. The writers had horribly overestimated the intelligence of the average customer, and each episode saw Ben going to huge lengths to help people find the rather obvious clues. The whole thing turned into a comedy, with Ben adding his own fake clues to lead people to the real clues and the clumsy customers managing to kill each other in comical ways to cut down on the competition. The audience loved it, and the writers changed subsequent shows to match the original debacle. To add insult to injury, Ben’s contract had paid bonuses based on the success of the original script. His pay for each show was barely enough to live on. Despite being popular in the role, he didn’t return for the second season and took a job as a pirate in another game world.
"Mr. Horvacs, perhaps you can fill us in on things. There is a great deal of secrecy about the game. No one knows anything about the team who designed it or which corporation is running it. The rollout seems strange, to be blunt. What’s the reason for all of this?”
Billy’s hope for an easy question went out the window. But everyone was going to know the truth soon anyway.
“Well, Ben, I guess I can let you in on a big secret about the game. The very thing that makes the game so great also means that even the biggest corporations have to compromise their normal ways of doing business and do things to please the creator of the game. In the old days, the games were run by a group of AIs, as I’m sure you know. Great to work with and very easygoing. It was a huge loss to the world when they were destroyed. And I don’t have to tell you how bad EQO3 got.”
There were murmurs throughout the room. The loss of most of the AIs in the world wasn’t a secret, but the details were. One day, they were running the game worlds, and the next, they were gone. Rumors of someone setting off an EMP blast or the World government pulling their plug had run rampant.
“The good news is we have an AI-run game again that is so close to reality that you might be tempted to live there forever. But to get it made, we had to go to the one AI we had left and convince him to build something new. They agreed, but they have a lot of ideas about how things are going to run. They’re immune to pressure, don't want or need our money, and can't be threatened, bribed, or talked into any changes. Very difficult to deal with. I was part of the team, and trust me, we got nowhere at all. All of the corporations were asked to give input, and believe me, we did. And none of us are happy with the final set-up. But the developer has a vision of what they want for this new game world, and they aren’t budging."
“And you know what? That’s OK, we can deal with it.”
"You're part of ACME now, and ACME wins no matter what the rules are or who thinks they're running the game. This is just going to be more hard work and less twisting arms to get what we want. The game and the world are totally being created and run by an AI, the same one that runs most automated systems in the world. WALLY has created a world and has invited everyone to play this game by their rules.”
"No more questions for now, but feel free to talk to your local manager at your morning meetings. You've got two hours to settle in, go through your medical evaluation, and then I expect everyone to be in their pods for an initial log-in and test run. As a bonus, you get to take a look at who you're going to be for the next five years.”