~ CHAPTER 1 ~
THE MAGIC OF ANTICIPATION AND SURPRISE, PART 1
How do I put this?
Why do people play VR games?
It’s an escape, right? An escape from the boringness and pettiness of the real world. Some people get on just fine with their real lives, but some people, like me, want to dive into something more… exciting? predictable? I dunno. Basically, something where the story turns out alright in the end, because that’s what we all really want isn’t it? It’s better than doing drugs anyway, most of the time.
Anyway, that’s the theory that developer Elysium had in mind when they created Wild Magic Online. “Discover your own story” went the tagline. Be yourself, it sort of said, don’t worry about what other people are doing, just have fun playing the game in your own way. And that’s exactly what it was, but it managed it in a way that no game had ever managed before. As I stood there waiting in line, I just knew it was going to be awesome.
The crucial part of the tagline, of course, was the word ‘discover’. The game was all about throwing things at you that were unique and interesting and unexpected. Honestly it was a pretty cool concept. The game played with you instead of against you, using this sweet high-tech system to read your subconscious and then generate a new story literally just for you.
And where did I fit into all this? Your slightly cynical, slightly obsessed narrator? I was the guy whose mom hadn’t let him near a VR system in years after the whole HiFive incident freaked her out, but who begged and pleaded and finally got permission if I bought it myself. The guy currently standing in line, stamping my feet and rubbing my mittens together for warmth, waiting to buy my release day special edition hardware-integrated copy of WMO using my very own hard-earned cash. Did I mention I was slightly obsessed? Yeah, I’d been looking forward to this day for just a little while. My name was Cory. I was fifteen.
Somewhere a couple hundred KM away, my big brother Stephen was waiting in line just like me. My high school gamer friends Tate and Byron were already at home setting the game up, since they had compatible systems already and could buy the digital download. Tate was a beta tester for the game, and he hadn’t shut up about it in months. I’d never asked him to.
That’s the scene that starts my story.
The line shifted forward suddenly, and I realised it would only be a couple minutes until I had my hands on the prize. In front of me was a girl with slightly muted reddish hair worn in some crazy spikey style that would have instantly outed her as a raging lesbian if she wasn’t only half my height. I wondered what game she was waiting in line for, were kids even allowed to play WMO? If she was, what kind of character would she make?
It didn’t distract me for long. I thought about my own character: it would be a brutal fist-wielding martial artist type. Hopefully I got one of the cool races like Mistborn or Chakrit, and a cool name to go with it - that stuff was half random, half based on the Discovery System, so in a radical shift from conventional game design, you didn’t actually have any control over it. The archetype was what we’d agreed upon weeks ago, since the group needed a strong melee attacker and Byron really wanted to be a mage. I wasn’t so sure about it, but I could always swap to a different set of Skills when playing alone if I didn’t like it. In theory anyway.
I stamped my feet a few more times, puffed out a few misty breaths, and before I knew it, I was standing inside the store holding my very own VR system. It was a somewhat bulky helmet, designed to be worn while laying down in place of a pillow, and in my case emblazoned with the red and green jungle imagery and the WMO logo. I almost picked up my phone to call Tate and tell him the good news, but I thought better of it - it’d be more fun to surprise him in game. Garrax had been his character in beta: a heavy platemail-wearing Balar with a suitably ginormous hammer, so I’d just keep an eye out for something similar. We’d agreed to meet up at the crystal workshop near the shipyard in town, and of course we’d be able to recognize each other when we arrived, so it didn’t really matter.
A few more interminable minutes in the cold later, and I got on what was definitely the Longest. Bus ride. Ever.
The console I’d just bought was the third generation of its kind: full-sensory direct brain stimulation technology, complete with everything that implied. You controlled your character with your thoughts while lying down somewhere completely shut off from the real world, and experienced everything in game pretty much as if it were actually happening in real life. In fact, since the technology used your own brain to generate most of what you experienced, they actually had to put in things into the game that didn’t feel like real life just so people remembered they were playing a game! Apparently. That all sounded like the paranoia of old people who didn’t understand the technology to me, but it still resulted in some good game design.
There was an Assist System to help you get set up with whatever Skill set you chose, but in the end it was all about discovering your own way to play, with custom generated curve-balls liberally thrown into the mix. Once you graduated from the Assist System, some skilled players could even learn to control magic or inhuman body parts just with their minds without using the game menus at all, so that meant in some cases you weren’t even limited to being humanoid.
Ironically, you actually had a bit less freedom than in the game’s predecessors, but most people seemed to agree that that was a good thing: a little guidance goes a long way towards making everything more fun. The limitations allowed the game System to ensure that each character was unique, and you never got stuck unable to move forward.
Of course, with technology like that the potential to get lost in the game unable to logout was very real, and yeah, it had happened a few times with past games when bugs or malicious hackers got in the way of the device’s usual failsafes for a while. I was never too worried. I think deep down, a lot of us gamers look at stories where the hero gets trapped in a VR game or transported to another world, and we actually kinda wish it was us. For all the hardships a life like that might throw at us, we’d at least know what we had to do and have a reason to get up every morning to do it. In any case, it’d never been a serious deterrent for VR system sales, even after the so-called HiFive incident, and Wild Magic Online was looking like it would be no exception.
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Honestly, my own adventure was waiting, and I was so ready for it.
Finally walking in the door, I yanked off my mittens and shoes and tossed them on the rack. “Hey Mom. I’m going to go set up the system ok? I’ll be done before lunch promise.”
Mom gave me a cool look and raised one eyebrow. “Oh you will, will you?”
“Yup, promise!”
“Okay.” She didn’t sound like she believed me, not that that was any surprise.
I shrugged off my coat and touque and hung them up with just enough care that I wouldn’t have to go back and pick them up off the floor, then scampered up to my room. I’d already stashed away my textbooks - not that I’d ever opened them, it was easier to do things online anyway - so all that was left was to make a nest for myself and get down to business.
Lying down, I brushed my hair out of the way and carefully fitted the machine over my head, then relaxed onto the bed, my bluey-green duvet poofing up around me. Eltain, the prince-like antagonist from one of my favourite adventure games, brooded down at me from the wall, with the corner carefully arranged so the label “Sponsored by the New Dawn: God is Still Waiting for Us” was covered. WMO wasn’t officially sponsored by them, but, as mom never stopped reminding me, you did never really know for sure. I let my mind wander for a moment before taking the plunge into my new world.
The initial setup had to be done with the manual push of a button, but once I was registered as the device’s owner I’d be able to switch it on by voice. I took a deep breath… and pushed.
It’s not like I hadn’t experienced VR or AR before. Limited AR devices were practically required for school these days, but they didn’t have the full brainwave scanning capabilities of my new machine for legal reasons. Still, seeing the pale white setup screen overlay itself over the real world made my heart pound a little. It’s happening! No more dumb netgames for me!
Please speak your name to register yourself as this device’s owner.
“Cory Davis Anthony.”
Welcome Cory. New user profile registered.
Beginning calibration. Please move your eyes to the left and right several times.
I did each step as I was prompted, starting with simple muscle movements, and then moving on to more complex operations like mental visualization. All this was to properly calibrate the system to my own brain, so there was no shortcut even if I wanted.
Advanced calibration step 4/15. Please select the option that tastes most like water.
Advanced calibration step 9/15. Please move the slider until the surface feels like glass.
Advanced calibration step 14/15. Please say the word “calibrating” without speaking aloud.
Before long, the pale overlay over the real world was all I could see, the sounds and sensations of the world fading away. Then the game’s own setup began, and the white screen was replaced by a spectacular vista as though I were flying with the clouds looking down at a lush tropical alien jungle. The sound of birds and wild animals pierced through the air creating a soothing atmosphere, but this high up the wind was still cool, and it bit sharply at my cheeks to keep me alert. In the distance I could see the main player town, Cowl’s Landing, sparkling and steaming against the lush backdrop.
<“Welcome to the wild magical frontier, traveller. Please, tell me a bit about yourself so I can prepare equipment for your arrival.”> The voice was that of a perky mage’s apprentice, telepathically transmitted to me so it sounded like he was standing right next to me. A series of pictures and descriptions materialized in a circle around me like clouds scudding into view. [Armored Melee Fighter], [Pure Offensive Spellcaster], [Spiritual Healer]… Moving hands that seemed like nothing more than swirls of pinkish mist, I scrolled around until I spotted [Magical Martial Artist]. I paused for a second, glancing wistfully at the option beside it, [Versatile Support Spellcaster], but with a slightly heavy heart, I chose the one we’d agreed upon.
There was a slight pause, then: <“Veery interesting. Thank you ms. River. Please give me a moment to prepare your things, I’ll be right back.”> The disembodied voice sounded a little skeptical. My vision swooped forward towards the giant purple crystal that was the landmark of the town, and I could see swirls of pinkish mist surrounding myself flowing ahead and behind me. River, huh? Not exactly the kind of name I was expecting to get. Wasn’t something strange?
Then the huge crystal started to glow and I was sucked inside with a slightly high pitched slurp. Inside the crystal was gently lit with pale white light. As I watched, a misty figure gradually faded into focus.
I stared.
<“Ah, sorry about this ms. River. It seems the waygate is a little bit occupied right now. Please wait just a moment longer.”> This was the prompt the game always gave before starting on what little visual character customization it allowed. Options swirled into view to change my character’s hair and eye colour, height, and unique markings. Of course there wasn’t an option to change the character’s gender, I’d never expected there would be.
But… the me I was looking at was a gorgeous petite Mistborn with the hallmark glowing whiteless eyes in a deep sapphire, dark turquoise-coloured hair so fine it looked like drifting tendrils of mist, and a version of my features so smooth and delicate it was barely recognizable as me. At this stage of character creation, the figure wasn’t wearing any clothes beyond the irremovable underwear, and it left nothing about the conspicuous curve of its breasts to my imagination. My eyes were glued.
My character was, without question, female.
~ ~ 26/1/1/10:55 ~ ~
Status: [River]
Class: [Novice Mistborn Magical Martial Artist]
Location: [Cowl’s Landing - The Waygate Focus]
[Welcome to Wild Magic Online!]