Summary:
Goathouse, me, and some of my other friends were at some drunk party, it seemed like we were in Canada and the bars were really slow, so it was about 5:30 am, and we drove to this gaming place that had been raved about (~2030, but we're still in our 20's). This huge gaming place has a large TeraHertz gaming server that linked you into the game with both mouse, keyboard, and a brain-link (looked like a plastic necklace) to allow the game to read your input before you actually make it. It didn't "put you in the game" but it was as close as is physically possible (you were still sitting down staring at a screen (4k screen))
Details:
I don't remember much about the party, except brien, john, jay, zach, kelly, adam, and probably everyone else were drinking a lot, I had too much already so I was on the floor (as usual); Somehow our drunken mobility decided we should play games since the only two chicks present were dumb. We had all heard about this new "synthesis" gaming experience, and somehow we all drove there.
When we got there, it was this big decorated building in white, with lots of industrial pipe decor, something right out of universal studios or something. After going though a regular queuing line (not many people there at 5:30am) we entered, and inside was a large guest room and a initiator room, full of computers (from a yet-nonexistent company; they were *nix though). Inside there were the two guys responsible for training people to use the machines, some regular fat unix looking dude (beard, scraggly, glasses) and a more normal dude. (no chicks in the VR business, save for Nisha, which was the goth-type; she worked in the server room. cute!) Well, we all took our places, and they talked to us about safety, how the device worked, and what the hardware was; meanwhile Supreme Commander 3 or something played on our monitors, showing us what possibility the games interface had. We were all given a necklace that laced over the shoulders like a seatbelt, so it could monitor our heart and safely disconnect us if things go too intense. There was also this V-shaped plastic thing that we wore on our necks, that connected to the VR interface fort (some sort of SATA looking connection). This device was responsible for reading our brain waves; and giving the game the appropriate data stream.
So, after getting lectured about problems we might encounter, and how to shut off the device (apparently, some people can't handle being "in" the game) we were moved into the next room once the previous group was finished.
The next room was all black, save for the soft glow of many high resolution computer monitors (4096x4096 displays, at least 25 inches wide). Each computer station was put behind a plexiglass wall, which contained the tera-server, running inside a bath of liquid nitrogen. the thing was the size of a van, and goth chick was constantly checking it every 15 minutes (in a suit :( ). The room had a tall ceiling too, was cool as well. Well, we each sat down, had 15 seconds to connect to the game then WHAM
IT started off as Unreal Tournament Tera-Edition; And we were all running around in a familiar setting blasting eachother with familiar weapons. It looked great, all the monitors were 3D, and the gameplay was fluid as always. However, what was happening was the brain reader was calibrating; by using a known experience, it can use that as the heuristic to generate the 'next best' scenario, and get used to your mind. Eventually, I no longer needed to use the keyboard or mouse to control my character, but had hands ready just in case. The unreal part was fine, but I ran away from the fight, wondering just what kind of virtual world this was. Apparently, just around the corner for unreal world was medieval world; a place full of Dragon-Age type shit; swords, magic, magicians, plague, dragons. All the generic stuff. The seamless transition was really something else, I just ran in there, fully armed in unreal tournament gear, and began running around the town shooting down guards. Eventually the game adapted, and it took away my gear (Unfair Use Justification Award) so I was now a peasant trying to stop a feudal government. Along the way, one of the AI people helped me out, and don't get me wrong, the AI was as real as another person in this game. IT could talk, interact, think and do all by itself. Gone are t he days of state based AI, now we have true organic processors that act alive (in a scarily realistic way). So, we and this other peasant start sneaking around, picking off guards using our knowledge of tactic; The AI player copied me and learned really fast; We eventually snuck our way into the armory, and found a treasure vault. Meanwhile, some other unreal players ran by outside, just continuing to fight eachother ignoring they were messing up medieval world. So, after stealing lots of money (the game felt real now, you know how that works when you get "into" a game) we tried to escape, but the guards were on us. WE could run faster though, and escaped outside and got to the top of the buildings quickly. The guards were real hesitant to follow us (soled shoes suck on mud roofs); so clambering onto the roofs we could see for miles; the entire kingdom of medieval world; the border of Jurassic world across a small river, the b order to jungle world up north, the "dead sea" (the admins told us the world did not wrap; it terminated and anyone going into or above the dead sea would be eaten ala Spore.) And the unreal world, with projectiles constantly going AWOL like fireworks. There was only one dragon in the air, but it didn't seem interested in what we were doing. So, after jumping around from roof to roof (the medieval buildings were 50+ ft tall, and made of very thick mud and concrete, supposedly a game design decision) I found that there was a giant golden cannon hidden atop a tower that we could get to, so after clambering around (I found a diamond, +5000 points) I aladdin'd my way down to the ground, still running from guards, pushing people away. The guards stopped taking interest in me, as my AI friend had got upitsnacthed by that flying lizard. They were busy, so I ran over to the cannon, and once I managed to get to the top via lots of hardcore mario platforming, I got a LEVEL SELECT. Which, I could preview any area I wanted, to see what there was in this unbelievably huge world to explore.
From memory, There was Unreal world, Jurassic World, Medieval World, Jungle World, Ice world, Air world (high skyscrapers & scaffolds), Slug world, Fusion world, Food world, Random world, Dark world, and quite a few others. Each world had it's own creatures, people, and AI's to interact with. The game was essentially 0-consequence real life; Everything could be interacted with, and it would change somewhat as you would expect. If you "died", you could respawn or chillax for a bit. The game kept track of your lives, score, and modified each by each region as needed, so it was unfair that I found that diamond (putting me ~4600 points over the top unreal player), but that's why it was there. Exploring was always a reward, but it wasn't always immediately obvious HOW you would be rewarded. Fights were as realistic as the zone employed; it could be RL fighting (as in medieval world) or game fighting (unreal world) or even turn based MMO style. Everyone that was local lan was playing in the same server, if we'd have cooperated it coulda been amazing.
Then, before I could select a new world, our time was up. Shaking myself to consciousness, apparently me and Zach were the only two really affected by the system, so we had to sit in a waiting room for an extra 5 minutes while we recuperated. (the machine can raise your brain temperature; so this is somewhat dangerous to do, especially if you get into it) WE talked about what we did, Zach went up north and conquered an entire north pole civilization using necromancer powers; murdering stupid elves and christmasy things. Sounded like fun! After a while one of the employees came by and offered us jobs, because we were able to actually interface with the system and do things most people couldn't. We declined for the moment, and the dream ended because some noises coming from the living room woke me up.
If a picture is worth 1000 words, and this game was running at 240FPS, for 15 minutes, then how many words would I need to describe what I just lived through? (hint: 60*15*240*1000) Unfortunately, I'm not into wasting my time describing the emotional and graphical details of the dreams; You'll just have to know that whatever it was is more vivid and amazing than anything you're used too. You'd have to travel to world to even get close to experiencing these kinds of wonders. And trust me, as anyone who has "been there" knows; Pictures, movies and games can't even get close. Being there is really something else.
-Z
P.S. There was some cool fanservice in the game I didn't mention. ;)
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