Chapter 03 ; Encapsulation
The sensation of the real world left me on the 1st minute I was inside the capsule. I was in an enclosed capsule to test the simulation of a game. The capsule had life support so I’m not worried if something bad happens to me in game. Besides, I’m eager to test out his VR immersion equipment they developed, it was created by a start-up company. As for the issue of my confidence in safety is it’s because I’m the only child of the top conglomerate in the city, they wouldn’t do anything bad to me.
Countless games are released every 3 days, most of them adapting the same systematic gameplay, the difference is in between each game’s visual style, user interface and story / lore telling.
“Initiating basic user interface… ”, while I kept talking about the importance of my life, the AI voice introduced itself to my ears. The immersion into the visual reality began, I’m so excited. Yes, this is the first test run of a visual reality game where my journey RPG journey begins.
My vision filled with the color black and a green outline laid itself around the capsule thoroughly scanning the area inside the capsule and the objects surrounding it. The scanning grid hit the 4 corners of the room and placed a land mark on each one. The programmers call this “boxed positioning” where the system pinpoints the user’s location.
The black interior soon turned white and the grid out-line turning into black then fading into white, I can hear faint voices of people cheering after the initial interface. That must mean it’ll be smooth progress from here on out. The AI voice chirped “Replicating avatar”, a green ray of light scanned the body inside the capsule and turning red after retrieving the overall body data and generated a model inside the visual world.
In my presence inside the visual world, everything felt real like my consciousness is present and I’m aware “I” am here yet it’s a simulated reality made by programmers. Everything here is fake no matter how much my sense stimulate and remain active as if I’m living where I stood on.
A voice chirped in from outside the capsule, “We will begin the initial run of the game, you will see a dialogue box in a few minutes. Just click yes to enter the game.” and with that the voice walked away. But after a few seconds, a plain dialogue box appears, a box with the design of the Windows XP system. It had a question on it “Do you want to enter the game? Yes No” (“Picking the oldies, nice”) I complimented in my thoughts. I tapped the yes button immediately and my vision warped into outer space then back in an endless white void.
These are genuinely great graphics, it looks too real.
But then, I should’ve waited for the “real” dialogue box to appear, this was a mistake I’ll regret later on.
On the other side of the visual world, a number of people scatter around in the visual reality testing room, trying to find the reason of disappearance. The capsule is laid open without a trace of its user.
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Chapter 05
Items are well known as one of the core ingredients of most games. It could be the thing held by the main character, a thing that can give the player health or beneficial advantage in battle, materials for crafting / concocting potions or basically an object that has a connection to a story, towards the player or the world itself.
That’s why when an item is possessed by the world it can be acquired by a player and when a player has an item more valuable than his life it can be stolen by other players. This is the reason why open world games had a tendency to have “player killing” --- by its definition, it’s stealing the items from a player after killing his avatar. “It’s free, real estate” as one of the most PK players’ profound catchphrase aside from the “Finders Keepers, Player Killers” and don’t forget “Items are stolen if they are stealed.”
Safe areas were introduced to prevent such disasters upon the players and overall gamin community, nevertheless, it still made the PK players adapt to such methods by partying up with the target and laying an ambush inside a dungeon or waiting outside the safe area before killing the player, which is why I will present to you, a new kind of system that will block the intentions of the player killers.
Homing item system, an innovative upgrade from the warehouse system—it is a system where a player had to put important items in and secure from player killers. The homing item system will be the “new” inventory players will use, when you receive a death from one of the player killers, your items will not drop from your dead avatar instead it will go directly to your “new” inventory. You could access your “new” inventory and see that your precious and valuable items are still there. Say goodbye to PK looting, because with this system, your belongings will be owned by you.
And in addition to the homing item system, there is a subsystem planned to be introduced in the game, “lending item”---in this subsystem you could lend an item to a player for a limited time, you can adjust how many days the players can use it, it’s perfect for sending precious equipment to new players for a limited time. Hell, you could even gift the item to a player if you want. An employee on the meeting table raised her hand.
I paused the presentation and turned my attention to the employee “Ah yes, go on ask away.”
“Wouldn’t the subsystem fetch most players from the [trade system]? Since everyone can gift or lend the item to another player.” ”are we talking about the item or the materials??”
I replied enthusiastically “It has similar functions with the trade system..but..” I quickly draw a money sign on the whiteboard. “It is without the money involved, making players contribute amongst each other.” “Most games in the market had trade systems that put millions of in-game currency on items that amount to less than 5k in-game currency. From this perspective of the player, the player will think {money is everything}. Note that we’re trying to create a game with a human touch, not the touch of a greedy player. ”
I continued in my speech “And if these systems are applied. I believe that the player would enjoy playing the game with his friends.”
“And the answer to your second question is I was talking about the item like, armors, weapons or clothes of the player. Materials such as potion, quest materials had a separate system which will be introduced by another member” I glanced over at the director and towards the workmates “Thank you for taking the time to listen to my presentation.”
The director voiced his opinions “That’s a good system for the game. Make sure that the systems work well in the programming department. Let’s move to the next topi-” A person barged in and went to the director’s side to whisper a few things after the person finished whispering, “Congratulations team, the draft animatic trailer had been finished.”
Character 02 – End / Gabriel Techearth
