VirtualPlay
6th November 2005, 02:52 AM
Real Virtuality
In 2016, World War III came to an end, becoming the war with the fewest human casualties. This is because the war was not fought over land between multiple countries, but rather over the control of the worlds' computer networks, where both sides fought within every country. The White Hats, who want the networks to be used freely and openly, fought against the Black Hats, who wanted to control everything that everyone did and monitor everything so that nothing against them got out. Through sufficient technological advancements, the White Hats were able to overcome the Black Hats, physically locating and imprisoning the head of the group and many high up leaders.
But that's all in the past. Now it's the year 2019. Thanks to the need for advanced technology in WWIII, the same advancement of technology was quickly made available to the consumer in many household items when the war ended. Most everything became voice-operated; many appliances became smart and could figure out the technical programming of a simple command; computers went in two directions, large screen and wearable, but both became unbelievably fast. Even more impressive than the household items, though, were the things being produced by companies for use by the consumer (though far too expensive to be owned my most anyone).
Today, Square-Enix-Konami (commonly SEK, ess-ee-kay) has finally released a much-anticipated game; it's called Final Fantasy: Immersion. However, it's not the addition to the Final Fantasy line that has people so excited about it. It's because SEK has developed a new technology for the game play. Instead of holding or wearing a controller, a player would step into large, hard-as-diamond plastic spheres, and his or her brain would connect to the game through electron waves. They would then have the feeling of being inside the game, inside the character they are playing. The physical body of the player, disconnected from the motion part of his or her brain (as during sleep), would float inside the sphere.
Called Holo-Spheres, this new technology has been speculated to become widespread with popularity, putting a game station in at least every major city. The global grand opening in Japan has drawn many people worldwide, at least the ones who wanted to go and could manage to snag themselves a ticket.
You're one of those lucky people. You're absolutely ecstatic to be able to be at the grand opening. You look happily at the eight spheres being demoed, watching as people float inside, their minds connected to the game. You watch in amazement through in-game cameras as the players' characters defeat monsters, moving fluidly and very realistically. When you get in line, just before you're to go up a game host hands you a data pad, telling you to create the character that you will become in the game. Excitedly you do so, and as you go up, you see them plug the data pad into the console of the sphere you enter.
Once you're inside, the opening closes. You black out for a second, and you wake up and find that you're no longer in the sphere, but lying in a grassy field surrounded by seven others, the seven others who entered their spheres for the same game you did. You take a look at yourself and realize that you definitely are not yourself, but rather the character you created. You test your new body, try out the menus to make sure you know how they work, and begin to interact with the other players.
Not long after, the game goes to a battle, and everyone is ready to attack. When one of the monsters lunges, however, it freezes in midair for a second, as if it were slightly glitchy. But then it moves normally again, and you and the others battle through the rest of the monsters, as well as the following boss-style battle. The boss also glitches for a second, but you guess there must just be a couple bugs. After the boss battle, you go to logout as you were instructed, but the game glitches again and won't let you. You try saving, and the world goes black again.
But when you wake up, you're still your character in the game. A message comes up about the game being "patched." You try again to logout, but neither the Logout or Save commands can be found anywhere in the menus! Shocked and confused, you look up at where you are, noticing it for the first time. It's a fortress-like wall, and inside you can see a town of some sort. Suddenly a man comes out, greeting you as travelers and heroes...
In the real world however, panic and chaos are underway. The glitches in the battling were actually caused by some kind of malfunction in the game system, and something terribly wrong has happened, suddenly causing eight bodies to collapse into comas: the bodies of you and your game-mates. Your bodies are hauled off to the ER, and the premises are evacuated, but nobody dares touch the machine anymore. The building is put off-limits and is guarded.
You know none of this, however, as the man who greeted you is taking you through the town, and you realize that you are suddenly "playing the game" that was demoed. But now that you are in the game, will you ever be able to get out?
----------
I will be employing my newly thought-up signup method for this RPG. It's called "Lottery Signup." How does it work? Click here! (http://www.virtualplay.net/lottery_su.html) (The numbers mentioned are at the bottom of the post.)
Still confused? Just forget about this then and post your sign-up normally. I'll take care of the Lottery Signup either way.
Signup Form
Name: [{Your character's real name.}]
Gender: [{...}]
Age: [{Between 13 and 21 (I'd like variety, if possible)}]
Country of Origin: [{it won't play a big part, but it would be fun to know where your character is from...don't worry, everyone can understand everybody (international translators ^-^)}]
Appearance: [{very little detail, just give a broad description}]
Personality: [{not a lot is needed here, just enough to let others know how to play your character}]
Other: [{yeah yeah, fun times}]
----CHARACTER----
Name: [{you're assigned a new name by the game (a first name only); what is it? Since the game is Japanese, make it sound Japanese.}]
Gender: [{Some people may choose to pick the other gender for their character; just remember they know that they're picking it and that they'll become it, so they'll need a good reason for it}]
Appearance: [{All characters are aged around 16-18, so base your appearance on that}]
Class: [{Fighter, Black Mage, White Mage, Rogue (Thief) - try to get all of them at least once if possible}]
Weapon Description: [{Fighters have a sword/axe, Black Mages and White Mages have a staff, and Rogues have (between one and three) daggers}]
Reasoning: [{If there are any specific reasons why your character chose any certain aspect of this character, what are the reasons? Not required.}]
Name: Mike Rampart
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Country of Origin: America (Boston area), although he was born in England, so he has an accent that's a mix of British and Bostonian, though he speaks like an American.
Appearance: Tall, with dark brown hair that he's letting grow out, and bright green eyes; lanky build, and palish skin.
Personality: He's recently been very quiet, often seen thinking deeply about something, or possibly nothing at all. However, he gets overexcited when something he really likes happens. He's usually one to agree with people rather than argue, and he's very pacifistic most of the time. He tends to get along better with girls than other guys, though he doesn't usually mind this.
Other: Maybe later...
----CHARACTER----
Name: Miaka
Gender: Female (see Reasoning)
Appearance: Tall, about 180cm (a little under 6'), with light brown hair down a little past her shoulders; her eyes are a bluish green, sometimes appearing more blue and, other times, more green; her build is a bit muscular, but not very much so, and her skin is slightly tanned. She wears a silky white knee-skirt with a bright red, 15cm bottom hem, a silky, white, long-sleeve robe top with a hood, also with a 15cm bottom/sleeve/neck hem; she wears simple, soft brown leather boots, and often has her hair in a ponytail.
Class: White Mage
Weapon Description: It's a 150cm staff, made mostly of oak, but the bottom 20cm is covered with a silver metal, and the top 20cm is a large red spherical gem which glows when Miaka is holding the staff (and can glow brighter if she wills).
Reasoning: Mike chose to play as a girl because he thinks he might be trans-gendered, and wants to see if he feels more comfortable as a girl, without going through the painful and irreversible surgery. (OoC: No, this isn't anything true about how I feel about myself, but don't make fun of it either because I know people like this...)
Lottery Signup (http://www.virtualplay.net/lottery_su.html)
Reservation Time: 24 hours | Secret List Limit: 60 hours
1. VirtualPlay -=- Mike Rampart | Miaka [White Mage]
2. Tsukasa -=- Lukyan Kalaev | Aoi [Black Mage]
3. Bulbasaur4 -=- Donovan Andrews | Setsuna [Fighter]
4. Roy Karrde -=- Eri Sakurais | Machida [Fighter]
5.
6.
7.
8.
Waiting List
1. Nabooru23 -=- Erin Stephenson | Yuki [Fighter]
2. Gladiator -=- Jason O'Ryan | Usagi [Rogue]
3. Asayake -=- Kale McConney | Kian [White Mage]
4. Crystal Tears -=- Derek Kim | Nayo [Rogue]
5. Emotional Faun Chiko-sai -=- He Xinran | Yoshika [Black Mage]
In 2016, World War III came to an end, becoming the war with the fewest human casualties. This is because the war was not fought over land between multiple countries, but rather over the control of the worlds' computer networks, where both sides fought within every country. The White Hats, who want the networks to be used freely and openly, fought against the Black Hats, who wanted to control everything that everyone did and monitor everything so that nothing against them got out. Through sufficient technological advancements, the White Hats were able to overcome the Black Hats, physically locating and imprisoning the head of the group and many high up leaders.
But that's all in the past. Now it's the year 2019. Thanks to the need for advanced technology in WWIII, the same advancement of technology was quickly made available to the consumer in many household items when the war ended. Most everything became voice-operated; many appliances became smart and could figure out the technical programming of a simple command; computers went in two directions, large screen and wearable, but both became unbelievably fast. Even more impressive than the household items, though, were the things being produced by companies for use by the consumer (though far too expensive to be owned my most anyone).
Today, Square-Enix-Konami (commonly SEK, ess-ee-kay) has finally released a much-anticipated game; it's called Final Fantasy: Immersion. However, it's not the addition to the Final Fantasy line that has people so excited about it. It's because SEK has developed a new technology for the game play. Instead of holding or wearing a controller, a player would step into large, hard-as-diamond plastic spheres, and his or her brain would connect to the game through electron waves. They would then have the feeling of being inside the game, inside the character they are playing. The physical body of the player, disconnected from the motion part of his or her brain (as during sleep), would float inside the sphere.
Called Holo-Spheres, this new technology has been speculated to become widespread with popularity, putting a game station in at least every major city. The global grand opening in Japan has drawn many people worldwide, at least the ones who wanted to go and could manage to snag themselves a ticket.
You're one of those lucky people. You're absolutely ecstatic to be able to be at the grand opening. You look happily at the eight spheres being demoed, watching as people float inside, their minds connected to the game. You watch in amazement through in-game cameras as the players' characters defeat monsters, moving fluidly and very realistically. When you get in line, just before you're to go up a game host hands you a data pad, telling you to create the character that you will become in the game. Excitedly you do so, and as you go up, you see them plug the data pad into the console of the sphere you enter.
Once you're inside, the opening closes. You black out for a second, and you wake up and find that you're no longer in the sphere, but lying in a grassy field surrounded by seven others, the seven others who entered their spheres for the same game you did. You take a look at yourself and realize that you definitely are not yourself, but rather the character you created. You test your new body, try out the menus to make sure you know how they work, and begin to interact with the other players.
Not long after, the game goes to a battle, and everyone is ready to attack. When one of the monsters lunges, however, it freezes in midair for a second, as if it were slightly glitchy. But then it moves normally again, and you and the others battle through the rest of the monsters, as well as the following boss-style battle. The boss also glitches for a second, but you guess there must just be a couple bugs. After the boss battle, you go to logout as you were instructed, but the game glitches again and won't let you. You try saving, and the world goes black again.
But when you wake up, you're still your character in the game. A message comes up about the game being "patched." You try again to logout, but neither the Logout or Save commands can be found anywhere in the menus! Shocked and confused, you look up at where you are, noticing it for the first time. It's a fortress-like wall, and inside you can see a town of some sort. Suddenly a man comes out, greeting you as travelers and heroes...
In the real world however, panic and chaos are underway. The glitches in the battling were actually caused by some kind of malfunction in the game system, and something terribly wrong has happened, suddenly causing eight bodies to collapse into comas: the bodies of you and your game-mates. Your bodies are hauled off to the ER, and the premises are evacuated, but nobody dares touch the machine anymore. The building is put off-limits and is guarded.
You know none of this, however, as the man who greeted you is taking you through the town, and you realize that you are suddenly "playing the game" that was demoed. But now that you are in the game, will you ever be able to get out?
----------
I will be employing my newly thought-up signup method for this RPG. It's called "Lottery Signup." How does it work? Click here! (http://www.virtualplay.net/lottery_su.html) (The numbers mentioned are at the bottom of the post.)
Still confused? Just forget about this then and post your sign-up normally. I'll take care of the Lottery Signup either way.
Signup Form
Name: [{Your character's real name.}]
Gender: [{...}]
Age: [{Between 13 and 21 (I'd like variety, if possible)}]
Country of Origin: [{it won't play a big part, but it would be fun to know where your character is from...don't worry, everyone can understand everybody (international translators ^-^)}]
Appearance: [{very little detail, just give a broad description}]
Personality: [{not a lot is needed here, just enough to let others know how to play your character}]
Other: [{yeah yeah, fun times}]
----CHARACTER----
Name: [{you're assigned a new name by the game (a first name only); what is it? Since the game is Japanese, make it sound Japanese.}]
Gender: [{Some people may choose to pick the other gender for their character; just remember they know that they're picking it and that they'll become it, so they'll need a good reason for it}]
Appearance: [{All characters are aged around 16-18, so base your appearance on that}]
Class: [{Fighter, Black Mage, White Mage, Rogue (Thief) - try to get all of them at least once if possible}]
Weapon Description: [{Fighters have a sword/axe, Black Mages and White Mages have a staff, and Rogues have (between one and three) daggers}]
Reasoning: [{If there are any specific reasons why your character chose any certain aspect of this character, what are the reasons? Not required.}]
Name: Mike Rampart
Gender: Male
Age: 14
Country of Origin: America (Boston area), although he was born in England, so he has an accent that's a mix of British and Bostonian, though he speaks like an American.
Appearance: Tall, with dark brown hair that he's letting grow out, and bright green eyes; lanky build, and palish skin.
Personality: He's recently been very quiet, often seen thinking deeply about something, or possibly nothing at all. However, he gets overexcited when something he really likes happens. He's usually one to agree with people rather than argue, and he's very pacifistic most of the time. He tends to get along better with girls than other guys, though he doesn't usually mind this.
Other: Maybe later...
----CHARACTER----
Name: Miaka
Gender: Female (see Reasoning)
Appearance: Tall, about 180cm (a little under 6'), with light brown hair down a little past her shoulders; her eyes are a bluish green, sometimes appearing more blue and, other times, more green; her build is a bit muscular, but not very much so, and her skin is slightly tanned. She wears a silky white knee-skirt with a bright red, 15cm bottom hem, a silky, white, long-sleeve robe top with a hood, also with a 15cm bottom/sleeve/neck hem; she wears simple, soft brown leather boots, and often has her hair in a ponytail.
Class: White Mage
Weapon Description: It's a 150cm staff, made mostly of oak, but the bottom 20cm is covered with a silver metal, and the top 20cm is a large red spherical gem which glows when Miaka is holding the staff (and can glow brighter if she wills).
Reasoning: Mike chose to play as a girl because he thinks he might be trans-gendered, and wants to see if he feels more comfortable as a girl, without going through the painful and irreversible surgery. (OoC: No, this isn't anything true about how I feel about myself, but don't make fun of it either because I know people like this...)
Lottery Signup (http://www.virtualplay.net/lottery_su.html)
Reservation Time: 24 hours | Secret List Limit: 60 hours
1. VirtualPlay -=- Mike Rampart | Miaka [White Mage]
2. Tsukasa -=- Lukyan Kalaev | Aoi [Black Mage]
3. Bulbasaur4 -=- Donovan Andrews | Setsuna [Fighter]
4. Roy Karrde -=- Eri Sakurais | Machida [Fighter]
5.
6.
7.
8.
Waiting List
1. Nabooru23 -=- Erin Stephenson | Yuki [Fighter]
2. Gladiator -=- Jason O'Ryan | Usagi [Rogue]
3. Asayake -=- Kale McConney | Kian [White Mage]
4. Crystal Tears -=- Derek Kim | Nayo [Rogue]
5. Emotional Faun Chiko-sai -=- He Xinran | Yoshika [Black Mage]