Fiction (Fantasy)--Digital Arcana

N

Notepad

Guest
"Well, I've written a lot of fiction in the past, and always start off well, but never finish. Lots of anthologies, but no endings. A couple novels...with no endings. I always flake out after a while, because I get that "great new idea!!!" and start working on something else." -Sefro, in another fiction thread

So, with that in mind, I'm gonna do the forum-momentum approach to two stories I'm working on. Hopefully sharing this stuff with y'all will keep me writing it, rather than just writing a little and letting the idea die out.

SETUP

Digital Arcana tells the tale of a worldwide game and its players. Set in the 2040s, the worldwide RPG uses advanced virtual reality technology to put players in a fantasy world where they really do have the power to do anything they want. This game allows for an escape from real life, which by this point in history has reached soul-crushing hopelessness in the wake of a cruel economy-driven society. People are nothing but cogs, which is why they go to the game to be heroes of their own making. Playing in this game may be an escape, but as they make friends and enemies in the digital setting, can their morale boost and learned lessons help them in their dismal real lives?


This storyline is a continuation of the story presented in Fiction-- Black Wall - Chatper 1, and has enveloped the characters and places shown in the thread Galos Chronicles Characters and Places.

Hopefully I'll get the first bits of data up. I really want to start this story up and have some fun with it. Unlike Lawless Streets, which will be a one-shot collection of a few small chapters, this will be an ongiong series.
 
N

Nightstalkers

Guest
Know what, that sounds kinda like the storyline for the CPA RPG I was making...


lol, I've still got the files in storage, but I'm not thusly inclined to complete it.
 
N

Notepad

Guest
NS, you psychopath! I didn't know you were still working on that project. Been a long time since you've posted all those little character sprites. :D
 
N

Nightstalkers

Guest
Actually, since the idea was already taken, the story kinda died out and was left to the aether.
 
N

Notepad

Guest
Yeah, it is a rather semi-cliche storyline: People crossover between real world and real-like virtual reality. Nothing at all groundbreaking about this storyline except for two things...

Different World Times
In the majority of crossover stories, things happen at the same time. Even in time travel stories, which is odd. Everything is 1:1 as far as time goes. That is to say, if ten days go by in one setting, ten days also go by in the other setting. Virtual Arcana is different, more along the lines of things like the world of Narnia, though not as extreme.

The technology, called "Mind Eye Transfer" that allows people's minds to go into the virtual reality, has many more applications. Data processing jobs are no longer done sitting at a keyboard, for example. The workers slip into MET nets and manage data there, where their mind connects to the data directly, with no body fatigue or interruption. This direct connection allows for faster transfer. In my story's world, the data transfer can reach up to 15 times normal thinking speed (yes, that means in one hour of your body hooked up to the system, you can do 15 hours-worth of intense data processing work). In the game, to keep players from overloading their systems, since there is a body to simulate, and to keep server stability on a worldwide network, the game only operates at 10.1 times the normal thinking speed.

This means that if you go into the game for two hours, your body sits there with your VR hookups on for two real hours, while your mind goes through 20.1 hours of virtual experience. This means players who start characters at their same age, find themselves ten years older than themselves over about one year's worth of playing. The entire game world operates at 10.1 times the normal world, which means things get rather interesting, especially with the ability to pop in and out at will, unlike Narnia.


Reverse Affection
In other stories, normally the "real" (or "origin") setting affects the alternate setting. The most clear example of this would be the Matrix. Downloads and hacking affect the computer world, but not the other way around for the most part. Only dying or getting seriously injured in the Matrix affects anybody in the real world. Most things are pretty much like this. Even time travel stories, silly enough. Walking around being chased by your teenage future mother never causes her to have looked at you oddly back in the real world while you grew up going "Oh my god! He looks like THAT GUY!" (Back to the Future).

Digital Arcana is pretty similar, at the start. Players can interact in the real world and set up meetings and attacks. Once in the game, they play and that is that. Things they do in the game do not affect their real selves. Players do not gain one iota of strength by sitting there and doing workouts for twenty days straight in the game world. Wounds also have no effect on the real body, nor does death. The only real effect is mental, where things they learn stay memorized in the real world. If a player reads a book in the game world, they will remember what they read when they come out of the game. However, if they spent two hours in the game right after studying for their math test, they'll think as if its been 20.2 hours since they studied.

This is where things will get crazy for some of the characters. Mages try to see if they can affect things in the real world, since they learned magic in the game. Their struggle is futile. Until players begin hitting huge power pinnacles. They will have the ability to mess with the real world in psychic manners rather than magical. However, it will take the best of the best to do this, those who master their mental abilities through use of the game.
 
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