Hello. Don't be surprised, I know this sort of thing isn't in the manual; you're not supposed to get messages during transit...and you're not. But I'm sort of outside the rules, at least for the moment, so I'm making an exemption. Unfortunately, it's to give you bad news: you're screwed.
So am I, but at least I have a better idea of why. Since it's largely my fault that you're in this too, I'll try to explain.
Some of it you know already. The game you're playing is the end result of over two decades of work. I started it as a hobby way back in the first decade of the millennium, me and a few of my friends in the industry. There've been a lot of advances since then, both in hardware and software, and we were at the forefront of all of them. It's good to have connections.
The goal was to create a perfect simulation of the Real World. One that would fool any test you cared to give it. When we started, technology was already moving in that direction, but it was a long way from what we wanted. Three years ago, we achieved what we were looking for.
We fed every scrap of information we could get our hands on into the Earth 2.0 simulation. Physical sciences, literature, political journals. Our AI took all that information, correlated it, and created the physical simulation based on it. The first time I entered it they played a little joke on me: they dropped me in in a perfect recreation of the room I'd just left. I was saying, "Guys? When're you going to start?" for a good ten minutes before they let me in on it.
The level of detail was amazing. If the AI didn't have the right facts, it could extrapolate them. The military, for example, rebuffed our inquiries into it's technological research. Their counterparts in Earth 2.0 were a lot more cooperative, and if the simulation differs from the real thing, I'd be very surprised.
Simply creating a simulation of that magnitude was a feat in itself, but it wasn't enough. The next step was the ability to make changes in the simulated reality. For instance, what if all cars were pink? What if the sky were bright red? What if the sun didn't exist? What if that chick I had a crush on in high school had actually liked me? The simulation could take any proposition, and remake reality to make it fit. Magic, starships, whatever you could imagine.
It was like being a God.
We kept Earth 2.0 as it was, as the template, and went a little nuts creating fantasy worlds on other machines, all networked together. E2 was the command center, the nexus of the whole thing. Some of the worlds we made were a little..well, a lot bizarre. Kensington's Humanoid Asparagus world, for instance. Or the one where Canada wins WWII. weird.
It was another couple of years before the right kind of technology reached the average consumer. We were on the cutting edge, and our funding came from dozens of sources. Some anonymous, which kind of scares me, now. Didn't really think of it then. Joe Average didn't have our kind of hardware then, but when he caught up, we marketed Reality 2.0 as a game, with a few modifications.
The opportunity to play God on a grand scale appealed, and we were rolling in more dough than we knew what to do with. We had one hundred thousand users sign up in the first week. Each making their own little world, thousands of self-made deities.
And all these little fiefdoms were linked together. Being all-powerful pales after awhile. Once you got tired of being omnipotent, you could create an avatar, a character without the ability to alter the simulation, and either go amongst your creations and see what you'd wrought, or enter one of your Nexus Gates and visit the world of someone else's imagination.
It all worked perfectly for a long time. For five years, people created dreamworlds, travelled between them, all having a grand old time. The development team and I were delirious at the success of our creation, and our sponsors were delirious at it's profitability. Everyone was happy until about a month ago.
When I say a month ago, I mean a month in the Real World. See, the brain can process information much faster than most people think, and Reality 2.0 takes advantage of that, meaning you can play for days or weeks while only minutes pass in the Real World.
Anyway, a month ago, The Problem began. Ironically, I was the first to be affected; I'm just as addicted to the game as anyone else. I started to have problems logging, odd thing happened with the time differential. Considering I'm the d**n thing's creator, our inability to find the problem, much less fix it, was maddening. We hadn't had any such problems until this point, the system had been remarkably stable.
Other users had the same difficulties, and some even more bizarre. A steady tide of bug reports flowed in, and we were powerless to do anything.
Just hours ago, things reached the crux: I can't log out. No one can. Worse, I can't access the system, no diagnostics, no AI interface, nothing. The loss of the ability to change the program is minor in comparison. Fortunately, I wasn't far from my current world's Command Center, and from there I was able to reach the Central Nexus on Earth 2.0. From there, I could access a few of the diagnostic programs. Nothing like what I can usually do, and they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but it was a start.
For one, I was able to send this message. If you're receiving it, you've created an avatar and inhabited it, either to interact with your world or travel the Nexus Gates. The bad news is, you're trapped that way, you can't go back to being God or log out. The Gates still work, by the way, but they're very nearly random now, don't expect to get where you meant to go. For anyone who hasn't entered a gate yet, enter Override Epsilon Beta 4437 when you do...that'll put you wherever I've gone from here. Wherever that is.
The system map is showing a few anomalies. Things in worlds that shouldn't be there. I'm still in the dark about what's happened to my system, but those look like a good place to start. I'll wait here at the Nexus for awhile in case anyone's lucky enough to end up here, but I'll be leaving soon. The code I gave you will track my movements and put you at the Waygate to whatever world I've gone to.
Good Luck, and stay frosty.
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Well that's the gist. If this is to be an rp, the players would be playing a character playing a character.
Characters
As an example, here's the one I'd be playing:
Real Name: Nicodemus Reife
Age: 43
Occupation: Game Developer
Username: Glyph
Personality: Easygoing and very involved in the Reality 2.0 project. He feels personally responsible for his creation's current state, and guilty for dragging it's users into their current predicament.
History:See above (Yes! Read it again!)
Avatar: Glyph's avatar looks much like himself when he was twenty-three, human, dark-brown hair, green eyes. The avatar's a lot tougher and stronger than the average human, but Glyph mostly relied on his powers as the System Admin. Which are now gone.
World: Earth 2.0, and a few others. (Not necessary, unless at some point we travel to your world.
(The Real World stuff isn't necessary, but it would certainly add depth to your character.)
Travelling
Each world has a Waygate, where new arrivals from other worlds appear, and a Command Center, which is the heart of that world. Each can appear as whatever it's creator desires, gothic castle, towering scyscraper, the flagship's bridge. The Command Center contains the Nexus Gate, from which one can travel onwards. Each Nexus is connected to about a dozen Waygates in other worlds. Additionally, if you know the address to another world, you can go there directly. Waygates only lead back to the world the traveller originated from.
unfortunately, as the RP begins, the Nexus Gates only lead to their 'default' worlds, that is, you can't jump directly to your destination.
Also, only avatars can travel through Gates.
Dying
Since this is an online RPG, basically, and it's entirely possibly to meet vengeful gods, if someone's avatar is slain, they reappear back at their last waygate. Somewhat inconvenient, but I don't want to see anyone lose their character unnecessarily.
Avatars
Make your avatar whatever you want, but remember: the point is that they're not godly powerful. If you wanted to be God, you'd have stayed one. Also, avatars will be bound by the physics of the world, if a creator says, "No magic in my world." then your mage avatar will be unable to use magic. Vice versa for high-tech types. If it isn't specifically prohibited, I'll probably allow it.
The beings inhabiting the worlds will see avatars as being like themselves. If your avatar is a dragon or cyborg or something, a world of humans will see it as human as well.
At any time, you can teleport back to the last Waygate, and only there, unless your avatar has some other means.
Creators
If you're one of those who hasn't yet abandoned their Godliness, remember: you won't have recieved Glyph's message, so you won't know about the Problem. Also, don't be too vindictive or power-mad, since the others can always escape by teleporting back to the Waygate. And remember, once you make and inhabit an avatar, you're stuck.
The People
Although they're simulations, the populations of the worlds are indistinguishable from real people. They live, they love, they bleed, they have histories and genealogies and jobs. Remember that if you're being God, or before you run them through.
New Worlds
As it stands, I'm planning on having whoever goes through the Nexus Gate first define the world the party drops into. Whether that world contains one of the anomalies...we'll see.
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Now I'm thinking about this as an rp. I want to know what you people think, anything you'd change? Likes? Dislikes? Anything will help.
Final note: Don't bug me about "You copied .hackOtherworldSerialExperimentsLainTheMatrix!". Yes I did. And several others.
Also, I'm sorry for my abrupt leave, put I've been dealing with a crap load of problems and s**t I wish didn't happen, I wanted to apologize to all the people in my few rp's. I still only have limited time right now, but school's almost out and most of my problems are clearing up. So I look forward to role-playing with all of you again!
