In THE SPIRAL: Connected Stories & Fragments from the Virtual Future

VOICE/FRAGMENT: 'The Cyber-Emporium' [12XP]

"Experiences, Wonders and Revelations"

That day was to be – literally – a game-changer, but it had started in a mental mist.

'Wonders and Revelations'? More like: 'Doubts and Daydreams'...

It was morning, he remembered, and again his thoughts had been interfering with his well-being, standing at the counter of his small, quirky, real-world games shop:

The Cyborium. A 'Cyber-Emporium': 'Experiences, Wonders and Revelations. 
Choose your Next Immersion... wisely!'

He had just lit some incense, so the spicy, smoky tendrils – perhaps too many - had drifted across his vision. The chosen aroma was supposed to be helping but he had still been... distracted. He'd gazed around the dim interior, his eyes almost following the lazy smoke, drifting around titles of cyber-worlds he'd visited, (and mostly completed), around frozen figurines of archetypal characters and collector's edition game-world maps, tied in elegant scrolls or displayed in large, rustic wall-frames. 

He'd heard his store called a boutique before, by the more patronizing customers, but where everything these days was online or in the Cloud, his shop actually existed too, tucked away from a busy high street. And it wasn't really old-fashioned; it was entirely 'overlaid' and perpetually open for business on the Virtual Web. He was quite proud of his avatar there (or at least, the Mage's robe he wore) standing mysteriously 24/7 in virtual space, doing the same job of representing and selling old and new games. Not just 'games' though: rich experiences; feasts for the mind and soul and super-senses...

On that particular day, however, he had been feeling his middle-age.

It was about time then, that a game-changing day should come along. The day of the mysterious visitor.

Dear God, I hate blogging...

He recalled that he'd been trying to concentrate at his laptop; trying to finish a blog entry about a new open-world game adventure involving witches, demons etc... It was not what he really liked to stock in his shop; not anymore. If there was one theme hidden behind the titles on offer, the range of experiences for purchase; the retro to the cutting edge; it was that he was looking for something not just new and more totally immersive, but... closer to Life. Not just realms of pure fantasy, but something that illuminated more about this reality... who we are, what we are... where we are going. More recently, many of his selected titles had more spiritual ideas or were meditational realms to try and re-acclimatize people to the Source, inspire them about their world, or its past. He especially loved games that revealed something about oneself or illuminated ways of seeing the world.

His hopes for these kind of titles now rested in The Spiral, with its vivid interface and connected worlds rapidly becoming the most popular thing he sold access to. Before this it had been the Game of Being, the closest thing so far to his ultimate game-world, but that had been taken offline following the 'fall' of the Neuroceans servers. Many of his items relating to it still sold well - and some of them were not for sale. He knew that his Cyborium was a responsible store, and although at certain times of the year his servers strained with downloads, he never had any sights set on expansion. You could be sure you were purchasing something worthwhile, anything from the latest geographical experiences (such as driving games modelled on real cities), or astronomically-correct space simulators or dinosaur-hunting adventures (with the most vivid and accurate paleontological re-creations yet).