Conflict of Culture

Conflict of Culture - Chapter One Scene Two

Fyle had a good idea what to expect from the VR world. Hundreds of stationary location cameras broadcast 24 hours a day over the citywide intranet (Intranet Vision - IV), special quests received extensive coverage, and even some players streamed their adventures. And, of course, city vs. city wars were governmentally mandated viewing.

All players had an option in their user settings to allow live streaming on the pre-established private channel associated with their account, but one had to either be extremely strong or extremely deluded to activate it. These streams have a third-person camera view and thus not only showed where players were at, but what they looked like. This was bad because player killing (PK) was allowed; and, due to the one slot-one life (1SoL) policy, it was common for those on the list (or with enough money for the lottery) to get impatient and hire in-game assassins (whom were significantly cheaper than lottery tickets).

Considering the controversy surrounding Fyle’s gaming rights, he knew he’d be an immediate target. The main reason he chose the warrior-fighter, class-subclass combination was because of this. They started out with less strength and stamina than tanks, but were still buffed and with a better dexterity stat, as well as having good health and basic combat skills. He knew he’d need strength to hurt others, stamina to reduce the amount of damage he took, and dexterity to avoid getting injured in the first place. He would’ve loved the tank’s constitution buff for increased health points (HP), but chose to make the trade-off for dexterity. Until he was a higher level and more equipped to defend himself, the little health bonus he’d receive at the beginning wouldn’t have been enough to off-set the damage those pursuing him could deal - not that the armor class (AC) bonus was much better, but running needed to be an option.

He was extremely grateful the game designers’ understood the potential for abuse of the list-1SoL system to an extent. The main precautionary measure prevented player characters (PCs) being distinguishable from non-player characters (NPCs) via system status window (SSW). In addition, new accounts had several protections built-in. One, starting location was randomized within their respective city. Two, PK immunity for their first two in-game weeks. Three, free food and lodging for their first two in-game weeks.

Many PCs took full advantage of number three because it was applicable to all of the respective establishments, and they knew it may be years (or longer) before they’d have the money, and thus the opportunity, to patronize anything of the sort again. As such, because so few players had access to luxury in real life, it was one of the most talked about aspects. The perceived benefit was so great that, more often than not, they’d spend the entire introductory period in a gluttonous, drunken state.

Fyle wasn’t like them, though, he knew better. He wouldn’t be able to rest for one minute of that time, not with the situation he was in. He needed every second of that allotted time to improve his skills if he was going to survive.

He had a plan. He was going to take advantage of as many of the training opportunities and quests as he could squeeze in. But, not at the same places for too long. With a combined one million PCs and NPCs, the city was big enough that he wouldn’t have to.

He was going to eat healthy and stay in moderate accommodations. Five star restaurants and inns screamed either newbie or wealthy, and starting attire hardly said the latter. Still, though, he did want to treat himself some.

But, most importantly, he wanted to be inconspicuous. He’d spent the seemingly interminable loading time getting psyched up to start moving and blend in as soon as the functionality was available. So, when his avatar finally came online and his location became apparent, there was just one problem.