The Rift: Virtually Reality

The Story

There is a device we all use. It is called the Rift and it was originally designed by the company Oculus VR as a virtual reality gaming system. Since it’s release, and the release of ‘The Sims: Virtual Reality’, things have changed. The Sims franchise has been around for a long time, but The Sims: VR isn’t just a game anymore, not to most people. The game has proven to be so engrossing, people can’t stop playing once they start. People believe the worlds they create are reality, and everything is so realistic, it might as well be true. Over four fifths of humanity haven’t left their Rifts since they started playing, the rest of them either living on the streets, or working for the companies perpetuating the Sims’ servers. Nobody predicted this would happen, not even conspiracy theorists had anything bad to say about the Rift. Looking back on it all it was pretty obvious, it could have been stopped, but at least it won’t happen again.

Our story begins after months of digging. After it became apparent that something was up with the new Sims game, I started digging into the code, looking for any clues as to why people were so entranced. At first I had thought they used some form of subliminal message to make people think the game was real. It turns out there’s no such code in the game nor in the Rift, so that was a bust. So I did what any sensible person suspicious that a company might be plotting to take over the human race would do: I applied for a job at Oculus.

When I arrived at the Oculus office building for my interview, I was given a standard visitors pass and sent upstairs to the Department of Personnel. When I got there a receptionist had me wait in a small sitting area with a few chairs, some outdated magazines, and a RifTV, the Rift television headset. I was extremely tempted to try it out, as my family hadn’t been able to afford one, but I decided it was probably best not to, seeing as the reason I was there was due to suspicions regarding their products. I wasn’t kept waiting too long before being told I should go into the office just to the right of the reception desk. Inside, at a huge, black wood and polished steel desk, sat a very good looking man in his 30s. He shuffled the only papers on his desk, and set them to the side as I entered. He offered me a chair across from him, and as I sat he leaned forward, putting his elbows on the edge of the desk, and folding his hands together like a tent. I sat in the chair with my hands in my lap, looking at my feet, and feeling very self conscious as he looked me over. In reality it probably lasted just a few seconds, but it felt much, much longer. After that little forever of discomfort, he spoke.

“Hello, you must be Jack,” he said. “I am Charles Kennedy, but you can call me Charlie if you like.”

“Nice to meet you Charlie,” I responded,.“I’d like to talk to you about a job here at Oculus.”

“Well, I assumed that based on the fact that I’m the one in charge of hiring new people, and you filled out that application over there,” he pointed to the top paper on the stack he had shuffled when I walked in. “From what I can see here you are extremely qualified to work in our programming department, from your degree in computer sciences and the excellent grades you received in all your computer related classes. I think you’ll be a good fit on the programming team, mostly writing patches and debugging and whatnot, but I have to ask a few questions first. Standard procedure of course.”

“I understand,” I told him. “Fire away.”

He questioned me on why I wanted to work at Oculus, what code work had I done since college, and other such questions. Then he asked what I thought of Oculus and the Rift. This question in particular was the one that really got me, and I obviously had to lie, but I didn’t want to overdo it and seem suspicious. I eventually replied, “I think it’s a great way to experience games, but I’ve only played a few times because I can’t afford one.”

“Well,” Charlie told me, “that won’t be a problem for you anymore, because you now work at Oculus!”

“Thank you very much sir.”