The Crafting of Chess

by Kit Falbo

  Finally, my view fades to black. A clock pops up among the notifications.

  Time-to- respawn: 5:00

  Level progress lost.

  No losing actual levels in Fair Quest, just the experience you’ve accumulated towards your next one. Stings the higher level you are.

  Equipment lost or damaged:

  I read through the list. It bites because I had my best gear on. Suicide charges cause normally-recoverable items to be forfeited. Only my bound bag and the quest box make it through. I check the box. It still shows that the quest is not completed. Shit.

  Plan A was the office. Plan B was escaping or having this tannery explosion work. Plan C is in the works. I watch as the timer finishes its countdown. With a brief flash, I revive at one of the player lounges in a white robe, my bag at my side. I access my bank storage there for some basic clothes and weapons before I head out again.

  Mizzie is in the back of the shop, eyes focused on her work. “So, he beat your ass Sir?”

  I snort. “Maybe I killed him, and then the other Officers got me. I haven’t said anything yet.”

  “If you had killed him Sir, you would be showing me your fancy new gear, not your second-hand stuff Sir. Someone has already come in and commented about that part of the city burning.”

  “Yes Mizz, he kicked my ass. I need you to spread some rumors that the general went into a drunken rage and torched his office and some of the city, causing that tannery explosion. Maybe I can shame him into retiring.”

  Mizzie sets down her work and gives me a sour look. “If that’s what you need me to do Sir, I am at your service.”

  “It is what I need you to do. That, and anything else you can think of that might help. I’m going to need to go out for a little bit. Then, well I can’t beat him in a fight, so Plan C will have to work.”

  “I’ll let them know I will need to leave work early today. I still think this is a fool’s task, Sir.”

  We leave together, and I log out. There is always this point in the transition where I go from being active in the game and into reality, where my brain screams at me. I try to move and react but can no longer move. Frustration rages. I use the other function of the headset to call for lunch and a cleaning before my trip to the doctors.

  After a frustrating couple of hours, I’m finally back home. David have you considered using the headset access for a career? David, you need to socialize more in the real world. David you should spend some time having the physical therapy machine work your body more. David, you need to face your troubles not escape them. If I could punch something, I would.

  I log back in and stumble forward a little . As my movement returns, the shakiness of my game body reflects my frustrations. I have to ease back into this world.

  I make my way to the Pearl Petals Inn and Restaurant across the street. I’m early, so I order a tea to drink, which I sip while twirling a dagger in the palm of my hand. My fingers moving with ease and the soft sweet taste of the tea warms me up. Why would I want to be anywhere else?

  I’m awakened from my introspection by Lieutenant Maye. “Sorry I’m late.” I notice her uniform and spiky hair have a little bit of soot on them and immediately feel guilty.

  “Are you okay? What happened?”

  She sits down across from me. “A fire at the barracks and some of the city nearby, I had to help clean out some of the rubble. They say Chatwin, the head of the order, caused it. Had an episode while drunk. He says he was attacked by something, but we could still smell the alcohol on his breath. I can’t help but feel responsible. I’ve been bringing him bottles when he’s requested them. At first, it was once a month, but recently he’s been asking for new ones weekly.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I say with the confidence of knowing it wasn’t her fault. “It’s not like you can say no to him when he orders you. And I’m sure there are plenty of things you’d rather talk about. Being an officer can’t just all be courier duty?”

  She laughs a little, and I see those dimples again. “These days it seems like it is. That or patrolling the borders with whatever locals volunteer there. We used to be leading the fight at the front, organizing troops against the Man of Masks, though father describes it as more holding the line with trenches rather than a real war. The government didn’t want to risk losing what defense we had for an attack. Of course, that was before you Touched came and we put you to work out there.”

  “I’ve been to the front a few times, though I don’t have the equipment or skills to really stand out there. I wouldn’t call what most Touched are doing there a war either. You have groups raiding areas or fortifications before heading back, only to have them taken back by enemies, or other random Touched crossing the lines for solo missions. It’s more unending chaos than any real fight to push in.” I catch myself before I say “players” and clear my throat. “Touched could probably use some advice organizing and running real army missions out there. I’m shocked I haven’t seen any Officers doing that in villages near the front.”

  “Chatwin is still too broody about being pulled off the front to want anything to do with the Touched. The council took funding and space from the Officers to pay for the starting supplies and do basic training. They decided to have you fight rather than sacrificing citizens’ lives. Chatwin had wanted a more active war first but was shut down. He’s always wanted to be on the front lines attacking. He has too much pride to help from the back.”

  “With all the trouble and stubborn pride, maybe he shouldn’t be running the Officers anymore.” The lieutenant didn’t jump to Chatwin’s defense, but neither did she support my suggestion. We move on to easier things. I get the basics on what officer’s skills are and talk about all the different skills and Touched abilities, how even if they don’t learn them, they can be granted skills by the gods as they get stronger. At least that’s the story of the leveling system as it relates to new skills.

  We order a meal and have some drinks. I find out her first name is Joyce. It is the best and only date I’ve had in a long time. I feel sad when I finally take a moment to think about how none of this is real.

  “Is there a way to meet again?” Lieutenant Joyce Maye asks, interrupting my little pity party. I look up to see her smiling with her dimples, and it warms me a little. Reality sucks. This is better.

  “My companion Mizzie works at the flower shop across the street. I don’t really have a home, but if you leave a message there, I’m sure we can work out more meetings in the future.” With a goodbye, she leaves, and I take another moment sitting there alone before I get up.

  I pull out most of my money from the bank before heading to my last stop of the day. Jimbo is one of Chatwin’s oldest friends according to the research I have done. He is a drinking buddy; someone Chatwin has been seeing more frequently. I had considered using their meetups as a chance to poison the general before he went home to sleep. That was before I’d learned he was sleeping with a bunch of armed Officers.

  Jimbo is a retired soldier, not an officer. He has a wooden leg from his battles and an old scarred body. Most of his time is spent at various bars, soaking in their atmosphere and booze. That’s why I find myself in a dive bar called Karita’s. It smells of fresh puke and stale liquor. “Jimbo?”

  He looks at me with a mix of confusion and suspicion. “Do I know you?” Drunk, but not too drunk.

  I signal the bartender to bring two drinks. “I’m just someone concerned for a friend of ours.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Chatwin.”

  Jimbo stands up a little wobbly pushing the drink that had just been placed in front of him away. “Lies! He would never torch the city.”

  “I believe you,” I say with all honesty. “Others, not so much. He says he was attacked and that is what caused the fire.” I hand him the drink he had pushed away, which he now takes reluctantly. “He was drunk though.”

  Jimbo flushes. He knew of the general’s problems better than me. He then plops back down onto his stool. “He ble
d for them, and then they took everything away from him. What man wouldn’t hurt from that? He’s a hero. Saved my life, though I did end up losing this leg.” He knocks on the wood.

  “I know, Jimbo. He’s still strong.” I remember him kicking me away, poisoned, my blade still in his neck. “He’s still skilled.” Tracking me while I ghosted out. “He’s still brave.” Killing me as I explode the tannery. “A true hero, but the longer he stays, the less others might believe that.”

  He can hear the truth in my words, NPC are always keen lie detectors. “What can I do about that?” He downs half the drink I paid for him. I sip mine. Tastes like piss.

  “Be his friend, tell him it’s best to move on before his name gets dragged in the mud. Me and him had a fight a while back. I still respect him. But I doubt he wants to see me. He should resign, break out of the cage he’s in that’s hurting him so much.”

  Jimbo sniffles a little. “How can I do that. He loves being an officer, the Officer. “

  “That is why it’s hurting him so much. He respects you. Tell him to move on before the whispers come. He deserves more than to be chained behind a desk.” I pull out a small bag of gold. “A gift. Do what I can’t do.”

  He looks into the bag. “It’s too much.” That’s not a no. Maybe he would tell him without the gold, but I want all the leverage I can get.

  I lift my glass, “To Chatwin, and a more deserving life.”

  Jimbo repeats the sentiment and we both drink. Whoever spent their time designing awful tasting alcohol overdid it. One of the most revolting and burning things I’ve ever tasted slides down my throat. Which is impressive because I often get fed hospital food by a tube. Reactives just get the flavor, but I have to get the full effect. “Talk to him for me. It’s for the best.”

  Chapter Nineteen- Casey Ellis

  Passwords at Immersion Arts are tricky. They have to be long and include numbers. They also change weekly. This makes quotes popular. I think by now, Sally has used every line of dialog from that old sci-fi western she loves too much.

  Login: CEllis

  Passwd: 10allthishappenedmoreorless13

  I hit continue. As the game gets bigger and bigger every morning, we get reports of incidents in the game. We’re recording it all a database that Europe and Asia can use when they launch in a couple of months. They’ll have their own command centers for their servers, but records of incidents here and how we handled them will be useful.

  Huzzah, the mage district’s shifting has ended! Complaints is a little excited about that. There had been incidents of nausea and vomiting since the release. I hear cleaning throw up out of a reactive room is an extremely difficult and time-intensive task. We had to up the number of quests that could end the shifting. The shifting of the mages quarter is also one of the few things that will not make it into the other releases because of its problems. I read through the rest of the news.

  ● The west watchtower was destroyed in an attempt to defeat the mini-boss inside without having to fight their way up. The boss escaped.

  ● A guild is collecting tolls from traders and other players who want to use the northern pass.

  ● A small fire in the capital city destroyed a tannery and part of the officer’s barracks. There were no deaths.

  ● Giant spiders are overwhelming the southwest corner due to the spawn rate and lack of player interest in fighting them.

  ● The Chaos guild has destroyed the small community of Issily. Three shops, a baker, and four farmsteads destroyed along with twenty NPC. Meeting at 8:30 discuss solutions to this rising problem.

  I can’t help but groan. Griefers have always been a problem in MMO’s, though usually, they focus more on other players than NPC. The Chaos guild that popped up a couple of weeks ago likes to do both, probably because the AI framework is so innovative and lifelike. They had struck a larger town at first, only to be slaughtered by local guards.

  There are penalties for their actions: a bad reputation; being barred from entering the capital if caught; not being allowed to use the local banking system, which you need to use if you want to use in-game gold to pay for monthly fees; some shop owners refusing to sell to them.

  They mostly stick to picking off stray players and travelers on the roads. The small-town thing is new. They killed five NPC in Westview before a retired soldier there unretired and killed them. But not every place is lucky enough to have someone so strong living there. A lot of players are already rough with NPC, despite recommendations to treat them like people. These types of actions are just souring the relationship between the players and the NPC citizens.

  There are a few more notes on yesterday’s events in the game, but nothing worth their own meeting. One player attempted to marry an NPC in game but couldn’t get permission from the church. I sent a message flagging that, to keep an eye out for any rise in attempts at AI player relationships. There are always concerns among certain online communities about such things when the characters are more lifelike.

  I search the database for any more Chaos guild incidents to prepare for the meeting. Then I grab a Danish and coffee from the snack table and head to the meeting room.

  I eat and drink as other employees file in. Frank gives me a grumbly hello. Sally nods politely. Abigail just looks lost in thought. Joe who heads Complaints and Customer Service takes his seat, along with a few others who have been invited to this.

  Sun comes in last and takes his place at the head of the table and looks out at the gathered employees. “We all knew something like this might happen. There are more extreme games that players like this tend to flock too. Our NPC’s life-like reactions are not helping, despite the restrictions we’ve put on certain types of player actions and the penalties involved. This Chaos guild will not be the last such group, and I can’t just ban them, as they are avoiding the specific deviant actions in the terms and conditions. I would still like to hear ideas.”

  Frank speaks up first. “Can’t we just change the terms, so we can ban them? It’s not like these children are doing anything other than purposefully destroying our hard work.”

  Sun shakes his head. “NPC will die. It’s part of the game. Some battles that may happen in the future will cost more than these players are taking out, but I would rather not reach a point where they’re hostile to all players because of senseless acts. Sally, how are the AI’s doing?”

  “Those directly impacted by these actions will be angry. The church’s doctrine explaining that even these acts have a purpose and that Touched are not fully in control of themselves only helps so much. Overall, it’s a mixed bag. Those benefiting from players quests like them. The ones they’ve run roughshod over hold grudges. And in general, the AI community has soured somewhat in response to seeing some companions treated like slaves. Allowing that might have been a mistake. We might want to consider ways to promote more cooperative interactions, to temper the current, more divided system. “

  Sun just nods. He’s always been more concerned with positive player feedback than how the AI actually feel. “Any solutions?”

  I’d actually been thinking about this and speak up. “Calculate the revive time based on reputation with the NPC. That creates a direct correlation between player/NPC interactions and game time. It’s also an easy update in the game. Of course, if the players who are doing these raids don’t die during the attempts, it might be a moot point.”

  “Then we should make sure they do die,” Frank mutters beside me.

  Joe speaks up. “Players already don’t like the five minutes revive time. They want to get back into the game and maybe have a chance to run back to help their friends who are battling. It’s one of the bigger complaints. I’m just glad there will be fewer puke calls now.”

  Sun ponders this. “We could do it on a scale. The better the reputation, the shorter the revival time. But if you’re as bad as these chaos players, you may have to wait ten minutes instead of the starting five before revival. The frustration might cause pla
yers to change their ways or move to easier games. Any ideas for making these actions more dangerous for them?”

  Abigail clears her throat to take the floor. “We have a lot of strong characters in the capital who are not being used to their strengths. A lot of guilds and orders and factions are pretty much sitting around while the players do all the quests and interactions. We can free some of them up to spread across the land. We’d need to tweak their activeness gradually to avoid a sudden massive change. Those key to main story quests would be exempt of course. But sending a troop of Knights to root out the troublemakers should be easy. We could make Azamatiel wander the area where the chaos players are active as kind of a wandering super boss now that she’s free.”

  “Who?” I ask.

  “The demon we had shifting the Magic District. I got notice she was freed, which is what stopped that particular teacup ride. Her temperament is at neutral, so if she’s in the area and the guild decides to poke that bear, they’ll be dead quicker than you can blink at their levels. Since we’re no longer twisting up the magic district, we can redeploy her character once we open the other servers,”

  Sun eyes our group. “Fine. We’ll get programming to implement the new revival patch for the next update. Abigail, you and Sally will need to keep an eye on the NPC to make sure we don’t have a mass exodus of them going out and ruining the players’ good times. Can’t have the demon just wandering about and slaughtering all the players. Joe let me know if there’s an uptick in complaints about NPC interactions.” With the issue decided we all get up. “Casey can you stay for a minute.”