A younger Japanese man entered from offstage to another round of applause and bowed to the CEO before taking the podium.
“Hello everyone,” he began after things had settled down. “I am very happy to see all of you here today to celebrate the successful launch of Sosaku Online. Being a part of the creation of this game has been such a great experience and a true test of what is possible in the realm of virtual reality.”
He smiled and addressed the crowd, “Have you all been enjoying the game?”
There was a resounding call of approval in many languages. Ichiro raised his hands and gestured for silence once again, a wide grin on his face. “Me too, although I haven’t had much of a chance to play this week due to the bugs that you all have been so kind as to point out."
He smiled slyly. "Well, that and what I’m going to show you shortly.”
“As you are probably all aware, the company was pretty tight lipped about the game, and put a lot of restrictions on features this week to maintain that secrecy. No pre-launch teasers of the game mechanics, skills, races, or classes; bare hints of the environment, and even no live streaming at launch."
"There were reasons for this, of course, as we wanted the first wave of players to have that sense of discovery and experience the game world as organically as possible."
"Too many times I have seen MMO games become number crunching, min-max statistics problems even before the first player logged in, and that wasn’t what we wanted."
He grinned. "So, I, and my team hope that this experience has been enjoyable and will continue to be so.”
The players began cheering again and once they quieted again the lead developer continued. “Tomorrow night the servers will be going down at midnight for one or two hours-”
The crowd began to boo, but he just smiled and raised his voice Oprah style as he finished, “for our first major content patch!”
There was a moment of confusion as the boos faded and then suddenly erupted into a cacophony of screams and cheers that only a gaggle of gamers can make.
I was stunned. A major content patch a week after release? It was unheard of. Usually companies milked that sort of thing for months, if not years.
Ichiro continued, “We wanted to have a good week to iron out some of the kinks and let you guys dig into the system before we set our full storyline into motion."
"And, you will be happy to hear that in addition to our first global storyline content, this patch will include the ability to live stream your play experience!”
This time my own cheer joined in with the hundreds of others.
Live streams were so much better at bringing in subscribers than the cut together stuff, the risk of them catching some real time blunder or triumph quite a draw.
The crowd settled down once again, so I turned my attention back to the speaker as he continued.
“So, without further ado, I present to you the first chapter of the saga of Sosaku Online, ‘Deep Tides’.”
He backed away as the spotlights faded and a video began to play on a large projection screen that had emerged during his speech.
…
The video opened with a view of a Njord longship speeding along the waves in pursuit of a Karillian frigate. The frigate was barely keeping ahead of the raiders despite its full sails, and its crew was starting to panic.
The video shifted to focus on a tall man standing on the prow of the Njord ship, clad in furs adorned with hundreds of small rune-carved pendants.
He methodically touched a series of pendants and spoke their names into the air, causing each invoked rune to glow with power.
With a flash, a bolt of lightning manifested from the cloudless sky and slammed into the rear of the Karillian ship sending shards of wood and bodies flying everywhere.
The video followed one the sailors under the waves, their now lifeless hand releasing a softly glowing longsword to the pull of the depths.
The camera followed the sword as it sunk deeper and deeper, eventually leaving the surface far behind as it was carried by the currents of the deep into a large trench.
Everything was darkness except for a small radius around the sword as it continued its long drop towards the bottom of the trench.
As it moved, the glow of the sword revealed glimpses of strange coral formations, reminiscent of buildings and other fabricated things, and large scaled beasts lurking in the darkness.
The sword finally came to rest in the pale sand at the bottom of the trench, raising a small cloud as it settled into the trench floor. Its glow created a silhouette of something, barely visible in the dark water.
The point of view of the video shifted, the camera now looking out through the eyes of some unknown being.
The edges of the view distorted slightly, and everything that had previously been hidden by shadow became much more visible.
A scaled hand reached out and grasped the sword by the hilt, raising it from the sand into the center of the screen, revealing the details of the gold and silver inlay present on the crossguard.
A female voice rang out, seemingly from everywhere at once. “Bring it to me!”
The camera moved forwards, passing by a crowd of shadowy forms that were still barely visible at the edges of the screen until we could clearly see a massive coral throne ahead.
Seated upon the throne was a being clad in intricately carved white coral armor, its entire surface covered in deadly looking spikes.
The proportions of the being were not human. Her arms and legs were far too long and her waist too narrow. The eye slits of her helm glowed red, and on her brow was a crown crafted of shadow, its seven points of darkness drinking in the light cast by the sword.
The creature in whose head we rode knelt before the throne and raised the glowing blade in offering to the armored queen. Her hand snapped out and took the glowing sword, examining it closer.
“Pitiful!” she spat and snapped the longsword in two, releasing a cloud of magic which she inhaled, savoring the power as her eyes began to glow even brighter.
“The time is approaching my children. Soon we shall rise and feed. Soon the surface shall be repaid for their transgressions. Soon, Lord Kchil’ik shall gorge on the enemy’s soft flesh and drink of their souls.”
The camera jumped again to show the view from the eyes of the seated queen, and to her eyes the darkness of the depths was nothing.
A coral city filled the trench as far as the eye could see, filled with thousands and thousands of nightmarish creatures. The streets were full of humanoid creatures; aquatic variations of goblins, trolls, and other surface races and above them all, massive, monstrous creatures made of claws and teeth filled the water: giant eels, krakens, and even some form of ichthyoid giant.
Hunger and hatred filled each pair of eyes, growing even more pronounced as the queen spoke a final word. “Soon.”
The video faded to darkness and the crowd erupted one again.
I was excited. I'd always enjoyed more storyline driven games than those where the focus was on PvP or gear grinding.
I’d reserve my final judgement until things were in full swing and I saw how the game incorporated things, but there was a lot of potential for epic fun.
The lights returned to the stage and Ichiro Takezu was back at the podium, a huge grin plastered on his face as he basked in our applause.
He raised his hand for silence and when the noise had dropped to a dull roar he spoke, “Thank you for your warm reception and we hope that you enjoy the beginnings of the ‘Deep Tide’ content! This concludes the opening ceremonies."
And that was it, opening ceremonies was complete and the con was on in full force. Everyone filed out of the main area, people chatting about what they had just seen.
I heard everything from speculation on underwater zone physics all the way to debates on the scientific theories about how strong the deep dwellers must be just to be able to resist the water pressure at those depths.
I chuckled at t
he last part considering we were playing a game where you could throw fireballs and defy death. Magic, people. It doesn’t need to be scientifically accurate.
I searched through the crowd and wondered how I was supposed to find Kjara with so many people around.
I felt a tap on my right shoulder and turned in that direction, but no one was there. I heard a giggle and turned towards it. She had found me.
Standing before me with her hand raised to cover her mouth as she giggled was a Japanese woman wearing a leather jacket.
There was a blue streak in her hair which was braided into Kjara’s familiar hairstyle. She was maybe five foot six, a bit shorter than my six foot even and was of medium build. Looking closely at her I could see a lot of similarities to her avatar.
“Kjara?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t as awkward around girls as I’d been in high school, but a real life meeting with someone I “knew” digitally still made me a bit anxious.
It was weird meeting someone in the flesh for the first time when you had already met them in the digital flesh.
She nodded and asked, “Kheph?”
I grinned and replied, “The one and only. I hope. Should I call you Kjara? Or is that just weird?”
“Kjara is fine,” she said. “It’s nice to meet you, Kheph. Or meet you again?”
I laughed. “Yeah. I don’t think I’ll ever figure out how this is all supposed to work. Digital meeting, physical meeting. Have we really ever met before even though we’ve spent hours together just in different bodies? Virtual reality, stumping the world of social interaction since.... forever?”
“Exactly,” she responded.
We followed the crowd out of the main hall and towards the exhibit area where they had a set of the latest pods on display with some giant monitors showing the live feed of the players within.
One player was deep underground somewhere in a cavern where the jewels embedded in the walls made it look like a night sky. Another was in the process of being mobbed by kobolds.
I filled Kjara in on what she had missed, including all the grisly details of my multiple deaths.
At first I teased her a little about her absence, but the look on her face took all the fun out of it. I quickly apologized and didn’t bring it up again.
She seemed a bit distracted, glancing around every so often as if watching out for someone.
“Is everything okay?” I asked. “You seem a bit preoccupied. If you’d rather be somewhere else… I won’t be insulted.”
“Oh no! It has nothing to do with you!” she responded, grabbing my hand with both of hers and giving me a warm squeeze. “I’ve just been a bit on guard. My ex is here somewhere, and he’s a bit of a stalker. I’d rather not have to deal with him if I can avoid it.”
“Oh, okay,” I answered, relief evident in my voice. “Well what do they look like? I’ll keep an eye out as well.”
She described the guy. Japanese, short spiked hair with blond tips, black glasses, and likely wearing a shirt sporting the classic Robotech Macross Saga’s Minmei, his favorite character of all time.
We continued on. I was a little uneasy, and a little excited as she was still holding my hand. We threaded our way through the crowd and finally reached the room where the developer talk was going to be held.
It was a sardine can with gamers crammed in soup to nuts. The crowd was even pressed out into the hallway.
Kjara and I glanced at each other and silently agreed that this particular panel was going to be a hard pass.
We continued down the hall and found a large display labeled “Top Contributors”.
They had posted a thank you list to all the people who had reported bugs or otherwise assisted in making the game better since launch. There was a pretty extensive list of alpha and beta testers up first, and then a list of the top bug reporters since launch.
I found my name on the list and felt a sense of pride, even if it wasn’t in the top ten. Kjara saw my expression and followed my gaze to my name.
The board listed both character name and real life first name and last initial, so at least some anonymity was maintained.
“James, huh,” she said. “I like it, seems to fit your face.”
“Yeah. I was named after my dad. I think I was originally supposed to be a James Junior, but my mother insisted on a different middle name. She detests the whole Jr. thing for some reason. Probably a shitty coworker or childhood rival forever tainting the convention in her mind. So just plain James it is.”
She laughed again, covering her mouth with her hand. “A good reason. Well I guess since I know your fleshy name, I should tell you mine. I am Kimiko.”
“It suits your face as well,” I answered with a teasing grin as we continued on.
I took out the program and saw that there was a hall full of artists, some of which were responsible for the in-game scenery.
One entry caught my eye immediately: The artist who had designed the Saa Underworld, and she was there for the next thirty minutes. I had to meet her.
“Hey, want to go to the artists hall?" I said. "I’ve got to meet Sabra Baladhi, the artist who designed the Saa underworld. It’s stunning!”
“Sure! The artists have outdone themselves this time. One day I’ll have to bring you to the veil of dreams and show you the Dream Well. It’s a beautiful lake, crystal clear, and now devoid of holes leading to a horrible clipping death.”
Still hand in hand we made our way to the hall where the artists were located. It was a lot less congested than the rest of the con.
Each artist had a small area dedicated to their work. Concept sketches and painted proofs hung from the walls behind tables where the artists were seated, showing off their contributions to the world.
A few of the artists were sketching as they waited for someone to approach and others were even doing custom sketches or autographing their pieces for their fans.
I spotted an oil painting of the rolling red sands of the Saa underworld and led the way over to that booth.
Seated behind the table was an older middle eastern woman, her hair covered by the traditional Muslim hijab.
As we approached, she looked up from a book she was reading and greeted us. “Good morning you two, anything you have questions on?”
“You’re the artist who designed the Saa Underworld? Sabra Baladhi?” I asked, and she nodded.
I smiled, unable to contain my excitement. “It is just amazing. The crystal-clear night sky and the rolling red sand dunes, if going there didn’t involve a painful death, I’d spend a lot of time there for the view alone.”
She laughed. “It is quite stunning. I am glad that you enjoy my work. I spent a long time working on that place. I didn’t quite know where I was going until it was done.”
I nodded emphatically, noticing Kjara grinning at me as I continued my total fanboy moment. “And the detail in the Temple of the Restless Dead. Beautiful! Was that your work as well?”
Her eyebrows raised. “You’ve been to the temple already? I thought for sure no one would find that for ages. When I drew up the sketches and designs, I thought it was going to be somewhere in Khem’et or Sehkem and was quite annoyed when they told me it was going to be buried in the underworld somewhere. How would anyone ever see it? Who strays from the path? Well… I guess you’ve proven me wrong.”
“Experimenting is kinda my bread and butter," I said, "and you don’t find much if you behave as expected. I did get a little worried I’d end up stuck somewhere in the afterlife, but the temple was worth the risk, for many reasons.”
She looked at me thoughtfully, “You know what. You’re the first one outside of the developers and art team that has seen the temple and that I think deserves some sort of commemoration. Come, let me draw you.”
I turned to Kimiko and asked, “Do you mind?”
She gave me a thumbs up and sat next to me at the table, watching the artist at work.
“So, what are your characters?” Sabra asked, looking be
tween the two of us.
Still deep in fanboy mode I let my mouth run wild. “Well, I play a Saa Priest, basically me with a little less flab, a little more muscle, no hair, and a lot of sun. I’ve currently got a set of ringmail body armor and hard leather everything else....a war shield with a jackal embossed on it, and a Sunspear. Oh, and a priest’s stole, except instead of being white it’s jet black, with a single stripe for my rank of Acolyte.”
I glanced at Kimiko and continued rambling, “She plays an elven warrior from the Veil of Dreams, wielding dual swords in a whirlwind of death and destruction. Hard leather armor, form fitting. Her character looks a lot like her, and almost as pretty. Her hair is almost the same, but her elf's is a bit longer. The braid is dead on, but no blue...”
I trailed off realizing I had let my mouth run over. I should have let her describe her own character.
I looked over at her and saw her looking at me strangely as I apologized, “I’m sorry, I should have let you describe your toon yourself. You went through all the effort of crafting her during creation... and I just had a case of severe vocal diarrhea.”
She shook her head with a small smile, “That’s okay, you did a decent job of it.” She took off her coat, and stood up, spinning around. “I built my avatar close to my own body, just added that extra inch of height I always wanted, and the stats may have added some muscle tone.”
I caught myself staring a bit. She was in a lot better shape than I was and very attractive. I tore my gaze away and caught the artist with her eyes on me, a slight smile playing about the corners of her mouth.
She gave me an exaggerated wink, and then took out a sketch pad and set of charcoal pencils and began to draw.
Kimiko put her jacket back on and sat next to me, watching the artist at work. Sabra’s eyes darted between us and her pad as her pencils danced across the page.
Whatever she was drawing was hidden from us, and when we tried to peek the look the artist gave us could have burned a hole through lead.
I reached out and took Kimiko’s hand again, looking at her to find her looking back with the same sense of anticipation.
Crimson Sands Page 41
