First Quest (Video, username 'westandreamcatcher')

[lightnovelexperiences]

[So.

The camera picks up an idyllic looking sandy Mediterranean beach, near a patch of grass and forest. It shakes a fair bit, like a cell phone cam in an unsteady - or nervous - hand.]

This is... this is uh. Deedee. ...'s player. Don't... if you know my real name from before the Badgernet crash don't throw it around.

I uh.

I'm on the fucking Shores of Awakening. I'm on fucking Mundus.

And taller and y'all hear how high my voice is. I can feel my tails.

I woke up alone face-down on the sand here. Felt it burn. I uh.

Please advise.

Comments

[nijistaryume]

Okay, so first off. Functionally like a bunch of people are in another world, except it's just their brains are in a video game world instead of actual going to another dimension? Or functionally like creepers are coming in to brainwash everyone into worshipping them? 'Cause that's kiiiiinda different.

[turingcompletionist]

Functionally like people are in another world, except it's just their brains that are in a video game world. I, uh, don't know if any of the players are actually assholes enough to try to brainwash people into worshiping them, but even if they are, they'd only be able to do it with, like, normal real-world indoctrination techniques. The kind of shit you could get with a cult anywhere. I mean, okay, there's some things baked into the adventurer classes and god boons to make it easier, but there's certainly not some weird magic bullshit that automatically makes my Mundanes think the players are the shit.

I mean, it's not like you have to be a player to be an adventurer in the first place? It's just getting the adventurer rites is expensive when you're a Mundane and the players get provided with adventurer bodies automatically. And since they get young ones too, it's pretty easy to assume they didn't earn them the hard way.

So it's more like most Mundanes treat them like thrill-seeking nobles from Somewhere Else, because they're basically indistinguishable from them.

[lightnovelexperiences]

Okay that last point? Good to keep in mind.

[nijistaryume]

So no cheat, except they get to do all the cool stuff. Huh. I guess at least that's good, then you don't have even more problems.

[turingcompletionist]

Yeah! I wouldn't want my players to be able to coerce and control my Mundanes, that's gross. They're people too, you know. Procedurally generated, but still people.

[nijistaryume]

Just like how you said the gods were people. That's a looooot of advanced AI for a game.

[turingcompletionist]

Well, they're not just for the game. Well, okay, the Mundanes are mostly just for the game and they're fairly simple, but the really advanced ones, the gods? They're going to be used for other projects too, ones that aren't ready yet, so they're running the game for now.

But like the ones that are running the enviromental bullshit in game? I originally made them to be terraformers.

[She shrugs.]

What can I say? Advanced AI has been my life's work. I wasn't the sixth woman to win the Turing Prize for nothing.

[nijistaryume]

Wait, like to run the environment in real life? Like, that "we're gonna have turnips on the moon by 2015" thing that didn't actually happen? I saw that online once.

[turingcompletionist]

Yeah! You could think of them running the environments in AWO as practice.

Sadly, you can't always get the grants you want when you work for the government. So sometimes you have to leave, start a video game company, and use it to raise funds for the really fun stuff while making AIs that can serve more than one purpose.