by Jason Cheek
“Ha! This time we got to do both at the same time.” Mike said cutting in with a bark of laughter.
Closing my eyes, I smiled happily listening to my friends go on about their particular parts of the battle. The battle was pretty amazing. Making a double attack while directing three pets, making sure all of the mini-boss adds didn’t wipe us while keeping the raid alive and on target was a new high for me. As everyone began to wind down, Glen’s voice pulled me back into the conversation.
“Hey J, do you think Genele is going to get his team to nerf Metaphysicist?” He asked as everyone’s excitement started winding down.
“Probably, Genele’s In Real Life name is Kintaii, and he’s part of Chaos Online’s development team, which I’m sure is the only reason The Syndicate gets away with half the crap that they do in-game. You’d think Funnco would have reined in the hateful bastard by now, but they keep letting them abuse the player base. I’m sure it’s because most of the developers’ mains are members of The Syndicate. It’s just that Kintaii is the only one we know for sure is a developer.”
Rubbing my eyes from under the VR helmet, I checked the time. “Either way guys, stick a fork in me, I’m done. It’s two AM here. I’m going to disband the guild and call it a night right after I upload the video of us spanking The Syndicate ass to the forums. I’ll send everyone the link in email.”
“Kitty and I will hook up with you next week. Just let us know when.” Glen replied.
“Sounds good.”
“Hey J, count Danielle and me in on that too,” Anthony added in quick as their avatars both sat down to log out.
“You got it, man.”
“Are we still meeting up for breakfast tomorrow?” Hefe asked hurriedly before his character completely logged out. I had to laugh at Hefe. You’d think by now he wouldn’t need to ask that question every Saturday night. We’d only been meeting up for breakfasts on Sundays for like five years in a row now.
“Yes Hefe, same time, same place.”
“Okay, I’m outie then.”
There was a bunch of ‘laters’ from everyone as I disbanded the guild and logged out. My vision quickly returned to normal as my darkened office became visible once again. Everything was tinged red from the two lava lamps as I drank some water and racked my VR helmet. There was always a part of me that was sad when it was time to disband our guild, The Revenants, whenever we left a game. The guild had been a symbol of our friendship and identity for a long year, but it was a needed action since we were all selling our accounts on eBay.
The Revenants was the guild name we always used from game to game. A play on words of our rebirth in a new gaming world. Most of us had been playing together for over twelve years now after meeting up initially at the local LAN parties in the area, while people like Glen, Kitty, Danielle, and Anthony were my online friends. People I’d met in Anarchy Online many years ago who ended up following me and my group of friends from game to game because we enjoyed playing together. Although, online friends might not be a hundred percent accurate description any longer since I had both couples come to visit me in Florida at one time or another over the years.
A few of my local friends, like Krystal and Jimmy, had called me the glue that held the guild together. I was a little confused by the comment at first, but Jimmy explained it to me like this. “Not all of us are exactly close with one other, but we love hanging out with you and playing together as a group. Also, you keep everyone moving in the same direction together.”
It took me some time to figure out why that was, but I figure it had to do with my lack of family. Coming from an abusive broken home, I’d distanced myself from my poisonous family and refused to have anything to do with them. For me, my friends were my family. Maybe that was what kept everyone I cared for playing together … that and having lots of fun kicking ass online.
Getting the video of the night’s raid together consisted of adding sarcastic text bubbles over The Syndicate players’ heads as Genele was being a particular asshat during the battle to push us out. In the post itself, I pointed out how Funnco had so far allowed their employees to grief their player base on a consistent basis, linking an additional twenty videos I’d been saving up for our exit along with links to the multiple threats our guild had received from The Syndicate from our first days of playing Chaos Online. I also made sure to link Genele’s character profile to Kintaii’s employee weblink on the Funnco website.
Lastly, I posted the raw stats for our professional builds to show that at no time did we cheat, tying it all up with the prediction that Funnco’s development team would promptly nerf the MP profession across the board. Smiling to myself, I email the link to everyone before crawling into bed for the night.
Chapter Two
(Sunday, April 13th/Breakfast with Friends)
By the time I groggily peeled my eyes open my smartphone had been going off for half an hour and the time was already 9:30 in the morning. I was supposed to meet everyone at ten o’clock, and the restaurant was at least thirty minutes away by car. Stumbling into the bathroom, I splashed water on my face and brushed my teeth searching for a relatively clean pair of jeans on the pile hanging over the back of my chair.
Finding one that looked relatively clean, I gave them the sniff test before throwing them on and pulled a clean Volcom t-shirt from the closet. Slipping on a pair of boots, I grabbed my riding gear and headed out the door. Jumping on my Ninja 636, I strapped on my helmet and tore out of my apartment’s parking lot going zero to sixty in just seconds as my adrenaline kicked in.
My bike’s motor howled as I raced through a mostly yellow light at the main intersection before plugging it again. Keeping my visor up, I let the crisp April morning air wake me up as I enjoyed the ride. Initially, the purchase of my motorcycle was a way for me to get a fast sports car type vehicle for a sixth of the cost, but once I started riding it had changed my outlook completely.
There were few things as exciting as holding onto an engine with wheels and tearing through some back roads at stupid speeds. Well, except for how much women loved to ask for rides. Heading down the back roads I managed to make it to the Gun Club Café in eighteen minutes flat, but still ended up being five minutes late. Luckily, the local sheriffs weren’t patrolling that much on Sunday morning. Still, I took one last look back down the road to make sure I hadn’t picked up any new friends as I pulled into the parking lot.
While I was used to functioning with four to five hours of sleep on a normal basis, anything less tended to kick my ass, especially if I stayed up past five in the morning and needed to be up and moving by nine. Stifling a yawn, I gave Marg, the old hostess of the family-owned restaurant, a quick hello as I went looking for my friends since they weren’t in the waiting area. As soon as I stepped into the main dining hall, I was assaulted by a large man.
“Yo Jjjjayyy, what’s up man!”
“Oof! Hey Hefe, good to see you made it.” Hefe’s real name was Jeff, but no one ever calls him that. He’d gotten the name from some of our Mexican friends in High School, and the name had stuck, probably because he was a gentle yet clumsy giant. Six foot six and two hundred and eight pounds of mostly muscle and baby fat, which is kind of funny whenever I’d watch him play computer games all hunched over the controllers. As he grabbed my fist and pulled me in for a shoulder bump, I backed away quickly.
“Dude, not the face.” Everyone at the table behind him laughed. It was kind of a running joke ever since he gave me a black eye just saying hi one day.
“Sup J.” Squeezing around Hefe, I gave Mike and Domenic a quick shoulder bump each and grabbed a hug from Krystal and Jill before finally making it to my seat.
“Shit Dude, I was sure you’d still be passed out,” AJ said as he bumped fists with me across the table.
“Yea, I didn’t end up crawling into bed until after six.”
“Tell me about it, that’s why I chose just to stay up,” Mike said, yawning tiredly. “I can catch a few z’s before c
lass starts tonight. I didn’t want to miss this morning.”
Although younger than me, Mike was another one of my close friends. We’d known each other over twelve years from LAN parties and MMORPGs. At twenty-three Mike could handle staying up two days in a row without any trouble. The class he was talking about was the Krav Maga class that Domenic and I used to go to with him, but between my app programming side jobs, the stream channel that I ran of our dungeon runs and running the guild, I had to drop the training for now. I didn’t have enough free time to keep going three nights a week until things settled down.
The streaming channel was our life’s blood. It’s what AJ, Domenic, Mike, Hefe and I ran to make money. As long as we kept things interesting and had enough subscriptions, we could play as a full-time job. The switch to Chaos Online had initially hurt due to the game’s lack of popularity, but once our fans got a taste of the game’s PVRMMORPG interface our profits had caught back up to what they’d been in World of Warcraft. This was one of the reasons we took the game so serious. While the tension The Syndicate had created from their bullshit behavior had helped to keep things interesting, I still hated in-game bullies.
Still, things were looking up for our subscriptions for The World. The combination of the game’s PVP and PVE virtual world could make for some interesting viewing and serious competition. If we could build interest in our subscription, then we’d be able to get more of our guild playing full-time. Jimmy was next on the list, but first, we had to be able to make sure we had a steady enough income coming to cover his bills too. Krystal and Jill had talked about going full time, but Krystal was still on the fence about losing her job with AT&T and Jill just lived off the allowance from her parents and didn’t particularly need to work, so she was cool with letting our other friends get to a full-time player status first.
“Jay, did you get a chance to check out the responses of last night’s smackdown?” AJ asked, putting his hands up like he was lifting the roof. “Booyah bitchas!”
“Dude!” I hushed, giving AJ the eye as I nodded my head towards the churchgoers who were filling into the café giving us disgusted looks. “Really?”
“Seriously?” Giving me one of his patented smartass looks, he waved away my concerns. “I checked our web traffic this morning. That video of The Syndicate getting their asses handed to them has already gone viral, including each of those videos you attached to the post. We already have over five million hits, and it has only been posted for a few hours on Sunday morning. How many will we have by the end of the week?”
Pulling out my smartphone, I checked our site's stats and silently whistled just as Jimmy arrived. Before anyone could say hi to him, he flopping down at the table and started swearing as he waved his screen at me. “I was still going through my inventory trying to sell everything before I unloaded my character and Funnco sent me this crap!”
“Dude, stop waving your phone around so I can actually read the freaking screen.” I snapped back grabbing his wrist. As I slowly read through the message, I saw my friends looking at me questioningly as I reread the text, this time out loud. “The development team has issued a patch for the Metaphysicist profession. All pets will still function as normal up until endgame when attack pets damage against world bosses and their mini-boss adds will be reduced by 90%.” Instantly AJ and Mike pumped their fists in a win as I smiled happily.
“What the fuck! Why are you guys so happy? Those shitty cheaters have just ganked all Metaphysicists.” Jimmy and Hefe looked at us confused. “How in the hell is that a good thing?”
“Look at our numbers, Jimmy.”
Glancing at my phone, Jimmy and Hefe traded confused shrugs. “I still don’t get it.”
“I linked last night’s video to our streaming site, along with another ten videos of The Syndicate trying to gank us and push us out of every open world raid boss.” Still not seeing comprehension, I laughed at both of them. “We’ve had over five million hits on our streaming site, and the videos haven’t been up for five hours. This is what we needed to get the money from hits and subscriptions to get you to on the team as a full-time gamer.”
“Not only that, but Genele is screwed. His development team is doing the same shit they always do, and the player base is going to hit the roof. This thing is going to blow the fuck up. Trust me, Genele will be lucky if he still has a job by the time everything calms down.” Clapping Jimmy on his shoulder, I couldn’t have had a bigger smile.
No one talked for a bit as the food was served and everyone focused on eating. As everyone finished up, the conversation started up again on what day everyone’s Egg and VR equipment were going to be delivered and fitted. Domenic, Mike and I were scheduled for Tuesday, AJ, Heffe, Jill, and Krystal for Thursday and Jimmy and John for Saturday.
“Are you guys seriously going for the ultra-realism package?” John asked as he picked at the leftover pancakes on his plate.
“John, the only reason we’re talking the realism package is so we can take the Physical and Mental stat exam to get the additional boost to our characters. After Chaos Online, you know what a boost like that can mean for the end game.”
“And that’s worth an extra 75% increase in realism to all damage taken within the game? Seriously, you do realize this is a hash and slash game, right?” John asked incredulously.
“More like burn and crash for fire mages!” Hefe began laughing at his own joke as everyone rolled their eyes at him. “Get it, not crash and burn but burn and crash?”
Ignoring Jeff, I tried to answer John’s question. “John, the good thing about The World from what I’ve been reading is that your ‘skills’ can make a huge difference in your ability to take damage and fight higher level mobs, but, even if that wasn’t the case, the rest of us are trying to make this our full-time job. The only way that is going to happen is to take all the bonus options that we can.”
“This pay to win thing sucks,” John said disgustedly.
“I don’t know if it’s appropriate to call this the ‘pay to win’ option.” Seeing John shaking his head to argue, I held my hand up for him to let me finish.
“Okay, yes for 500 USD you can take an exam that will give you an extra fifty levels worth of increased stats. With those bonuses comes a hefty negative. Instead of only feeling 25% of our avatar’s pain, we’ll get to experience 75%. Instead of having a target reticle to assist in aiming our ranged weapons, we have to learn all the skills on our own without any extra in-game assistance.
On top of that, all weather conditions will affect our avatar 75%, and we can starve to death. So yes, while this is a boost for players willing to shell out the extra money and is a ‘pay to win’ option on one level, it’s the only one. One that comes with a bunch of serious negatives that’s not for the faint of heart. Otherwise, there are no other in-game options for boosting your character or purchasing in-game gold. As far as MMORPGs go, that’s pretty amazing.”
“Yea, I know all of that, which is why I was surprised to hear Krystal and Jill were going for the advance-realism mode,” John said eying both women.
“Dude, you never learn do yea?” Shaking my head, I slid my chair back to make some space for the explosion I knew was coming.
“Oh my god, you just didn’t say that.” Krystal’s palm slammed against the table. “Freaking-A it’s a minor stat boost that increases all realism to 50% that’s based on our In Real Life strengths and weaknesses. Not some pussy-assed 25% realism like you’re going for.”
“You know he’s just afraid of being beaten by us girls yet again,” Jill added turning to Krystal. “I can already hear his complaining now when he gets smoked by a boss.” Her voice mimicked that a whining child. “It’s not fair, you have a 25% boost to your stats, and I don’t just because you’re willing to play with more pain.”
Watching John backpedal as the girls laid into him, I arched an eyebrow at Dom as he just shook his head keeping silent. You’d figure by now John would’ve learned to keep his sexist op
inions to himself. Sometimes, I think he did it on purpose just for the attention. Even if he was older, he couldn’t be that thick-skulled to keep making the same mistakes again and again that regularly got him in so much hot water with the women of the guild.
Poor fool. I knew what the real problem was. John didn’t know there was a middle level available for the P&M Exam and was now trying to cover his tracks for not keeping up with his emails. Not that it was going to help any since most of the guild had chosen to go with the advance option.
By the time everyone settled down, we were finishing off the pot of coffee that had been left on the table, and the café was mostly cleared out as the Sunday brunch rush died out. The owner’s family was eating their breakfast at a big table next to us listening to our shenanigans mostly amused.
Gun Club Café had the best southern style breakfast in the five-county area, which was why we were here every Sunday. Besides that, you couldn’t beat the price. While all walks of life came to the restaurant, during normal business hours the café’s main clientele were alligator wranglers from the Everglades who enjoyed hunting and eating.
Most of them had large beer bellies and were dressed in camouflage pants and jackets talking about hunting alligators, turkeys, and wild pigs, while our group was a bunch of gaming geeks dressed in skateboarder gear talking about virtual hunting.
Luckily, they were a friendly group who appreciated a good time. Slowly we finished up and made our way out as the girls kept hammering John the whole way. Still laughing, I geared up and climbed on my bike heading back to my apartment for some much-needed sleep.
Chapter Three
(Tuesday, April 15th/Pre-Game and P&M Exam)
Getting my Egg and bodysuit installed and fitted for my use ended up taking the whole day on Monday, which made me wonder how many players out of the two million who had signed up for the Kickstarter would have everything they needed to log in come Monday morning when the game was supposed to go live. I’d thought I would be able to get my P&M exam taken care of on Tuesday, but it actually ended up being a testing facility down in Miami that was running the whole procedure.