The woman led us past a set of doors and through a security station, where we were prompted to present our IDs once more as we enrolled in the building’s security system. At the end of it all, we were given a plain metal bracelet to wear on our wrist.
“Can’t be too careful,” Carol told us as we patiently waited for everyone to finish. “We take security seriously since the majority of our residents will be unconscious in their section.”
“Makes sense.” Zach nodded. “And makes me feel better, knowing I’ll be safe.”
After passing through security, Carol led us into an elevator which quickly whisked us away to the 9th floor. Carol led us out of the elevator and into an adjoining room. “This will be your section for the duration of your stay with us. Again, as a confirmation - all of you have indicated that you are onboard for Long-Term Play on a monthly subscription, correct? I also understand you’ve all designated a third party as your Stream Producer?”
“Yep!” I replied as everyone echoed in chorus behind me.
Despite Ascend’s requirement of needing to be physically in a pod to play the game, CTI did attempt to cater to a wide range of playstyles and priced their rentals accordingly. Subscriptions were classified into Daily, Weekly, and Monthly durations with both Short-Term and Long-Term play options. Short-Term play was geared more towards the casual market – play for a few hours a week with frequent logins and logouts.
Long-Term play, however, was dedicated to the hardcore market who would stay logged in for multiple days at a time. The only stipulation with long term play was one 24 hour cycle of ‘Reality’ out of every ten days of play. The reason for this ‘rest period’ was to ensure that the brain maintained an appropriate baseline and to allow for proper non-stimulated rest.
The ten-day rotation also fed into another interesting feature - everything within Ascend Online was recorded and made available to the player. The recording not only caught the first person’s perspective of the player but also of the surrounding area as well allowing for multiple perspectives of anything a player experienced.
The recordings could even be posted publically - the only stipulation being a ten-day delay between when the video was recorded. So for anything we did today once we got in game – we would be able to show publicly ten days from now. The idea for the delay was to contain the spread of meta-gaming and to give players time to play out any events or quests without any Real World interference.
For us, however, we were looking at these recordings as a potential money source. We were hoping that by playing together, and by being reasonably entertaining we would be able to attract a high enough viewership to help fund our time playing. To help with that, we hired an eager management service ready to capitalize on this new content stream, to receive, edit, manage, and post our player streams on our behalf.
“Great!” Carol said as she then quickly gave us a tour of the room. “Your pods are here,” she said indicating a wall covered with panels and displays. The pods were organized three across and two high, the better to conserve space. “They each slide out of the wall independently, and the upper level does have a ladder to climb down.”
“The rest of your section is fairly self-explanatory. Think of it as a shared apartment. You have four monitors that you can sync to your private devices while you are out of your pod, as well as a pair of dedicated desktop machines. There are enough beds for all of you, plus a couple of full bathrooms just in case you all decide to have your downtime at the same time.”
We all looked through our new home if somewhat half-heartedly whispering between ourselves before Carol laughed. “Don’t worry! I won’t keep you all from the game any longer. Stow any things you have and we can get you all in the pods.”
Ten minutes and a change of clothes later, we were all laying down flat in our pods as it silently whirred to life. “Hello? Can you hear me?” I heard Carol’s voice come through the speakers in the pod. “Raise your hand if you can hear me.”
I lifted my hand.
“Good! Everyone’s system seems to be working. You should all be able to talk amongst yourselves now too.” I shuffled myself inside the pod to get more comfortable. “Basic diagnostics are starting now, just relax.”
“Hello?” I spoke into the air. “Anyone there?”
Everyone quickly replied and I could feel their excitement building. “Alright, so that everyone knows. Where are we starting again?”
“Eberia!” Misha’s voice came over the speakers the fastest.
“Hopefully it’s a decent place. The Primer didn’t give all that much information…” Deckard spoke softly.
“It’ll be okay, if not we can just make our way to another city,” Peter’s voice replied confidently.
“Yeah. I’m not worr-OW!” I gasped as I felt something pinch me in the neck and from the sounds of it so did everyone else.
“Sorry for not warning you all!” Carol’s voice sounded completely unapologetic. “I find it's best not to warn when the nanites are being injected. Don’t worry, the IV and any additional wires will be applied once you are in hibernation.”
“Before we can complete the log in process CTI’s legal team requires me to remind you that by signing the Terms of Agreement papers you have fully agreed to all aspects CTI’s Terms of Use Policy which outlines your rights and responsibilities as players. Furthermore, you have agreed not to seek legal action against CTI or its holdings due to in-game experiences that are of a non-technical nature. This includes but is not limited to, pain, torture, dismemberment, burning, drowning, and repeated simulated death. Also any emotional and/or psychological harm incurred by playing Ascend Online is taken at the player’s risk. In the event of a mental break or descent into sociopathy, CTI is happy to provide PTSD, grief counseling, personality editing and limited memory wipes, at a nominal fee.”
“Wait!” I heard Heron’s voice squeak over the comm system. “Sociopathy?!”
“I told you to read the papers before you signed them!” I yelled at Heron. “I did!”
“Ugh, you’re the only one who must have ever bothered read those things!”
“Thank you for choosing CTI, and for subscribing to Ascend Online.” Carol’s voice continued undeterred from Heron’s angst.
“Corporeal detachment in 3… 2… 1…”
Chapter 3
Corporeal detachment - Complete
Integrating into Creativity - Complete
Running Pod Diagnostic - Complete
Creating Randomly Generated Feature – Complete
Loading Purgatory - Character Creation - Complete
“Welcome, Marcus.” A female voice greeted me as I shook off the transition between Reality and Virtual Reality. I found ‘myself’ floating in an endless starry night completely alone.
“Hel… hello?”
“Do not be afraid,” The voice spoke soothingly. “I am Creativity, the Goddess of Creation. The disorientation will fade momentarily. Please tell me when you are ready to proceed.”
“Oh…” I floated a moment while I digested the news. Goddess? I must be in game already! “I’m ready.”
“Excellent! Let’s begin!”
The starry night swirled away as I felt my incorporeal body started to move. Across my vision a menu appeared:
Choose a Race and Gender.
Alright, here we go! I thought as I shook my head and started to page through the list of offered races. Practically every single race ever seen in a fantasy world was available here – Catfolk, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Gnolls, Halflings, Humans, Orcs, Goblins, Saurians, Ogres, even Ratfolk.
Even though I typically didn’t like playing the bestial races, as they tended to start with harder reputation penalties to enter major cities or far off in the wild, I decided to take a closer look at their racial information and see what was available. Waving a mental hand to select one of the options, I began paging through the races to look at their racial bonuses.
Orc:
Race
Ability: Passive - Relentless – Stunning and movement slowing durations are reduced by 20+(lvl*0.35)%.
Passive – Night Vision – Grants ability to see in daylight conditions up to 100ft in total darkness.
Racial Modifiers - +5 Strength, +5 Constitution. Gain an additional +2 Strength, +2 Constitution per level.
More information kept scrolling, but I paged to the next race without reading. I wasn’t interested in playing an Orc. Not for this game at least.
Elf:
Race Ability: Passive – Magical Resistance – Any hostile arcane damage is reduced by 5+(lvl*0.1)%
Passive – Low Light Vision – Grants ability to see in daylight conditions up to 100ft in reduced lighting.
Racial Modifiers: +5 Agility, +5 Intelligence. Gain an additional +2 Agility, +2 Intelligence per level.
I mentally frowned. The Orc’s racial was powerful, especially from a PvP perspective! But then on the flip side reduced magical damage taken for an Elf player could be the difference between surviving a magic attack or not.
I still unsatisfied, I paged through a few more races trying to find out more about the new world I was about to become a part of. Usually by the time a game was released I was already armed with build suggestions, critiques, and in some cases, boss strategies. I quickly found it to be a sobering experience for me, barely knowing anything about the game.
“Do you have any recommendation on choosing race Creativity?” I asked the Goddess halfheartedly, not expecting a reply.
“It is not my place to advise. This choice must be yours and yours alone.”
“Are you sure? I won’t tell anyone!”
“Unfortunately, I am forbidden to interfere. Perhaps I may advise you to continue looking through the options before you?”
“Hmm.” I mentally nodded at Creativity’s advice, continuing to scan through a few dozen more races available to me before giving into inevitability and bringing up ‘Human’ as my starting race.
Human:
Race Ability: Passive - Diplomatic Reputation – All positive reputation gains are increased by 10%. All negative reputation gains are decreased by 10%.
Passive – Ambitious – Receive a 5% experience bonus when gaining experience.
Racial Modifiers: +5 to two stats of player’s choice, +2 to previously chosen stats per level.
“Flexibility is essential,” I said to myself when I saw the ability to customize my stats. Other races seemed to have a more ‘favored’ path due to their locked in stats. But as a Human I could build exactly what I wanted. I hovered my imaginary hand over the ‘next’ button as I read over everything again.
Do you wish to select a Sub-Race or Regional specialization of your race?
Warning: May restrict your starting location.
Yes / No
Intrigued, I selected ‘Yes’ and a massive menu unfolded before my eyes listing dozens of sub-races. Half-elf, half-orc, half-dwarf, half-troll – the variations were endless. I scrolled further down the menu only to start finding regional differences. My brain started to drool as I paged through all the variations. Half-breed races had a mix of both human and their ‘other’ half racial abilities, but it was a regional specialization that I was looking for specifically.
Human – Eberian
Coming from the fledgling Kingdom of Eberia, Eberians are recent immigrants from the Ascendant Empire to the Continent. After several decades of war, Eberia has just recently ended a bitter war with the Orc Tribes resulting in a massive age of expansion. A very militant society, Eberians typically follow either Arcane or Warrior roles, as they are blessed with both a brilliant intellect and a healthy constitution. Compulsory physical training and military service from a young age has resulted in a hardy and tough citizenry.
Racial Ability: Military Conditioning (Passive) – All defenses are increased by 5% and total hit points are increased by 10%
Racial Modifiers: Constitution: +5, Intelligence: +5 to base attributes. Constitution: +2 and Intelligence: +2 per level.
The player may choose one Trait.
“Yes! It’s here!” A regional specialization right in the city I wanted to start in! “Awesome!”
I was more than happy to exchange the reputation bonus in favor of the extra defense, and no sane player would ever pass up bonus hit points. Military Conditioning wasn’t a scaling bonus like the other classes had, though I would argue that the Orc’s “Relentless” racial trait was probably just as powerful. What was a Trait though? Would I be able to choose it myself?
Eager to find out, I selected ‘Male’ as my gender and hit the ‘next’ button which had been glowing softly in the corner of my vision all this time.
I was prompted with:
Do you wish to use your stored appearance?
A mirror gradually appeared in front of me as I sped through space, which displayed a figure based loosely off of my features wearing a simple pair of underwear. Short blonde hair, light beard, tall, and in reasonably good shape. I wouldn’t call myself a particularly vain person, but the first and only thing I did, was add more muscle than a realistic person could ever hope to have.
“If only losing fifteen pounds, then gaining twenty in muscle was that easy…” I muttered wistfully as I accepted my character’s appearance, eager to see what Traits I could choose.
The mirror quickly faded away and my vision was replaced with another menu:
Select (1) Character Trait:
Followed by hundreds of entries. My mind reeled at it all as I tried to absorb what a trait was… it seemed like an innate buff to your character. They all ranged in power and usefulness from entries such as:
Augmented Vision – Magical enhancements to the Player’s eyes now allow to see Daylight quality up to a distance of 100 feet, regardless of the surrounding ambiance.
Or:
Were-blood – Lycanthrope blood courses through the Player’s body, granting +5% regeneration of total hit points every 30 seconds. Damage by Silver Weapons halts this regeneration until the player is fully healed through natural or magical means.
Could I get all of these in-game?! I quickly lost track of time how long I paged through the Trait list. At first I tried to commit everything I could to memory, but found it to be a losing battle. There were simply too many traits to choose from! How could I know what was useful?
I looked at the in-game clock and cursed. I’d been on the character creation screen for three hours already?! Where was I?
Open Minded – Accepting of racial differences and radical ideas, you have learned to accept wisdom and the opportunity to learn no matter what form it takes, allowing you to make intuitive insights where others would give up in frustration. Grants a substantial increase in learning new skills, and the ability to learn all race locked traits, skills, crafting recipes, and abilities that are not otherwise restricted.
Oh wow! My virtual mouth hung open, this was an amazing Trait! The potential to learn race locked traits and skills, on top of racial crafting?! The faster skill gain was just a bonus at this point! In the past I’ve always been huge on crafting, it was how I made my in-game money and kept me wearing the best gear I could craft.
Making my choice, I continued to the next section of character development, not believing that I’d already spent three hours making my character! I suddenly couldn’t help but feel behind compared to all the other players who had been faster in making their characters. I eagerly advanced to the next stage of character creation.
Character progression:
Level 1: Novice (Tutorial levels 1 – 4)
Level 10: Basic Class
Level 30: Advanced Class
Level 70: Prestige Class
Choose a Premade Starting Package (Optional):
Warrior – Strength: +5, Constitution: +5.
Equipment: Worn Chain Shirt, Rusty Sword.
Ability: Power Attack I
Mage – Intelligence: +5, Agility: +5.
Equipment: Moth Eaten Robe,
Cracked Wand, Spellbook
Spell: Arcane Missile I
Rogue – Agility: +5, Intelligence: +5.
Equipment: Patched Leather Tunic, Rusty Dagger.
Ability: Feint Attack I
Priest – Willpower: +5, Strength: +5.
Equipment: Moth Eaten Robe, Rusty Mace, Prayer book
Spell: Holy Smite I
Create Custom Starting Package.
I mentally nodded, ten novice levels and I could then choose my basic class. That should be enough to figure out whatever play style I wanted, looking at the options before me, I decided to take the custom path and design my character exactly how I wanted it to be.
Ascend Online Page 2