ERode — Roleplayer Guild

“Guten morgen, everybody, and welcome to Channel 5 Billion Smash, MMO News at 6 with your host....Rebecca White!”

“Hey there, all you hyperactive, super hyped early birds! As you can see behind me, this is the queue for just one of the five hundred thousand stores world wide, possessing twenty copies each of the greatly anticipated virtual reality massive multiplayer online game, Threshold of Kakophonia. Here I am with Software Developer Gary Yu of Blackbird, the Canadian company responsible for bringing you all this game. Gary, what are your thoughts on this unprecedented worldwide popularity?”

“Well, Rebecca, I can hardly call this success unprecedented. Us at Blackbird simply decided to do something that other gaming companies have yet to attempt, and with our entrepreneural drive, we just made it happen. Kickstarter was a great help in funding, and our partnerships with Lenovo and Sega-Atlas was great when it came to creating a new game console specifically for the usage of ToK. But what I think touched players the most was our decision to set this VRMMO in a fantasy, medieval-esque setting with steampunk touches. In our current world, experiencing nature at its finest is a privilege that none of us have, and our terrain artists worked with that in mind. I must say, the finished product is something that we are all very proud of, and we hope that all players will appreciate the amount of time dedicated towards it.”

“Very insightful, Gary. Now, I'm sure many players are curious, so how exactly would things such as travel time work for ToK? There have been quite a few concerns on Blackbird's community forums regarding whether travelling would be a chore for players.”

“That's a good point. We've been working on many different ways to make transportation between towns fun, but one of the major changes is that, ingame, time will be moving five times faster than it is in reality. This way, players would just have that much more time to play, and thus, would be able to take their time when enjoying the game. The ten hour grinds would only be two hours in reality. With this surplus time, it's our wish that players will enjoy the travelling. However, we're also aware that sometimes, they'll be in a rush. Thus, not only are there mounts that can be rented or purchased, ranging from clockwork cars to six-legged horses, but, as the game progresses, there will also be hidden teleport gates that players may chance upon, which will become invaluable. You can say that it's those who take it slow in the beginning who will be able to travel faster later.”

“And, a final question, Gary, how exactly are the NPCs developed? From what Blackbird has revealed in its publicity events, NPCs seem to have almost no limit to what they respond to. Is there a secret to that?”

“Well, I can't go into detail, but basically, our NPCs are based off a 'bottom-up' variation, that is, they have the capacity to learn, and then we went out of our way to teach them, instead of doing the norm and just adding a very large variety of possible responses. After the first batch of NPCs were made, Blackbird simply continued to 'farm' them. The closed beta tests were especially helpful in further developing the personalities of the NPCs, and, as you can see, they have now thrived, creating their own civilizations. While I'm in no way pressuring players into acting a certain way, I do recommend bringing in a bit of roleplaying when you play Threshold of Kakophonia. It'd help you get the best experience out of it, after all~”

“Thank you for all your answers, Gary. This is Rebecca White, and it is now thirty minutes before 7AM, in which Threshold of Kakophonia will have their servers online. You all truly do not understand how much I'm getting paid to do this, when I could be queuing up at the neighboring Gamestop~”

Forty minutes later, a girl with pale hair looked into her wallet and sighed. Nothing remained. Not even a single penny, and those were existent since the early 21st century. Her experience at the shop was really an awkward, shameful one, in which she found out at the last possible moment that she was three loonies and six cents short of buying the game and its complimentary console. On her bed in the naturally lit bedroom, she shuddered at the thought of it.

Of how much she faked her tears in order to get a kind nerd to donate $3.06 in order for her to get that game.

Her face was still grimacing from that uncomfortable, icky sensation of doing something out of sheer desperation, but she sighed. Whatever. What was done was done. She had slept at 8PM yesterday to wake up and queue in the cool, fall rain at 3AM in the morning, sipping on a thermos of hot black tea. And even then, she barely managed to get a copy of that coveted game. Spreading out on her fluffy bed, the pale-skinned tomboy lifted that game upwards, the design of a clockwork dragon and a winged knight locked in aerial combat staring back at her. Exciting. To think that another world could exist in something as small as this.

She tightened her lips into a flat line, trying, but failing to restrain her excitement as her hands trembled. Perhaps it was originally her goal to get closer to Ren via video games, but as she did more research into Threshold of Kakophonia, she was falling in love with the world itself. A world that never existed in her generation, but now could exist.

Unable to contain that girlish squeal of excitement as she thought of that again, she turned around and smothered herself with the pillow, letting out her voice become muffled by it. Ah, so exciting, so hyped up, she hasn't felt this excited for a long time! Her head popping out as she took a breath that tasted sweet as honey, cool as milk, the girl, her face flushed, smiled in a carefree manner long forgotten.

Suddenly, the sound of a chiming bell notified her that her console had finished synchronizing with the game server, and with that, the girl spun off her bed to the electrical socket. Attaching the plug of the MAELSTROM to it, and then popping on the headset-visor with unrestrained, uncharacteristic glee, she closed her eyes, and then, took in a deep, calming breath.

“Let's play.”

And then, the dull, gray world was surrounded by light.

<<WELCOME TO THE THRESHOLD OF KAKOPHONIA>>
<<STATE YOUR USERNAME AND RACE>>

ERode Member

A Spiny Ant

Status

Bio

Most Recent Posts