*SPLAT*
I had this idea when I was at my Dad's house, and I decided to do it. I hope you'll all at least read it and see if you want to join, because it's going to be FUN. *_* I spent all day today organizing it, and I'm still not done. I have to take a break because I've forgotten some of the stuff I wanted to list. It'll come to me later... I know it will...
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hellbent/
http://www.angelfire.com/hero/hell_bent/index.html
.25 description:
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to not only play a video game, but become a part of it? To slip on a helmet and gloves, attach a small wire to the base of your skull, and actually live the experience of the game? For the people of Earth in the year 2055, this experience is all too real.
The public was outraged and frightened. They demanded to know what this system was and what it was doing to their children. The creator of the Sin2050 agreed to step forward and address the peoples of the world, but his speech was far from comforting, as was the utter lack of a visual image.
For those who have managed to beat the game and return to the Human World, it is Earth that seems surreal. Of the few that survived, fewer still are willing to go back. Some lose their minds. Some take their own lives. It is easy to see for those people who remained on Earth that coming back is far more difficult than surviving in Verus.
Luckily, there are some in the world that do not balk at danger. Driven by many different reasons, two groups of people have decided to enter again and try to bring people out. For almost all, this is only their second time in the game. Whatever their motivations, they are re-entering, and an entire world is depending on them to bring back as many people as they can.
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to not only play a video game, but become a part of it? To slip on a helmet and gloves, attach a small wire to the base of your skull, and actually live the experience of the game? For the people of Earth in the year 2055, this experience is all too real.
Five years before the present day a brand new console was released for trial runs all across the world. It was called the Sin2050. The Sin boasted a new type of game system that allowed the player complete immersion in the video game through the simple connection of a few wires here and there. Naturally there were skeptics, and the Sin faced many doubts when it was released. Nonetheless, as soon as it hit the stores with the test game, Hell Bent, thousands of people paid 20 pecunia (a currency adopted worldwide) to try it out.
The console itself allowed for four people to hook up and play simultaneously. Many people scoffed at the idea of such a supposedly 'technologically advanced' system being rented out for 20 pecunia, but decided that it was far too tempting to just try it out and see if it really was all that it lived up to, and if not, then there was no harm done, because the rental only lasted for a week...
Millions of eager children and adults worldwide took home the systems, wiring them up and testing them out nearly immediately. Much to everyone's suprise, the Sin was all that it had been described as and more; once you got past the inital avatar creation, it felt as though you had truly been transformed into someone else and dropped into a foreign world. In fact, everything seemed so real that it was hard to believe that the world of Verus wasn't reality at all.
Gradually as the people explored they learned that the game seemed, in fact, very real. Encounters with monsters that before had been immortalized on a television screen became common occurances, as did the wounds that battles left behind. Hunger, thirst, pain were all present, as if these bodies were their own and not just shells they were using until they decided to log off the game. And then, when they tried to return, they found that there was no way to get back.
For the people on Earth it was an annoyance, the sort that any new console and video game could bring about. Mothers would go upstairs and call their children for dinner, and when they received no response, would barge into the room. Efforts to communicate were completely futile, so finally the parents were driven to disconnecting their children...
Disconnection leads to instant death, both in Verus and the human world. People quickly caught on to the fact that as soon as those vital wires were pulled away all brain activity ceased in the person who had been attached. There was no recovery. Life simply ceased.
The public was outraged and frightened. They demanded to know what this system was and what it was doing to their children. The creator of the Sin2050 agreed to step forward and address the peoples of the world, but his speech was far from comforting, as was the utter lack of a visual image.
"Hello citizens of the Human World. It has come to my attention that many of you are angry with my invention, the Sin2050, and its trial game, Hell Bent. While I can look down upon you and understand your emotions, there is little I can do to stifle or appease them. The situation you find yourselves in is one of your own making, a horrible reality born of the ignorance of people. Had you, as the guardians of your children, your spouses, your parents, merely read the instructional booklet that each game was supplied with, you would have understood the risks of playing the game.
"I have no pity for any of you. Those who are playing my game as I speak to you have found themselves in a beautiful world of my creation, a place where they are free to do what they choose with their lives, and not be repressed by society. It is an ideal world, one that all humans should someday hope to live in. The fact that they chose this game over reality was a move that no one but they could execute, and as such, I will not interfere.
"The only way for these people to return to the Human World is to beat my game. Some will return. They will not be the same as when they entered, as Hell Bent is a reality unto itself, but they will return. Those who do not, have either perished, or made a life there. Premature disconnection from the console will result in the death of both the Human and the Verusian. It is most unwise.
"I have nothing more to say to the world. If you want your loved ones to return, then I suggest you enter the game yourself and try to retrieve them. If you are unwilling to take that sort of risk, they are better off where they are."
The transmission ended then, leaving people in a state of fury and denial. Some ignored him, going on with their normal lives as if their loved one would simply disconnect theirself one day. Some ended their own lives, unable to cope with the grief. Others till took his advice and entered the game to find the people they had lost.
Those brave enough to attempt the near impossible found that they faced even more insurmountable odds than they had anticipated. Once inside the Hell Bent, your human portion ceases to exist. It is impossible to locate another person untless you know their avatar, as there is no record anywhere of personal names, birthplaces, descriptions... any remnants of the Human World were overridden immediately by the avatar. Worse still, the longer a human spends in Verus, the less of their original self they can recall.
As time goes on in Verus the human soul is gradually overwritten by the avatar. It is inevitable that a person, no matter how strong-willed they are, will begin to transform and take on the personality characteristics of the avatar they outlined. Some are able to retain pieces of their self and recall things like family and their personality, but depending on how long you are in the world, your mind will be wiped clean and replaced. This is why, after too much time has passed, people begin to think that they were born in Verus. They forget there ever was a place called Earth, that they ever had a family aside from the one the System gave them, that they ever had another life. Hell Bent becomes real.
The rate at which people forget is different for each person. Once a person has made the complete transformation to Verusian, there is nothing that can be done to recall their former memories. They have become a part of Hell Bent, and have forgotten there is even a way to leave.
For those who have managed to beat the game and return to the Human World, it is Earth that seems surreal. Of the few that survived, fewer still are willing to go back. Some lose their minds. Some take their own lives. It is easy to see for those people who remained on Earth that coming back is far more difficult than surviving in Verus.
Because so many people were lost to Hell Bent when it premiered, governments around the world are offering ridiculous sums of money to people who will enter the game and return with others. This is incentive enough for many to enter, but they generally do not make it through. It takes an experienced player to navigate the game and bring people back from the 'other side', and even then, the risk is sometimes not worth the price that must be paid. The game does not like it when people manage to escape, and should they ever show their face again, it makes it more difficult for them to go through the next time.
Luckily, there are some in the world that do not balk at danger. Driven by many different reasons, two groups of people have decided to enter again and try to bring people out. For almost all, this is only their second time in the game. Whatever their motivations, they are re-entering, and an entire world is depending on them to bring back as many people as they can.
And now... *dies* I am taking a break.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hellbent/
http://www.angelfire.com/hero/hell_bent/index.html
.25 description:
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to not only play a video game, but become a part of it? To slip on a helmet and gloves, attach a small wire to the base of your skull, and actually live the experience of the game? For the people of Earth in the year 2055, this experience is all too real.
The public was outraged and frightened. They demanded to know what this system was and what it was doing to their children. The creator of the Sin2050 agreed to step forward and address the peoples of the world, but his speech was far from comforting, as was the utter lack of a visual image.
For those who have managed to beat the game and return to the Human World, it is Earth that seems surreal. Of the few that survived, fewer still are willing to go back. Some lose their minds. Some take their own lives. It is easy to see for those people who remained on Earth that coming back is far more difficult than surviving in Verus.
Luckily, there are some in the world that do not balk at danger. Driven by many different reasons, two groups of people have decided to enter again and try to bring people out. For almost all, this is only their second time in the game. Whatever their motivations, they are re-entering, and an entire world is depending on them to bring back as many people as they can.
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to not only play a video game, but become a part of it? To slip on a helmet and gloves, attach a small wire to the base of your skull, and actually live the experience of the game? For the people of Earth in the year 2055, this experience is all too real.
Five years before the present day a brand new console was released for trial runs all across the world. It was called the Sin2050. The Sin boasted a new type of game system that allowed the player complete immersion in the video game through the simple connection of a few wires here and there. Naturally there were skeptics, and the Sin faced many doubts when it was released. Nonetheless, as soon as it hit the stores with the test game, Hell Bent, thousands of people paid 20 pecunia (a currency adopted worldwide) to try it out.
The console itself allowed for four people to hook up and play simultaneously. Many people scoffed at the idea of such a supposedly 'technologically advanced' system being rented out for 20 pecunia, but decided that it was far too tempting to just try it out and see if it really was all that it lived up to, and if not, then there was no harm done, because the rental only lasted for a week...
Millions of eager children and adults worldwide took home the systems, wiring them up and testing them out nearly immediately. Much to everyone's suprise, the Sin was all that it had been described as and more; once you got past the inital avatar creation, it felt as though you had truly been transformed into someone else and dropped into a foreign world. In fact, everything seemed so real that it was hard to believe that the world of Verus wasn't reality at all.
Gradually as the people explored they learned that the game seemed, in fact, very real. Encounters with monsters that before had been immortalized on a television screen became common occurances, as did the wounds that battles left behind. Hunger, thirst, pain were all present, as if these bodies were their own and not just shells they were using until they decided to log off the game. And then, when they tried to return, they found that there was no way to get back.
For the people on Earth it was an annoyance, the sort that any new console and video game could bring about. Mothers would go upstairs and call their children for dinner, and when they received no response, would barge into the room. Efforts to communicate were completely futile, so finally the parents were driven to disconnecting their children...
Disconnection leads to instant death, both in Verus and the human world. People quickly caught on to the fact that as soon as those vital wires were pulled away all brain activity ceased in the person who had been attached. There was no recovery. Life simply ceased.
The public was outraged and frightened. They demanded to know what this system was and what it was doing to their children. The creator of the Sin2050 agreed to step forward and address the peoples of the world, but his speech was far from comforting, as was the utter lack of a visual image.
"Hello citizens of the Human World. It has come to my attention that many of you are angry with my invention, the Sin2050, and its trial game, Hell Bent. While I can look down upon you and understand your emotions, there is little I can do to stifle or appease them. The situation you find yourselves in is one of your own making, a horrible reality born of the ignorance of people. Had you, as the guardians of your children, your spouses, your parents, merely read the instructional booklet that each game was supplied with, you would have understood the risks of playing the game.
"I have no pity for any of you. Those who are playing my game as I speak to you have found themselves in a beautiful world of my creation, a place where they are free to do what they choose with their lives, and not be repressed by society. It is an ideal world, one that all humans should someday hope to live in. The fact that they chose this game over reality was a move that no one but they could execute, and as such, I will not interfere.
"The only way for these people to return to the Human World is to beat my game. Some will return. They will not be the same as when they entered, as Hell Bent is a reality unto itself, but they will return. Those who do not, have either perished, or made a life there. Premature disconnection from the console will result in the death of both the Human and the Verusian. It is most unwise.
"I have nothing more to say to the world. If you want your loved ones to return, then I suggest you enter the game yourself and try to retrieve them. If you are unwilling to take that sort of risk, they are better off where they are."
The transmission ended then, leaving people in a state of fury and denial. Some ignored him, going on with their normal lives as if their loved one would simply disconnect theirself one day. Some ended their own lives, unable to cope with the grief. Others till took his advice and entered the game to find the people they had lost.
Those brave enough to attempt the near impossible found that they faced even more insurmountable odds than they had anticipated. Once inside the Hell Bent, your human portion ceases to exist. It is impossible to locate another person untless you know their avatar, as there is no record anywhere of personal names, birthplaces, descriptions... any remnants of the Human World were overridden immediately by the avatar. Worse still, the longer a human spends in Verus, the less of their original self they can recall.
As time goes on in Verus the human soul is gradually overwritten by the avatar. It is inevitable that a person, no matter how strong-willed they are, will begin to transform and take on the personality characteristics of the avatar they outlined. Some are able to retain pieces of their self and recall things like family and their personality, but depending on how long you are in the world, your mind will be wiped clean and replaced. This is why, after too much time has passed, people begin to think that they were born in Verus. They forget there ever was a place called Earth, that they ever had a family aside from the one the System gave them, that they ever had another life. Hell Bent becomes real.
The rate at which people forget is different for each person. Once a person has made the complete transformation to Verusian, there is nothing that can be done to recall their former memories. They have become a part of Hell Bent, and have forgotten there is even a way to leave.
For those who have managed to beat the game and return to the Human World, it is Earth that seems surreal. Of the few that survived, fewer still are willing to go back. Some lose their minds. Some take their own lives. It is easy to see for those people who remained on Earth that coming back is far more difficult than surviving in Verus.
Because so many people were lost to Hell Bent when it premiered, governments around the world are offering ridiculous sums of money to people who will enter the game and return with others. This is incentive enough for many to enter, but they generally do not make it through. It takes an experienced player to navigate the game and bring people back from the 'other side', and even then, the risk is sometimes not worth the price that must be paid. The game does not like it when people manage to escape, and should they ever show their face again, it makes it more difficult for them to go through the next time.
Luckily, there are some in the world that do not balk at danger. Driven by many different reasons, two groups of people have decided to enter again and try to bring people out. For almost all, this is only their second time in the game. Whatever their motivations, they are re-entering, and an entire world is depending on them to bring back as many people as they can.
And now... *dies* I am taking a break.