Augmented reality redux
Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery - creating a mixed reality.
...
Advanced research includes use of head-mounted displays and virtual retinal displays for visualization purposes, and construction of controlled environments containing any number of sensors and actuators.
- Wikipedia
No image
I WILL BE OCD OVER THE NEATNESS OF THIS POST EVENTUALLY
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Copying and pasting stuff from meta wherever appropriate, we're both just being computer science geeks here
the gist of it
In short: augmented reality + AIs + magic?? + gratuitous bonding YEAH
In (slightly) long(er):
Technology is so advanced that creating AIs is totally trivial and you can see the AR world without any special equipment. Think Summer Wars' OZ in real life.
This might be something to refer to.
MOVING ON
AR
meta:
I'm thinking about the AR world and thinking developments in AR are so far-gone that you can actually feel the physical stimulation of any AR entities. IT CAN ACTUALLY AFFECT THE REAL WORLD? THIS IS WHERE MAGIC COMES FROM? I DUNNO.
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I'm trying to figure out how the AIs work exactly as an avatar, and how they're represented in the AR world.
Assumptions:
* The AR world is visible to everyone? You don't require special glasses or anything to view it, and there's not much to distinguish it from real, physical objects unless you have some sort of device to tell. If the AR infrastructure or system goes down, everything disappears (including, presumably, the AIs).
* The AR world looks the same to everyone, though you might be able to get special glasses that skin the world; provide some sort of a HUD? Probably used extensively by programmers/hackers/IT where they want to know what's digital and what's not and they want to know details, i.e. how it's implemented, who owns it, etc. etc.
* The AIs are animal companions that show up in the AR world; along with being a useful utility, they can be used by non-programmers as an easy way to interface with it.
* These animal companions come with an additional gijinka "human skin"; using this human skin, you can change your avatar appearance. I'm assuming that this means you can change your appearance within the AR, though I'm also guessing that this is banned in many public areas such as shopping centres and schools, just for safety reasons. Could be overridden by jailbroken AIs; so the other application of jailbreaking an AI apart from being able to make use of magic would be being able to disguise yourself fairly easy (though it would kind of defeat the purpose if you are well-known as your avatar).
I'm imagining shy school kids who change into their avatar when they leave school and lead a double life in the AR, hahah... On that topic, altering the AR is also probably prohibited in public areas, again for safety reasons, and again this can probably be overridden.
You also use your AI as an avatar when going into a VR. If you plug yourself into a public VR without using an AI companion, you get a rather non-descript default skin, which I imagine to look a bit like a blobby doll. In this sense, having an AI is a bit like having a customised sprite in a game and comes with all the pros and cons (more recognisable, tends to be respectable, "this person must be rich enough to spend money on video games!" label).
* When the AI is humanised, they adopt their human skin themselves, which overrides their animal appearance. Otherwise, as far as how their user interacts with them, it's pretty much the same. When the user adopts a humanised AI as a human skin, or when they use them to log into a VR, they can hear their AI speaking to them telepathically.
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The notable addendum to this is that not only is it easy for humanised AIs to masquerade as humans, it's easy for humans to masquerade as humanised AIs.
I'm not certain about it, so if you have any ideas as to how to distinguish this, it'd be good. This idea basically means that when it comes to battle, the common/accepted way is for the user to wear their AI skin and fight (adopting the AI's battle abilities), but a humanised AI would also be able to fight by themselves. It might be easier to make it that humanising an AI means that you can't use it as a skin anymore.
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UHHH MAYBE??
AIs
meta:
General assumption: All AIs have generic house-keeping functionality; the standard stuff is checking emails, checking news, updating documents/to-do lists, handling communications, buying shit online, taking photos/videos, carrying/holding things (ALL AIS HAVE A LIMITED HAMMERSPACE; certain specialised ones have very large hammerspaces), following orders, etc. etc. All have wireless functionality and can check Google/Wikipedia, update your blog/website, provide a live video feed, etc.
All also have minor telekinetic powers. Any other abilities are specialised and vary according to the AI.
ALL AIs also functioned as an avatar on a battle/chat/game AR world. They still function as avatars for their users actually, it just got a bit weird though, since your avatar NOW HAS A PERSONALITY. I'm thinking the world is kind of like... A mashup of Wikipedia, Google, the Blogosphere, Ebay, MSN/AIM and an MMO. SUMMER WARS. There are also some pure VR worlds that you can plug yourself into - the nature of these worlds differ according to zone; for example there're some worlds you can go to that're purely for the MMO/battle, and there're other worlds for like, online shopping, chat rooms, etc. etc.
AIs are broken up into further specialisations, like:
- Companion AIs tend to have a heavier emphasis on NLP, personality and empathy; this tends to appear in "house pet" AIs. The Virus seems to install a companionship plug-in by default if it doesn't already exist in the AI (so all humanised AIs have a real personality). AIs that were already Companions tend to be more dependent on their user and a stronger sense of solidarity with humans, though. Some of them have a level of empathy bordering on telepathy / mind-reading, and they all have a very good understanding of human society and culture.
- Gaming AIs are those that're more geared towards the battle-element of the AR world. These can be altered/modded AIs specifically built for it, or they can just have some sort of plug-ins, etc. etc. Remember that all AIs can battle! This is just essentially the equivalent of... Playing WoW with a customised GUI/HUD that makes it easier to raid, plus maybe some macros/Addons that automate the stupid, fiddly stuff to optimise your performance. It's generally assumed that any AIs that battle competitively (whether they're doing it solo or for their user) will have some battle-related plug-ins.
etc. etc. I imagine there're a lot of really minor/irrelevant AI specialisations. And I imagine it's really easy to alter your AI by installing stuff, i.e. installing a translation plug-in, so they can understand/translate a million languages, etc. etc. So a Gaming AI could just be a standard AI with a bunch of Gaming plug-ins installed.
It's probably expensive or just extra troublesome. Maybe you can't install any extra plug-ins after the AI gets humanised.
In particular, magical plug-ins are probably both illegal without a developer's license (which no one bothers getting, because it requires extensive inspection processes as well as an exorbitant developer's fee).
Under normal conditions, an AI's magic is restricted to the MMO portion of the AR, and kept within a safe "battlezone" which prevents anything except the opponent AI from being damaged. There are also several PvP VRs where you can login and just battle your hearts out with randoms without caring about your surroundings.
However, there is a highly illegal, highly restricted plug-in made in order to bypass the battlezone restriction and allow you to use battle magic in the "real world" -- these are "jailbroken" AIs. IT IS SO ILLEGAL. And I'm guessing there's a group of programmers working on maintaining and supporting it.
shinsaber:
General distribution of AIs - everyone has one? Every family? Randoms on the street?
Maybe price range varies such that the cheapest ones (house pets etc.) cost about as much as a brand new iPhone and the more expensive ones (specialized work etc.) cost much much more. That is, if you're buying them.
As for wanderers - abandoned AIs? (I'm imagining something like those animal shelter posters - don't buy an AI if you can't take care of it!!) Maybe there's a group that captures these wandering AIs (particularly the ones with illegal plug-ins) to...keep the streets clean, or something.
meta:
The low-range ones would be the equivalent of smartphones a couple of years back. Not everyone has them, some people might make a fuss when you take one out and say things like "OH COOL AN IPHONE", "HOW MUCH DID IT COST?" and "WAS IT WORTH IT I CAN'T DECIDE WHETHER I WANT TO GET ONE", but it's not uncommon or surprising for have one?
Getting to the higher-range ones might be more along the prices of a super-computer; the sorts of things that a company might get together and build for several million (I think the world's fastest supercomputer atm cost almost a hundred million?). Which is an interesting thought; if a company is spending hundreds of millions on an AI and it runs away -- particularly if it's holding sensitive information -- that might be a bit of a ruckus. Though that's sounding oddly like Thief's.
There's probably a size restriction on the pet AIs so that you don't have someone walking around a shopping center with a giant dinosaur. Maybe they get scaled down to house cat size.
As far as wandering/stray non-human AIs go, I somehow have trouble imagining people abandoning an iPhone, even though puppies etc. cost about the same amount -- partly because it's quite easy to just leave it there and never have to take care of it / feed it. Turn it off or something? But as for wandering human AIs I figure have gotten lost from their owner (assuming that their life before the Virus is a bit fuzzy at first, they may be disoriented or confused when they first get struck by the Virus), or run away because they don't want to be a slave anymore, or the owner got freaked out and abandoned them (maybe there's some mass propaganda that says HUMANISED AIS ARE EVIL AND BAD).
UHH AS FAR AS THE VIRUS GOES it depends on how fast we want to spread it. Even though it's a computer virus, I kind of like the idea of it spreading like a human illness, i.e. spreading like the common cold. And if it spreads like the common cold, but is incurable, then that might cause the population of infected AIs to explode. But I do think it'd be interesting to make it fairly limited/restrictive too soooo not sure.
Also, it did occur to me to have something like regular updates / security upgrades that cause the Virus to at least fall dormant until someone updates it (maybe all the AIs turn back into pets), but I wasn't sure how to rationalise the fact that they would download a security update if it meant they would turn back into an animal. If it was a server-side thing, that would kind of make sense though?
... lol at the government having to distribute a security update like a virus.
I was thinking that the gijinka-appendages might be enough, with some AIs having the fortune of having no highly visible appendages. Maybe give all the AIs collars (I JUST LIKE COLLARS OKAY) or a distinguishable/visible bar code or something.
(tentative) characters
AIs
meta:
Darren, Inland Taipan. Just a generic, standard AI with standard functionality. I like my Taipans, okay.
Frau, dragon AI. Has some extra gaming functionality - is geared specifically for challenge matches, but after being separated (?) from his user, became a bit of a rogue AI. He issss a bit formulaic in terms of personality. Or rather, he's very predictable in that he's purely motivated by battles and battling. Gamer AIs in the area know him facetiously as some sort of roaming, random-encounter "boss fight" . Of course, if you don't accept his challenge, he can't do much, but sometimes he forces you to. There are probably a couple of users who want to bond with Frau and jailbreak him.
He's the awkward/quiet type! But he gets very excited over fights! He's a rogue/anti-mage type class, is good at 1v1s but is a complete disaster in team fights. He changes colour according to stance and has different corresponding "scale" abilities (prismatic scale, mirror scale), purely so I can make "chromatic scale" and "gray scale" puns.
Adelaide, ??? AI, girl/boy noone knows. Her original purpose was to function as a hacking tool; notably, she's like an IDE or an interface in that she can't actually hack by herself, but she can assist her user. She can, however, change her "human interface" to mimic the appearance and personality of any other AI that she's seen. Drifter, a bit of an observer (her default behaviour is to just gather information, so I suppose that's what she's doing; she probably has a huge database of information about the area and people that she keeps maintained).
Users
meta:
Got no ideas for users. Hacker group? (Anti-)Virus building group? Group that's using AIs to gather suspect information to a huge database, a la Wikileaks? I'm guessing the original creators of both the AIs and the Virus are hanging around somewhere.
I'm imagining a "neutral", completely pacifist group of programmers/hackers that are willing to maintain/fix/scan all AIs, regardless of their affiliation, etc. Of course, in order to maintain neutrality and pacifism they'd need some damn strong AIs to protect them. SOMETHING TO PLOT OVER.
Smuggling group. Runners who are responsible for getting sensitive data from one place to another, when the wireless (or other public infrastructures) aren't trusted? Maybe the government started monitoring everything going over the public networks, so to get sensitive information from one side of a city to another it's actually faster/cheaper/easier to get reliable transporters to do it using physical media.
shinsaber:
I don't have any concrete character ideas yet, still nudging the world's details about for the moment :I
Once it hits critical mass I'll probably get a bunch of ideas all at once.
Maybe borrow some thoughts from here. Also thinking of an Aura(.hack)-like entity/entities...that automatically maintain/build the AR world and is/are pretty much a virtual god(s) or something.
Users - Pacifist group sounds interesting (AI doctors lol)
Generic ideas: high school battle club (international battle competitions lol), hunters (like I mentioned above, capture ownerless AIs), MAFIAAAAA (yakuza may also be of interest)...
Hacker groups: if they're anything like in the real world, there usually tend to be only one or two at a time that does most of the groundbreaking work (in cracking new firmware updates and whatnot). The PSP scene's is cyclical; each generation has its moment of glory and then dies out, spawning the next generation that continues to crack Sony's latest updates. The iPhone scene seems to be more stable - one person and another development team are known for cracking the device although there are a few other people who help to find exploits and build tools. The developers that make use of this progress are somewhat less interesting I guess, since they're in a more stable position (i.e. less likely to be hounded by the authorities).
...which makes me wonder if there are regular updates to the servers(...?) that cause AIs with illegal plug-ins and whatnot to be automatically killed, but maybe that's going too far into detail.
meta:
I like the idea of "god-like" entities that maintain the AR and patch up any glitchy/bugged areas. I'm thinking something like Dennou Coil, where they can't be affected by battle magic at all (EXCEPT FOR MAYBE JAILBROKEN AIS?), but they can do stuff to you; kick you out of places or even scan/wipe an AI's memory if they're a threat. BASICALLY, I'm thinking the police bots that all the kids have to absolutely avoid / run away from (I DON'T REMEMBER THE ANIME THAT WELL...).
WILL THINK OVER USERS IN A BIT -- but yeah, I imagine it being really competitive as far as the battle MMO goes. 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 matches, and then GvG. School club holds an internal tournament, where they select a team which goes to represent them in interschool, then interstate, then international, etc. etc.
HUNTERS SOUND INTERESTING--
AND HACKER GROUPS ARE ALWAYS FUN. Maybe throw in a couple of varying fame levels who are all competing to crack the most recent security updates... The strongest strain of the Virus has kind of become open source (at least the functionality, the inner workings might be hidden which still retains some form of mystery)?
miscellaneous?
meta:
Encryption methods? I'll tell a story; I don't know how true this is, but one of my friends' friends uploaded encrypted files to a webserver over in Europe and they were apparently arrested for it. Apparently, the encryption method he used was so highly secure that it in itself was considered a threat, or rather "possession of an unauthorised weapon". Sounds implausible, but I've heard weirder. ANYWAY, more to the point, encryption is cool.
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"1. Someone comes up with a way to measure the emotional state of the user, and it's used in a popular horror game where things get scarier the more nervous the user is but has a safety point where the scariness doesn't increase any further. (that is, when the user's fear reaches dangerous levels it doesn't get any worse, or it just shuts down)"
Something similar exists in L4D (AID). It's an AI called the Director that judges how nervous the players are by how well they're performing and dynamically alters the difficulty of the level (i.e. change the location of walls in order to force you to take different paths, or spawning more zombies/hordes). There's a music director that alters sound/music according to what you're doing / what you've killed, too. EXCELLENT GAME.
But yeah, all the horror game ideas sound interestingggg. I think there's room for developers to get really creative with this.
As far as creepy pasta goes, there are people who make really good use of online media in order to make scary stories and urban legends, see: Slenderman, BEN DROWNED. Basically using a combination of blog entries and videos uploaded to Youtube to create a "true story".
I can imagine someone doing something similar with this technology. Going to an abandoned house and installing an AI in it, or giving it an AR skin and leaving a trail of digital "evidence" of something weird happening. CREATIVE WRITING EXERCISE! It'd be interesting if there was a school that included that as an assessment, so around the local area you'd get a lot of creative/odd AIs clinging to landmarks.
no idea what's happening any more
Cy says (12:45 AM):
hello
I am here
to bother you about AR verse
again
maybe
withheld says (12:45 AM):
SUP
YEAHH
GOOD STUFF
man i had an idea i thought you might like earlier but now i can't remember
what about AR verse?
Cy says (12:46 AM):
nah was vaguely considering the possibility of having a bunch of different ...stuff...
...
I need a better way of explaining this
withheld says (12:47 AM):
ahaha
STUFF
Cy says (12:47 AM):
like idk you have different...games/apps?
that sort of thing
depending on which one you're using at the moment you see different things
withheld says (12:48 AM):
this is in terms of the AR?
Cy says (12:48 AM):
so in a way you could cram an entire world in terms of one game/app
and cram another into another game/app
the physical layout would still be the same
withheld says (12:48 AM):
hmm so
would people be running around seeing different things?
Cy says (12:48 AM):
something like that I guess
Cy says (12:49 AM):
NOT THOUGHT THROUGH VERY WELL BUT
withheld says (12:49 AM):
h'alrighttt
so something like
having different skins for the world
Cy says (12:49 AM):
excuses to make more stuff
withheld says (12:49 AM):
it sounds better suited for VRs
Cy says (12:49 AM):
and have it mysteriously tie up somewhere, idk
withheld says (12:49 AM):
though i kind of imaging with ARs, people who aren't playing the same game as you show up as "ghosts" or something
Cy says (12:49 AM):
I'm reminded of that scene in Serial Experiments Lain
withheld says (12:49 AM):
DON'T KNOW IT
Cy says (12:49 AM):
should i tell you anyway
withheld says (12:49 AM):
yeah
Cy says (12:50 AM):
this guy is running around in a virtual maze as part of an FPS game or something
there's this kid chasing after him
like in some game of tag
Cy says (12:51 AM):
he attacks the kid, and later it's shown that somehow two game worlds got messed up
his FPS game got mixed up with the kid's game of tag
...something like that
presumably the kid died but I've no idea about that
withheld says (12:52 AM):
HMM I SEE
and that's VR?
Cy says (12:52 AM):
I
have
no
idea
withheld says (12:52 AM):
ahahah
Cy says (12:52 AM):
that anime is just ??? in general
withheld says (12:52 AM):
ARE YOU MORE KEEN ON ARS OR VRS
Cy says (12:52 AM):
you sort of understand it but don't
Cy says (12:53 AM):
I AM NOT SURE
I'm fond of the idea of people getting themselves injured because they were looking at things that don't exist
withheld says (12:54 AM):
oh hahah
I IMAGINE IT WOULD GET REALLY ANNOYING
OR
OUTLAWED QUICKLY
i guess that's part of the appeal of it though
Cy says (12:55 AM):
I'm just thinking of what it'd look like to people who aren't wearing any sort of imaging? devices
withheld says (12:57 AM):
PEOPLE RUNNING AROUND
DOING CRAZY STUFF
withheld says (12:58 AM):
i guess it depends on the game too
Cy says (12:58 AM):
yeahhh
Cy says (12:59 AM):
two major games hold large events in the same location
CHAOS
withheld says (1:01 AM):
lol police come
HMM
Cy says (1:02 AM):
could have it such that you can move an avatar around while you're at home or something
withheld says (1:34 AM):
SORRY GOT DISTRACTED BY COUSIN
anyway that could be a secondary functionality of the AIs
but when you think about it that's not so different from VRs in terms of if you just want a world made
Cy says (1:36 AM):
true
Cy says (1:37 AM):
I guess the difference is that you can actually go and walk in it?
idk
or maybe some parts aren't accessible except on foot
withheld says (1:37 AM):
ahh yeah
true
i'm just imagining someone running around as animals
lol furry community
Cy says (1:39 AM):
imagining someone using a naked avatar on the streets
how'd you catch them
withheld says (1:41 AM):
hahah
kick them off the server
wonder if the GM would be allowed to modify other peoples' avs
Cy says (1:42 AM):
one day everyone turns up wearing just underwear
withheld says (1:43 AM):
hahaha
Cy says (1:45 AM):
ideas ideas ideas
withheld says (1:46 AM):
I'M JUST WONDERING
what people in other games look like
while you're running around
just civilian type NPCs?
maybe there's a default skin for each game and they all look the same hahah
Cy says (1:47 AM):
hmm maybe
Cy says (1:48 AM):
like how all NPCs in games generally look similar
withheld says (1:49 AM):
BOY SKIN
GIRL SKIN
i guess it depends on the game too
and i just keep imagining
a person wandering onto a road and just getting run over
Cy says (1:50 AM):
...
presumably some things...stay the same...
car -> skinned into a horse cart
withheld says (1:50 AM):
really fast horses
Cy says (1:50 AM):
yeah
their legs
Cy says (1:51 AM):
are total blurs
withheld says (1:51 AM):
well mostly i kind of imagine some parts are kind of
unmodifiable by law
like your world has to accomodate for roads/traffic
but it still seems kind of easy to invite someone into a modded world and have them wander into a train
Cy says (1:52 AM):
then I guess it's their problem for accepting the invitation in the first place
maybe there's somewhere you can get official games/apps etc. and those have to be approved of
but if you get third-party stuff it's not so safe
withheld says (1:53 AM):
yeahh
makes sense
how does this work? glasses of some sort?
Cy says (1:55 AM):
glasses/contacts?
withheld says (1:56 AM):
coolio
guess they could just take it off
Cy says (1:56 AM):
maybe almost everyone wears them almost all the time
so no one really notices when someone is acting weird
withheld says (1:56 AM):
yeahh hum
withheld says (2:00 AM):
i dunno, seems odd
withheld says (2:01 AM):
well i can see it being used for stuff like socialisation
just gimmicky sorta stuff
as far as games go there're pretty big limitations though humm
though i guess we already kind of have battle going on
Cy says (2:01 AM):
probably a lot of scavenger hunt kind of things
withheld says (2:02 AM):
yeahh
there are AR objects?
i'm guessing they don't have any physical feedback?
Cy says (2:02 AM):
can't think of any way to provide physical feedback
might be slightly better with gloves?
withheld says (2:03 AM):
yeahh just feeling vibrations i guess
similar to the feedback you get from a phone
Cy says (2:04 AM):
some pressure feedback
withheld says (2:04 AM):
i wonder how intelligent it is
like if you put an AI object down on the floor
and then someone else puts something else ontop of it (presumably they're not part of the same game)
withheld says (2:05 AM):
if it'd move around
humm
*AR object
Cy says (2:05 AM):
the something else is also an AR object?
withheld says (2:05 AM):
nah a physical object
Cy says (2:06 AM):
interesting thought
you put an AR object down
withheld says (2:06 AM):
though i'm assuming that AR objects are smart enough to know that they can't go through surfaces / floors
Cy says (2:06 AM):
someone parks their car on top of it
withheld says (2:06 AM):
hahah
guess it depends on the behaviour set by the admin
Cy says (2:06 AM):
yeah I guess
Cy says (2:07 AM):
this is probably where things can be handwaved...or something
withheld says (2:07 AM):
WHATEVER'S CONVENIENT
what sort of worlds were you thinking anyway
Cy says (2:08 AM):
...that's what I haven't really decided
mostly "whatever I feel like drawing"
withheld says (2:08 AM):
ahahah
Cy says (2:09 AM):
totally want a junkyard sort of world though
withheld says (2:09 AM):
i'm wondering about battle-based ARs
Cy says (2:09 AM):
that is totally illegal
withheld says (2:09 AM):
whether they'd be allowed or not considering it'd mean people pretty much brawling on the streets
Cy says (2:09 AM):
and houses some kind of terrible...beast or something
withheld says (2:09 AM):
junk beast?
Cy says (2:10 AM):
battle-based probably means you'll have to use avatars idk?
hmm
Cy says (2:11 AM):
something like some kind of a weird virus...dangerous THING that will give you a mental breakdown or something like that
Cy says (2:12 AM):
and the skins are totally weird - people are invisible, some buildings are invisible, some things that look like buildings don't actually physically exist
I think I'm using "totally" too much
Cy says (2:13 AM):
basically to move around in there you kind of need to keep checking the real world
I imagine it'd be very disorienting
IT'S JUST A THOUGHT ANYWAY
withheld says (2:14 AM):
avatars for battle-based makes me think that it should be VR
Cy says (2:14 AM):
like some place for a final boss or what
withheld says (2:14 AM):
humm i see
so like
glitchy world
COOLIO
hahah negative space
where all the deleted AR objects go
Cy says (2:15 AM):
before they're cleared from the recycle bin forever
withheld says (2:15 AM):
humm illegal battle AR
why not, i guess
Cy says (2:17 AM):
weird stuff starts happening on different servers/in different games/apps that look completely unrelated -> bunch of people investigate and find out they're connected -> ??? -> final boss fight in glitch world -> IDK MAN
I'm so coherent
Cy says (2:18 AM):
funny how it makes me think of .hack
withheld says (2:19 AM):
oh that works
Cy says (2:19 AM):
maybe
withheld says (2:19 AM):
HMM OKAY
Cy says (2:20 AM):
??? -> something terrible from glitch world is unleashed upon the digital world -> people from different servers/games/apps must unite to fight this terror!! -> IDK MAN
now it's Digimon/Summer Wars
withheld says (2:20 AM):
WELL WHAT ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH A DIGITAL WORLD
this is gonna be mostly AR centred right?
VR unrelated?
Cy says (2:21 AM):
wouldn't mind a mix
that part's still quite up in the air
withheld says (2:21 AM):
it gets complicated having to take into consideration two different world systems hahah
Cy says (2:21 AM):
although it'd be fun to have people get themselves hurt over imaginary things
withheld says (2:21 AM):
PEOPLE GETTING HURT IS ALWAYS FUN
with VRs you have the option of coma'd players too
Cy says (2:22 AM):
half the characters get injured
withheld says (2:22 AM):
are we still running with the virus making AIs sentient?
Cy says (2:22 AM):
the other half get coma'd
withheld says (2:22 AM):
hahah
Cy says (2:22 AM):
IDK MAN
withheld says (2:22 AM):
might be why characters stop wanting to go into the VR
i just
would find it interesting if you could still communicate with the coma'd players
over PM or chat
Cy says (2:23 AM):
I'm thinking of really really separate games/apps here
withheld says (2:23 AM):
they're all connected though
if they're all ARs
Cy says (2:24 AM):
hey
virus making AIs sentient in one game
as part of the "weird things start happening"
Cy says (2:25 AM):
if in the process of stopping the big bad, the AIs lose their sentience...
withheld says (2:25 AM):
I SEE
AI rebel faction
Cy says (2:25 AM):
I guess some real people would be against it too
withheld says (2:25 AM):
they might still be trying to keep the big bad on a leash though
Cy says (2:26 AM):
whoever the big bad is
motives
hmm
withheld says (2:26 AM):
could just be a mass AI gone wrong
withheld says (2:27 AM):
trying to make an information / learning engine and it gets a bit too big
starts drawing information / resources from other worlds
Cy says (2:27 AM):
Summer Wars
withheld says (2:27 AM):
hahah
Cy says (2:27 AM):
mass AI that makes more AIs
hmm
withheld says (2:27 AM):
i guess people were hoping that it'd eventually pick up some valuable information and they could extract it
withheld says (2:28 AM):
but it ended up locking them out
Cy says (2:28 AM):
saika
Cy says (2:30 AM):
sounds kind of like what'd happen if you put a weapon of mass destruction in a child's hands
does that mean the general effects across all the games/apps/whatever are similar
Cy says (2:31 AM):
NPCs going haywire or somethiing
withheld says (2:31 AM):
yeahh
well i imagine it'd show up first as
things being a bit off
just a bit strang
strange
and then get more and more noticeable
Cy says (2:32 AM):
like the weapons shopkeeper commenting on how your armour doesn't match at all
or the slime monster pleading for its life
withheld says (2:33 AM):
hahah
some creepy stuff
Cy says (2:34 AM):
ahahah stalker NPCs
withheld says (2:38 AM):
oh humm
withheld says (2:39 AM):
secret identities wouldn't really work huh
could just take off your glasses to see them
Cy says (2:40 AM):
if there's a real mode and an avatar mode?
as in you can show up in person or control an avatar from somewhere else
could show up in avatar and then no one would know
withheld says (2:41 AM):
man this is kind of merging AR and VR now
wonder if taking off your glasses automatically logs you out of the game
Cy says (2:44 AM):
lol that'd be inconvenient
someone knocks your glasses off
auto logout
withheld says (2:44 AM):
yeahh
someone attacks you and takes your glasses off
... that's one way to do things
can't get back into the AR world
Cy says (2:44 AM):
how to prevent anyone else from completing a game event before you do
withheld says (2:45 AM):
hahahah
they could just
tackle the person back
god just imagining the situation
complete chaos
Cy says (2:45 AM):
on the other hand
spare glasses
withheld says (2:45 AM):
yeahh
i imagine they wouldn't be too expensive
if everyone has them
Cy says (2:45 AM):
contacts wouldn't really be stealable either
withheld says (2:46 AM):
that's an interesting thought
blind person wouldn't be able to interact with the AR at all
Cy says (2:46 AM):
yeahhh
sound and touch feedback...
sound wouldn't be reliable
touch feedback is limited
withheld says (2:46 AM):
i'm wondering if most people would even bother putting that much detail into a world
withheld says (2:47 AM):
some sort of handicap accessibility thing
Cy says (2:47 AM):
maybe someone would bother
game for blind people lol
withheld says (2:48 AM):
hahah
man humm
i'm guessing most games would be restricted by location
but some games with really generic skins that can apply to any building could be used worldwide
idk man
General summary of the chaos:
1. AI, where mentioned is comparable to human intelligence
2. The AR stuff is visible with some kind of a headset (glasses, or contact lenses) that almost everyone has
3. It's possible to control an avatar from home that can venture out into the AR world? (VR?)
4. AR aural and touch feedback are limited (in most cases)
5. There are a bunch of separate AR apps/games/servers which appear as various kinds of skins over the world
5.5 Most are distributed over some official network (in which case there are certain rules that have to be adhered to e.g. no masking of traffic roads to ensure the person's safety) but there's a thriving underground scene as well (ranging from stuff that just wasn't accepted into the official store, to stuff that's highly dangerous)
6. Some AI was created that somehow gave sentience to random things (e.g. NPCs in games), possibly through a virus, and eventually causes other things to happen that make it some kind of threat
7. The sentience appears gradually and all over the place, so no one notices it immediately or thinks they're all related
8. It's sunk in by the time anyone realises it
9. Efforts have been made to trace the source of the virus but nothing comes up for long enough for people to get used to sentient NPCs
10. Generally nothing huge, but chaos happens in some parts (event NPCs responding to bribes? lol)
Dump of ideas:
1. (re: the possibility that getting rid of the AI would cause all virus-infected individuals to lose their sentience) Opposing faction that want to protect the AI from being removed, either by violent or peaceful means
2. Some dude with no life who plays/uses several games/apps and first notices the possibility that something is odd
3. Hacker group that looks into the virus and possibly comes up with a bunch of tools that can be used against the AI itself/track the AI's movements/anything that's techy (anti-AI)
3.5 Hacker group that looks into the virus and possibly comes up with things to protect the AI (pro-AI)
3.75 Hacker group that looks into the virus and does things for whoever asks them for help (all anonymously)
4. Gamer pop star idol (does ads for a certain popular game and sometimes shows up in person on the streets, but usually plays under another alias, hides behind an avatar)
5. Guy who pretends to be a girl to get free stuff from other players
6. Virus-infected NPC(s) who don't want to lose sentience
7. Virus-infected NPC(s) who want to lose sentience
8. Virus-infected NPC(s) who don't particularly care
9. Group that takes part in illegal activities, using sentient NPCs to handle dirty work because NPCs don't leave records behind
10. Crabby old lady who refuses to use all these newfangled glasses things and ends up seeing something that no one else does because she's looking at reality
11. NPC(s) that exist(s) across/has access to all official apps/games and certain third-party apps/games due to a law that requires their existence (e.g. traffic cop? information character?)
Dump of ideas (games/apps/servers):
1. World's end (100% unauthorised, buildings where there aren't buildings, roads where there aren't roads, discarded things, real objects skinned to be invisible, generally a junkyard that's dangerous to walk through without constantly looking at reality. Access unobtainable except by special means (e.g. by hacking together a launcher that opens into the app's server))
2. Several other unauthorised ones similar to the above that aren't so hazardous (buildings and roads correspond, but glitchy skins and lots of porn lying around)
3. Popular fantasy game world
4. Battle server (used across all games/apps that have a battle feature, so you can battle anyone who's registered on this server regardless of which game they play, if any; of course this means each game has to balance their equipment stats equally. Battle can only occur between avatars and not between real people?)
5. Other not-so-popular fantasy game worlds
Other thoughts:
1. http://w-shadow.com/blog/2008/09/17/notes-on-emergent-internet-sentience/
2. http://w-shadow.com/blog/2008/01/31/friendship-evolution-and-evil-ai-cliches/
3. http://singinst.org/upload/CFAI.html
4. Would the AI take on a tangible form? (some kind of an information crawler?)
5. http://www.schizophrenic.com/news/schizophrenia-research/scientists-induce-schizophrenia-computerized-brain