Augmented reality
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.
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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
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Consider the idea of an MMO running on augmented reality technology. (assuming technology in the present day has advanced so much that this sort of thing is possible at reasonable running speeds and for some reason the rest of the world hasn't changed at all)
Something like Second Life, except it's an enhanced version of the real world. You can walk around in a (sort of) virtual world and interact (sort of) with virtual objects. It's not really a game, but well..some kind of alternate reality. It's weird to walk around in a neighbourhood you're familiar with that suddenly seems so alien.
Place isn't defined, but for convenience's sake imagine it to be Japan since uhh handphones can do everything there, short of being food. Plus Japan tends to invent strange things so this isn't that out of place.
Techy bits:
It's not the only AR MMO that exists in this world, but the most popular one. There are probably others that modify the world in some other ways (maybe one makes everything look like it came out of a horror movie, who knows what else). It's the most stable and has the largest scale of currently existing MMOs, spanning the entire country and still expanding.
It works like Facebook in the sense that it provides some basic functions, but a whole lot of what people can do in it (applications) is programmed by users. These include linking to email inboxes, accessibility from other electronic devices (cooperation with the MMO's creators on this one)(e.g. handphones, PCs), games (including a popular battle system)...such that it's become something that's in with the general population, most of them have access to the MMO, some of them treat it as part and parcel of daily life, and a large number of people don't really use it for the originally intended purpose of social networking but for the applications that give them convenience.
The equipment used for viewing the virtual world is usually some variant of glasses + ear/headphones. Presumably some people have invented some kind of contact lenses for this, too. (for those who want to be discreet I guess.) The world is basically unchanged except for overlays of things that exist only in the virtual world. They can't be physically touched and communication is still a bit clunky when it comes to talking to virtual entities- it wasn't intended to be possible, but someone came up with an application that allows one to communicate through typing messages to chat using a handphone. Voice communication is possible but people tend to look stupid talking to empty air, so that doesn't happen much.
Due to various restrictions on physical movement and space, after the idea of being able to access the virtual world through a computer/etc. came up, the creators decided it would be a good idea to make use of the sky to expand the MMO. Imagine floating buildings and things. They're not accessible on foot (duh?) so it requires the user to be logged in preferably at a computer terminal, though handphones work too. It sort of makes me think of Google Maps in much greater detail and covered in absurd things that can't exist IRL. In this case the person is represented by an avatar. Mashed together from the available presets or custom made from scratch. (People using AR appear as themselves with some indication that they're online so you can tell immediately in a crowd who's logged in...but names over heads are kind of overused and hilarious, so...I've no idea how to represent this. Mini-avatar sitting somewhere?)
GPS is used to align everything, the range of display is limited to outside areas (for the sake of privacy), places such as the insides of buildings are inaccessible to users logged in from a computer. AR users don't see anything. It's possible to buy equipment that can be installed to extend this range into buildings and other normally inaccessible areas, it's not so costly that normal people can't afford it but it's pretty expensive (think a few thousand dollars). There have been instances of urban explorers installing the equipment in hard-to-reach places so people can explore dangerous areas from the safety and comfort of home. Or schools having them installed in classrooms so people can attend classes from home, but this is rare (it really does look stupid talking to an empty classroom or having empty air go about the business of teaching, not to mention most people don't consider the MMO serious business enough to allow this).
Most virtual buildings exist in mid-air (aside from not having oblivious people stand in the wrong places, there's a lot more space in the sky) and are official buildings. Users can possibly build their own buildings but this is expensive like owning property (like in Second Life). Unofficial buildings tend to be for commercial purposes.
Applications...the most used ones (practically everyone has them) are: access to email inbox (with cute mini-avatar to deliver your mail to you), organiser, paint program (virtual graffiti!), battle system (an additional system that gives HP and various other stats to users, users can write their own extensions to define their attacks and whatnot, but can't be used with the AR system), bulletin board system (an object). There are shadier apps too. Generally the apps can be selected from an official setup (a site, maybe) but the shady stuff is passed around on P2P networks and download sites, wherever. I haven't thought of what shady stuff this can be, but they're either illegal or bordering on the illegal. (probably ranging from relatively safe things like porny apps to relatively dangerous things that can somehow be used to harm people)
AI, wherever it's used, is highly developed (enough to pass the Turing test easily, let's not consider the details of how this is done) so...yeah. It pops up in various little places (mini-avatars?) and can be used by people who want to create stuff, so not all NPCs are official. They're easily distinguished from actual players...somehow.
Possible stuff that could happen
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)
Someone introduces an unofficial patch/lets loose a virus that gets rid of the safety point. The more fear the user experiences the worse it gets and IT DOES NOT STOP. (I've no idea about a fixed formula to keep scaring people, eh. Presumably it works on the majority of the population but not a few who just...aren't scared of this stuff, I don't know.) It ends up causing people to die of heart attacks on the street, particularly at night.
I've no idea why they don't just take off the headsets- thinking perhaps the patched/infected game addles the user's mind as s/he plays it by some subtle method or the other (see: Neuro, the HAL arc) so even if they take it off their brains don't stop working. In which case it might not just be heart attacks, but also suicides here and there.
Uh, then mysteriousness surrounds the creator of this patch/virus, blah blah. Maybe it's not a person, maybe it's an organisation. What's his/their point? Haven't worked it out yet.
2. Variations on Hanako
This stuff started from a weird dream involving a creepy little girl. The only bits actually related to the dream are the creepy little girl and potentially dead people. I guess I was pretty bored in class and wanted to look like I was taking notes.
In this, technology is sufficiently advanced such that people can be automatically edited out of the field of vision and replaced by their avatars in real time. That is, when you put on the headset or whatever, you see people's avatars instead of the people themselves.
There's been some killings going on recently, they're concentrated in a certain area and accompanied by sightings of a young girl in a white shirt and red pinafore with her hair tied in two pigtails. She always appears to stand stock still with her back to the viewer (facing an inaccessible area like a bush or something) and doesn't talk. Your typical creepy girl ghost. It's become something of an urban legend that she kills people.
Curiously, this happens in-game, and she supposedly goes by the username "Hanako". Some people treat it as utter rubbish.
1. She exists as an avatar for a serial killer.
The killer is a man perhaps in his thirties or forties (assume the same for the other variations in which a killer is mentioned), and strikes in a certain deserted place (in dream place, near a lighthouse but I imagine it also as some deserted park area...). His activity is highly irregular and up until now he's somehow managed to avoid capture.
Possibly a deranged criminal who uses a knife.
2. She exists as an avatar but is not the killer.
Possibly the avatar of a highly eccentric but brilliant person who's doing his own kind of investigation. His appearances at potential crime scenes before anything happens (it helps that they all happen in roughly the same area) make him very suspicious, but well...lurking anywhere around a killer's favourite place makes that quite inevitable.
3. Hanako is Hanako. (or at least, who/what she appears to be)
She's the accomplice of the killer, adopting strange behaviour in order to lure victims.
a. She exists both IRL and as her own avatar or
b. She is a program that acts as bait, which would be creepier - a "ghost" user, which has all the appearance of being a normal player but isn't actually someone's avatar.
In this day and age, it seems even ghosts go digital.
4. Hanako does not exist and is unrelated to the case.
Quite a wet blanket, this.
She was the invention of someone who was bored or hallucinating and posted a "sighting" on a major BBS. It caught on and many people started claiming to have seen her. The sightings coincided with the location the killings were most concentrated, so the link was made.
5. Hanako does not exist and is related to the case.
Similar to the above, except it was the killer who spread news of the fake sightings, posing as several different people online to build his case for the ghost girl. It lures potential victims who are curious about Hanako's existence. The victims turn out to be mostly kids/teens.
6. Neither the killer nor Hanako exist.
This is even more of a wet blanket than 4.
The deaths are merely accidents blown out of proportion by the media's early reports. Even though it has since been corrected, a lot of people remain convinced someone is killing people. Hanako sightings spawned as in 4.
7. The killer doesn't exist, but Hanako does.
Similar to the previous, the deaths are just accidents (no knives involved, probably just fatal falls or what have you) and Hanako is a nasty practical joke by a few programmers who had too much time on their hands.
8. The killer is Hanako.
Or more accurately speaking, the killer is (indirectly) the programmer who created Hanako and placed her where she usually stands. The accidents aren't just chance, but effective ghost girl usage to lure people onto potentially dangerous terrain. Also the possibility of using her + some underground apps/viruses that may cause heart attacks.
Hence it's safe if you run away in the opposite direction when you see her. It's not a good idea to try to see her face.
The mystery could be easily solved by careful inspection, but no one's been that level-headed so far. (strangely enough.)
9. Hanako did not exist before, but exists now.
The urban legend existed long before the killer came along. He decided she would be a good cover for him, so made her exist(by any of the methods in 1., 2. or 7.).
Possibly uses methods that don't leave bodies and blood behind - vanishing the person, but somehow making it known they died rather than just missing.
Everyonen knows Hanako, but they don't suspect there's a real person abducting other people - they either think it's utter rubbish, or believed in it from the start so people randomly dying apparently because of her is nothing new. Quite like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
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ahaha, that still isn't very organised. I'm probably missing out on a number of things and I'm basically going on a detail spree with the setting. I've no idea what sort of people to chuck into it, I've no idea what sort of plot there can possibly be. Still playing around with the details, too. It's a weird mash of things I've seen before (thought it was very Summer Wars at first, then realised it's a lot of things) and might be pretty cool to experience IRL, except- lol I wonder when technology will be advanced enough to actually have this happen. On such a grand scale.
Going to have to draw this stuff sometime, it's hard to explain when I haven't got a very clear idea yet.
Refer:
ARQuake
Oz (Summer Wars)
Megaman Star Force Ryuusei no Rockman (sounds better, really)
Second Life