posted 11-23- 08:44 PM               

The Game:
A WW2 air combat sim.
One connects to the massive server and enters the lobby. Here one can chat with other gamers in a VR club-house, visit stat-rooms etc. Then one decides to play. He selects his unit door and enters the game proper, in this case his unit's bar. In here, in first-person perspective, he can interact with any of his present unit comrades. He can leave the bar and visit any of the locations one would expect to find on a WW2 airbase. He can visit the hangar and climb aboard his unit's a/c, finding them meticulously detailed inside and out.
He goes to the briefing room to take part in a previously arranged mission. The massive server maintains a full virtual real-time world that models everything, cities, battlefields, targets, the lot. Elsewhere in this world, in real time, other simmers are engaged in land battles, sea battles and air combat.
Our pilot sits and absorbs the briefing...escort bombers to their target. Briefing over, the pilots walk to their a/c. First person shooter fans find the process familiar, others marvel at the freedom it gives...better than mouse-clicking from place to place.
He takes off, flies, fights, and gets shot down. Floating earthwards on his chute, he wonders how he will get home, so far behind enemy lines as he is.
He lands. It's around noon, VR-world time, so he has to get out of sight. Many gamers across the world like to play as rear-area troops, looking to catch shot-down pilots. Our boy hides-up, because he has to get to work in the real world. He selects 'Sleep' and prays his VR-persona remains hidden until his return.
The next few weeks of his game-playing involves steering his character across enemy territory until he finally manages to get home. Next time he will be more careful...flying is more fun than walking, though it is immersive as hell.

In this world, every unit has it's own permanent location. Some players are famous aces, be it planes, tanks or U-boats. Everything happens in real time, no micky-mouse half-hour jaunts or re-spawning arcade BS. In this world nobody wants to carelessly die because death means no play for six months.
Every tiny detail is worked out for the benefit of total immersion (I have those details in a secret file!).
This is my dream, one day we'll all be playing it for real. Roll on.

posted 11-23- 09:13 PM               

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silas

posted 11-24- 12:23 AM               

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Cheers
Kat out