Soul Bound

1          Soul Bound

1.2        Taking Control

1.2.4      An Artful Carnivale

1.2.4.38   Tomsk's answer

Kafana: {It’s been great talking with you, but I’m nearly out of time. You said a lot about the problem you see, but not much yet about a solution. Can you give me a quick summary, and we can go into more detail another day?}

Tomsk: {Those places that have lost trust in the state are not getting it back. Things have gone too far. We’re starting something new with the Burrow. For Wellington it is a means to let people have online privacy. For Bulgaria it is a way to let people learn how to think and communicate. But this isn’t just about narrative and hope and empowerment. We need more than words. We need action.}

Tomsk: {Solid tangible actions that make a real difference to people’s lives. Visualise a typical member of your village who may feel fellowship with others in the same village, but who doesn’t trust his own nation’s government, let alone multinational corporations. How can The Burrow put food on his table? Get him something meaningful to do that earns him money? Make his voice listened to by those with power over him? Arrange for fewer guns to be pointed in his direction?}

Kafana: {We can’t afford to feed everyone, let alone pay for health care and housing for them all.}

Tomsk: {We don’t need to. It doesn’t need to come directly from us, just as a shipment of food distributed by Robin Hood wasn’t grown by his merry band of guerrillas. All we need, to win their loyalty, is for them to believe that the change in their circumstances happened because of actions taken by The Burrow intended to cause it. Not impersonal actions - actions taken by someone they can put a face to, relate to.}

Kafana: {“Loyalty”? You’re talking revolution.}

Tomsk: {Sometimes that’s what it takes. Russia is the poster-child for doing revolutions wrong, for doing communism wrong, for doing capitalism wrong. Were I truly a suspicious man, I’d think there was a common theme there, somewhere.}

Kafana: {People die in revolutions.}

Tomsk: {People are dying now. Not all revolutions are bloody ones. Model your strategy on that of Vaclav Havel’s Velvet Revolution. Maybe Mother Russia can finally get things right, if the plan is clear enough.}

Kafana: {Even in the Velvet Revolution, some died.}

Tomsk: {Someone always dies. Is a life without hope of ever doing something meaningful even worth living? Those who fear too much are always prone to being bullied into surrendering their liberty, their dignity and their hopes. The question for you is whether you have the determination needed to see things through, rather than waste their deaths. If not, better not to start at all. But I think you do. True compassion isn’t a weakness - it’s a strength.}

Kafana: {You’ve given me a lot to think about. See you on Saturday.}

Tomsk: {Until then.}

Kafana: {‘til then.}

*flip*

She slowly sat upright on her arlife bed, the smells of the kitchen, the chatter of customers and the bright morning sunlight greeting her. What an exhausting day! Thank goodness tomorrow was going to be more restful - a day of fun with Alderney. A complete break from moral dilemmas and big decisions was just what she needed.

-- * -- * --

Later, Thursday June 8th, 2045

Subject: Womblemania (was: Torello (was: How did she do that?))

EtchiFan: Anyone watching Marian, over in Mezelay, attempting to seduce the Cardinal while disguised as a nun?

LeetL0rd: Yeah. But, like, just for the plot, man. I like the way Nevermere always stay in character. When you experience one of their recordings, they’re never thinking about arlife, or how to gain levels. You forget it is a game, and really want them to complete their diamond necklace quest, because they feel that lives and honour are at stake.

PetitJean (was: GentleBreeze): Why thanks mate, right kindly of yer. And hard it is upon Rabbie, Marian’s beau, to see her lower herself. She ought to be back in the greenwoods with us simple folk, not pandering to poncey princes in vermillion vestments.

GanTheGreenMan: Lots to do in the Burgundish woods. So far I’ve encountered were-foxes, invisible Lutins disguised as horses, horses transformed into shepherdesses, shepherdesses disguised as male knights, and male knights cursed to keep their helms closed until defeated in combat. Unfortunately my vessel got eaten by a beast near Gevaudan. I’d logged off for the day and the vessel wandered away from the camp I’d set up, to get more firewood.

T1ler: I suggest watching Hachiko and Friends tomorrow. He’s livestreaming a vessel-only event from Torello.

GringrisKhan: Oh, yeah, I saw a thread about that on the Burrow. They’ve got a template letter you can write to your vessel, equipment checklists and everything. It’s really organised. They’re meeting up on Libri, listening to a talk by vessel-Kafana, splitting into smaller groups for workshop discussions then heading off to do a quest together, followed by a feast.

GanTheGreenMan: Vessels can do that?

CassieCat: Oh sure! I’ve seen vessel-Tomsk out on a date with Columbina. Vessels can do pretty much anything you can do. If you get your attunement up high enough, they even talk and think like you do. I’ve got a pet slime monster, and everytime I log back in, I discover my vessel has taught it a new trick!

EtchiFan: Sense Recordings Or It Did Not Happen

GringrisKhan: You know the really nice thing about the Burrow? Discussion participation is only possible via tiara, so it can filter out replies from trolls who don’t mean what they say.

EtchiFan: You wound me, Gringris. I truly sincerely want to see Cassie doing things with her pet slime.

CassieCat: *link* just for you, Etchi

[...]

EtchiFan: I need eye bleach!

CassieCat: Did I not mention that slimes are really effective against zombies? That one was pretty putrid, though. You can tell by the maggot bloating.

GanTheGreenMan: Makes sense. Slimes have strong acid. And you say your vessel trained your pet to use it for you in combat?

GringrisKhan: It goes the other way too. My vessel was a lumberjack and after reading the ‘vessel attunement FAQ’ on the Burrow I discovered I could access some of his skills and instincts. I got better at moving about in the mists, which saved me from getting caught up in a counter-ambushed set up by YoDaddy for those fools from Storm Power.

T1ler: XperiSense seem to be putting a lot of emphasis on the vessel system. What do they gain out of this?

LeetL0rd: They want lock-in. By the time anyone else can launch a competing gameworld with the same immersivity, XperiSense wants as many people as possible to be emotionally invested in SoulBound. Vessels are the new companion cube. XperiSense wants players to weep at even the thought of ‘abandoning’ their vessel by leaving for a different game.

T1ler: If that’s what they’re after, why introduce this system only in Covob, which is aimed at western audiences?

LeetL0rd: I don’t know. Proof of concept? Maybe it needs the higher minimum spec tiara they specified for Covob, and they don’t want to lock existing players out of Morob? Maybe it would require too much altering of Morob’s backstory to account for it in a way that the NPCs wouldn’t notice?

GringrisKhan: That’s another thing that needs explaining. Why did they design it so the NPCs were unaware that they were part of a game?

LeetL0rd: Immersivity. It provides an excuse to penalise players for breaking immersion which, in turn, increases the ‘reality’ of the playing experience and gets us more addicted. Or maybe it made the procedural generation of the game world easier, by having each NPC write its backstory by living through it.

GringrisKhan: I think there’s more to it than that. For a company that loves shouting about its science, XperiSense have been very quiet about how the expert systems running the NPCs actually work. Have you ever met someone in-game, and not been able to work out whether they are an NPC, or an adventurer who has turned off all the ooc social interaction options?

CassieCat: Why would anyone do that? The game is all about making friends.

PetitJean: A friend is a friend, and any who won’t judge me for who I am can discuss the matter with my quarterstave.

GanTheGreenMan: CassieCat, with due respect to dedicated roleplayers such as PetitJean here, most of the people I’ve noticed trying to merge into the NPC population have been thieves or player killers. But that’s the point. You’ve no idea how many do it and don’t get noticed, because the NPCs are just that human.

GringrisKhan: Not human; very very advanced expert systems. As in on the ‘bleeding edge’ of technology. Too advanced to appear first in just a game, if it is just a game.

LeetL0rd: What, you think XperiSense have discovered a secret magic portal to an alternative dimension or an ancient alien gate to a star where physics is different?

GringrisKhan: Of course not; what do you think this is, an Isekai novel? No, I’m suggesting that the Sang Sacré release of Covob is, in addition to generating money by getting people to pay to play it as a game, also serving some additional financial, political or technological agenda that we’re not yet aware of.

LeetL0rd: If that were true and it mattered to them, no doubt they’d be paying issledovateli to make sure public discussions don’t reach productive conclusions.

CassieCat: T1ler, we should move this group over to The Burrow. Issledovateli have no power there. You also get free cookies. Tasty ones, that you can eat while you post. I made some unicorn shaped ones, with pink icing.

T1ler: Let me know when I can post to it from my phone while on the move or during a break at work. I can’t afford to risk wearing my tiara outside my home - too expensive.

CassieCat: *curtseys and goes to tell the Alderney*