A Story Idea
I’ve had an idea for a story for a while now that I think would be pretty interesting to write. In the future, a computerized virtual world would be accessible to most people like a utility, much like the internet. Users could interact with the virtual world like a virtual reality game, where your sight and hearing are tuned to the virtual world, not the real one. Its use has become so pervasive that people do many things in the virtual world that are currently done in the real world, such as playing games, meeting people, conducting business, collaborating, performing financial transactions, etc. People from all over the world can access this virtual world. Virtual items are exchanged between users in the virtual world and have real-world values according to average real-world resale prices.
It would be interesting to explore how loyalties, alliances, and power might shift and reform in the virtual world, independent of the real world. Most people from the same country share common feelings of loyalty to their own country. What if you and your next-door neighbor in the real world were secretly members of opposing factions in the virtual world? What if those differences had real-world significance, like support of or opposition to human rights or national sovereignty? Could virtual allegiances lead to a shift in real power?
It would also be fun to explore the role played by the organization, perhaps a company, that created and maintains the virtual world. Do users who obtain and possess items in the virtual world own them in the real world? Is the organization responsible for changes in property values due to changes in the virtual world’s rules or content? Should stealing in the virtual world be a criminal act in the real world? These are some interesting questions that game makers and players struggle to answer even today.
I actually cannibalized this idea for a short story I wrote for a fiction writing class I took last quarter. Instead of focusing on the broader implications of such a system, I narrowed the scope to focus only on two strangers who interact in the real and virtual worlds simultaneously without realizing it. One person is chasing the other in the virtual world. Eventually, they both realize who the other is. Then the other person chases the virtual chaser in the real world. I still haven’t come up with a good ending to the story. If anyone has any ideas, please post them!
Tags: economics, factions, game, story, virtual world
January 8th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Have you not heard of Second Life? And, although we all hope for new and more interesting societies in online universes, what little research I have done shows that society really just recreates itself online pretty much exactly as it is offline.
The ending of the story? Person A kills person B in the online world, and then person B kills person A in the offline world. Double murder!
January 8th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
It’s true, Second Life is somewhat similar to what I described. In fact, I titled my story “Second Life”, but only because I ran out of time and it seemed a decent title for it. But it’s nowhere close to what I had envisioned. For instance, you cannot steal property, or at least land, from other players. Also, I’m not sure of this and I might be confusing Second Life with another virtual world, but I think Linden Labs fixes the exchange rate, so there are no true market fluctuations in the value of its virtual capital.
That’s an interesting ending! I hadn’t thought of that before. I had wanted to keep the story somewhat anchored to real life and not let the real world action get out of control, but it’s a tasty idea to explore. Thanks!
January 25th, 2008 at 11:28 am
If you’d rather read it than write it, start with William Gibson’s Neuromancer. You can progress through his series as well as those of Neal Stephenson. The incredible thing about Gibson is that he composed his brilliant work in the 80’s before the internet was a word in common usage.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:53 am
It’s been a while since I’ve read Neuromancer, which I really enjoyed. I think I can remember the kind of story dynamic I described in it. I didn’t know there was a series of books. Are they all in the same Neuromancer universe?