Freezing Shadows, Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Interview 1

Harrison Reed, better known as HarryManGames, decided that this had to be one of the weirdest interviews he’d ever done. Sure, he was used to doing interviews not person-to-person, since he used a digital avatar to conceal his identity, but he was still doing all that in his studio, communicating through a normal online connection. That was just using a 3D model rigged to a motion tracker, like had been done for decades at this point.

This, however, was a full VR avatar, in a game world, and it felt real. Like he was really in this body. Honestly, if the game was like this all the time, he’d probably have to consider making a permanent character. The only thing stopping him was the fact that if he poured all his time into this game, he wouldn’t have time to do his normal game reviews. He’d have to pivot to being a Shadowmen-only content creator.

For now, though, he focused on the interview he was about to do. It wasn’t often he got to interview another man, for obvious reasons. Interviewing a gamer who wasn’t already a popular streamer was also rare. Combining the two? First time for his channel. Doing the interview in-game, because the interview target wasn’t scheduled to log out for another ten or eleven months? Unheard of.

Fortunately, MetaTech had prepared an appropriate space in-game for the interview, and given him time to adjust to both the virtual body, and the recording equipment he was using, including several camera drones that were flying in mid-air. Rig up a backdrop and lights, and done. Honestly, the camera drones were really intuitive, which made him wish they were something he could use in the real world.

The door opened, revealing an elf, judging by the ears. Something like six foot, three inches? No, in the game world it would be hundred and ninety centimeters. They did everything metric, for in-game lore reasons. Real reason was probably so that they didn’t have to change units when dealing with areas around the world.

Looking back at the man, Harry noted that he was pale-skinned, and wearing a black coat that looked like an old-West duster, pair of sunglasses, and was that a sword on his belt? Knives in his combat boots, too. Oh, and don’t forget the guns. He noticed at least one, in a shoulder holster, but he doubted that was all. Clearly, he was dressed like he would normally be in the game, not ‘cleaning up’ for the interview.

Harry took a breath, and said, “So, before we start rolling, how do you want to be addressed? In-game name, or real-life identity? And any choices on pronouns and other things?”

“In-game ‘street name’ is fine. Real names can be connected to things in this game, same as with the real world. And I’d rather not have stalkers, in-game or in real life. So, call me Iceblade, and he/him is fine.”

All right, this was moving into somewhat familiar territory, at least. He offered a hand, and said, “Not a problem, Iceblade. I’ve done interviews with gamers who wanted to stay hidden behind an avatar before. First time I’ve done an interview inside the game, though. And call me Harry.”

Iceblade nodded as he shook his hand. “Sounds good, Harry. So, set up and go?”

Harry waved a hand to the area in front of the backdrop where a pair of chairs were set up at a slight angle with an end table between them, with two glasses of water on it. Another wave of his hand, and his quartet of camera drones flew into position. “Thankfully, being in a game makes some of this a lot easier. We have a good setup ready to go here. We’re going to have Camera 1, there, getting the two of us in a nice semi-profile. Camera 2 will be hovering off to the side, focused on me, looking for the almost straight-ahead view. Camera 3 will be on the other side, focusing on you, same deal. Camera 4 is the floater, getting angles from behind, or other such things. All four cameras have microphones included, so we should be able to get good audio.”

“Sounds good,” Iceblade nodded, before taking a seat. Not exactly talkative, it seemed. Or maybe just nervous in interviews? Harry had seen it before in gamers and streamers. A lot of them were some shade of introverted when not ‘in character’. Even the people who never touched RPGs unless they were in a shooter and about to blow up a tank had a ‘game mode’ that wasn’t the same as their real persona.

Harry took his seat, and breathed in once. “All right, in three, two, one.” The light on the camera drones went on, showing they were recording, and he turned to look into Camera 1. “Welcome back HarryFam! This is Harry of HarryManGaming, and we’ve got a real special treat for you today! As you might have noticed, this isn’t the usual Harry avatar you know and love. Don’t worry, though, I haven’t been replaced by my evil AI doppelganger, yet! This interview is actually being recorded inside the hit new game Shadowmen, by MetaGame Productions! And with me is one of the rising stars of the game on the Seattle server, the enigmatic Iceblade!

“Now, before we get too far into this, we agreed to keep Iceblade’s identity off-line a secret. According to MetaTech, the guys behind MetaGame, there were some issues with girls who got way too thirsty and started stalking guys during the Beta, even going so far as to track them down in real life. Now, I know all of you in the HarryFam know that we don’t take kindly to such things here. Why? Because if you act like creeps, then the hot guys or gals (we don’t judge!) start hiding, and no one gets to enjoy them! So, remember Rule Number One of HarryFam: Don’t be a Creep!”

Turning back to Iceblade, he grinned. “So, Iceblade, why don’t we start with you telling us a little bit about yourself? Just what you feel comfortable sharing, of course.”

“Sure, Harry. Iceblade is my ‘street name’. Basically, like a codename if you were doing secret spy shit, or a callsign for fighter pilots, and things like that. I’m keeping the government name hidden, for now, since I’m allergic to stalkers. Makes me break out in gunfights, and no one wants that.”

“That brings up an interesting point. What do you think about the death rates amongst players, these first couple in-game months? From the numbers MetaGame released, there’s a 72% mortality rate for new characters. While that’s pretty low for your standard MMORPG, on a permadeath game like Shadowmen, that’s pretty damn high, no?”

“Honestly, Harry, those of us who were around for the Beta, like I was, saw this coming, and I’m sure the devs at MetaGame saw it coming, too. Part of it is that this game is unlike any MMORPG that has ever come before it. This is a living, breathing, world, and you gotta treat it as such. That means you can’t just run around, guns out, treating everyone like they’re loot and XP dispensers. You’re going to get yourself very dead, very quickly, and then you’ll be going back to restart, hopefully knowing how badly you fucked up.”

He paused for a breath, and said, “One of the girls in the Beta was a games historian. Shoutout to FlickerKat! Anyways, she came up with the term VRMMUSH, for Virtual Reality Massively Mult-User Shared Hallucination. And since I know you’ll be asking, back in the days before the Internet could really do more than text messages, there were these games called Multi-User Dungeons, or MUDs. Eventually, once the internet could handle graphics, they grew into what would eventually be MMORPGs, and then VRMMORPGs.

“Now, an offshoot of those MUDs, which were totally ‘run around and kill shit for loot and XP’ games, was the MUSH, or Multi-User Shared Hallucination. Those games were basically all about the roleplaying. You might not even have a real combat system in them. They were just there as a way for people to roleplay together.

“So, shoot it forward to today, and you have a game where, yeah, there’s combat, but the emphasis is more on roleplaying and living in this world. You only have one life per character, and high-velocity lead poisoning is bad for you, mm’kay? That means you gotta be smart, and you have to know when to fight, know when to run, and know when to let someone try and talk their way out of things.”

“VRMMUSH, huh? I like it. Going to use that on all the taglines for this game from now on. But going to something you touched on, you were one of the four men in the Beta, right? Anything you can tell us, from that time?”

“Well, there’s a bunch of stories, Harry, especially since some of the girls on the forums called me the ‘Mysterious Seattle Man’, since I was the only one of the four men who didn’t get identified. Some of those stories would definitely get this interview age-restricted, though, so I can’t tell you too much. I’ll just say that the game is very realistic, and you feel everything, just like it was in real life. But that doesn’t cover just the good things, mind you. Someone lights you up with a flamethrower, you’re going to feel like you got barbecued, and that shit is no fun, I can tell you from experience.”

“Speaking of the ‘not good things’, I know a lot of people have been wondering about all the warnings that MetaGame put on the character creation section, especially the big Immersion-Based Cognitive Dissonance Disorder one. Can you share anything on that, from your own perspective?”

“Sure thing, Harry. See, part of why this game is not your standard VRMMORPG is because of how they give you ‘flash memories’ and sensations based on your in-game background and body. Until you are used to it, and have practiced separating the ‘game you’ and the ‘real you’, then keeping as few differences as possible is a good thing. That’s why, during the Beta testing, MetaTech, MetaGame’s parent company, made sure everyone had access to counselors. Psych checks were part of the testing, to make sure we didn’t have ‘bleedthrough’, or other symptoms from getting too deep into the VR world. That’s also why they have the time dilation at a 2-to-1 speed in game. They tested at speeds up to 10-to-1, but that kind of speed was harsh on the brain for long periods, so they cut it way down. I think they found that the safe continuous immersion speed was at 5-to-1? Something like that, but they deliberately went well below that, because no one wants to risk problems.”

“You know a lot about the inner workings of the Beta, it seems. Did all the Beta testers get this information?”

“Well, it was all available to them, and I’ve been cleared to repeat it. Whether most of them read it or not is another thing entirely. As for why I know a good bit, and made sure to read it, that has to do with how I got into the Beta, actually.”

Harry leaned forward conspiratorialy, even though he had already been briefed on the basics. Showmanship was important, after all. “Ooh, secret story time! Please tell me it isn’t something so boring as you being the secret son of a VP. That is so last year.”

“Hah! No, nothing so spectacular. I actually got added to the Beta for Shadowmen because I was testing another of MetaTech’s products, concurrently. An unfortunate accident in real life meant I couldn’t walk. Lost both legs, just above the knee. Unfortunately, you know how tech in real life is. Can’t exactly slap a new pair of legs on if you bust up the old ones.

“So, while I was figuring out what I was going to do with my life, MetaTech reached out to me. They heard my story, and just so happened to be reaching the testing phase for the new long-term VR pod, based on their Valkyrie line. So, I help test out their new pod, make sure it works, and I get to spend my time in a virtual world, where I can actually walk around like a normal person. Obviously, I jumped at the chance.”

“Obviously. But what about the bit about making characters that aren’t your real-life sex or gender? You ever try that?”

Iceblade laughed at that. “Heh, well, we had to reset characters several times during the Beta, as they added new things and tried them out. Most of them, I just played it normal, but everyone experimented a bit. Wildest was when I did a big, three-meter-tall troll, with both sets of equipment, both ‘proportionally sized’. There was a whole team of us at one point, the ‘Hammergals’.”

“So, the warnings about IBCDD?”

“Totally justified. Don’t push it until you’re sure you know what you’re doing. And on your first ‘not like you’ character, definitely go to the counselors that the system recommends for you. Getting a bit of bleedthrough and trying to pull a gun when someone startles you in real life is one thing. Forgetting how to use your natural equipment is a whole different problem.”