Preface

This story began in another form entirely. I imagined a disabled veteran being offered the opportunity to test out cybernetic implants for the U.S. Dept. of Defense. Currently, there are several projects ongoing in that direction, for real. Which is no secret, if you pay attention to that sort of thing. So, my idea may be overcome by current events, if so, we’ll see where things go. If not, that story may eventually be told, in another form. At some point. Perhaps even as a part of the Linked Realities. It’s not like I won’t have plenty of room for something like that.

When I discovered the GameLit/LitRPG genres, I happened across what seems to be some of the best examples from that concept. The Land series, by Aleron Kong and Play to Live, by D. Rus being two prime examples. There are others, just as well written, but not many. Most suffer from several common failings, notably a lack of real-world consequences. That, and an unrealistic importation of current desktop and console controls into what should be an organic, realistic interaction with the Full-Immersion Virtual Reality experience. Why would a player be expected to ‘push’ a heads-up-display button to activate some ability or skill? The very idea sounded ludicrous to me.

From that frustration was born this story. RPG mechanics are intended to provide a framework for modeling what actually happens as adventurous people have ... adventures. They grow, they learn, they develop into something stronger or smarter or better in some other way. Or, they don’t. It’s the actual ‘doing stuff’ that drives the upward or downward process. If a person is interacting with their environment like it’s real, and receiving the benefits of doing so (like they’re real), aren’t they already ‘in another reality’ then?

And what’s the most powerful motivation for doing better? Pain/death avoidance. There’s a reason why nature (i.e. millions of years of evolution) have given humans the highly distracting, non-mutable pain sensation as a mechanism for making us want to not die. And if dying has lasting consequences (beyond not resurrecting/feeding worms for eternity) then we start to slide from a game-oriented storyline into ... something else.

So, while this story very much is not a GameLit genre tale, I do pay homage to those who have written such enjoyable books these last few years. You will see some RPG-type elements sprinkled throughout.

Below is a glossary of some races and terms you’ll see in First World. It’s by no means an exhaustive list, and reading through it may constitute some minor spoilers, but placing it at the beginning makes more sense, given how SOL presents its stories. Read further at your own peril.

Or, come back later, if you have any questions.

Your encouragements have really spurred me to stop frogging around and really try to get the story onto the screen. Thank you for that.

-the Mad Wolf

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