Ember Wind: Online

Prologue of Technology

Richer Slavik was a great man, known for his many successes in the field of game design. The man went from indie developer to head of an international multi-million dollar gaming company known as "Brutal Warrior Entertainment". From slums to riches in only fifteen years, this man, his crew, they're the gods of their craft. No one could ever hope to surpass him and his achievements.

-Norwich Times, 2035

It was late in the evening in Tokyo, Japan. Richer Slavik, a man in his early forties, was heading a great gaming convention in one of the several capitals of game design. Richer was on stage alongside seven of his most trusted developers. It was his turn to make a speech and make a speech he would.

"Technology is a finicky thing. It takes a need or a want to produce something or make something better. I'm sure you all know of the first video game that was introduced in the fifties? Pong. It started one of the greatest trends in human history: the development of gaming.

"Come 1972, Pong was made and released for public enjoyment and it was a smashing hit. In 1975, the first MMORPG was made known as 'Adventure'. I'm sure you old folk, those who are much older than I, remember that game. From there, a couple of variations were made in the following years.

"In the eighties, researchers began to create the "Network of Networks", the original foundation of the internet. In 1989, Yehuda Simmons published Avalon: The Legend Lives which has seen continued development and support ever since. Avalon, while not the first Multi-user Dungeon, it has certainly set the bar for imitators. It was boasting never-before-seen features such as fully fleshed out economics, farming and labor mechanics, player-driven autonomous governments with ministers, barons and organization elections, a fully realized warfare conquest system featuring legions, battalions, trenches, minefields, barricades, and fortifications, as well as thousands of unique player abilities and skills. All of these neat little things formed the basis of Avalon's meritocratic PVP system. And guess what! It was based on skill-worth as opposed to the traditional level-based progression system favored by many other games of this type.

"From there, we know of the big four games: EverQuest 2, World of Warcraft, EVE Online and a fourth whose name I untimely forget, followed suit but even they didn't change the MMORPG field much. By 2025, most of the formerly mentioned games would close and be replaced by better versions.

"We all know 2010 saw a huge spike in interest for Virtual Reality as the concept of "Death Games" skyrocketed. The most notable being the Japanese anime "Sword Art Online" which seemed to set the stage for follow-ups and hundreds upon thousands of similarly styled books.

"As the 30's made their approach, dozens of entertainment companies, including my own, fought each other for dominance in the field of Virtual Reality as the subject itself became increasingly popular. Gaming was the dominant source of entertainment for most middle school and almost all high school teenagers unless my data banks got screwed up by imposters." Richer chuckled and sighed. "Look, I'm glad we've made it this far. Virtual Reality is no longer a dream. As part of this international gaming convention, all of us at Brutal Warrior Entertainment are proud to announce the next generation of Virtual Reality!"

From the ground beside him, a podium rose up with a watermelon-sized helmet with dozens of wires hanging from it. Richer picked it up and held it high for all to see. This convention was also hitting twitch streams, tv podcasts and the likes globally. Thousands if not millions had tuned into this event. The stadium was loaded with nearly two thousand people. Richer held this object high up with pride. "I want to introduce you to the General Terminal Ten! Or GTX for short. We've come a long way in gaming and from just standing there like an idiot with a TV on your face. Now you can lay in bed like a sloth with your brain in the game! This, my friends, this is the future of gaming!"

2040 saw the big breakthrough of technology. Brutal Warrior Entertainment, a company founded by Richer Slavik in 2020, released the General Terminal X. The GTX was significant in humanity's steps into VR as it allowed full immersion into a video game. Previous models required hundreds of wires and often medical supervision. The GTX changed that by removing almost every wire except for one. A singular wire would be connected to a neck piece, a stabilizer with electrode readers built in. These readers would recognize brain chatter to the body and mute it.

That wire and neck piece stemmed from the headgear. A large helmet would encase the entire head and with newly developed brain technology, the readers built in would detect, translate, read and write brain waves in milliseconds. The machine would forcefully induce REM sleep by overriding the brain. Once in REM, the game could be played lucidly by the user.

With the GTX on global markets, Brutal Warrior Entertainment sought out to make the biggest and best MMORPG to date. That game became known as Ember Wind.

However, there was one flaw to Ember Wind, the crew running the show wasn't big enough to handle the problems that would come with a global game, especially one with direct links into every player's brain...

There goes one more! Security Head, Bernard Benedict rage quits following controversial decisions in Ember Wind's designs. Down one more crucial member of the developer team, it seems highly unlikely that, even for Richer and his remaining crew, to be able to launch on time.

-San Malas (SM) Times, June 2041

Plagued with fatal errors! Ember Wind faces postponement! Things are beginning to look shaky for this still developing game but Richer promises results by his newly marked launch date in 2042. We can only hope that Ember Wind holds steady to everything Richer has previously created.

-Colworth Post, October 2041