Long Island

Chapter 22: Dance of the Kraken

Please Note: Statements between % something in italics % are game system messages. 

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The class had just ended and Swamy decided to meet the head of the department Prof. D'souza. He needed to find a solution and that too a permanent solution for a simple problem. He wanted time off to attend the quests. The thing was that this would not be the only time such a situation will occur, that a quest is going on the same time as class. On the other hand, he could not suffer because of not attending.

With this in mind he headed towards Prof. D'souza's office. He knocked.

"Come in."

"Hello Professor. I am Swamy."

"Hello Mr. Swamy. What can I do for you?"

"Professor, I actually have a strange problem. I am playing the virtual reality game Long Island. Have you heard of it?"

"Yes. Oh and I am playing that too. Isn't it an interesting and fun game." He smiled.

"It is professor. In fact I actually came to talk to you about it. You see I have this quest, D+ difficulty, but the thing is I will have to take time off if I want to finish it. You see a battle is supposed to occur and it can happen anytime, during the day or night. I thought of skipping school, but I realize that such situations can occur in the future as well. This is why I came to talk to you." Raka said.

"Hmmm.. Yes I understand. You see lots of people had similar kinds of problems even in the past years. A major quest would require their non-stop attention and they would be unable to attend class. And as we encourage playing of such games, we very well cannot ask them to choose. A lot of things people understand as they get stronger."

"Ah so is there a solution to this?"

The prof stayed silent for a bit thinking.

"Mr. Swamy, do you know why there is a hunger meter or a satiety level in virtual reality games?"

"Um...I don't sir. I thought they put it in to make it look and feel real."

"Yes that is there too. But a lot of real things don't apply in virtual reality games. So why shouldn't they remove hunger as well?

"I don't know sir."

"You see Mr. Swamy, it is to remind you of the real world."

"Sir?" said Swamy confused.

"When you are playing, your brain-body connection is interrupted. Temporarily, your brain cannot receive signals from your body such as hunger, thirst, pain, etc. Body functions which are involuntary like excretion and urination can still happen. But voluntary functions like eating cannot."

"Ok."

"Early studies conducted to learn about human behaviour in a virtual reality environment found that, without these bodily inputs, people started getting too engrossed in the virtual world and started neglecting the real world body. All sorts of problems surfaced both psychological and physical because people would play for almost 3 days and then faint from hunger as soon as they stepped out into the real world. Or they would find that they have excreted or urinated in the capsules involuntarily. A famous case, which was never discussed in the public domain, was the story of a man whose house caught fire and he burned alive. His mind, which was still connected to the virtual world realized the signals of burning and pain , too late.

You see companies had to take care of a lot of problems in order to deal with these issues before a virtual reality world for the masses was possible. They instituted measures, like installing fire alarms in capsules. Or detecting capsule movement or proximity sensors which will warn if the capsule is moved or if someone approaches, etc."