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November 16th, 2007
...or wot I did for Halloween.
Borealis is a virtual city in the online world of Rubi Ka, home to sci-fi MMORPG Anarchy Online. As many of you know Kris DJs on a streaming radio station set up by AO players and they broadcast live from virtual shows and parties within the game (and have been doing for six years now) and I'm part of a group that help organise and support these onworld events. Anyway, I came up with the idea of doing something a bit special for Halloween - leading a party round the streets of Borealis, telling stories of ghostly happenings and gory deaths along the way. Anyway, the stories are all now up online:
The Haunting of Borealis - A virtual Ghostwalk for Halloween
Obviously I wrote these to be told in short bursts of text while "wandering round" the city, but I hope they also work as short stories - and I'd be interested to know if it's possible to enjoy these in their own right without actually knowing and playing the game.
Briefest of histories for anyone interested - the game is set in the far future, on the distant, semi-terraformed planet of Rubi Ka. There is a constant low level civil war rumbling on between Omni Tech (massive corporation) and the Clans (rebellious former employees), and fighting is fierce over who owns the rights to mine the wonder element Notum that makes all sorts of magic-like powers possible (think Spice.) There are also those who, either passively or forcefully, remove themselves from the conflict, and Borealis is one such neutral city. "Cell Scanning Technology" means that death is not necessarily final, as people can record a copy of themselves at Insurance Terminals (in opther words, you can save your game!) but this technology was a long time in coming, so many of the ghost stories harken back to times when dead really was dead (It's hard to write a vengeful ghost if the murder victim was back on their feet 10 minutes later!)
Either way, I wrote about 18000 words in just over three days for this, so I was impressed by that if nothing else (and it means some of these may be a little ragged round the edges.) But they're there for anyone to enjoy - or just to stave off boredom on a slow afternoon - and of course, as always, feedback welcomed!
(The figure in the picture at the start is Uncle Pumpkinhead. He's the Halloween mascot for Anarchy Online, and pops up during the spooky season to give out all kinds of creepy treats in game. This year, I made this puppet Pumpkinhead to take to Dragoncon with me, where he was oohed and ahed over by the game's creators. This Halloween, Uncle Pumpkinhead was giving out pumpkinhead dolls in game. Now, I don't know for sure that this was directly inspired by my real life doll... but it's a strong possibility, and as such I am well chuffed!)
Borealis is a virtual city in the online world of Rubi Ka, home to sci-fi MMORPG Anarchy Online. As many of you know Kris DJs on a streaming radio station set up by AO players and they broadcast live from virtual shows and parties within the game (and have been doing for six years now) and I'm part of a group that help organise and support these onworld events. Anyway, I came up with the idea of doing something a bit special for Halloween - leading a party round the streets of Borealis, telling stories of ghostly happenings and gory deaths along the way. Anyway, the stories are all now up online:
The Haunting of Borealis - A virtual Ghostwalk for Halloween
Obviously I wrote these to be told in short bursts of text while "wandering round" the city, but I hope they also work as short stories - and I'd be interested to know if it's possible to enjoy these in their own right without actually knowing and playing the game.
Briefest of histories for anyone interested - the game is set in the far future, on the distant, semi-terraformed planet of Rubi Ka. There is a constant low level civil war rumbling on between Omni Tech (massive corporation) and the Clans (rebellious former employees), and fighting is fierce over who owns the rights to mine the wonder element Notum that makes all sorts of magic-like powers possible (think Spice.) There are also those who, either passively or forcefully, remove themselves from the conflict, and Borealis is one such neutral city. "Cell Scanning Technology" means that death is not necessarily final, as people can record a copy of themselves at Insurance Terminals (in opther words, you can save your game!) but this technology was a long time in coming, so many of the ghost stories harken back to times when dead really was dead (It's hard to write a vengeful ghost if the murder victim was back on their feet 10 minutes later!)
Either way, I wrote about 18000 words in just over three days for this, so I was impressed by that if nothing else (and it means some of these may be a little ragged round the edges.) But they're there for anyone to enjoy - or just to stave off boredom on a slow afternoon - and of course, as always, feedback welcomed!
(The figure in the picture at the start is Uncle Pumpkinhead. He's the Halloween mascot for Anarchy Online, and pops up during the spooky season to give out all kinds of creepy treats in game. This year, I made this puppet Pumpkinhead to take to Dragoncon with me, where he was oohed and ahed over by the game's creators. This Halloween, Uncle Pumpkinhead was giving out pumpkinhead dolls in game. Now, I don't know for sure that this was directly inspired by my real life doll... but it's a strong possibility, and as such I am well chuffed!)
