Disconnect

By Nicholas Shelton

Utopia. A new virtual reality game. So naturalistic, it could be mistaken for the real world. 

There were ten different worlds to explore. You could play as a soldier, warrior, superhero, knight, spy. You could fight magicians, aliens, zombies. Something for everyone. And everyone would play the game over and over again. It became a stunning success for its creator Prince and his new company Prism. 

And this presented a huge problem. Because the world was heading towards disintegration already. And a war had started between the real world and the virtual world. And the real world was losing. Many lost touch with reality and became addicted to the game, affecting their physical and mental health. This is where Rebecca and her catchers stepped in. 

And there was one special reason why the game had captured the public’s imagination. The prize. A promise of a permanent virtual life. How was that possible? How could you breathe, eat, drink, sleep? For those obsessed with the game like gaming maestro Blitz, they didn’t care. The risk was worth it. A chance to escape everything. And become King of this new world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Jan 27, 2025
• ISBN: 9781836287353

Book preview

Copyright © 2024 Nicholas Shelton

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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ISBN 9781836287353

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

I would like to thank my family and friends for their support. I would also like to thank the Arvon Foundation who have provided great assistance in the writing of this book.

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter One

Jesus said that the meek shall inherit the earth. But I think someone must have misheard him. For now it seems that it is actually the geeks who will inherit it.

Some comedian had said that joke at the warmup event. Except it wasn’t really a joke anymore. All those people you had laughed at at school? The techno wizards, the nerds, the brainiacs? Turns out they weren’t playing around. They were deadly serious for a reason. Paul Allen, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates broke down the door, and the rest of them soon followed. Now they were making three times what all the other graduates of normal professions earnt.

And it took time for people to realise that the world was changing around them. And if you didn’t learn this new way, you would be left far behind. Some resisted, and others gave up, but all would fall into line eventually. Older and traditional jobs, careers and lifestyles fell by the wayside, and some mourned their loss. They dreamt of turning back the clock to a quieter and slower time. Now forgotten and only remembered by a generation getting older and older. And the day that the memory dies? There will be no going back. Some went further and speculated that we will become less and less human, the more we allow the technology to take us over. And that will take us down a path which will lead to our own destruction. But nobody seemed to pay attention. They were too busy enjoying all of the wonders and delights of this new life to think of all of the consequences.

The Annual Gaming Business Conference. The biggest event of the year. And every company and organisation worth their salt was here. Because suddenly everyone wanted to get into gaming. Even if they didn’t really understand this world, they knew they needed to get some foothold in it. Although it didn’t take long for their competitors and consumers to see them for what they were. Fakes, fraudsters, Johnny-come-latelies, tourists. You could see them a mile away. There was a lot of negativity towards them, which they took with good grace. They knew they had time on their side. Sooner or later, buyers would come around. After all, they had the money and influence to hang in until it worked. And a lot of smaller and more established gaming companies started to wonder: What if they did get it right? Would it be the end of us? Or would they lose interest and find some other industry to go and ruin? But judging by the success of the conference, gaining popularity and coverage every year, they wouldn’t be going away anytime soon. All of those innovators who had changed the world. Now it was their turn to feel left behind as the revolution they had started moved away from their vision.

Can you hear that? The sound of someone trying to sell something.

The characters are utterly unique.

It is a beautiful gaming experience.

It is so close to real life; you can taste it.

Innovative graphics.

Absorbing non-linear narrative.

This is sure to be a classic.

Easy to play.

The intensity is up with the best.

Epic storytelling.

Amazing combat skills.

Each of them trying to tell you why theirs is the best. Some of them must be lying because they can’t all be the best. And trying to work out who was lying and who was telling the truth wasn’t easy unless you were very experienced. For the newbie, this could be a frightening experience. It was so easy to be pulled into the madness of it all. Everything moved too quickly to take time to assess what was happening to you. The flashing colours of every screen showing gunfire, explosions, fires, fighting, running, escaping, jumping and whatever else the game was doing. If everyone stopped talking suddenly, you would be able to hear hundreds of players tapping away at their consoles, keyboards, pads, joysticks. The sound of money being spent and more money in the future, keeping the gaming companies very happy indeed.

Are you winning, son? enquired one father to his child. His son didn’t respond. But the smile on his face said everything. Yes, I am winning, and so is everyone else. There was no downside to all of this. Or was there? Hidden deep within the halls, a few desperate voices were heard whispering, What is the next big thing?

In front of an expectant and bubbly crowd, Mel waited at the side of the stage. This was it. It was all down to this moment. She wished she wasn’t so nervous. The grip with which she held her notes had grown tighter and tighter. She scanned the front cover.

Utopia: The future of virtual gaming.

Mel scanned the title. They were pushing the boat out on this one. They needed to grab people’s attention. No one had done anything like this before. Not on this scale. This presentation had to be perfect. It had to set the standard for everyone else to follow. And where better to show it than at this conference? With everyone they needed to impress all under one roof. If they convinced them, the rest of the world would follow. She had spent two months prepping for this. Writing and re-writing the script until it was right. Selecting the right imagery. How best to present the information to an audience made up of experts but also those with little knowledge of the subject wanting to know more. And then there was all of the work on the games themselves. Months and months of detailed design projects. All of the testing. Original plans consistently altered, revised and put back together again in the hope of it finally working. Whilst all the time trying to keep it a secret to the outside world. Information was only relayed to the important individuals. The times they spent under lock and key because no one was allowed to leave until it was completed. Mel had wondered at some points whether it was all worth it.

Had they been kidding themselves all this time? Were they just chasing a fantasy? A dream? Something that couldn’t really be created? And it couldn’t be just them? There must have been other companies who had stumbled upon the same vision. Maybe some of them were here. Just checking out the competition. Not wanting to go first and falling flat on their face in front of everybody. That would be funny. Then they could just come along and pick up all of the pieces. You see? We didn’t make the same mistakes they did. And all the success would be theirs. But Prince had always said something to her over and over again. The way to win is to be the first. They are the ones that everyone remembers. No one cares who came second or third or wherever what’s-his-face turned up. We did something that no one has done, and nobody can take that away from us. That is where the real glory lies.

This presentation would be the litmus test for Prism, the up-and-coming gaming company that had taken the industry by shock and storm. And as a result, they had garnered huge success, a lot of press coverage, but also a certain amount of envy and jealousy. Some thought they were a bit too arrogant and had ideas way above their station. Who did they think they were? A lot of people were waiting for them to fall down. Some of them were in attendance today, hoping to be proved right.

Mel had joined the company two years ago as a PR executive. Now she was in charge of publicity. A quick promotion based on the skills she had demonstrated in the twelve months she had been there. But some people were suspicious that there were other reasons for this rise in power. She felt the pressure of expectations of this role.

Initially she had been anonymous and barely anyone had noticed her. Now all eyes were on her. And if she screwed up, she could take the whole company down with her. She felt the pressure weighing down on her shoulders and the rest of her body. She tried to calm herself down, telling herself she had done these presentations a hundred times before. She knew what she was doing. Just imagine the audience isn’t there. You are just talking to any empty space. Ignore any noise they make. It is unlikely she would be heckled. Usually the attendees would be very respectful. But things had changed over the last few years. You were never quite sure who would turn up.

Mel took a final gulp of water and checked her appearance in the mirror. She slowly stepped onto the stage. The music swelled, an upbeat techno track. The Prism logo appeared on the screen. A giant triangle with a rainbow shooting through it. A large applause rose up and Mel put her hands up to quieten them down.

"Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Prism’s promotional event. Now you might be wondering what new project we have in store for you. Particularly as we didn’t announce anything in advance of this nor advertise it in the programme. As you are no doubt aware, we have been very successful in the last few years with our fantasy game Dragonfire and our sci-fi adventure Deep Space Nebula. Both of these games have broken sales records nationally and internationally. The number one game in sixty-seven countries. As well as being critically acclaimed by all of the major gaming media."

As she spoke, images of these games appeared on screen. Mel observed the screen with some pride and satisfaction. She had been involved in the marketing campaign for both games and had gained a higher profile as a result of her work. There was some polite applause and a few cheers in the audience.

This has allowed us to financially expand our company into new areas. And we could have simply rested on our laurels and produced another similar game. But in the background, we have been preparing our new venture into virtual reality gaming. This is something that has been a long-term plan for the company. We didn’t want to present anything until we knew we were absolutely ready. We think this will revolutionise the industry.

Mel stopped to see the reaction to that bold claim. She had been wary of saying something so confident this early in the presentation. But Prince had encouraged her to include it. At least now she had their attention.

I can understand your doubts at this point. The industry has struggled to come to terms with producing a virtual reality game that is practical and convincing. There has been a huge amount of innovation in the industry. That has created a lot of expectations of what we can achieve. These expectations have rarely been met. Perhaps reality is too complex for us to copy. Perhaps. But we can at least try. But we accept up to this point it hasn’t really worked at all. The headsets were too expensive, heavy and cumbersome. High latency issues and delayed reactions to movements. Images that jumped all over the place and lines appearing across your view line. Then there is the small field of view, limited space to move, dependency on wired systems, etc. In our development, we have attempted to resolve these issues.

An assistant wandered onto the stage and put down some equipment on the desk.

First of all, we have the headset.

Mel went over to the desk and picked up the headset and placed it over her head.

As you can see, much lighter and more adaptable. We are using exactly the same technology, plus we have an attached microphone. We can now have the players use voice and speech controls. To either pick up things or use certain items. As well as the headset, we are using gloves with haptic feedback.

She put on the gloves.

They are connected to the headset to produce a more realistic experience. Now you can actually hold things and start to feel them as they should be. This is particularly useful when you are using weapons in a game.

Then she picked up some simple leggings and a jacket top, which she put on. She then attached the wires from these up to her headset.

This may seem a bit cumbersome but it doesn’t take long to set up, as you can see. But the advantages are there. Now by linking up the body to the main set, your movements in the game become much more realistic. We will also be using inside-out tracking. This will remove the need for external sensors and also be wireless to allow more movements in the game. Each player will be allowed to use hand and eye tracking. One of the issues we have come across so far is there is a slow reaction between a player’s thoughts and actual movements. Now this will reduce the time between these.

She picked up a backpack from the desk and placed it around her arms.

To back this up, we are introducing a backpack system which will be able to map out more physical space in the game rather than remain a stationary experience stuck to the size of the room and trying to avoid real obstacles. Now we can really explore more of the different worlds.

But finally and most importantly, we have been using motion capture that we have been using for our main games. Now, of course, I can talk all I want here. But it doesn’t really mean anything unless you can actually demonstrate it. We aren’t quite at the stage where I can transport what I am doing in the game. But maybe I can show something that we have produced before. So let me introduce a short video with our CEO, Prince Simmons.

The lights went down. The screen logo disappeared. Replaced by a blank screen and some chilled-out music in the background. Slowly the screen faded up, showing a beautiful beach. The tide coming in and out. The camera glided across the sand until it reached a group of palm trees next to a small hut. In front of it was a lounger, in which Prince was lying. He was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and Day-Glo boxer shorts. His sunglasses reflected the beach and sea back onto the screen. He slowly took them off and took a sip from a cocktail on the table. He fixed his look back into the camera.

I bet you are wondering why I am here. What is the point of coming to an exotic beach location to film this advert? I bet you can’t guess where this is. The Bahamas? Brazil? Australia? Thailand? Well, you would all be wrong. Because this place doesn’t exist and I am not here. You want me to prove that? OK.

Prince reached round the back of his head to seemingly remove something there. Suddenly, the beach location disappeared, replaced by an office that Prince was sitting in.

That was one of our newly created virtual worlds. Let’s go back there because it is a lot more interesting than this place.

Prince put the headset back on and returned to the beach. Mel scanned the audience to see the reaction to this. There were a lot of raised eyebrows and puzzled expressions. People weren’t quite sure what they were seeing and whether to believe it. Of course it would be easy to use editing trickery to create what they did, and she wondered whether the audience came to that conclusion. Back in the video, Prince stood up from the lounger and started to walk across the beach.

For those of you who don’t know my background, I started out designing games for various companies. Learning my trade. Developing my skills. I always wanted to run my company though. Why? More power? Of course. More money? Well, yes. Everyone wants more money. But it was more than that. I wanted absolute control. You see, I was never quite satisfied with the way my designs were used. I felt that the people running the companies I worked for never quite had the ambition to take chances. Always playing safe. I swore I would never do that if I was in charge. Now you can see that I am a man of my word.

He pointed out across the ocean.

"This is Utopia. It is the ultimate virtual reality game. Do you remember those old virtual reality games and worlds that they created? How we all laughed at them for being a bit crap? Very crude, simplistic, basic. Nothing like the sophistication of the games and videos we were currently playing. And nothing like the beautiful re-creations of the real world that so many movies were able to conjure up. That was my inspiration for the game. To reconstruct all those fabulous images into one game. Of course, when I say one game, that isn’t quite true. Not just one game, but ten. But they will all come under one banner."

Mel checked the audience to see their reaction. Ten games? That was crazy. But all under one banner? What did that mean? They would soon find out.

"The first game is called Sniper. You will be a Russian sniper fighting the Germans in World War Three. Behind enemy lines. Your task is to hunt down key personnel and take them out before they can damage your side’s chances of winning. You will have the latest technology and equipment to help. But beware, you are being tracked. Avoid being detected and deleted and you will return home a hero."

The film showed clips of the game as a soldier running through some woods to get away from the explosions.

"You have just a rifle and basic ammunition, some grenades and a knife for close combat. Anything else you will need to pick up on the way. Ammunition is key, so only use what you absolutely need. You need to hunt down other enemy snipers but also to destabilise enemy positions. Take care which ones to attack. Don’t take on too much, otherwise you will be overpowered and outgunned. Mainly played as a single player, but you can team up with another player.

"For those of you who would prefer something a bit more cunning, the next game is Deception. You will be a spy in Cold War Berlin. The wall has just been built. Hunting down other spies as well as reporting on suspicious activity."

Footage is shown of various people listening in with headphones as individuals in the room above them go about their business.

"Whilst all the time, trying to remain undetected from the other side. You can’t trust anyone. Who knows who they could be working for? This game requires more cunning and intelligence than most games. You need to hide your emotions and not give away your true intentions. Subtlety is the key here.

"Next, we have Lone Wolf. Now this is one that I am excited about. You will be a samurai in feudal Japan. Learn the ancient code of Bushido and fight amongst other great warriors in a different range of battles or one-on-one fights. Combat skills are key with this one. But it is also important to remember that the samurai fight with honour, so you can’t cheat and you only kill those who deserve to be killed."

The screen showed a samurai warrior walking through a forest, coming face to face with a violent attacker and fighting him to the death.

"Another game for those of you who prefer games that are non-combat and require you to think about characters, story and motivation. We have Private Eye. You can choose from a number of different cases. Find the stolen diamond necklace from the famous actress Melina. Solve the murder of the millionaire Batson. What about the insurance fraud committed by the Thomas family?"

The screen showed images of a private eye tracking another character across town and then hiding behind a box as they carried out a drugs deal.

"Or try and bring down the Redstone Gang who have been terrorising the city. For each case, you will be given a foundation of the world you will interact with and the dangers you will face. You can’t trust anyone in these places, but you may have to. Now we have another game which requires combat kills but also where you have to show honour and bravery. This is Avalon. You will be a renowned knight, part of King Arthur’s Round Table, and you will take part in jousting and sword fighting contests."

The screen showed images of knights fighting each other in hand-to-hand contests.

"But you will also travel to distant lands and take part in great adventures to capture religious artefacts and save any damsels that need saving. Then along a similar theme, we have Magick. Once again, set during medieval times but with a fantasy leaning. You will play a wizard, witch, warlock or mage, although they all have some similar skills. You can play as a single player or as a team. Learn important spells to use to protect yourself or your fellow Magicks."

The screen showed two wizards fighting each other using magic.

"OK. Now we go back to a simpler shoot-them-up game. And one involving zombies because we know that it is quite popular. Deadzone. A city destroyed. No life to be found. No real life anyway. You will play a soldier as part of a rescue team."

The screen showed images of a group of soldiers walking along a desolate city street.

"Your job will be to find any last surviving humans and get them out of there. But of course there is something lurking amid the ruins. What do they look like? You will have to wait and play the game first.

"So the last three games involve exploring different worlds and playing with extraordinary powers. The first is League of Heroes. Everyone loves playing a superhero, don’t they? You could join a special squad of superheroes. Pick a key power such as speed, strength or psychic abilities."

The screen showed a group of superheroes flying through the sky.

"Your job is to protect the innocent from a group of villains threatening to take over the world. But also you may decide to fight other superheroes for the right to be the greatest of them all. Then we have Neon. You will travel to an alien