March 16, 2025
The Synchro Gear was unveiled to the public. What had been previously used for more private, secret projects was now unveiled to the public as a gaming console. It was truly the gaming console of the future. Single player games, multiplayer games, and even a few MMOs were all available for the Synchro Gear, this creating the genre of the VRMMORPG or Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Something that had previously only been seen in sci-fi based movies, games, and anime.
Among the first of these games was one known as Blood Blade Online. This game was revolutionary for a number of reasons, both good and bad, its good and bad lying in how realistic this RPG was. It had incredible mechanics and the combat was very intense, the Virtual Reality of the game allowing for realistic, yet epic, combat. Unfortunately the realism didn't end there. Every injury was realistic, with intense and real blood and gore.
This highly realistic game gave people nightmares, traumatized several, and even gave birth to a serial killer known as the Blood Blade Killer. As such, the company that made Blood Blade, Real Blade Interactive, had to initiate a massive recall on the game and pay out billions in lawsuits. Thus the company was forced to shut down and the VR Protection Laws that had been created. This prevented realistic blood and gore from being present in VR Games and also allowed various other laws to be created to protect people.
October 24, 2027
A new game called The New Gate had been released. This game took full advantage of the Synchro Gear's VR capabilities, creating a much more vivid world with much more realistic sensations. This was the game that was supposed to be the Crown Jewel of VR Gaming. Unfortunately this crown jewel was stolen by some horrible theves.
A terrorist group simply known as "Potential" had hacked the servers of the game and used that to take control of every Synchro Gear of every player, infecting them with a special virus. This would, upon command, make the wearer of the Synchro Gear brain dead by making it malfunction. This meant that if it was forcibly taken off or, supposedly, if the players died in game the wearer would be killed.
So 10,000 Players of the game The New Gate had all been captured, held hostage by this terrorist group since they could activate the virus at any moment.
Thus The New Gate had become a Death Game to the players within. If they beat the game, then they would be released. If no one won, then they would all perish. Of course, the Players in the Game thought that if they died in the Game they died for real. In reality, it was later discovered that Players would only die if either their bodies couldn't handle being in comas for so long, (so dying essentially left them completely unconscious, not dead), but if no one won the game then all of the players would be doomed to die or be left in permanent comas.
December 14, 2030
The New Gate Crisis had finally been resolved. A Player with the username 'Jin' defeated the game's final boss and cleared the game, allowing all of the players to log out. Only about a hundred or so players actually died, not the several thousand that people assumed died in game. Those who were in comas could be treated now with the removal of the helmets, except the about one-hundred or so unfortunate souls.
Potential's true motives and goals were never discovered. Many of their members had either vanished or refused to ever say a word if they were caught, many having killed themselves. As such, the true goals and motivations behind Potential's attack never saw the light of day.
April 14, 2032
A new Crown Jewel had been crafted, Soul Bound Online, and a crown that this jewel could be worn on, which was the Real Game Gear or RGG. Over the previous two years after the resolving of The New Gate Crisis the Synchro Gears had all been recalled, often enough people getting paid a bit more to turn theirs in since some weird collectors wanted to keep them.
Soul Bound Online was revolutionary, the Real Game Gear being vastly superior to the Synchro Gear. Its unique combination of puzzle solving, exploration, combat, and character building systems. Its reincarnation mechanic being very well taken since it made death very dangerous and allowed for some very nice character building opportunities.
April 7, 2033
Now a year has passed. Soul Bound Online (SBO) has really taken off, becoming easily the one of the greatest VR Games and even one of the most highly praised games of all time. Many more games of the more single/multi-player variety have been made and the RGG has been used for more than just gaming as well, having many different applications.
SBO is still quite popular, and thus copies of it have been both rather expensive and hard to secure.
So how will you traverse this world where everything is bound to the Soul. This game world is expansive and full of mystery, suspense, danger, and death; with many corners and caverns that are begging to be explored and discovered.
How will you play?
The visor like device is rather small and light. Its amazing how such incredible technology can be shrunken down to such a small apparatus. It was a white band, the part of the visor that went over the eyes being orange. The device did have a few small sensors that attached to the head when put on. All one had to do was close their eyes, press a button on the side of it, and say the two magic words.
"Link Start!"
With that, the consciousness would fade. When consciousness would be restored they would be in a black space, with floating screens before them. This was the Character Creation Screen, where you could decide your Stats, Arts, Skills, Character Appearance, Starting Gear, etcetera. There were many different options for customizing your character. While they weren't endless, there were many different combinations, too many too count within a short amount of time.
Once a person had created a Character they would be greeted with a doorway before them made of nothing but shimmering light. Going through it brought them all out into a clearing, and it was easy to see how much better the Real Game Gear was. The wind was like a gentle, cool caress across one's skin and the grass in this clearing was a vibrant green. It was pretty hard to tell that this was a game, the sensations of the world quite realistic in feeling.
The clearing was surrounded by trees, the occasional chirp of a bird able to be heard here and there. As a few other new players began to show up, their wearing of just tunics and pants and holding basic, bronze weapons was a telltale sign of their beginner status. The only way out of the clearing was a single path, from which fog was coming out, and next to the path was a weather worn sign, its letters looking as if they had been merely carved into the wood rather than written.
While the clearing was beautiful, the fog laden entrance was not. It gave off an ominous feeling, as if the entrance was trying to reach out to the very souls of the players within. The fog was chilly, yet silent, but seemed more threatening than even the weapons each player carried.
It was the only way forward. It was either that, or log out, but otherwise they would need to prepare, perhaps talk to one another and party up and then venture onward, onward into what was apparently a cursed, sealed world.
The Synchro Gear was unveiled to the public. What had been previously used for more private, secret projects was now unveiled to the public as a gaming console. It was truly the gaming console of the future. Single player games, multiplayer games, and even a few MMOs were all available for the Synchro Gear, this creating the genre of the VRMMORPG or Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Something that had previously only been seen in sci-fi based movies, games, and anime.
Among the first of these games was one known as Blood Blade Online. This game was revolutionary for a number of reasons, both good and bad, its good and bad lying in how realistic this RPG was. It had incredible mechanics and the combat was very intense, the Virtual Reality of the game allowing for realistic, yet epic, combat. Unfortunately the realism didn't end there. Every injury was realistic, with intense and real blood and gore.
This highly realistic game gave people nightmares, traumatized several, and even gave birth to a serial killer known as the Blood Blade Killer. As such, the company that made Blood Blade, Real Blade Interactive, had to initiate a massive recall on the game and pay out billions in lawsuits. Thus the company was forced to shut down and the VR Protection Laws that had been created. This prevented realistic blood and gore from being present in VR Games and also allowed various other laws to be created to protect people.
October 24, 2027
A new game called The New Gate had been released. This game took full advantage of the Synchro Gear's VR capabilities, creating a much more vivid world with much more realistic sensations. This was the game that was supposed to be the Crown Jewel of VR Gaming. Unfortunately this crown jewel was stolen by some horrible theves.
A terrorist group simply known as "Potential" had hacked the servers of the game and used that to take control of every Synchro Gear of every player, infecting them with a special virus. This would, upon command, make the wearer of the Synchro Gear brain dead by making it malfunction. This meant that if it was forcibly taken off or, supposedly, if the players died in game the wearer would be killed.
So 10,000 Players of the game The New Gate had all been captured, held hostage by this terrorist group since they could activate the virus at any moment.
Thus The New Gate had become a Death Game to the players within. If they beat the game, then they would be released. If no one won, then they would all perish. Of course, the Players in the Game thought that if they died in the Game they died for real. In reality, it was later discovered that Players would only die if either their bodies couldn't handle being in comas for so long, (so dying essentially left them completely unconscious, not dead), but if no one won the game then all of the players would be doomed to die or be left in permanent comas.
December 14, 2030
The New Gate Crisis had finally been resolved. A Player with the username 'Jin' defeated the game's final boss and cleared the game, allowing all of the players to log out. Only about a hundred or so players actually died, not the several thousand that people assumed died in game. Those who were in comas could be treated now with the removal of the helmets, except the about one-hundred or so unfortunate souls.
Potential's true motives and goals were never discovered. Many of their members had either vanished or refused to ever say a word if they were caught, many having killed themselves. As such, the true goals and motivations behind Potential's attack never saw the light of day.
April 14, 2032
A new Crown Jewel had been crafted, Soul Bound Online, and a crown that this jewel could be worn on, which was the Real Game Gear or RGG. Over the previous two years after the resolving of The New Gate Crisis the Synchro Gears had all been recalled, often enough people getting paid a bit more to turn theirs in since some weird collectors wanted to keep them.
Soul Bound Online was revolutionary, the Real Game Gear being vastly superior to the Synchro Gear. Its unique combination of puzzle solving, exploration, combat, and character building systems. Its reincarnation mechanic being very well taken since it made death very dangerous and allowed for some very nice character building opportunities.
April 7, 2033
Now a year has passed. Soul Bound Online (SBO) has really taken off, becoming easily the one of the greatest VR Games and even one of the most highly praised games of all time. Many more games of the more single/multi-player variety have been made and the RGG has been used for more than just gaming as well, having many different applications.
SBO is still quite popular, and thus copies of it have been both rather expensive and hard to secure.
So how will you traverse this world where everything is bound to the Soul. This game world is expansive and full of mystery, suspense, danger, and death; with many corners and caverns that are begging to be explored and discovered.
How will you play?
The visor like device is rather small and light. Its amazing how such incredible technology can be shrunken down to such a small apparatus. It was a white band, the part of the visor that went over the eyes being orange. The device did have a few small sensors that attached to the head when put on. All one had to do was close their eyes, press a button on the side of it, and say the two magic words.
"Link Start!"
With that, the consciousness would fade. When consciousness would be restored they would be in a black space, with floating screens before them. This was the Character Creation Screen, where you could decide your Stats, Arts, Skills, Character Appearance, Starting Gear, etcetera. There were many different options for customizing your character. While they weren't endless, there were many different combinations, too many too count within a short amount of time.
Once a person had created a Character they would be greeted with a doorway before them made of nothing but shimmering light. Going through it brought them all out into a clearing, and it was easy to see how much better the Real Game Gear was. The wind was like a gentle, cool caress across one's skin and the grass in this clearing was a vibrant green. It was pretty hard to tell that this was a game, the sensations of the world quite realistic in feeling.
The clearing was surrounded by trees, the occasional chirp of a bird able to be heard here and there. As a few other new players began to show up, their wearing of just tunics and pants and holding basic, bronze weapons was a telltale sign of their beginner status. The only way out of the clearing was a single path, from which fog was coming out, and next to the path was a weather worn sign, its letters looking as if they had been merely carved into the wood rather than written.
Welcome Wandering Spirits
To Enter this Sealed World, Cursed by that which created it
You must brave the Forest of Souls
Be Warned: Once you enter, there is no going back
If you are meek of heart, then return from whence you came
To Enter this Sealed World, Cursed by that which created it
You must brave the Forest of Souls
Be Warned: Once you enter, there is no going back
If you are meek of heart, then return from whence you came
While the clearing was beautiful, the fog laden entrance was not. It gave off an ominous feeling, as if the entrance was trying to reach out to the very souls of the players within. The fog was chilly, yet silent, but seemed more threatening than even the weapons each player carried.
It was the only way forward. It was either that, or log out, but otherwise they would need to prepare, perhaps talk to one another and party up and then venture onward, onward into what was apparently a cursed, sealed world.