1 Chapter 1.) Ender’s Playground
"Ender stop pacing, we've prepared for this, you're going to excel in there."
"I've practiced this speech over and over in the mirror, but now that we're actually outside these double doors I just can't get rid of this unsettling feeling of-"
The two were interrupted as they noticed the door they were standing in front of slightly crept open.
"Excuse me… Mr. Graff, the board is ready for you now," A spokeswoman peaked her head out of the crevice to say.
The pair began heading towards the doors as the lady pushed them further apart.
As they entered the board room they were greeted by a group staring intently at them. Ender scoured every corner of the room in an attempt to not make eye contact. His attention was immediately drawn to the numerous trophies strung along the wall.
Taking a deep breath as he stepped in front of the podium, Ender spoke;
"Good afternoon everyone, I am known as Ender Graff and this is my partner, Dr. Kirino. She and I are here to tell you all about a my dream, this dream of mine has been meticulously crafted over the last sixteen years.
We desire to create the most vast and detailed open world VRMMO-RPG game. One that will change the industry standard of the past two decades, one that will shape how full dive games of the future are made, and one that will still be played 20 years later."
Dr. Kirino gestures to the executives to put on their AR googles as Ender pointed to the empty wall behind him.
"One of more than 100 floors, with an initial exam required after completing the tutorial. And you can't move on to the full game until completion.
Of course since it's a role playing game there will have to an immersive character creator, but aside from just their looks players will have to choose a play style. When creating characters, players will choose a class archetype. Each archetype would have to be viable but balanced enough to institute diversity between players. At launch, we can have six classes to choose from; Mage, Illusionist, Slayer, Berserker, Medic, and Rogue.
Let's shift topics and take a closer look into the open world, the 100 floors will be separated in 4 different groups. Every 5 floors will be associated with a world boss, once the boss is defeated, the next 5 floors will be opened for exploration until floor 25.
There will be other long running things for players to do instead of always fighting, like getting jobs, playing games within the game, or participating in events when they pop up.
The NPC will be self sufficient and pretty much non intrusive on the player's lives. Near sentient beings that live their daily lives but also give player's optional and mandatory quest."
This was Ender's original pitch for 'The Playground' a game that had yet to be created or even given a name in the year 2121.
"I have been dreaming of a game like this for 16 years."
Ender was born in 2093 and was currently 28 years old. He quickly grew tired of the full dive VR games he played while growing up. And by the time he was 12 he'd come up with a new VR game idea of his own.
"And what do you believe would be the minimum production cost of this game?" Head director at Slender Entertainment questions.
"As a minimum I believe the cost would be $975,000,000." Ender articulates nonchalantly.
"My God, did you just make that up?" A man sitting next to the head director blurts out in shock.
"Oh no, I assure you, this is the correct amount for the production cost alone," Ender fires back.
"It's way past costly but I like it, I'll allot a budget of one billion dollars. Contact the Treasurer," the head executive says enthusiastically.
"We'll also need at least 450 people working on every aspect of the game in order to finish in the next 4 years." Ender adds
Three years later the games goes live for the first time on New Years Day 2124. The game was set to be released on February 10th of that same year but a tragic accident struck Ender on December 30th, as he underwent a heart attack, placing him in a comatose state. Saddened, Slender Ent. decides to release the game early in honor of Ender.
Vander Kirino, a 15 year old boy living in Saitama, Japan, gets word of the early release and checks online to see where his game currently is.
*Your package will arrive in three minutes*
When Vander, nicknamed Rino (for his last name), saw the location of his game he quickly put on his shoes and ran out the house.
'I have to get my game as soon as possible, I'll take this cut and meet the delivery truck on the back street.' Rino thought
"Hah. There it is." He exclaimed excitedly as he sped up to catch the truck.
When the truck finally stopped Rino caught it in front of someone's house.
"Hey old man, do you have my game?"
"Oh it's you Vander…" the postman says jokingly.
'Stop calling me that you old geezer.'
As he stands there agitated, the postman grabs his package from the back of the truck-
"Here's your game kiddo." as he motions to Kirino.
When Kirino hears the word "game" he immediately snapped out of his fiery state to accept it.
"Why do you still do truck delivery? Why not just let the drone do it?"
"This is one of the last neighborhoods that still do human deliveries, so it makes me proud
"Oh that's cool, well I'll see you later old man" Rino exclaims as he starts running away.
"Wow that kid, always moving." The postman states as he reminisced about Rino as a child.
Kirino was wondering why the old postman was still delivering mail to his neighborhood when the others neighborhoods had drones drop off packages. But he was in such a hurry that he didn't bother asking as he wanted to quickly get home.
He speeds home almost faster than he did while chasing after the truck. When he finally arrives, he runs into his mom in the driveway as she is leaving on Japanese government official business. Kirino is a Japanese- American who moved from America to Japan when he was eight years old. This was due to his mom working for the Japan Self-Defense Force.
"Vander grab these bags for me" Rino's mom orders.
"Ahh, but mom-" Rino exclaims tiredly
"No but's, I've already told you I was leaving for my Ambassador trip to England."
Kirino eagerly runs his mom's suitcase to the end of the driveway for the shofar to get.
He can't wait any longer, he really wants to play his new game.
"Thank you son, now I'll be back in 3 weeks, right before school starts back so wait for me okay?" Rino's mom orders
"Alright I'll see you soon." He says back
Kirino speedily took off towards his room, took off his shoes, grabbed his True Exper VR tech and laid down.
Entering the game into its socket he said…
"After so long, it's finally here!"
[Welcome to the Playground.]
