The Board

In Firestorm Entertainment, the board of directors is meeting for their brief on their latest Full Immersion VR (FIVR) game.

A man in his late forties wipes his forehead with an embroidered handkerchief as he turns to the marketing head.

"Marketing, how are the numbers looking? I want this game to be trending on all major social media outlets and the pre-selection applications need to hit a record high. We have a lot riding on this and have no room for error."

The marketing head stands up and adjusts his glasses as he replies, "Sir, we are ready to open pre-selection applications for Sanctuary Annihilation today. Our marketing team has done what is required and has spread the word through all our major streamers." "We gave each of our streamers contracted under us 10-hour beta access to the game to show it off to their followers. The hype after these streams was incredible and the web traffic was record-setting."

He turns to the head of the table and points to a screen showing the website with the words "Sanctuary Annihilation Online" at the top.

"We partnered with IT and the website is up and running. Security is as tight as it can be. Our top people made it impossible to hack into so nobody will be able to manipulate the selections. We also set aside 500 of the spots for our top streamers if they wish to participate and spots for winners of the previous contests. Of course, we also set aside some of these spots for our whale spenders but, those spots won't be publicized."

The people around the table chuckle at the marketing heads comment.

"Out of the 24,500 remaining spots, 20,000 of them will be selected through the algorithm set up by your friend who introduced the game world to us. The remaining 4,500 will be chosen randomly through a lottery of the remaining applicants who were not selected by the algorithm."

The CEO turns to the youngest member who is leaning back in his chair picking his nails looking bored. "Jake, you personally went through the security script and verified the algorithm? Our friend will not tolerate any fuckery and neither will I."

The other members of the board shudder as they see their CEO's eyes narrow as he looks at Jake.

Jake nonchalantly sits up and leans forward while placing his elbows on the table. Completely unfazed by the CEO's demeanor he replies, "Yes, yes oh 'fearless leader', I set up the security script and double-checked to make sure the algorithm is entered correctly. You have nothing to fear."

Moving his hand under his chin to stroke his beard Jake mutters, "I thought I was one of the top coders on the planet but, that selection algorithm... I've never seen anything like it, let alone how the underlying code for how Sanctuary was created."

Jake sighs, "I wonder when we will finally meet your 'friend'."

A few of the others around the table nod their head to Jake's comment and look towards the CEO.

"The graphics and world feel so incredible!"

"I hope we get to meet this guy soon; I want to be shown how they created such realistic water and shadows."

Comments around the table pop up with other acknowledgments and exclamations on how smooth and realistic the gameplay looks.

After a few more comments the CEO smacks his hand on the table to gather everyone's attention.

"All right everyone. Let's get this meeting back on track and hold the side conversations. As I've mentioned before, the person who introduced the game to us and developed most of the concept is not willing to reveal himself for reasons I'm not able to speak on. Know that he has an incredible influence and if this succeeds, we will all be looking at a huge payout. I'm talking about more than anything we can imagine."

A look of joy and excitement can be seen on everyone's face as they exchange glances with one another. The only person in the room who is unfazed by the CEO's words is Jake who has a contemplative look on his face.

'I'm already rich being on the board of the biggest gaming company in the world. How money still can make these idiots smile like a high school boy seeing boobs for the first time boggles my brain. I'm more concerned about this mysterious 'friend'. Nobody else can understand it but, this new game world is some next-level stuff. I might have to use the backdoor I placed in the pre-selection and enter this world. I already have everything I want so any of the fallout will be worth it to experience this next FIVR world.'

The CEO gives Jake a quick sharp glance as if he can hear his thoughts.

'Our 'fearless leader' seems to be quite serious about this launch and seems to be more on edge than normal. I'll have to be careful when I make my move.'