'Eden Project' Director Unveils SimuNation, A Jaw-Dropping VR Simulation Game With Servers Big Enough For Billions Of Players
August 1st, 2030 NextGen Games Network
Ryan Carson Editor: Stuart McPhee
Last month, Gabriella Romero, Director of the Garden of Eden Project (GEP) currently underway in Iceland, hinted at a big reveal for VR gamers around the world. Today, at E3 2030, she has unveiled SimuNation: a jaw-dropping massive multiplayer online VR simulation game with servers big enough to support up to ten billion players.
If that isn’t impressive enough, the avatars of these billions of players would all coexist on the same sandbox world. In fact, to call this world a sandbox is to grossly understate just how vast it is. It is literally the same size as the entire Earth!
Players can only create one unique avatar. A combination of biometric data and other forms of ID will be used to ensure that each player only has one avatar which must last for life.
So what can you do in this worldbox? Just like in the real world, anything!
The ecosystem found in SimuNation is as diverse as the real world ecosystem. The flora, fauna and geography are all AI generated, which has allowed the folks at the GEP to save money on development costs.
Players start out with a randomly generated avatar – set by default to age 20 – or they can scan their own bodies and put themselves into the virtual world. According to Gabriella, avatars age in real time. Why include this unusual feature? She explains that SimuNation is meant to be a life-long game, so including real-time aging would add to the realism of the simulation.
But what about players who don’t want their avatars to turn grey and wrinkly?
Gabriella explains that in-game avatars have the option to purchase age-reversing genetic enhancements from doctors who specialize in the biotech skill tree. Of course, this option won’t be available unless another player specs their avatar along the medical skill tree in the first place.
So how many different kinds of skills can players acquire for their avatars? There are literally hundreds of skillsets that players can choose from, and each skillset can potentially branch into dozens of sub-skills. Some players may choose to spec down the engineering skill tree, which would enable them to craft tools, shelters, and eventually mega-engineering projects such as nuclear power plants and interplanetary spacecraft. Other players may choose to spec down the combat skill tree and become a deadly mercenary capable of wreaking death and destruction upon the denizens of SimuNation.
How does one acquire skills? The first option, and for early access players the only option initially, is to practice. All avatars start at a baseline. From there, they can develop their skills simply by surviving in the world of SimuNation. Crafting basic tools and clothing will develop the engineering skillset. Attempting to mend a wound will develop the medical skillset. Fighting with other players will develop the combat skill set, and so on.
The second option is to ‘learn’ from other players. ‘Learning’ requires one to sit down with another avatar for hours upon hours. Not very fun, but it is a much faster method of acquiring new skills than by trial-and-error practice. Fortunately, avatars only need four hours of sleep, which means they get an extra four hours per day to learn.
The third option is to read skill books. Players who have a lot of experience teaching other players will eventually unlock the ‘literacy’ skillset, which would allow them to craft skill books. Of course, crafting a skill book would require paper and printing technology, which means other players would first have to develop their engineering skills to make these technologies available. The benefit of skill books are 1) they can be re-used by other players, 2) they can be copied in mass and distributed, thus allowing many avatars to learn a skill simultaneously, 3) the wisdom and knowledge contained within the skill book persist even after its creator has died.
What does it mean for an avatar to die?
Avatars can’t ‘die’ in the traditional sense of the word because they can simply re-spawn later in the game (more details on how re-spawing works later in this article). However, death will set an avatar’s accumulated skills back to zero. For a highly skilled avatar who took years upon years of gameplay to build up, this can be a devastating blow. However, if the avatar managed to accumulate a vast amount of wealth, then he might have the option to purchase a cybernetic upgrade which would allow for instantaneous transfer of skills into his brain. By the way, that’s the fourth way avatars can learn new skills. However, this option will only be available late-game once engineering-spec’d players advance far enough in both the biotech and engineering skill trees to unlock the cybernetic crafting skill.
What are the ways that players can die?
Just like in the real world, players can die by not eating, drinking, defecating, or sleeping. Also, exposure to environmental hazards such as extreme heat or cold can cause death. Players can also die of disease. Being attacked by other players or the game’s fauna can also cause death.
Are environments destructible?
Oh yeah. In late game scenarios, it is possible to lob nuclear weapons around the world, and these weapons will leave craters and pockets of radiation.
What is the objective of this game?
Short answer. It’s a sandbox style simulation game that allows you to do anything. Find your own purpose in this game, just like in real life!
Long answer. In early game, players will struggle just to survive. If cold or starvation doesn’t kill them, the predators that lurk in the forest surely will. Once players advance far enough and band together to form stable societies, survival should become a lot easier. The drawback to living in a stable society is that players will begin to question their avatar’s purpose in the game. Perhaps a player might decide that he wants his avatar to become a highly skilled architect who aspires to build SimuNation’s first skyscraper. This would surely gain the player much praise and respect from all the other players. Or perhaps a player might only be interested in socializing with other players. The fact that this is a simulation might encourage a player who is shy in real life to boldly stride up to the girl of his dreams and talk to her. If that doesn’t work, the player can build up his avatar’s wealth, purchase various cosmetic upgrades, and zip around in a fancy sports car to attract female companions. Certain other players might have conquest in their hearts, and they’ll rise up to become bloodthirsty warlords. You choose how you want to play the game.
Will SimuNation’s developers police the sandbox world to make sure players ‘play fairly?’
Other than monitoring the server for hackers and for those who use bots or cheat codes, the developers will take a hands-off approach. Yes, certain players may decide to play the game by going around murdering avatars for fun. The game equips others players with the means to deal with such murder hobos. Avatars who die can only re-spawn if their corpses are given a proper burial or cremation. Avatars that go on a killing spree may well find themselves hunted down and killed, and their corpses locked away in a tower where they will never re-spawn.
The ‘ghost’ of a murderous avatar may continue to haunt the area where he died as well as the area where his corpse is located. He can only be seen, and barely so, by players who spec into their ‘third eye’. Ghosts can exert some minor influence over the game world, initially. For example, they can alter the temperature, exert a miniscule amount of kinetic force upon objects, and distort the lighting in the area. By doing these things, a ghost can inflict psychological horror upon living avatars, which would cause players to temporarily lose control of their avatars. Ghosts can level up their abilities by continuously haunting a site and inflicting horror upon living avatars. Highly skilled ghosts can cause minor health damage to living avatars, and highest tier ghosts can possess weaker willed avatars. The more experience a ghost has possessing avatars, the longer the ghost will be able to maintain possession (which also depends on the victim’s resistance to fear, strength of will etc). Possessing an avatar is the only way a ghost can escape the area to which he is locked, and losing possession of an avatar will set the ghost back to his usual haunt sites.
*Important note: As a ghost can haunt the area where his corpse is located, chopping up the corpse and scattering it in many directions will allow the ghost to haunt multiple locations!
So how will you play this game? Will you play as a multi-trillionaire entrepreneur who will build a fleet of spaceships and lead humanity to Mars? Or will you play as a serial killer who sneaks around in search of the perfect victim – avatars who have spent years building up their skillsets only to be ended by you? Or maybe you want to play as a malevolent spirit, unable to re-spawn, stewing in rage, and itching to get back into the game… and the only way you can do it is by possessing a naïve and weak-willed avatar. The choice is yours. Welcome to SimuNation.
The above is a work of fiction. Any similarities to persons, places or events are entirely coincidental.
This article is part of an ongoing 'Onion-style' news posts where I will provide the backstory to my novel, Red Eden: Homeworld Bound. If the backstory has you intrigued, please support me by clicking here and purchasing my novel on Amazon.com.
Cheers!
Michael E. Vigil