Chapter 24: The Wrong & Righteous

Sonsoft Studios - 46th Floor

Thomas Lanyard was having another bad day as he walked down the halls of the development department. His black hair was disheveled, his face wasn't shaved, and the bags under his eyes gave him a haggard look. Memories of the past two weeks filled his head as he looked down at the same slim-fit suit that he wore to the Challenger's interview. He shook his head in disgust. That interview had been the start of his bad luck.

When all hell broke loose for Sonsoft, they had sent Thomas to do damage control. Unfortunately, the damage, and the problems that followed, had already spread across the globe like wildfire. So by the time they sent Thomas, it was much too late. Lawsuits were a daily occurrence and protesters marched outside, clamoring for the game to be shut down immediately. The only saving grace had been the timing of the Ghostkilla broadcast and the fact that the entire situation was unprecedented.

Prosecutors argued for the victims that had suffered trauma and emotional scars. They claimed that such an atrocity shouldn't have been possible in the first place. Sonsoft's lawyers countered with cold hard facts. Since the very beginning, Chaos Online was advertised as a game that could provide an 'authentic' fantasy world experience. It had been repeatedly stated that the game supported independent, free-willed AI, and that there had been absolutely no restrictions to NPC behavior. They had created a living, breathing world fraught with every danger and peril that went with it.

Sonsoft argued that they had hid nothing from the players, and that all of the victims had subjected themselves to the environment while being fully aware of the possibilities. Inside the packaging of every Deep Dive is a user agreement that states that Sonsoft is not responsible for the actions of other players. Had an NPC sexually assaulted a player, Sonsoft was prepared to take full responsibility. Yet, the fact remained that every single case against them had been because of the actions of a human being, not an AI. Sonsoft claimed that their only crime was that they'd mistakenly held players, who were all 18 and up, to a higher moral standard.

After weeks of fighting in the courts, Sonsoft offered solution. While they couldn't do anything for those that had already suffered, they could implement a program to prevent further attacks within a week. The announcement took some of the heat off Sonsoft, but it didnt do much for Thomas' image. The repercussions of Sonsoft's lapse in judgment had even affected his personal life once he came into the spotlight. As the face of Sonsoft, Thomas had become a target for the all the hatred and rage of the victims while the rest of the world hammered him for answers he didn't have. With all the stress, Thomas was having trouble keeping his temper in check. He had been one of the first to start asking questions of Sonsoft. If they were going to throw him to the wolves, he wanted to be prepared, but the only answer he'd received was the same silence that had enraged the populace.

Thankfully, that silence would end today, and he would finally get answers. With his schedule freed up, he had time to go to the source. It was with this state of mind that he walked over to desk of one of the games programmers.

"Chad. Tell me you have good news." Thomas asked as he pulled up a chair from an empty cubicle.

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Chad, his favorite Japanese American and comrade in arms, turned around in his chair with a small smile. "I got good news, but I have bad news too. What do-"

"The good news." Thomas interrupted, God knows he needed it.

"We have an update that's going down in a couple of hours that should alleviate some of the problems."

"But not solve them?"

"That's for next week. We're releasing what we can right now to show the players and the public that we're doing something."

"What the hell is taking so long! This should be a simple fix!"

"We're being asked to create a program that detects distress and ill intention from players. You'll have to excuse us if it takes a while to translate human thought into code. Do you even know how long we've been working on this!?" Chad replied in frustration.

"I know Chad, is just...," Thomas sighed heavily as he pinched the bridge of his nose, "how didn't you guys see this coming?"

"'Don't start that shit! I wasn't apart of the roundtable of idiots who thought it was okay to have sex in a VR without taking precautions! I said we should push it back do we could set some type of safeguard, but all we got for our concern was deadlines. The fat cats didn't care!" Chad threw his hands up as he recollected. We covered our asses though, even if weren't the ones making the final decisions. The so called 'solution' that Sonsoft's been telling everybody about would be no where near finished if we started when shit went down. Remember the patch that stopped players from logging out in dungeons?"

"The patch that was released in order to stop the new players from dying so often?"

"That's being taken out since its part of the problem. Let the noobs die for all I care." Chad sighed as he rubbed his eyes. He couldn't even remember the last time he had a day off. "We were so close to finishing this thing under the radar. The shit hit the fan two months from launch. You know what happened two months ago don't you?"

"Todos declares war on Naleng..."

"Fucking Todos! They kicked in the front door with players right beside as they ransacked and pillage everything in sight! Thank god for guys that talk to the broadcasting stations. Cause if they had focused on what happened after the battles, I'd be looking for a job right now. And while the guys upstairs are popping bottles saying shit like 'War huh? That's so cool!?', everybody down here starts losing their fucking minds! Everybody starts getting on there phones to call home cause they knew, they knew right then that shit got real! We all knew it was about to be nothing but late nights and overtime until we dug Sonsoft out of their own fucking graves!"

Thomas just sat quietly while his friend ranted. Watching him rage was as gratifying as releasing his own pent up frustration.

"Now mind you, we all wanted authenticity. You don't like slavery? Grab your sword and shut down the markets. You don't want the army to pillage? Then take command and say 'That shit ain't right bro'. We wanted to draw out the hero's, you know?Yeah you do. You're a hero if I've ever seen one. But when they got the opportunity-"

"Players joined in instead of stopping it...."

"And when they found out what they could do in-game, they fucking lost it! Just like I knew they would. Jesus, man. Even I almost got caught."

"What!? When!?" It was news to Thomas. He did what he could to keep his guild members safe.

"That sadist bitch Longfingers and two of her goons cornered me in a labyrinth on central."

"Paradise..." Thomas grit his teeth. Not a day went by when he didn't hear the name of that cursed guild.

"They waited till I was deep in the dungeon and couldn't log out. I had to make a suicide run to the boss room..."

They both sighed heavily and went silent. They'd encountered Longfingers' handiwork before. She'd kidnapped players and NPCs alike for her 'fun'. Players were spared by the system after a certain pain threshold was reached, but not the non-player characters.

Chad leaned back in his chair after he recounted his narrow escape. Thomas changed the subject.

"Tell me about this program. How does it work?"

"We call him Jeeves," Chad said as he sat up and pulled up the information on his computer. "He's going to be Chaos Online's 'etiquette coach'. He'll hone in on a player's distress, then he'll observe the situation to see where it goes."

"So he'll just watched what happens?"

"No. He steps in before the situation gets out of hand. Worse case scenario, someone's clothes get torn. We have him observe so that he doesn't take action when he's not needed. Players are going to be in distress when they fight bosses, but we don't want him jumping into those situations, right? We've worked out what he needs to look for and when he needs to jump in, but that brings us to the bad news."

"What is it?"

"Jeeves can catch players who attempt to assault another player. Once they've been caught the first time, they'll go on his shit list, and will then be specifically monitored by him around the clock. The listed players won't be able to attack other players or NPCs after that."

"But the players who only go after NPCs fly under the radar..." Thomas had hoped for better results, but the players were the priority.

"For the most part, but with the update that releases today, our hunt becomes a whole lot easier."

"Do tell."

"We've buffed passive stats, and added an alignment system. The first tier is purely based off of behavior, so it changes often. Tier two is reached when a player exclusively performs certain actions and quests on that side of the spectrum, or has a high level of certain passive stats. Knights with high Honor will be Good, and Assassin's with high Kills will be Chaotic. I'm not to sure about Diabolical or Righteous players. I wasn't working on the third tier, so I don't know the details."

"Will we be able to tell them apart?"

"Yes. The second and third tier has benefits as well as cosmetic markers. Chaotic players will have neon red eyes, and black will look really dark on them. Think, abyss black. Good players will get perfect smiles. They'll look pretty boss in white too."

"Perfect smiles?" Thomas raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

"You know, like the toothpaste commercials."

"Why not eye color?"