The first idea was too create a small dialog to lighten on the hearts of men and women everywhere (children as well) and play with the imagination to further push the envelope of what modern video games shall be. As a written guide-line for the creation of the perfect video game. Before the actual bit of 'story' begins, there is the portion of digital orientation from a perspective that is not human.
Caste starts off pretty easy, the computer boots up the files and loads up the engine. A simple character selection screen that has plenty of options in figuring out exactly who the player becomes, is the first thing a player is introduced to. There is no 'press any key' or 'press start' menu. Straight to the point...For some reason every video game has that simple 'unlock the box' starting point. Few games take the player straight to the main menu, fewer yet to the character selection screen, and one or two take the player straight into the game with-out any interface (of course there's steam, and gamespy, and those kinds of things). Now the player has a few options in the game for what kind of character to have; Human, Android, and Ghost are the dividing characters, but the later two being omited from the selection menu and being exclusively available to players with the knowledge of them. Further the knowledge only comes from having learned about them via social interactions or other game based elements.
The human race is the one character which of course has the most diversity. The Android race is a bit more secretive and it would be a hidden race in the game that few players have access to. Androids have the ability to upgrade and have portions of their abilities to interface better with the digital portion of the game world (computer terminals, personal computers, that sort of thing). Much as the hacker 'out-fit' is to the human race. Ghost on the other hand is a race offered only after having accomplished the task of joining the church on the moon. Which of course wouldn't be easy because of the vast-ness of the game world and the complexity of the story. Seeing as this first part is just a hand and finger introduction, we'll move on from the descriptive monolog explaining exactly what each race is, as it could lead to a few hundred pages of explanations and systems, order and chaos. So the human 'race' selection screen has a bit of questions, such as; do you like out-doors or in doors ? Are you comfortable working with people ? How many hours a day would you work ? Do you prefer to work with your hands, feet or mouth ? Are you visually oriented or logically oriented ? Do you play sports? Are you artistically creative ? Do you prefer cats or dogs? Can you focus on a goal with-out getting side tracked ? What is your favorite color ? Are you violent, or do you run in a situation of physical jeopardy. All sorts of basic questions to figure out the players nitch in the simulated game world. Once the selection is complete there is a nifty bit of choosing the planet to live on. Earth is a planet fully controlled by mans desires for electricity. Climate and environment have both become slaves to technology and murder is no longer the worse crime a person can commit. Stealing electricity becomes the capital, grand, felony. Mars is the Earths new source of raw materials. Rich people move there to avoid the classes of people below them and/ or have acres of land to live on. To keep things simple. Giving that the game would be a simulation of planet Earth, Mars and the Moon, with all three in orbit. The gem of the whole game though is in the game engine which would have to support a constant stream of data from players and modifications to the game environment. Since at the very base of the game is a mining operation, the engine is required to allow players to destroy and build on a scale that has never been done before. Since there are 2 planets that have to be simulated, on Earth, weather as well as ocean tides, continental plates, wild-life, factories, electrical plants, train routes, airports, player and npc interactions, every blade of grass that grows and has been stepped on, meat farms, as well as plant farms, sewage systems, transit operations and everything that you know of in the world would have to be taken into a considered simulation. The idea of course is called virtual reality and today it is slowly being created. This may be one reason this game is not of the current generation or of any in the near future.
Apart from the complex engine that would create the world, there lays the problem in an animation engine that can depict the actions of a world so diverse. It would have duties of environment destruction, player modifications, plant existence organic matter, material matter, physics simulations, and many many little details. Take for example a simple drive to work on Mars (animations for getting in the vehicle animations for the vehicle as it interacts with terrain, dust, rocks being kicked up and interacting with). Than maybe a meteor shower occurs on Mars and damages the players vehicle launching the driver straight into flight from the violence of the impact of a meteor on a 'car'. After which, the player has to maybe crawl, and than begin to walk (or run) while navigating the rubble. Tripping over debris, climbing over obstacles all in a dust and ash cloud. The animation engine would have to work pretty hard to pull that off as if to seem the character controlled is actually living in the world and not robotically following commands, comically pretending to be 'human'. Other players around have the freedom to take advantage of the ash cloud before it settles, and may kill other players for their 'loot'. While others may want to aid their friends from wreckage and that too is a problem, for an engine to be power-ful enough to simulate a meteor impact on a virtual environment in real-time as millions of people are playing, calculating the physics of objects and every other aspect of the game, with-out creating any latency ? And having animations to depict some characters clearing debris while other characters engage in hand to hand combat.
It's damn near impossible.
So the introduction to the perfect video game is small. Mainly because it is realistic. The whole pitch to sell a world that doesn't exist to the masses becomes use-less for the next couple hundred years (technology of today is limited).In theory some of this is possible, with the proper scientific knowledge of the human mind it is possible to tinker with-in the brain and create false worlds. Networking a couple thousand brains together though, to share a 'dream' is some-thing quite out of a movie....One that had some-thing to do with robots enslaving humans for the use of their bodies as batteries.
All this, it was thought, so it must exist though, as surely as there are infinite imaginations of lives lived from deep in the infinity of the mind. It's now time to fantasize, and forget about video games. Here I ask that the reader has an open mind to concepts such as life-forms of other dimensions, reincarnation, and spirits. If only for the few pages that may be read.
The world of the Caste can be based on a tournament. The laws of which, state stealing electricity is capital, and criminals get sent to mine on Mars. The time spent is for life. Of course, there is the option of a death-match tournament which grants freedom from the mines. Every-thing is based on credits on Mars, and on Earth it is a mix of old currency, gold and credit, along with the barter system, the drug industry and the who knows who world of 'favors'. Because in the future we have eliminated, or attempted to eliminate all our problems, money was the first to go. Credits are not made, more as they are earned. Each individual receives an alloted some of credits every week, which is equal among all. Food has become free (kinda thinking about it, food has always been free, stupidity led to it having a price) but after the food market became an automated industry, and the quantity large enough that 30 percent of food actually recycled itself in the form of fertilizer. Farms grow plants in buildings as large as countries, the lighting is artificial water is sprayed every 4 days and it contains everything a plant needs to grow strong. Meat, is now non-living. Genetics have led to 'grape-vines of meat' which are hunks of meat that grow on a machine. Blood is circulated via a pump, and stimuli is given to muscle and fat to grow from a computer. It's all electric, and it's all digital. The chunks of meat don't respond to being cut, they don't feel pain, and these two are grown in giant 100 foot tall buildings, miles long. Each bit of meat looks exactly the same and tastes just as great. Luckily for us, this gets rid of the guilt that goes with eating meat and is now just as innocent as eating pineapples.
Jobs are created in almost every domain, but it's not like a job in the old world. Jobs here are more of a social interaction of like minded people, and considered tasks or choirs. A system, implemented hundreds of years ago, allows people to access information on available tasks than reap the credits for completing them. For example, there are categories: Food, Shelter, Cleaning, Repair, Mechanical, Electrical, Painting, Delivery, Management, Sanitary and etc. In each of these categories of course there are sub-categories. Every person has access to the data-base (they just punch in their social recognition number and hop in with a personal data-pad). A bit of an auction house, where the first 'buyer' recieves the task at 'auction', of course the 'buyer' can be replaced by a presidenting 'buyer' if the challengers has a ranking (so to say) of completion stronger than the first buyer (If a 'buyer' that has a rating of completion of 100% while the first "buyer" hours earlier has a rating of 70%, the 70% 'buyer' will be replaced by the other). Engineers and constructors earn the most credits as building, construction, and engineering are some of the most important aspects of a culture. Not music and art, not poetry and written stories covering thousands of pages just to capture the mind and throw out any accomplishment an individual can achieve. Tabloid gossip is for the petty, and exists as a service others make for others in a 'court jester' type of fashion, since credits can be transferred from one person to another, this is another way some people earn their living.
The world here is one that asks of it's people to progress. Yet the best way to make credit is through the tournament. The winner receives all of the losers credits, and belongings. Creating a market of legends that were and legends that are. A form of gladiators, if the Roman empire got one thing right it was the concept of a perfect apex predator. The arena is now what a high society social club used to be. Just as before, any-one can make their way in and redeem the benefits of a plush life. But now the club is focused on actions rather than words. Instead of caring for whom knows what about when, it is a matter of how many frags a person has from the tournament, it's a matter of how many matches they have fought, or how many championships they have won. Once a person makes their way in, the only way out of the circle of attention is by death, because once you fight and you win in the tournament you become as what the old world called 'a diva'. Sure, there have been competitors that have retired and lived their lives as if they never competed, but once in a while some-one always comes and asks this and that. Since the tournament is also team based, there are count-less entrepreneurs who try so hard or pay so well, that it is damn near impossible to stay out of the field of violence. Ya, sure, there are a few competitors that have had shameful wins, such as Ali the beek, Johna Whitefield, Pred Ferry, and the most repulsive winner of any tournament, Edward 'Deadman' Chillian. Edward usually ran away from any noise he herd on the battle-field. If he dropped his gun for example he would turn around, run, and hide. Even though the tournament has a no camping policy. Where if one player stays still for 30 seconds their location is noted to their adversaries. This cheeky bastard found a way around it. He saw his opponent, and started crawling on his belly. This meant that he was not standing still. Than he took a severed leg laying around, placed him-self in a bit of a hole, putting the leg in front of his face, and on top of his rifle. Now because both opponents were to close to warrant a camping violation. He simply pretended to be dead, than fired off a few rounds. But to make everything that much worse, he waited until his opponent was 5 feet away to make sure that the shots fired weren't a miss, or that's his explanation from an interview.
And than of course there is reincarnation. A part of life that has been long in question weather it truly exists or not. It has been 500 years since the first reported case of a true reincarnation. The death-match tournaments have been around for five hundred and twenty, it's pretty obvious that maybe this 'violent' way of living has had beneficial side-affects on humanity. There are stories of great juggernaught fighters who are believed to have been reincarnated, and with-in 20 years of their birth return to the tournament to claim their crown as champion again. Count-less times have these reincarnated souls held the knowledge of their past lives. One of the first reincarnations is Troi. Both times she was a fit robust woman, which helped her to convince the world that she was the same person on her rebirth. In her first life she lived on Mars, and joined the tournament to mock the inmates attempting to gain freedom. She was a daughter of a wealthy man. Had a set of blue eyes, with clouded bits of green. Natural red hair, and a good height of 5 foot 9 inches. Her tactics where barbaric she loved to go vertical, and in 20 of her 70 battles did she jump on her opponents from above (usually shooting them in the head on the way down, to avoid getting hurt, as she explained). Her team-mates were always expandable (they were more or less used to find out where other opponents where in the arena) so she was mostly seen in the free for all tournaments. She always stayed in the dark, walking slow, hoping in air vents, blasting tunnels, that sort of thing. Those she was known for her tactic of chucking hundreds of grenades, blowing many of the arenas from closed office building into open air spaces. Troi is one of the few warriors that has inflicted so much damage that arenas actually had to be rebuilt (some-thing only 4 warriors have accomplished until today). Watching archive footage of Troi in both of her lives, similarities in movement, gun handling gestures, tactics, and most noticeable her ambiguous habit of tossing grenades every 3 steps are shown to be in common for her. Interviews show her knowledge of past lives. At 22, after establishing herself as a strong warrior (again) she was interviewed saying "I remember my match against Jerry Oldert, it was one of the few times I had to kill some-one with my bar hands. It felt so good, there should be a hand-to hand death-match!". The match with Jerry was Trois second to last fight before she died (for the first time). A badly placed grenade knocked both warriors down, their weapons launched far out of reach and than in a paniced scramble they soon began fighting hand to hand. Troi was 4 inches taller than Jerry, but 20 pounds lighter. Jerry was a convict miner, hoping to win his way out, the fight was quick. Troi jumped on Jerry, and started pounding her fists into him, Jerry kneed her off and used his elbows to hopefully stop the woman from killing him, but she took those two elbows as she was getting off her back, and grabbed the same arm that Jerry used to elbow her with. Than she just pulled in his left arm, Jerry went from a crouched posture with his right hand on the ground to being in a full rear naked choke hold. Troi was on her knees squeezing the life out. It's one of the most memorable moments in the tournament (and one of the sexiest as well). She was questioned about every detail of every match, and remember damn near everything, a person 30 years younger, and 20 years after. That was the proof the world needed that reincarnation was an actual aspect of living. There are two statues of Troi in the warrior hall. The first life (the shorter statue), with melted marble eyes that matched the colors she originally had, and the second life 2 inches taller, blonde hair, brown eyes, a body built to describe the word beauty and grace, and a face that some-how looks back at you with kind-ness....Even if you were on her team in the tournament she would throw a grenade in your ass and start shooting at you just to get you to run. Some people argue that she was an angel, but everyone who knows how to tie their shoes admires her.
A reincarnated warrior is pretty dangerous out on Earth, because the only way into the tournament is to steal electricity and avoid police brutality, which is more often than not mortally threatening. Pride goes along way as well, the police believe in their power and always fight off the champions, mainly because of the idea that they killed some-one great. It's an Earth thing. It is a bit frustrating to live again as a small child, but there are options to the traditional, go to school, learn and than train while working kind of life-style that most reincarnated warriors go through. Some take advantage of their past knowledge and achieve high levels of scholastics, achieving certifications to pilot space vessels, train in the operation of digital electronics and usually stay out of the tournaments. There's been a few that have attempted the 'clean life-style' bill of life, but again ended up fighting and giving away their identity. Some reach the glory, than retire or train new warriors, while other die and are seen hundred of years later. Mallice was a funny case because he actually had to visit abandoned cities to retrieve documentation of his existence before. The story goes that at some bar some-where on Mars, Mallice was running his mouth about how great of a warrior he once was. A mine chief wagered him over some land and soon they came to an agreement where the mine tycoon would cover the credits Mallice needed to head back to Earth, get some equipment and than go all the way to Haiti and return with the documents. Because the way society works, Mallice would have lost everything and been forced into the tournament had he not returned If he returned without the proof he would have just lost his land and become a poor man on Mars. But the man knew where to look.
In five hundred years, there have been enough warriors though, and many stories to read about. But it's best to just sign up, go fight, and meet the people rather than talk, read or watch, about them.
If any guns are left on the battle-field they will remain there for-ever (or until some-one picks um up). Bullet holes, blood, gibs, everything remains in the arena. The only down-side is ultimately, dieing. Luckily there is reincarnation along-side the ability to walk away after a win or two. Since the idea originally started as a 'get out of jail' tournament for workers in the mine. A few interesting bits rose up to complete the life-style a player who is in the mines may face. First is the distinction that players get for working in the mines by choice and working because of a criminal act. Obviously the workers have the option of indulging in social life on the surface of the planet while the prisoners are kept, well in prison. Not a very good place to be if you have poor social skills, or a lack of physical talent.
Man-slaughter- This is the hardest death-match mode. The only way here is by killing other inmates. The title of 'Mortu' is given to the homicidal prisoner. It then pits 'Mortu' against another contender, who has the right to weapons while ' Mortu' on the other hand is not allowed to buy. There is another variable, that how many victims the 'Mortu' slained outside affects directly how many players are against them. That means that if you kill 5 people in prison, you have to face 5 fully armed opponents.
Rabbit- Is a deathmatch for some-one who 'accidentally' killed some-one in prison, or if they were 'Mortu' in a just completed man-slaughter match. They get a pistol, with two magazines, and face off against 4 armed opponents for every out of tournament kill.
White Rabbit- After having won a Rabbit match (the player with the pistol) becomes a white rabbit, and now he too is allowed to buy weapons. And they face off the same number of opponents as before.
Death-match- The classic 8-16-32 player match-up, free for all. If teams are allowed each player is allowed to invite as many friends as are willing to come, or adhere to the rules set by the majority. If it's in a tournament for freedom, there is no option to opt out.
