[Open] It's a lovely day for a game

[decoyhero]

Who: Jack (decoyhero) & OPEN
When: 8/12
Where: ViViD
What: Testing out the various delightful experiences ViViD has to offer.
Rating/Warning: None yet, although I'm anticipating comic mischief, mild swearing, and possible violence. Will edit as changes occur!

[CHOOSE YOUR ADVENTURE]

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SURVIVAL SIM // CO-OP

...//You are shipwrecked on a deserted island with nothing but the clothes on your back and whatever amount of wit you possess. There are plenty of resources available for the harvesting - berries, rabbits, heck, even the flowers are edible in a pinch. A deep gloom hangs over the island, however, even during daylight hours. Somehow, you get the feeling you don't want to be without a light source after the sun goes down. Can you find enough to eat, locate a suitable shelter, and gather enough resources to keep your campfire going before dark?

CO-OP: Work together to gather resources, cook dinner, and survive the night!

PLATFORMER // CO-OP

...//You find yourself the star performer in a theater filled with a myriad of intricate, maze-like death-traps. Your mission is to use your wits and acrobatic prowess to leap, climb, drop, and cartwheel to safety within the allotted time-frame. If you perform well, and collect enough of the secret tokens hidden throughout the level, you will advance to the next stage. If you perform badly, you'll have to try again. The only way out is by advancing forward, so failure is not an option!

CO-OP: Help your partner leap, climb, drop, and cartwheel to safety! The odds of beating the stage within the allotted time are much better with a friend.

FPS // CO-OP

...//A mystery lurks in an abandoned underwater city. The citizens are gone - fled, dead, or worse. Those who remain are mindlessly antagonistic, drug addicts whose humanity has sloughed away in the face of their addiction; they are mere shells of the people they once were, and they won't abide your trespassing. Your only option is to kill or be killed as you advance through partially flooded buildings, abandoned shopping malls, and empty city streets. There are a plethora of weapons at your disposal, from bludgeoning weapons to firearms. Ammunition is unfortunately less so, a scarce luxury in this underwater death-trap. You might use it as you find it, but it may be more wise to save it for the fight up ahead. It's probably going to be a big one.

CO-OP: Explore the watery city side-by side, watching each other's backs and murdering the heck out of anyone who tries to murder you!

FARMING SIM // CO-OP or PvP

It's a peaceful life in the valley. Everyone in the little village knows everyone else, and crime is something that happens in other places. Life is simple and slow-paced, and that's how the villagers like it. However, the annual autumn Harvest Festival is coming up, which means competition between friend and foe alike is at an all-time high. It's up to you to grow the biggest, bestest pumpkin and show up all the other country bumpkins on the village square floor.

CO-OP: Work together to raise the biggest pumpkin anyone has ever seen! Combat various dangers to your crops together - moles, mice, wild deer, everything that goes on four legs is keen to ruin all of your hard work, and your chance for glory!
PvP: Competition is at its most fierce between PCs, obviously. Sabotage between participants is frowned on by the village council, but only the sabotage they hear about.

ACTION/ADVENTURE // CO-OP or PvP

Darkness overshadows the land, and the only hope of combating it rests firmly upon your shoulders! Take up a sword and shield and stab, slice, leap, and parry your way through a land filled with menial side-quests and dangerous mini-dungeons. The only hope for restoring order and light to the world is to rescue the far-away princess, whose royal authority is the key to evil's defeat and world peace.

CO-OP: Stab, slice, leap, and parry your way through dangerous obstacles side-by side, watching each other's backs as you do so!
PvP: To the one who manages to rescue the princess first go the spoils! Probably! Stab, slice, leap and parry your way through the world's dangers, stabbing your opponent in the back somewhere along the way if you're able to do so!

??? // CO-OP or PvP

Can't decide on a game? Use the Randomizer option, and ViViD will pick a game for you.

(AKA, if none of the above options are quite right, please feel free to write your own and toss it in!)

Comments

UNICORNS

[onethousen]

So we're supposed to breed these guys to make a winning racer?

[ Chihiro looks at the unicorns lined up for "sale," checking out the pass in her hand that said "Good for One (1) Adult Unicorn." Glancing over at Jack, she looked more confused than anything else. ]

So is this a racing game, or a breeding game, or both?

[decoyhero]

[Jack is staring dubiously at the unicorns lined up in front of them. Maybe he's just imagining it, but they all look a little....mean.]

I think it's both? Breed the best racer...Or the best, uh. Show. Unicorn?

[He has a pass in his hand, too; it looks like they each get one to start. They can begin showing and racing their purchases, in order to make money to buy more stock, or they can breed the two together to begin building a herd that way. He's pretty good at this kind of game - it's all about matching stats and traits and exploiting tiny fiddly little loopholes.]

[onethousen]

[ Turns out these unicorns procreate with eggs, too. Eggs that manifest when their stats are high enough for a gamble at breeding (a gamble because it wasn't guaranteed). ]

Huh. Can we work toward the racing? That sounds a little more fun...

[ What does "showing" a unicorn even mean? Chihiro steps closer to the paddock, reaching out with her free hand to let a unicorn sniff at her. It nuzzles her hand, looking for treats, blinking beautiful, long lashed eyes. All incongruous when its stats hung on a placard around it's neck. ]

[decoyhero]

[He's becoming more and more convinced the unicorns in the line-up are all giving him the evil eye, but at least they seem to like Chihiro okay. At least the one that nuzzled her hand did, anyway.]

Sure, that's fine.

[Probably easier, too. Maybe.]

Look for one with a high speed stat. And, maybe high agility? But definitely speed.

[There are five stats: Intelligence, Agility, Speed, Grace, and Charm. The first three are pretty self-explanatory, thankfully. He kind of thinks the last two are probably more important to the "Show" competition than the "Race" one. Probably. Though doubtless they'll soon find out for sure.]

[onethousen]

[ Chihiro peers at the stats on the first unicorn, reading them thoughtfully. They must all be written in Cerealian, that language implanted in her brain like everyone else. Just remembering has her forcing herself to speak in Japanese (sorry, Jack). ]

Not this one, in that case. You're a charming one, Kirin-san.

[ She'll need to remember to find partners who also spoke Japanese later on. Allowing herself to lapse back into Cerealian, she pats this unicorn once more before moving down the line. ]

This one has high intelligence and speed.

[ It's also purple with banded stripes of black up its legs. ]

[decoyhero]

[It's a little jarring to hear her speak Japanese, even though he kind of figured that she did - what with her calling him "Jack-san", and the distinct Japanese-ness of her name, and all. He kind of wonders what she said, but also figures it probably doesn't matter, since it seemed to be directed at the unicorn in front of her, and not at him.]

Yeah, that one looks good.

[It also looks at him like it wants to gore him, but, eh, details. It seems to like Chihiro okay, anyway.]

And...that one's male, so we should get a female, too, since we're gonna need to try breeding.

[If Chihiro has a preference for their second one, he'll go along with her. The only reason he doesn't feel completely silly playing this game is because Chihiro's playing it, too.]

[onethousen]

[ Great, check for more stats... Chihiro wanders down the line, reaching out to pet at noses thrust her way. While horns are more likely to be waved in a slow, threatening arc at Jack, Chihiro has all the soft nuzzles and attempts to eat her hair.

She's not sure she appreciates this, but she endures, reading placards and eventually scratching the cheek of a surprisingly plain white female unicorn. Her intelligence and agility are top notch. ]

Will she be good?

[ Asked while the unicorn is lipping at her ponytail. ]

survival sim co-op!

[atlasrising]

[ What kind of a game is this?

He used to play all kinds of dumb games when he was younger, sure. But a game solely for pretending you were stranded on some kind of island? Really? That was...really boring. And a major waste of his time, seriously. Rhys has survived in the Pandoran deserts; as far as he's concerned, he can live through just about anything.

Hanging out with the guy who looks like Jack but isn't Jack is pretty neat, though. He catches himself feeling a little unsettled every now and then, but it's probably to be expected, right? Especially after having an AI of Jack floating around in your brain for a good part of a week. And then having said AI Jack try to kill you. That's rough, buddy.

The sand crunches beneath his feet, and even though it's a game, Rhys can feel the heat of the sun pounding on his back. Thank god he put on deo before he decided to come out and try his hand at these games... ]

Alright. So, uh.

[ Rhys shrugs. ] What next? You find shelter and I find food, or what?

good choice! :D

[decoyhero]

Uhhhh, yeah, something like that.

[He's a little distracted because he's already flipping through the game's menu, which appears as a convenient holographic display in front of him just like using his old ECHO device.

They each have a "hunger" and "sanity" meter, both of which are currently full. They have a "recipe book" which contains a list of items they can make, and describes the resources necessary to make said items. To start, they can use various combinations of rocks twigs, grass, and flint to construct things like axes, pickaxes, and shovels, which can then be used to gather more resources in greater amounts.]

It looks like, a, like an inventory management kind of thing. We'll probably each want to get enough twigs and flint to make an ax, so we can cut down trees to get more wood. And...

[He fishes around a bit more in the menu]

...Uh, with enough grass and twigs we can make a...rabbit trap. So we'll probably want a few of those.

[There's a forest to their right - north - and a wide plain directly in front of them and spread out to their left - to the west and south.]

I guess grab as much of whatever you see to start. Then in a bit we can pool our resources and go from there?

*excellent*

[atlasrising]

So basically just start grabbing stuff that doesn't look useful and take it from there.

[ He can't lie- one of the reasons why he and Vaughn made it so long on Pandora was thanks to Fiona and Sasha. Kind of. He likes to think that when they got tossed out of the caravan, they did a damn good job by themselves, too. So how hard could this be, right? Gather some wood to make more wood stuff, kill some things, the life.

Rhys nods and gets to his feet, pointing to the woods. ] I can go in there I guess. Maybe they have those really big leaves we could use for a house. Or a hut. Or something.

[ Actually, wait. Splitting up probably wasn't a good idea, was it. ] Are you gonna come along with?

[decoyhero]

Yeah, basically.

[Aww, Rhys, buddy...!]

Sure. Might as well stick together until we get the hang of things.

[Time to explore! No sense in dawdling, so he'll start walking towards the woods.]

[atlasrising]

[ The second Rhys steps into the woods, he regrets agreeing to this.

It's hot. There was Pandoran desert hot, and then there's this. The air is hot and sticky and he's already sweating off his ass. Who came up with this stuff? How did they take the time to relay all the information into these games? The amount of work to make one feel humidity in a level of ViViD was half impressive, half not. ]

Can we just hack through this part? Or at least try to change the weather? [ His arm is connected to the network, after all. ] At least let me make it rain for a few minutes. I know we've just started and all, but it's already really humid and it's miserable.

[ sorry jack ]

[decoyhero]

[Nothing screams "professional desk jockey" quite like the sound of a man complaining about the humidity not even five full minutes into a survival situation.

Not that Jack's feeling any better about the heat, but as someone who'd routinely put up with heat and cold and no atmosphere while working for Handsome Jack - usually separately but on several memorable occasions all at once - he'd at least been prepared to endure it.

Hacking is fine, though, if Rhys can manage it.]

Yeah, if you want? I'm not gonna stop you.

[He'll just be over here gathering his very first bundle of twigs from a spindly little twig bush while you do your thing, Rhys.]

FPS

[fishyoldman]

[Raven's never handled a gun before, but he's quick to pick up the general principle of it. It's like a cannon but handheld, right? Or a more technologically advanced bow -- which, as an archer, makes him a good shot.

So after a little practice, he's ready to start the game. He'd expected to play it solo, but with this guy wanting to play the same thing, well... It was probably easier to farm credits with two people rather than one.

Even if he's sure he's met this guy before. He's also sure this guy is crazy. So before they get started in the creepy shopping mall they've found themselves in, Raven rests a hand on the pistol holster at his hip and looks over at Jack.]

I don't mind bygones being bygones and all, so let's agree you fire at the enemies and not at me. Think ya can do that?

[decoyhero]

[He'd immediately begun inspecting the shotgun he's been started off with upon entering the game. It's a one-shot reload, double barrel, and he has a grand total of three bullets. Nooooot his favorite variation. And he can't tell the manufacturer at all...it doesn't even seem to be a Jakobs or a Dahl, or heck, even Scav, so he has literally no idea what to expect from it.

He looks up when his new partner speaks, and blinks in momentary confusion.]

Bygones...? Oh.

[Maybe one day he'll stop running into people who'd previously encountered his boss. One day. Maybe.

He can dream.

He loads the shotgun with quick, efficient movements, and then puts it back into his game inventory for the time being.]

Yeaaaah, I don't shoot team members in the back. Or the front, or the sides, or whatever. I don't shoot team members, period. Thaaaat's my boss' job. Though usually he prefers to strangle them.

[Bitter? Jack? You bet'cha!]

[fishyoldman]

[Raven raises an eyebrow at him, clearly sceptical.]

Your boss, huh? Sure a good throttlin' isn't your kind of thing too?

[Because that's definitely what he tried to do to Raven...! Though he's sharp enough to pick up on that obvious bitterness, but it's hard to tell if he's being played for an idiot or not. This does look like the same guy, after all, and who has an identical twin for a boss?]

[decoyhero]

I'm very sure. That's aaaaall him.

[He sighs when he sees that expression, though it's not like he blames the guy at all; he'd definitely be skeptical too, if it were him.]

I'm just his body double. Eight hours of excruciating plastic surgery and one literal pain-in-the-neck voice modulation implant was all it took to make me the perfect handsome decoy.

[fishyoldman]

[Raven has no idea what plastic surgery or voice modulawhoozits are supposed to be, but he can guess at what he's trying to say, and he looks more and more alarmed by the other man's frankness.]

H-hey, in that case, you sure you should be tellin' me this? Isn't that blowing your cover?

[Unless he just doesn't care any more because... Cerealia. But he wouldn't want some mook to get in trouble because of his crazy boss. Raven knows a thing or two about crazy bosses.]

[decoyhero]

[He just kind of shrugs. He highly doubts his contract with Handsome Jack is in any way legally binding in this place. Hopefully, his boss is gone for good, but if he ever does come back, he either won't care or he'll strangle him. Which...at this point, Jack doesn't even care that much anymore. Death might even be nice, honestly.]

Well, I mean...I'm not being paid to look and sound like this anymore, soooo...

platformer;

[feytality]

[Honestly, Maya isn't a fan of ViViD. Video games are all fine and well, but when they take over your life once every couple of weeks and force you to fight for your survival, she's not so keen on willingly subjecting herself to that.]

[But anyway, why not? Maybe she can have an edge next time. And this game isn't so glad! It's like a Indiana James movie or something, all she needs is a hat and a whip]

Oh! I got it! I got it!

[she rushes forward to grab the gold, except the floor under her opens up, and like in a cartoon, she's suspended in the air for a millisecond before starting to plumet and screaming at the top of her lungs]

[Please assist]

AAAAAH!

[decoyhero]

Crap!

[It's kind of nice that the almost comical way she was suspended for a split second actually gives him time to maybe do something. Obviously he has no idea how deep the hole goes, so he reacts accordingly, diving forward and extending his hand after her in an attempt to hopefully keep her from plummeting to her death (not that this game will actually let them die; they'll just be re-spawned at the last checkpoint they passed. It definitely won't feel good if they do, though).

By some small miracle (probably thanks to the game mechanics), he manages to catch hold of her wrist before she can drop out of sight.]

Oof. You okay?

[feytality]

[It's a good thing this isn't actually handsome Jack and just some dweeb, because otherwise, this wouldn't have ended well. But hey! He's looking out for her, and it works, he's able to catch her by the wrist before she plummets down to her potential death.]

[And for the moment, she's just hanging out as he holds her up]

Nice catch!

[That's helpful, Maya, throw out one-liners while you're about to sorta kinda die]

But yep, you got me! You might wanna back up a step, and maybe pull me out, the hole might get bigger!

[At least she's small and easily portable?]

[decoyhero]

[This still may not end well, because it is just some dweeb.

But hey, at least he'll try his best! And that's all that really counts in the end, right?

Right???]

You think?

[He may be just a touch sarcastic there. Just a little bit.

In a normal, non-game situation in normal gravity, he might have some difficulty lifting her up...Even though she's tiny, his upper-body strength isn't the greatest; an unfortunate side-effect of working for the past couple years in low-grav environments.

Thankfully, the game mechanics make it super easy to lift her up! So he does that, with a quiet little grunt of effort, and soon enough he's got both of them back on their feet at a fairly safe distance from the trap hole.]

Next time, maybe try jumping. Just. Y'know. A thought.

[feytality]

No, I know! That's why I'm telling you. [Is she just sarcasm blind or she sassing him? It's a mystery. Regardless, thanks to low-grav video game mechanics, Maya is saved!!! By... whoever this person is.]

[She dusts herself off once she's on her feet and gives him a big grin, completely unphased by her near sorta death experience. Someone's peppy.]

Nah, I think a jetpack would be better. Do you have any?

[decoyhero]

[Is she sassing him? Is she being perfectly sincere? He can't even tell. Honestly, right now, he also can't even really bring himself to care.]

N...o...? I don't think we get jetpacks until the later levels. It's just one block. It'll be an easy jump. Watch.

[So easy even a guy who's scared of heights can do it. Not that she knows he's scared of heights, but, details. He approaches the edge at a reasonable speed and demonstrates how jumpable the obstacle is by leaping neatly over. He touches down on the chasm with plenty of clearance to spare, and picks up the gold coin that had nearly lured her to her doom.]

See?