"Not to be nit-picking, Ozzy, but shouldn't we have done this research before we signed the five-year contracts?" Ben was working on an ancient laptop computer hooked into Ozzy's data net connection. Like anything designed to work with the old internet, it was slow and prone to just giving up.

Ozzy used a research program to scan all the video sites for information on GENESIS ENGINE. The game would be their employment for the next five years; they needed information on how the game worked, character creation, and how progression started. In all the other VR games they had signed up for as part of the workforce, there had been ways to make extra money. The obvious one was to get strong enough to farm gold and magic items to sell for real-world dollars. They would never have the time that players got. Lots of hours would be taken up at their jobs. But working for 8 hours and then running off to grind mobs and farm items for 8 hours wasn't unrealistic when you were in a pod. They just had to figure out the details and make a plan."Sorry, Ben, If there had been any information at all, we would have had more of a warning about the game going live. This damn thing came out of nowhere. No leaks from alpha or beta testers or fake leaks by the creators to get free publicity. It's like someone said prophet declared: 'New Game Tomorrow.' The corporations involved had to know about it, but if they didn't leak any info, it means they are taking it damned seriously and think it's the next big thing. And the ACME people also seemed pretty surprised that the timeline was being accelerated. They knew it was coming, but not this fast.""None of the people I supply information to, or get information from, had heard a single damn thing before that meeting in the Grand Malkavian. Things were happening fast and I wanted us to cut a deal quick. ACME isn't the best or the worst corp to be working for. The manager we have is actually pretty good. Smart, ambitious..."Rolly laughed. "...and ambition leads to being manipulated by Ozzwald the Magnificent. I do like how you got a lot of the folks we've worked with over the years into our crew. Nice to have experienced people around us for a change. And I'm not going to be picky like Ben. Just get me a nice cushy job walking dogs or taming dragons or something."Ben put his nose in the air with disdain, his voice changed to on a sneering french accent. "I'm not picky, you low-born lout! I simply prefer the more dashing jobs! Maiden rescuing, commanding a troupe of cavalry, or consort to a lonely princess will do me just fine."

He dropped the accent and sneer, turning to Ozzy. "And please, don't get me wrong. I'm very appreciative that you got us the jobs. Pickings have been slim lately. They're shutting down more and more of the old game, or maybe the game is shutting itself down. The paying customers aren't happy, and we're working for peanuts."Ozzy kept one eye on his screen while he conversed with Ben. "And the commerce sections are going as well. They shut down the Grand Mall permanently on Thursday. Something about not having the resources to keep things going. Nile Books was screaming like a stuck pig. They get 70% of their sales from in-game shopping, with half of that being at the Grand Mall. They are moving back to a primitive platform like they had in the early 2000's."

Ozzy sighed. "And to be perfectly honest, as much as I like to haggle over deals and trip people up on contract details, I don't think there was any chance we could negotiate on those contracts. The pay is decent, but the most important part of the deal is working in a new Mark 7 pod. Those things are amazing! We may all come out of them feeling a lot better than we have in years. It was a great opportunity to be in the first wave of people to move online, and out of the habs."Rolly patted Ozzy's shoulder. "I get it. You're worried about Suzette. How good are they? Any chance they can help her? I don't like how thin she was after our last job. She was having trouble with the pods again."Ozzy brought up some information on the newest version of gaming pods. "According to everything I've read, there's a chance. The doctors don't even have a handle on what's causing the problems. They just keep saying 'Stress' and giving her more pills. A lot of people are having the same problems she is."Ben gave a small nod. "Which is a good reason for grabbing the brass ring and signing five-year contracts, even ones we didn't get time to read through, with an evil-not-totally-evil corporation."Ozzy closed the program he was working on and stretched. "I've got something. Gamer's Galaxy channel has a program coming on in two minutes with some information on GENESIS ENGINE. A very small group of people have been allowed to log into the game, and information is starting to hit the forums and video casts.""Oh, nice, they usually get some good stuff, who is hosting.?" Rolly moved to the floor with Ben, letting Ozzy have the only comfortable chair in the small one room apartment."Sadly, it's Knucklehead and DD54.""Really?" Ben raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Those two are ancient. Also notorious for being only half-right most of the time. Plus we have to sit through a non-stop commercial for cheap beer.""Hey, I like the beer commercials! How am I going to know what NOT to drink unless I watch them? DD54 will tell you horse piss tastes like ambrosia." Rolly only hated a few things in life: the fake chicken taste of the food cubes and the taste of Bludgeon Brew being the top two.Ozzy spread his hands and shrugged "But it's the first info we've been able to find, and we head to work tomorrow, so be quiet and let's take a look."Ben asked, "Do you want me to run grab Suzette?"Ozzy shook his head, not looking happy. "No, let her get some rest. Packing stuff up is hard on her. I think she gave a lot of her stuff away. Let her rest and we can fill her in on the way to the ACME headquarters tomorrow.

"So remember kids, when you need to rehydrate after a long pod session, nothing works as fast or tastes as good as Bludgeon Brew. It goes to work stretching out those stiff muscles and gets some nutrients back to your brain cells quickly.

When you play hard, drink hard. There's nothing like an ice cold Blud!"Knuckles745: And now that we're done paying the bills with a bit of obvious product endorsement, let’s get back to what we know about this new game, Genesis Engine. I'm your host, Knuckles745, and I'm here with my co-host, DarkDeath54. You'll probably remember DarkDeath54 from his appearances on 'Best Bloopers in Gaming,' especially Episode 32, "How to explode your pet dragon with a can of whipped cream.' And of course, all those whacky episodes of Timmy the Wonder Boy.DarkDeath54: Glad to be here Knuck!Knuckles745: Let's talk about this new game! There's a lot of anticipation out there. We haven't had a new worldwide VRMMO since Endless Questing Online3. And EQO3 is pretty stale now. No new content for years, and the whole thing runs slow and laggy. I swear the graphics gets fuzzier and the NPC's dumber, every time I log in.

Knuckles745: Here's what little we know about Genesis Engine. The first piece of info released is a teaser about the name. The game engine is designed to generate new story content based on the actions of the player base. This might be small, dynamic quests for an individual, or for large groups like an entire guild. The game engine will constantly be generating new things. Hence the name, 'Genesis Engine'.

Each of your accounts will only be able to have one active character. That means some hard choices when it comes to experimenting with character classes and builds. You can't start another character unless you delete the old one and start over.The classes we've seen so far are pretty standard: Warrior, Ranger, Paladin, Martial Artist, several types of Mages, Clerics, Druids, Healers, Rogues, and Assassins. Pretty standard stuff, but supposedly in the future you will be able to customize them further and move into specialist classes.DarkDeath54: Racial selection is very odd. In the small demos where people were allowed to make their characters, most were human, but with options for something called 'Heritage', that might bring out hidden options.

About twenty per cent of players were allowed to be halflings, dwarves, half-elves, and some different types of beast-kin. But in some of the video footage we've seen ogres, orcs, goblins, fairies, centaurs and other fantasy races. These were hinted at being available after a player completed a special quest. That's all we know about the races for now, so let's move on to the more important choice of what class you want to play.Knuckles745: Right you are, DD54, so let’s take a look at the one class they've given us a lot of info on. A staple of fantasy gaming since forever, The Warrior. He's our generic fighter type with some balanced skills who can evolve into several specialized classes.Knuckles745: While a character only has one class, they can get better as you gain levels. Every player starts with a Basic Class. According to the Developers, which Evolutions you get offered depends on three things: which options you take for your Basic Class, your in game achievements, and completing class quests. A player can choose to evolve up to a more specialized class after finishing 5 levels in the Basic Class. Or they can continue on and have even more evolutions at level 10. It’s a little hazy on exactly how this works, but that's the gist of it.DarkDeath54: Multiple evolutions sounds cool Knuck. So instead of being stuck with his first class like in EQO3, my Warrior could evolve into a Berserker and then into a Crazed Battle Machine? Like the way a Squirmy evolves into a Sucking Wyrmling and then into Dragothra in Pokecraft. That’s awesome!Knuckles745: Yeah, just like that DD54, just like that. Except no Squirmy.Knuckles745: Anyway, let’s take a look at the Warrior. First off, he gets +1 STR, and +1 CON, and +2 additional points. This is important since every character starts with Zero in all their primary stats. Where those beginning points go is important. Toss them into DEX or AGI and it will help if you’re going for a dodge tank or scout build, but you'll need INT if you want to cast cantrips as a Spellblade or blessings as a Paladin.DarkDeath54: Screw that, Knuck, when I roll up my Warrior, I'm doubling up on more STR. Can't go wrong with being the strongest fighter in a group. Get the biggest, badass weapon you can and start swinging."

Knuckles745: Still in love with big swords I see? Why am I not surprised? You've been a meat shield for your last seven characters. Who knows? Maybe you'll get it right this time. Let's put up the table with basic stats so we see what you have to start with.

Name

Race

Class

Level

DarkDeath54

Human

Warrior

Stat

Level

Bonus

Total

STR

CON

DEX

AGI

WIS

INT

CHA

Health

Stamina

Mana