• Video games are meant to be played on consoles. Whether it be on an Xbox, Playstation, or computer, video games are restricted to some kind of console. It is an unspoken law, but one that is respected. But what happens when a company breaks this law? What happens when the console becomes too boring for basic game play? What happens, when a new gaming craze sweeps not only a nation but the entire world? And what happens when the world's favorite game becomes the world's worst killer?

    In the year 2993, much is as it is today. Though the graphics and such on consoles has improved greatly, they are still consoles. That is, until the gaming company Cybercore Games, Inc. came to power, so to speak. It published many great games, all for the console. Then, they had an unprecedented idea. Why not create a game which allowed people to leave the console, actually enter the game. Revenue would skyrocket, certainly, and people would love it. What could go wrong?

    It took six years to both develop the game and beta test it. While the game could have been released that year, it was held back. Why? Not only would the hype of the game build as time went on, and if it coincided with the new millennium, well, that was just more hype. So the game was held, released on January first, 3000. Many of the games were bought.

    It was soon found that entertainment wasn't the only use for the game. It could be used for physical therapy, they realized. People needed help walking? Have the person create an account, have his or her trainer create one too. The trainer could help the person walk, without many of the constraints of reality. It helped enough that Cybercore Games created a new program just for physical therapy. Users could create the environment best suited for their recovery.

    Before production of the game began, gamers were surveyed to find what they liked best. A somewhat large list was provided to choose from. First, participants were asked to choose a time period. Medieval was the favored choice, with distant future in second. Next, the type of game was selected. Did gamers want a free roam, open-ended quest-style game, or did they wish to have a set selection of quests to choose from? A set selection was chosen, and the quests were developed. They ranged in difficulty from the beginner’s choice to the quests that would make even the best gamers tremble.

    In order to put the player in the game, his information would need to be compressed into a file the computer can recognize. The file type was never revealed to the public, and a scanner was developed. Step onto the scanner, push a few buttons, and then the gamer became a living, breathing part of the game. The gamer enters, fights, does a few quests, maybe even makes a little money. And if he dies? Simple. He is returned to a waiting lobby, where he makes a new character with attributes of his choosing.

    When a user starts with a new character, whether for the first time or after having died, he is taken to a boot camp of sorts, a small island which is unreachable by those who have left it. The user gains their first few levels here, and is taught in the basics of the game. Called Tutorial Island, it is a safe haven for users who don’t think they are ready for the real game yet. There is a level cap, though, to prevent anyone from getting too strong. Beginners can participate in practice battles, where the loser doesn’t die, but only gets the mark of shame above their head for a short period of time. Moderators control the island, watching over it to make sure nothing goes wrong.

    As with all games, someone wasn’t happy following the rules. Making levels and getting items weren’t easy enough for him. So, he created a virus, launching it onto the game. At first, people didn’t seem to mind the virus. Gold, items, all sorts of things would suddenly show up in a player’s inventory. No one complained, and the virus flourished. Administrators did their best to combat the virus, but seemed unable to do much. The virus continued to grow, mutate. Some people quit the game, deciding to only come back after the virus was fixed.

    Slowly, the virus began to affect the scanners. Some gamers found themselves unable to log on, some weren’t able to log off. For all gamers, though, it was soon discovered that if you died, you no longer went to the lobby and created a new character. If you were unlucky enough to die, your body fell out of the machine, lifeless. If you died now, you died for real. Administrators now considered pulling the plug on their game, but decided it would be horrific if they did. It was unknown what would happen, though the general consensus was that everyone in the game would die. No one wanted that kind of catastrophe, so the game servers were put on hold. No new accounts would be able to be registered. A message was sent to all gamers, asking them to log out if they still had the ability. A nationwide bulletin arrived on every major news channel, telling all people with accounts who were logged off to stay that way.

    For one person, a solution was discovered. Beat the game, and you could get out. No one was able to explain why, but it worked. Many users tried to beat the game. Some only died in the process, others made their way out. The administrators continued their fight against the virus, but with no real progress. Millions of people began to fight towards the end, with most dying in the process.

    Eventually, the administrators found that everyone in the game had either died or gotten out. Upon discovering this fact, they immediately took down the game servers. Many lawsuits followed, and Cybercore lost most of these suits. The company almost instantaneously went bankrupt. All of the employees lost their jobs, many also lost their entire lives.

    Several months later, another company bought Cybercore for next to nothing. The company, named 7th Dimension Games, began to hire many of the people that had been laid off when Cybercore went in the hole. Since the medieval style game was a flop, 7D started to develop a game based off the secondary selections of the previously interview gamers.

    The game was set in space, with no real quests. Players could take ownership of a ship, or work odd jobs for money. While a great many people were assigned to work on development of the game, even more were told to work on the machines and the servers, trying to make them unhackable.

    Months later, they believed that the game was no longer able to be hacked. They released the game under the name Platorus Online. Naturally, people were wary of the game. Some knew of Cybercore’s history, including the sale to 7D. Eventually, though, people began to play the game more and more. It became even more popular than its predecessor.

    Many times, hacking attempts were made, but all were stopped. So, instead of hacking the game, a group of friends decided to take over the game in another way. Despite the fact that there are only ten members of the group, they were able to quickly take possession of the game. They had advanced levels quickly, earned a lot of money, and bought a ship and weapons. Calling themselves the Space Pirates, they began to attack other ships, taking any items and leaving the players onboard for dead.

    Players complained, but the game developers refused to ban the group. After all, there was nothing illegal about what the Pirates were doing. They were following the Terms of Service, so it was alright, the administrators said. Because of the apathy of the administrators, some players decided to take matters into their own hands.

    The vigilante group decided to name themselves the Vindico, using the Latin root for liberate. After putting their game money together and eventually were able to buy a ship. Only a few of them could still afford to buy weapons, and some had weapons donated to them. Eventually, though, they all managed to get some sort of a firearm.

    For a while, the Vindico began to level up, gain money. Most of the money went towards general upkeep of their ship and ammo for their weapons. They began to track the Pirates. Not risking a fight, staying far enough back to remain out of the Pirate’s sight, but close enough they could see the Pirates. The Pirates were none the wiser.

    The Pirates eventually got a tip that they were being followed, and started doing a few blind jumps to get rig of the tail. It worked, and the Vindico lost the Pirates. They began to search again, but everytime they found the Pirates, the Pirates would jump and the Vindico would lose them.

    This is the story of the Vindico and the Pirates.