[KENTON ZINN - SPOOKR8MA - PREGAME: START]
The wait was over.
Walking down a path on the San Jose Virtual Park, Kenton Zinn AKA Spookr8ma had his HUD be playing "Hellifornia", since he was testing how the frame rate was holding up on his rig, another word he used for CRD. His avatar had no visual problems, his audio function was still working, and his inventory was still good.
Some CR users went by him with some scooters that looked user-made and brought. He could tell from the cosmetics added onto them. A swarm of bicycles on their mental exercises came by Kenton, like a school of colorful fish. Colorful in their various avatar designs, both realistic and fantasy-like.
For Kenton, it felt more alive than the real thing.
That wasn't to imply that everything in the Meatspace was fake. Ghosts were the only true thing in the Meatspace that was possible. Kenton didn't care what everyone else believed. You can't deny the unexplained.
"Come on! There's nothing wrong with the Metaverse! Don't you want a decentralized platform for all of your items? No interest in art or cosmetics? No fancy videos?" there was a hawker, wearing a visible Decentraland shirt on. He was trying to get people interested in that spaghetti-coded glitch fest that was supposed to be all of those Bored Apes' dream of an unified mega server. Don't these shills realize that no one wants to be part of their money laundering scheme?
"Oh hey, sir!"
Shit, you had to notice me...
"Piss off."
"That is a nice get-up, you have there! Would you be interested in joining our Decentraland 2.0 group server? We're currently raising interest for the long-awaited 3.0 version."
"You mean on your Day One Diablo 3?" Kenton gave a sly joke, but the shill remained determined. "All of these glitches can be fixed, sir."
"I don't get how your corporate FUD-stoppers can't hire an actual programmer. I've seen the reviews and I'm not joining your crypto-paradise on a deserted island." Kenton said, brushing him off completely.
Looks like insults are still operational.
Kenton went to a quiet-looking area, so he can check his social media at his HUD. The Omega Squad server is really popping off. Kenton went ahead and took a seat on what looked like a public bench that was part of the server, until he felt movement. He immediately jerked his head down to see that he was sitting on top of a "woodie".
"Fuck!" Kenton immediately sat up from the bench woodie. "Oh hey, sorry man. I was in a private chat." the woodie stood up. It looks weird when a bench suddenly turns anthropomorphic and talks to you. "Are all of these benches here, your friends?"
"Not really. I'm the only living bench here. There's another woodsona over there as a tree. Nice to see some photorealistic maple.."
"How are you woodies even able to tell each other apart from a prop?"
"It's the experience you gain, man."
"I got to see if one of my friends can help me with my experience, but I think I heard his woodsona got stolen."
"Oh damn, that sucks. Did he get scammed?"
"More like a possible skiddie. One of them goes to school."
"Hey, there isn't anything wrong with being a woodie."
Kenton wanted to scoff at that claim. "I get the furries, but not the inanimate objects."
"It's about letting the world go by you. You're like a statue. Part of the environment itself. You're contributing it by being a physical construct to it."
"I think I'm good the way I'm at. Nice short talk, though." Kenton decided to walk away from the bench woodie. He wanted to fool around. He had his rig. He had his inner peace. He isn't going to let anything distract hi-
A notification popped up on his HUD. It was a message from his mother. Dinner was ready.
Oh bullshit, I was only here for two hours.
Kenton let out another sigh. He wouldn't have to deal with any more interruptions after he got himself some grub.
Hey you lil' piss baby, you think you're so fucking cool? Huh?
(Multishot)(CR and MS)(minor cw: gender identity and all that jazz)
Moderator: SOTF: Cyber Staff
Hey you lil' piss baby, you think you're so fucking cool? Huh?
It's so hard when your on your own
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
Here's something that people don't really tell you about Cyberspace.
Now, Kenton was around when he read that one book that everyone seems to hate for some reason within a span of like 7 years. Ironically, the book came out a year after CR was introduced, so some of the critics were making comparisons on how it was supposed to be similar to the plot of the book.
One of the points that the novel made was that it was very easy for people to customize their avatars, so that you can be some muscular white guy. However, it's revealed that this white guy was actually some African-American woman in a RV.
In CR, Kenton was part of the crowd that needed to adjusted their avatars to what suited them. It was hard to really socialize with people, who were not close. That hot anime chick that you can be friends with could be some basement-dwelling creep. Whenever Kenton encountered a skiddie, Kenton was always make the same conclusion on what they could be like in real life. Every griefer was definitely some microwave-using neckbeard wizard with no life, who doesn't bother to clean his computer monitor, since he was also busy getting IP addresses from 11 year old kids at Grand Theft Auto Online.
Did he look like some neon-green growing cybergoth edgelord in real life?
No.
But you wouldn't dare put people's money where their mouths are, because the CR crowd will just call you a hypocrite, if you try to act like a "realist".
It was unsurprisingly that there were mega CR-users who would be on their headsets 24/7. They don't want to be associated with the Meatspace and all of the problems that other people push onto them. Those same Meatspace heads were trying to weasel their way into the CR to push their anti-fun cynical "life is unfair, so get used to it, dumbass" message with their smug pretentious superiority. Maybe not everyone was like that, but Kenton knew that they were still around somewhere. Not here, but elsewhere.
Now, in real life, Kenton Zinn wasn't "The Guy" of CR. It's easy to write that off, since there were a bunch of "The Guy" main character-like avatars roaming around in their power fantasies. Kenton hangs out with V-Raptor, so of course, he would know.
In Meatspace, Kenton was powerless. It was unfair, but he needed CR because it was the only thing to make him strong. What do people even see him as?
He's waiting to graduate, so his parents can take him only for surgery. He had body hair, but he hated how people kept misgendering him from his voice and his upper chest. That last part was an exaggeration.
The only real person that he knew who accidently keeps misgendering and even deadnaming him was his grandma.
Kenton wondered if his grandma secretly posts on Reddit on the r/outoftheloop section, whenever him and his family shows up to Gilroy for a summer or Christmas visit.
Now, Kenton was around when he read that one book that everyone seems to hate for some reason within a span of like 7 years. Ironically, the book came out a year after CR was introduced, so some of the critics were making comparisons on how it was supposed to be similar to the plot of the book.
One of the points that the novel made was that it was very easy for people to customize their avatars, so that you can be some muscular white guy. However, it's revealed that this white guy was actually some African-American woman in a RV.
In CR, Kenton was part of the crowd that needed to adjusted their avatars to what suited them. It was hard to really socialize with people, who were not close. That hot anime chick that you can be friends with could be some basement-dwelling creep. Whenever Kenton encountered a skiddie, Kenton was always make the same conclusion on what they could be like in real life. Every griefer was definitely some microwave-using neckbeard wizard with no life, who doesn't bother to clean his computer monitor, since he was also busy getting IP addresses from 11 year old kids at Grand Theft Auto Online.
Did he look like some neon-green growing cybergoth edgelord in real life?
No.
But you wouldn't dare put people's money where their mouths are, because the CR crowd will just call you a hypocrite, if you try to act like a "realist".
It was unsurprisingly that there were mega CR-users who would be on their headsets 24/7. They don't want to be associated with the Meatspace and all of the problems that other people push onto them. Those same Meatspace heads were trying to weasel their way into the CR to push their anti-fun cynical "life is unfair, so get used to it, dumbass" message with their smug pretentious superiority. Maybe not everyone was like that, but Kenton knew that they were still around somewhere. Not here, but elsewhere.
Now, in real life, Kenton Zinn wasn't "The Guy" of CR. It's easy to write that off, since there were a bunch of "The Guy" main character-like avatars roaming around in their power fantasies. Kenton hangs out with V-Raptor, so of course, he would know.
In Meatspace, Kenton was powerless. It was unfair, but he needed CR because it was the only thing to make him strong. What do people even see him as?
He's waiting to graduate, so his parents can take him only for surgery. He had body hair, but he hated how people kept misgendering him from his voice and his upper chest. That last part was an exaggeration.
The only real person that he knew who accidently keeps misgendering and even deadnaming him was his grandma.
Kenton wondered if his grandma secretly posts on Reddit on the r/outoftheloop section, whenever him and his family shows up to Gilroy for a summer or Christmas visit.
It's so hard when your on your own
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
Ok, why the fuck do I have to be here, of all places..
Kenton wasn't a woodie. He never was, but he was trying to be nice. He figured he can buy a woodie model to exchange to one of the Omega Squad's members, since his stool woodsona was stolen. He managed to get himself access into a server exclusively for woodies, though he was more there to browse.
The moment he teleported into the server, he noticed something weird. It was just a large house.
Nothing like the server that Spookr8ma owns. This looked like someone made a simple house like it was from Sims 3.
Kenton ended up knocking on the door, only for it to open for him. "The fuck?"
Kenton stepped into the foyer. He looked along to see a whole bunch of paintings and wall art. There was a whole bunch of talking he heard, but he didn't see any avatars. Of course, the random "props" that he saw in the foyer were all people.
Kenton walked forward, until one of the woodie talked to him. "Hey, watch your step. I have the stain cosmetic activated. You're leaving footprints on my skin." Kenton looked down to hear a rug talking to him. "Sorry sorry. Is there a store here? I'm trying to buy a stool model." Kenton stepped off the rug, since being on it had caused his footprints to appear. "Upstairs, then make a right and head down to the bedroom on your left."
"Alright thanks.." Kenton made sure to watch his step, not stepping on any possible woodies, though it was hard to tell if there were some simple physical props in the server, or every single piece of furniture was a woodie.
When he got into the bedroom, he can hear more people, but all he saw were furniture of a bedroom. There was a desk with a computer, along with a bookshelf nearby. "Uhhh... where's the store?"
The bed raised its "head" to look at Kenton. "Oh hey! You gotta access the computer. It's made to be like a mini vendor." Another woodie popped up as a chair, walking its legs like a spider to Kenton. "Need a seat?"
"No, I'm good." Kenton didn't want to be sitting on any woodies. He just wanted to get this shit done. He walked to the desk, having his clawed finger type away at the keyboard.
He likes moths, so...
A menu popped up for Kenton in his vision. He had the search bar to look up "moth-themed stools". The only search results were bringing up themed bar stools. He could check at an IKEA server, but the woodies would convergent there, too. He messed around with other avatar choices that he can look up. Nothing special. On the bookshelf, he saw a copy of the King James Bible. Probably a prop. It's a wonder on how much detail is added to this server-
The book let out a giggle, when he picked it up.
Oh, for fucks sake.
"Do woodies even have to be books?"
"Books are made from trees! We're made from the earth."
"...God damn it, that makes sense." Kenton rolled his eyes, but becoming invested. "Am I allowed to read you? I want to see, if you have words inside."
"Sure, just open my mouth and read!"
"Alright. I was just concerned that..." Kenton stopped himself, because he was about to ask if by opening up the book, it was spreading its legs open. Some woodies can be explicit sometimes.
He didn't come to a woodie server to be fucking books. He was already opening up the book woodie, so he can try to "read" them. The voice did sound feminine.
Well, actually... this woodie did pay attention to detail by copy and pasting the King James Bible text into them.
There was a sound of a.... was that a car? It was. Kenton can hear what appeared to be a car in the hallway outside of the bedroom. When he turned around to see what was going on, there was a red convertible car that "drove" into the bedroom. Not really drove, more like walking on two tires for legs. Of course, the automobile was one of the most anthropomorphic things for a woodie to be using as an avatar.
Ok, that's definitely a fetish.
How the fuck is that car fitting in the bedroom? It was "talking" to a dresser, but it was letting out horn sounds. Kenton made sure to mute them, so they didn't get annoying.
As the cherry on top of the surreal shitfest, a normal-looking guy actually showed up into the bedroom. "Oh thank god, there's someone that isn't part of GMOD Prop Hunt.." Kenton saw the guy heading towards him at the computer. A generic username can be seen, but Kenton didn't care. He can have someone to sympathize to in this funhouse.
Did I just thought up a fucking woodie pun? I didn't ask to even here. I just want to play CyberTag. The fuck am I doing with my life?
However, it looked like the guy was trying to change his avatar. What superior woodie form was he trying to turn into?
A NVIDIA graphics card. An actual NVIDIA graphics card.
Ok, I need to know.
"Are you a NVIDIA graphics card?" That just had to fly out of his mouth, hadn't it?
"Scoot aside." the graphic card jumped from the floor and was trying to get into the computer tower near the monitor. It appeared that the tower was something that people can no-clip in for roleplay purposes. "No seriously, are you an actual graphic card? I never seen a woodie use a form like that before." Kenton was really curious now.
"I am part of the machine. The machine has the exact same lifespan as the man."
"There are a bunch of people with robot avatars, though."
"This is different! I am stripped away of any human trace to become part of the computer. I am what is man-made to run something greater."
Oh, Kenton got it. It's basically being in control of the digital web that humans of many decades have created and formed.
Kenton now wasn't as annoyed, since the graphic card wasn't hogging room.
"Why NVIDIA specifically?"
"I wanted to also be a part of the same consumerism that humans are a part of..."
Kenton raised an eyebrow.
"...and NVIDIA had a sale happened."
"Fair enough."
"You're going to continue reading me?" the King James Bible asked Kenton, since he had put the book down briefly. "Nah, you can head back to your bookshelf. What I also don't get is how you guys even handle being... all of this?" Kenton raised his hands to use the following woodie avatars nearby as examples. "It's part of our identity. It's who we see ourselves as being." the curtains said to Kenton.
"No need to worry about anything like gender or appearance. People might think it's silly to be a prop, but it's part of being involved in the physical landscape and environment." the bed also said to Kenton.
Kenton was about to say something, but he had a thought and just stood there without speech. He can't raise more questions, since he can come across as a hypocrite towards these woodies. Most of them probably were identifying themselves as agender, so he couldn't probe further. The woodies and him weren't that different, ironically.
"Hey, TroyToy90 just opened up the Pool Party server! He wants people who can be part of the patio crew!" another chair scrambled into the bedroom to make an announcement.
"Oh sweet!" "I need to be the grill!" "I get my friend to do the tailgate!"
Almost immediately, the woodies in the room all scrambled out of the bedroom, exactly as Kenton thought. It was like watching a whole bunch of people playing Prop Hunt in GMOD scrambling out of the room as props. When the noise subsided, the bedroom was almost completely bare with some posters and the computer still left.
"You're not coming along?" the NVIDIA graphics card asked him, still in the computer tower. "...I need to head over to a disco or something. I was thinking of CyberTag, but I rather just chill somewhere else without too much distractions." Kenton told him.
Kenton did get that stool model, but he wondered if his friend would like it.
Kenton wasn't a woodie. He never was, but he was trying to be nice. He figured he can buy a woodie model to exchange to one of the Omega Squad's members, since his stool woodsona was stolen. He managed to get himself access into a server exclusively for woodies, though he was more there to browse.
The moment he teleported into the server, he noticed something weird. It was just a large house.
Nothing like the server that Spookr8ma owns. This looked like someone made a simple house like it was from Sims 3.
Kenton ended up knocking on the door, only for it to open for him. "The fuck?"
Kenton stepped into the foyer. He looked along to see a whole bunch of paintings and wall art. There was a whole bunch of talking he heard, but he didn't see any avatars. Of course, the random "props" that he saw in the foyer were all people.
Kenton walked forward, until one of the woodie talked to him. "Hey, watch your step. I have the stain cosmetic activated. You're leaving footprints on my skin." Kenton looked down to hear a rug talking to him. "Sorry sorry. Is there a store here? I'm trying to buy a stool model." Kenton stepped off the rug, since being on it had caused his footprints to appear. "Upstairs, then make a right and head down to the bedroom on your left."
"Alright thanks.." Kenton made sure to watch his step, not stepping on any possible woodies, though it was hard to tell if there were some simple physical props in the server, or every single piece of furniture was a woodie.
When he got into the bedroom, he can hear more people, but all he saw were furniture of a bedroom. There was a desk with a computer, along with a bookshelf nearby. "Uhhh... where's the store?"
The bed raised its "head" to look at Kenton. "Oh hey! You gotta access the computer. It's made to be like a mini vendor." Another woodie popped up as a chair, walking its legs like a spider to Kenton. "Need a seat?"
"No, I'm good." Kenton didn't want to be sitting on any woodies. He just wanted to get this shit done. He walked to the desk, having his clawed finger type away at the keyboard.
He likes moths, so...
A menu popped up for Kenton in his vision. He had the search bar to look up "moth-themed stools". The only search results were bringing up themed bar stools. He could check at an IKEA server, but the woodies would convergent there, too. He messed around with other avatar choices that he can look up. Nothing special. On the bookshelf, he saw a copy of the King James Bible. Probably a prop. It's a wonder on how much detail is added to this server-
The book let out a giggle, when he picked it up.
Oh, for fucks sake.
"Do woodies even have to be books?"
"Books are made from trees! We're made from the earth."
"...God damn it, that makes sense." Kenton rolled his eyes, but becoming invested. "Am I allowed to read you? I want to see, if you have words inside."
"Sure, just open my mouth and read!"
"Alright. I was just concerned that..." Kenton stopped himself, because he was about to ask if by opening up the book, it was spreading its legs open. Some woodies can be explicit sometimes.
He didn't come to a woodie server to be fucking books. He was already opening up the book woodie, so he can try to "read" them. The voice did sound feminine.
Well, actually... this woodie did pay attention to detail by copy and pasting the King James Bible text into them.
There was a sound of a.... was that a car? It was. Kenton can hear what appeared to be a car in the hallway outside of the bedroom. When he turned around to see what was going on, there was a red convertible car that "drove" into the bedroom. Not really drove, more like walking on two tires for legs. Of course, the automobile was one of the most anthropomorphic things for a woodie to be using as an avatar.
Ok, that's definitely a fetish.
How the fuck is that car fitting in the bedroom? It was "talking" to a dresser, but it was letting out horn sounds. Kenton made sure to mute them, so they didn't get annoying.
As the cherry on top of the surreal shitfest, a normal-looking guy actually showed up into the bedroom. "Oh thank god, there's someone that isn't part of GMOD Prop Hunt.." Kenton saw the guy heading towards him at the computer. A generic username can be seen, but Kenton didn't care. He can have someone to sympathize to in this funhouse.
Did I just thought up a fucking woodie pun? I didn't ask to even here. I just want to play CyberTag. The fuck am I doing with my life?
However, it looked like the guy was trying to change his avatar. What superior woodie form was he trying to turn into?
A NVIDIA graphics card. An actual NVIDIA graphics card.
Ok, I need to know.
"Are you a NVIDIA graphics card?" That just had to fly out of his mouth, hadn't it?
"Scoot aside." the graphic card jumped from the floor and was trying to get into the computer tower near the monitor. It appeared that the tower was something that people can no-clip in for roleplay purposes. "No seriously, are you an actual graphic card? I never seen a woodie use a form like that before." Kenton was really curious now.
"I am part of the machine. The machine has the exact same lifespan as the man."
"There are a bunch of people with robot avatars, though."
"This is different! I am stripped away of any human trace to become part of the computer. I am what is man-made to run something greater."
Oh, Kenton got it. It's basically being in control of the digital web that humans of many decades have created and formed.
Kenton now wasn't as annoyed, since the graphic card wasn't hogging room.
"Why NVIDIA specifically?"
"I wanted to also be a part of the same consumerism that humans are a part of..."
Kenton raised an eyebrow.
"...and NVIDIA had a sale happened."
"Fair enough."
"You're going to continue reading me?" the King James Bible asked Kenton, since he had put the book down briefly. "Nah, you can head back to your bookshelf. What I also don't get is how you guys even handle being... all of this?" Kenton raised his hands to use the following woodie avatars nearby as examples. "It's part of our identity. It's who we see ourselves as being." the curtains said to Kenton.
"No need to worry about anything like gender or appearance. People might think it's silly to be a prop, but it's part of being involved in the physical landscape and environment." the bed also said to Kenton.
Kenton was about to say something, but he had a thought and just stood there without speech. He can't raise more questions, since he can come across as a hypocrite towards these woodies. Most of them probably were identifying themselves as agender, so he couldn't probe further. The woodies and him weren't that different, ironically.
"Hey, TroyToy90 just opened up the Pool Party server! He wants people who can be part of the patio crew!" another chair scrambled into the bedroom to make an announcement.
"Oh sweet!" "I need to be the grill!" "I get my friend to do the tailgate!"
Almost immediately, the woodies in the room all scrambled out of the bedroom, exactly as Kenton thought. It was like watching a whole bunch of people playing Prop Hunt in GMOD scrambling out of the room as props. When the noise subsided, the bedroom was almost completely bare with some posters and the computer still left.
"You're not coming along?" the NVIDIA graphics card asked him, still in the computer tower. "...I need to head over to a disco or something. I was thinking of CyberTag, but I rather just chill somewhere else without too much distractions." Kenton told him.
Kenton did get that stool model, but he wondered if his friend would like it.
It's so hard when your on your own
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
A server was doing a movie night and they were showing off the movie Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. Designed as a classic movie theater, Kenton had his virtual popcorn and soft drink. There was a taste that your brain registered, but none that can register in the stomach. Your brain in Cyberspace thinks you're tasting something, but it doesn't count for soothing hunger. The right way to do it is making your own bag of popcorn in the Meatspace and not smear butter over your rig. Since the movie was originally in 3-D, the film got itself the CR "3D experience" remaster.
It was something that can be easy to do, if you have experience in working on streaming in Cyber Reality. You just take a 2D version of a 3D film and you just edit the 3D scenes, so that they can able as physical holograms in the server. So when sparks fly off the screen, there are indeed sparks flying off the screen.
Just not burning you.
What Kenton didn't get was that some people were watching the film with the cheap children's 3D glasses that came with every DVD copy of Spy Kids 3. Ok, it appeared to be for cosmetic use only, but there were probably some people who probably set their screens and rig visual optics to be actual 3D. Not the modern day 3D glasses that look like sunglasses, the ones with the red and blue lenses that are better suited for the 80s. You don't see the picture in pure clear color, you see it in the color of grape jam on your eyes.
I mean, what fucking moron would actually use those 3D glasses to try to watch something else that had a lousy 3D gimmick, when it was just the characters putting their hands close to the camera? Especially if it was an episode of Out of Jimmy's Head with that Halloween episode?
After the movie was over, some people stayed behind to talk about their hot takes on the film that came out in 2003 with CGI that made the people look like they were in a PS2 game.
"You know we can get George Clooney as president." some random avatar said, expressing it to their friend. Some rando with the usual political hot take, because THEY can be so popular by making things that are non-political political to further their egos.
"He isn't running for any office, though." their friend replied.
"Give him until 2028, he be running for President for real."
"You're trying to imagine a Democrat Ronald Reagan?"
Kenton wanted to focus on something else. How about this other rando, who may have been living with a tin foil hat under his rig?
"If you think about it, this film is an important message on the usage of video games. We're not far off, too. I mean, a video game to enslave humanity's youth with mind control. It's happening. It's already happening!"
Hang on, he was hearing something.
"I don't get how the villain of the second Spy Kids film is now an ally. Since he did try to take over the world or some bullshit in the last film."
"Like forgive your enemies and they can be nice?"
Ok, this was his can of Red Bull.
"That isn't how it works. You can't do that to that script kiddie asshole and expect him to be friends with you." Kenton's dominance was made. The avatars looked decent, too. Both seemed like nerds. Not nerd jocks like him, but still nerds to get him to see him as a trivia book. "Yeah, exactly!" Kenton was backing up the first guy's point.
"I don't get how Sylvester Stallone is supposed to be 'The Toymaker', since he looks like he's from a steampunk film."
"Cut him some slack, he was in Antz. He was probably trying to do stuff that can get him relevant in the early 00's. He didn't do Creed until the next decade."
"He was in Rocky 6."
"There was no Rocky 6, there were only 5 Rocky movies."
There were indeed 6 Rocky movies. Rocky Balboa was the 6th film released in 2006.
"Don't forget that the Ready Player One movie plagiarized the race scene in Spy Kids 3." the first guy said, but that hot take was a long shot.
"Ok, that's a definite stretch."
"What about the Guy? There has to be someone like Ejijah Wood somewhere in the CR, being the actual Guy of Cyber Reality." the second guy asked, though the concept was silly. "I doubt that there is even a Guy. He would have to be around since the first days of CR." There might have been an actual "The Guy" of CR. Not here. Maybe somewhere close to where CR was invented. To be The Guy, you would have to know every nook and cranny of Cyberspace and be a professional "I have no life, but I can get one on the virtual world for free" type guy. The activists with argue that the Guy might not even be a guy at all. The Guy can be a girl, but it can be anyone.
"Also, are we watching Spy Kids 4-"
"No."
"No."
Both the first guy and Kenton said in unison.
It was something that can be easy to do, if you have experience in working on streaming in Cyber Reality. You just take a 2D version of a 3D film and you just edit the 3D scenes, so that they can able as physical holograms in the server. So when sparks fly off the screen, there are indeed sparks flying off the screen.
Just not burning you.
What Kenton didn't get was that some people were watching the film with the cheap children's 3D glasses that came with every DVD copy of Spy Kids 3. Ok, it appeared to be for cosmetic use only, but there were probably some people who probably set their screens and rig visual optics to be actual 3D. Not the modern day 3D glasses that look like sunglasses, the ones with the red and blue lenses that are better suited for the 80s. You don't see the picture in pure clear color, you see it in the color of grape jam on your eyes.
I mean, what fucking moron would actually use those 3D glasses to try to watch something else that had a lousy 3D gimmick, when it was just the characters putting their hands close to the camera? Especially if it was an episode of Out of Jimmy's Head with that Halloween episode?
After the movie was over, some people stayed behind to talk about their hot takes on the film that came out in 2003 with CGI that made the people look like they were in a PS2 game.
"You know we can get George Clooney as president." some random avatar said, expressing it to their friend. Some rando with the usual political hot take, because THEY can be so popular by making things that are non-political political to further their egos.
"He isn't running for any office, though." their friend replied.
"Give him until 2028, he be running for President for real."
"You're trying to imagine a Democrat Ronald Reagan?"
Kenton wanted to focus on something else. How about this other rando, who may have been living with a tin foil hat under his rig?
"If you think about it, this film is an important message on the usage of video games. We're not far off, too. I mean, a video game to enslave humanity's youth with mind control. It's happening. It's already happening!"
Hang on, he was hearing something.
"I don't get how the villain of the second Spy Kids film is now an ally. Since he did try to take over the world or some bullshit in the last film."
"Like forgive your enemies and they can be nice?"
Ok, this was his can of Red Bull.
"That isn't how it works. You can't do that to that script kiddie asshole and expect him to be friends with you." Kenton's dominance was made. The avatars looked decent, too. Both seemed like nerds. Not nerd jocks like him, but still nerds to get him to see him as a trivia book. "Yeah, exactly!" Kenton was backing up the first guy's point.
"I don't get how Sylvester Stallone is supposed to be 'The Toymaker', since he looks like he's from a steampunk film."
"Cut him some slack, he was in Antz. He was probably trying to do stuff that can get him relevant in the early 00's. He didn't do Creed until the next decade."
"He was in Rocky 6."
"There was no Rocky 6, there were only 5 Rocky movies."
There were indeed 6 Rocky movies. Rocky Balboa was the 6th film released in 2006.
"Don't forget that the Ready Player One movie plagiarized the race scene in Spy Kids 3." the first guy said, but that hot take was a long shot.
"Ok, that's a definite stretch."
"What about the Guy? There has to be someone like Ejijah Wood somewhere in the CR, being the actual Guy of Cyber Reality." the second guy asked, though the concept was silly. "I doubt that there is even a Guy. He would have to be around since the first days of CR." There might have been an actual "The Guy" of CR. Not here. Maybe somewhere close to where CR was invented. To be The Guy, you would have to know every nook and cranny of Cyberspace and be a professional "I have no life, but I can get one on the virtual world for free" type guy. The activists with argue that the Guy might not even be a guy at all. The Guy can be a girl, but it can be anyone.
"Also, are we watching Spy Kids 4-"
"No."
"No."
Both the first guy and Kenton said in unison.
It's so hard when your on your own
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
Ok, there weren't any "The Guys" that Spy Kids 3 or some random mobile game ad would spew out.
San Jose did have some local legends, though the closest that Kenton can compare them to "The Guy" would have to be "Cracker".
No one can recall Cracker's real username. Their claim to fame came from how they turned the Cyber Driving Simulator into a modder's paradise.
A lot of people would say that it was due to the efforts of a bunch of dedicated players, but the whole legend goes that it was when that realized that the game can be moddable after stepping through the doors that got opened for them.
The original Cyber Driving Simulator wasn't anything special. It was more made for people who were trying to practice for their DMV appointments. It wasn't something that had government backing. It was made by a generic company that were also known for their other games, such as Agriculture Simulator (originally called Farming Simulator, before the company had to change it to avoid trademark copyright lawsuits), Bus Driver Simulator, and Airport Management Simulator.
AIRPORT MANAGEMENT SIMULATOR.
That's right, you can manage your own airport in your shitty Apple Maps looking world and go through the tedious job of having your game getting nearly bricked, because you're aren't allowed to cause chaos for having hundreds of flights cancelled at once in a gridlock. You don't even get to customize the interior of your airport! Not even trying to make it look like Singapore.
So back to Cracker.
After the player base of Cyber Driving Simulator dwindled down, not a lot of people were interested in the game. Supposedly except one..
This is where Cracker came in.
No one knows who they are. They would have to be someone with tech knowledge in CR for a while. Silicon Valley was nearby San Jose, so Kenton and a bunch of others assume Cracker had a job there as a technician to work on CR stuff. Maybe an official employee.
Cracker would be the one to get into the driver simulator's codebase and found that it was possible to open up some backdoors that the developers neglected to put up firewalls against. Since the Cyber Driving Simulator wasn't expected to be a huge hit, the developers never bothered to actually put up any copy protection.
Ok... a rando script kiddie would have figured out and took credit to getting into the backdoors of Cyber Driving Simulator, but Cracker took it a little step further. Cracker had their own mods set up to actually improve the game's quality, setting down the foundations for making Cyber Driving Simulator into something else. Later, a bunch of driving and simulator fans would get word from Cracker themselves about the data mining. The group went into the code and found out that the game did have a way to get mods installed in with ease. Some folks from the Workshop of the non-CR platform Steam heard of how Cyber Driving Simulator was mod capable and copy some of their popular mods into the game.
The original devs did hear on how popular the game was doing, but they decided to let it go up freely, due to the influx of players it was getting. Compared with the other CR driving games around, Cyber Driving Simulator was a better deal.
Cracker would vanish, but a bunch of copycats went around, acting like them. Cracker never took off as a national legend. Just a local myth from where they originated.
Kenton can thank them, especially after he managed to recreate the Live Free and Die Hard scene of sending a police car into a helicopter.
San Jose did have some local legends, though the closest that Kenton can compare them to "The Guy" would have to be "Cracker".
No one can recall Cracker's real username. Their claim to fame came from how they turned the Cyber Driving Simulator into a modder's paradise.
A lot of people would say that it was due to the efforts of a bunch of dedicated players, but the whole legend goes that it was when that realized that the game can be moddable after stepping through the doors that got opened for them.
The original Cyber Driving Simulator wasn't anything special. It was more made for people who were trying to practice for their DMV appointments. It wasn't something that had government backing. It was made by a generic company that were also known for their other games, such as Agriculture Simulator (originally called Farming Simulator, before the company had to change it to avoid trademark copyright lawsuits), Bus Driver Simulator, and Airport Management Simulator.
AIRPORT MANAGEMENT SIMULATOR.
That's right, you can manage your own airport in your shitty Apple Maps looking world and go through the tedious job of having your game getting nearly bricked, because you're aren't allowed to cause chaos for having hundreds of flights cancelled at once in a gridlock. You don't even get to customize the interior of your airport! Not even trying to make it look like Singapore.
So back to Cracker.
After the player base of Cyber Driving Simulator dwindled down, not a lot of people were interested in the game. Supposedly except one..
This is where Cracker came in.
No one knows who they are. They would have to be someone with tech knowledge in CR for a while. Silicon Valley was nearby San Jose, so Kenton and a bunch of others assume Cracker had a job there as a technician to work on CR stuff. Maybe an official employee.
Cracker would be the one to get into the driver simulator's codebase and found that it was possible to open up some backdoors that the developers neglected to put up firewalls against. Since the Cyber Driving Simulator wasn't expected to be a huge hit, the developers never bothered to actually put up any copy protection.
Ok... a rando script kiddie would have figured out and took credit to getting into the backdoors of Cyber Driving Simulator, but Cracker took it a little step further. Cracker had their own mods set up to actually improve the game's quality, setting down the foundations for making Cyber Driving Simulator into something else. Later, a bunch of driving and simulator fans would get word from Cracker themselves about the data mining. The group went into the code and found out that the game did have a way to get mods installed in with ease. Some folks from the Workshop of the non-CR platform Steam heard of how Cyber Driving Simulator was mod capable and copy some of their popular mods into the game.
The original devs did hear on how popular the game was doing, but they decided to let it go up freely, due to the influx of players it was getting. Compared with the other CR driving games around, Cyber Driving Simulator was a better deal.
Cracker would vanish, but a bunch of copycats went around, acting like them. Cracker never took off as a national legend. Just a local myth from where they originated.
Kenton can thank them, especially after he managed to recreate the Live Free and Die Hard scene of sending a police car into a helicopter.
It's so hard when your on your own
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone
You might fall into the Forbidden Zone