After the red carpet finally wrapped up, they led us to a massive warehouse where glass cubes had been spaced out all across the floor. Each one had a terminal next to it, and a mass of wires and probes running through the glass into a blue goopy looking gel filling them. I’d already said my goodbyes to Alex and Helena, and was just waiting with everyone else to get this shindig going.

Before long we were directed to go change into some skin tight swimming suits. I can’t really say that it’s the best look for me or that I really appreciate my boys being shrink wrapped to my leg. At least with the huge crowd of participants it was hard to stand out, unless of course you’re one of the true pros who seem to be cut from a completely different cloth, or more chiseled from marble would be more appropriate in their case.

A tech finally came to collect me, leading me to the tank that was going to be my home for the next year. As the lights dimmed and a projector screen dropped down at the front of the room, they started the work of sticking various probes to me, certain the more invasive parts would come after that. As the projector started up and we’re all greeted with to a video of a team of people sitting down behind a man standing at a podium addressing us.

“Welcome everyone! My name is Brian Lutz, and I’m one of the lead developers for Tenacity Online. I want to be the first to welcome all of you to our yearlong launch event. I’m sure you’re all chomping at the bit to know more and I’m here to share it with you. Tenacity is a game unlike any you’ve ever experienced, solely based on the fact that it doesn’t feel like a game. Thanks to a very advanced AI we’ve been able to recreate our dream world with near perfect accuracy. You’ll move, fight and explore just like you were here in your real body. The next big change is that in Tenacity there are no player classes, or set progression paths. The game works off of what we call an active learning progression; if you spend all day stabbing monsters with a spear you won’t be able to level and suddenly cast magic spells. I encourage all of you to really break away from the expected roles and molds that we’ve all come to know as gamers, and really explore the options available to you. We’ve prepared a short video to help you at least learn the basics before you go in, and I look forward to watching all of your adventures. From myself and the rest of the Tenacity team here at Bastion, we’d like to wish you all the best of luck.”

After the video switched over we’re presented with another more traditional style release trailer, zooming across beautiful life like vistas and through massive castles, followed by a short informational film about what to expect once we’re in game. But in my head I’m already working to piece together just what I’d need to do with this whole active learning progression. If I want any chance of playing a caster, it means I’d most likely have to find somewhere to train which could be hard if I go somewhere more remote.

A droning voice interrupted my premature planning already part through laying out the setting we’re all excited to jump into. “With the recent cataclysm the three major nations of Koarum, Majaal, and Xhaidou are all in upheaval with their power bases cut off and it’s this that we hope will allow our players to truly shape their own destiny in game, even building their own nations! Now, before we get everyone settled a few points about the game. First of all players starting stats will be based off a full physical evaluation done by our in game system, players will be allowed to select their starting race and location and that’s all, and just a forewarning that certain races will be locked if you don’t meet the base stat requirements. Second and most importantly, due to the life like nature of the game, during this year long event any players that experience an in game death will be placed into a twenty-four cool down period outside of the core game world where they can recuperate and our stellar medical staff can properly evaluate them. Thank you all once again for joining us in the Tenacity Online launch event.”

Shit, a twenty-four hour cooldown period. This really must be something if they’re expecting hardcore gamers to need that long after an in-game death. And only being able to select my race and starting point, which was going to be a real change. I just hoped that whatever the AI rated my stats at, that they weren’t too horrible. I could feel that sick twisting knot of excitement and nervousness back in my stomach. Like I swallowed a snake and he was real pissed off.

I was right about the more invasive parts coming after, gory details aside I was finally immersed in the tank which was a wholly alien experience for me. Looking like a certain secret mutant weapon as I lowered my mostly naked body into the cool gel. I could feel it squishing through my toes and conforming to my body as I tried to relax fully into it like I’d been instructed. I expected to sink to the bottom immediately, but I was surprised to find myself suspended completely in the gel, aside from the respirator strapped to my face and the neural unit over my head it was actually not so bad. Adjusting a bit for no real good reason at all I finally heard a voice chime over through the unit on my head.

“Full immersion sequence initiated” Droned a robotic voice in my ear “3…2…1”

Suddenly I was no longer in the tank, with gel cradling my neither bits. Instead I was standing in what looked to be like a massive field tent. I could feel cool packed dirt under my feet, and in front of me was a massive 3-D topographical table map. Stepping closer I leaned against the table looking at the map more carefully, as I focused on a set of mountain ranges it seemed to expand and zoom in taking up the whole table. I scanned the table for a moment finding a key of sorts in the right corner. Seemed I was looking at the Alphanzee mountain range, along with all the stats I could ever want from altitude to average season temperatures given three stars out of three rating whatever that means. On a whim I tried tapping the stars on the info sheet; suddenly a block of texts appeared in place of the stats key.

Tenacity Online’s starter location rating system runs on a three star system. Each star representing the average level of difficulty a player can expect starting out from their chosen location. Factors such as location, weather, population, accessibility, and danger levels of local flora and fauna are factored in to the rating system.

1 Star – Highly populated cultural center, this starting location offers the player access to all basic goods and services, as well as a wide range of challenge options for the player to test herself or himself against. This is the most traditional starting location.

2 Stars – Rural or more rugged starting locations, players can expect reasonable access to small towns and villages with only moderate difficulty. With a smaller selection of usually more aggressive flora and fauna, and the possibility of limited travel worldwide travel these locations tend to more isolated and unforgiving.

3 Stars – Truly the most difficult locations for a player to survive, sparse in population, with harsh weather conditions and sometimes unpassable terrain these locations offer the greatest challenge in the game. Players can expect limited accessibility, access to only small villages and exceedingly aggressive flora and fauna.

At first I jumped at the thought of finding a three star starting point, but I scratched that one really quickly. I’m not some anime hero who’s going to end up skirting the game systems and becoming some unique unstoppable warrior, most likely I’d just be some guy freezing my balls off getting eaten by giant frost drakes or something. Besides chances were most of the pro teams and true pros are going to flock to these three star locations where they can really show off their abilities. I don’t think my ego is big enough yet to convince me it’s a good idea.

Next off my list was the one star locations, not like I think I’m too hardcore to start it out on easy mode. But the more popular social streamers and personalities are going to dominate the big cities, and I really don’t think I’m entertaining enough to compete with them. Besides if the guild is going to grow anything really substantial in the future, we couldn’t be fighting it out with some of the biggest groups around.

So that just left the two star locations, hopefully one that wasn’t too limiting on world travel and left lots of options open for everyone. But far enough off the beaten road that for the next long year I’m not fighting it out over resources and monsters with everyone else with parallel thinking. Looking back to the map I tried to zoom back out finally managing it by looking at a small mini map in the corner, looking back at the whole picture I started the process of picking through all the two star locations. The world seemed to be cut out into three large land masses almost in a rough triangle, with a massive ocean in the center and smaller seas separating them.

I could feel my legs starting to cramp up I’d been standing there so long flipping through various starting locations. Shaking them out like there ants in my nonexistent pants I dropped into a crouch rubbing my palms over my face as I got some feeling back into my legs. The cool ground that was so fascinating when I first got there had started to leave my toes cold and cramping and for some reason I actually got to pee which was a whole new experience in a game. Standing back up I flipped through the final three choices I’d narrowed it down to, hoping one jumped out to me and I could get this going. I’d settled on islands located in the central ocean, that way no matter what nation we were closest too if the guild decides different we can always have other options. I’d also narrowed it to what I thought as the perfect size, small enough that if we recruited some real help we could probably make a big impact, but large enough that we weren’t going to be stuck going off island for all our resources and adventure. Letting out a deep breath I puffed up my cheeks for a moment, slapping them as I decided to go back to my tried and true method. Randomly pick one and if doesn’t immediately feel right throw it out till there is only one option. If it’s good enough for picking Friday night takeout, then I’m sure it’s up to snuff when it comes to deciding the gaming careers of eighteen people and the next year of my life.

I was left with the Island of Hibernia. Zooming in I looked over it again, Hibernia is on the edge of the ocean controlled by the Koarum Empire. The island looks like an egg, with a rounder bottom and pointier top, divided into a sort of pie chart with a piece missing as a massive mountain range dominates the center and travels out to the western coast dividing north from south on one half of the island. Honestly with the beaches, mountains and deep forest I figured it was enough of a mixed bag that everyone could be happy. And with a full range of seasons verging on mild to make me and my now especially chilly toes happy. Zooming in fully on the island I slapped my hand on the select start button that popped up on the edge of the map. Next thing I knew the map and table were gone and I was left standing in a small changing room with a full length mirror.

Staring at my reflection for a moment I flexed a few times for good measure “Alex if you can hear me, edit this out...please.”

Ok time to go to work, stepping up to the mirror I found a small arrow button on each side. Pressing the right button I was instantly looking back at myself, but now my skin was a deep olive and my dark brown hair is a deep black and run through with tight ringlets. This seemed to be the standard Koarum citizen, Koaruminate, Koarumican, Koarumish? Fuck it was the industry standard for the empire at large, I flipped on through a few more. The list was truly expansive, it seemed that almost any race found in the Empire was available for me to pick, one reflection looking back at me had cat ears and there was a thick mane of fur running down my spine. Note to future self, track down Koarum cat girls. At the end of the list I was presented with a slightly greyed out image, me skinnier with a deep brown skin tone, almost like stained mahogany. The reflection of me had high cutting cheek bones and pointy elf ears. At waist height I saw text flashing in the mirror, insufficient starting attributes. That’s right! I should have my system decided attributes now, stepping back from the mirror for a moment I pulled up my character sheet with a thought. Finally it laid up over my vision as I thought about it.

Luke Castille / Human

Level 1 / Status: Healthy

Strength: 14

Health 180/180

Agility: 6

Mana 100/100

Endurance: 18

N/A

Willpower: 15

N/A

Intelligence: 10

N/A

Charisma: 8

N/A

A little simplistic right now but I’m sure it’d fill out as I got in game, now why couldn’t I pick the super sexy elf as a race. Willing the stat screen away I looked back to the mirror, touching the flashing text near my hip a small stat screen popped up showing me the minimum requirements to be a Woad Elf. It seemed I didn’t meet the only two requirements, my charisma wasn’t at least a fourteen and my agility wasn’t a twelve. Flipping back to the first human option I looked down near my hip finding another small stat screen on the mirror. The base human races had no stat requirements, but that the average stat for most none player characters started at a ten across the board. Seems the game found me uncoordinated and unattractive, good to know. Flipping back to the woad elf I continued on, each step of the way the mirror transforms and I was faced with a plethora of different reflections from me as a dwarf to me as a scaled lizard man with thick spines across my brow. Finally back at the start of the cycle there was only one that is for sure off my list and seriously making me reconsider my choice of starting location. A version of me with a shiny black chitinous body and elongated fangs, I wasn’t really excited about the possibility of being dumped into a city full of spider human hybrids. Switching to a different tactic I started flipping back through looking solely at the required stats table, maybe there was something I was especially suited for. Towards the end of the rotation I found it, the perfect race for my unbalanced and unflattering stats.

Looking up from the stat sheet I stared back at myself, really soaking it in. My reflection looked a few inches taller than I normally am, with grey almost slate colored skin and thick black tribal markings wrapping around my torso, legs and arms in weaving knotted bands. With an extra handful of pounds in the way of sheer muscle, and two elongated bottom teeth almost like tusks. I looked like a taller, less bestial version of an orc maybe even svelte in comparison. I did a quick turn to really take it in as it started to grow on me, the small tusks barely peeking through my lips when my mouth is closed giving me a stronger jawline as well, and thick rich black hair down to the middle of my back. I was something called an Ulcragg, and I could get used to this, the stat requirements were just perfect for me, and the look was something I could grow to like. With a required twelve strength and sixteen endurance it was almost tailor made for me. I looked around for an accept button, finally one popped up on the mirror floating over Ulcragg me’s chest. Pressing my finger to it carefully as suddenly everything drop[ed away from me and I was left plunging through darkness.