“Good evening, Robert. My name is Glen Kingsley.”

Robert stammered, “Uh, hello. I know who you are. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Kingsley.”

Unlike in the announcement earlier that day, he was wearing a simple tunic and pants tucked into calf-height boots. He was relaxed and holding a mug of something in his lap. He looked utterly at home.

“Please call me Glen.”

Robert gathered a little of his composure to not sound like a complete fanboy and said, “Ok, Glen. Is it really you?”

Glen gave him a wink and said, “Maybe…” then, the corners of his mouth spread into a grin as he started laughing. “I’m sorry. I’m not very good at being mysterious. Yes, I am the real Glen Kingsley.”

Robert just stood there in shock as Glen continued, “I get notifications when certain parameters have been met with characters. I sometimes say hello. In other situations, like with your friend Sam, my NPC avatar takes care of this part.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

Glen smiled and put the mug on a side table. “Please take a seat, and we can talk.” He said, motioning to the chair opposite him.

Robert took a seat quickly, not able to keep his nerves under control. “Uh, sure.”

“Great, now we can relax and just talk. Would you like something to drink? Ale, cider, or maybe something else?”

“A cider would be great. I’m really interested in finding out if the taste interface is as convincing as the other senses.”

Glen leaned forward with an excited look. “I can assure you it is, but you should really check it out for yourself.” He finished by pointing at the mug of cider now sitting on the edge of a side table beside Robert.

Robert looked between the mug and Glen for a moment and then took a drink. His mind almost exploded with the flavors he was experiencing. The taste was a combination of honey, apples, and a variety of other spices that made him think of winter. It was slightly sweet with a light tart finish.

“This is incredible!”

Glen looked pleased. “I thought so. It took the team nearly a year to figure out the flavor melding algorithm. It’s always bothered me that other environments handled taste in such a clunky way.”

“Yeah, in Excel, this would taste like apple juice and then something else. The mixing of flavors was always a little off.”

Glen’s eye gleamed for a second as he said, “Yes, exactly. We could teach the computer what ingredients tasted like. The jump to combining ingredients into other flavor profiles was always a struggle. We got it mostly right, but you’ll see.”

Glen relaxed back into the chair. “But that’s not why I’ve come to talk to you. It seems you have a choice to make with your character.”

Robert was confused. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“Well, as you probably already figured out, the character design is created by your choices in the game. We build them on scenarios that are individually altered for you.” He paused for a moment and pulled up a display that Robert couldn’t make out. “Your scenario was a choice that led to many other options and outcomes. You intervened and rescued the princess. I know it’s a little stereotypical, but that’s what you did.”

Robert cringed at the word ‘stereotypical’ but reflected on his decisions and then said, “Well, it seemed like the only option available at the time.”

“You could have just kept walking or stayed hidden.”

Robert felt a knot grow in his stomach. “No, I couldn’t do that. I knew what they were planning.”

Glen showed a soft smile and said, “You couldn’t have done anything else. Other people could have. Other people have done differently. While I would like to say that we were able to build an endless string of scenarios, we only have around three hundred or so programmed character creation scenarios. We assign the specific scenario based on the records of the user. When you accepted the license for the trial, you also gave us access to those.”

Robert’s eyes went wide. “You have access to all my records now?”

Glen put his hands up defensively. “Oh, no, we don’t have full access. If you had read the fine print in the user agreement, you would have seen that access to your records was limited. It was for a specific purpose and a limited time to build an interface between you and Elysium. After that was accomplished, the system’s access was terminated.”

Robert nodded, and Glen continued, “I apologize if that bothers you, but we needed to determine our users’ mental health and how to best fit them into Elysium Online. I am happy to say you are fairly stable. That made our job easier. Some people are not as easy to figure out. Sorry, I’m getting off track.”

“It was just a shock. But what do you mean I have a choice to make?”

“In certain situations, a person is on the cusp of a decision. They could take one path or the other. The outcomes could be drastically different. In those situations, we like to ask the player what they want. It’s better than the system flipping a coin.”

Robert was curious. “So, I’m at a cusp. What exactly are my choices then?”

“Looking at your scenario, you intervened and saved the princess. That was a choice that helped us determine a baseline, and then your combat and interactions helped us narrow it down. Even when you attacked you did it methodically and with as little risk to yourself as possible. So classing you as a warrior tank would be a terrible match.

“You used the throwing darts and didn’t hesitate when dealing with your enemies, so that took us one direction. You also tried to fight in close with a knife. You didn’t even think about trying to channel magic or anything like that. If you had contemplated something like that, the outcome would probably have been different. Was there anything about the experience that you found unusual or frustrating?”

Robert reflected on the scenario and said, “Yes, I couldn’t access any stats or abilities when I tried. It was like my stats didn’t even exist.”

“Very good. Your stats in the character creation scenario are blocked because we want your actions and desires to dictate what you have available. Had you contemplated using magic, you would have found something there, and your class would likely be different.”

“That makes sense. It was frustrating, but it makes sense.”

“So, you used purely physical means and were thoughtful and plotted your moves. You killed without hesitation and considered the objective the entire time, which was to save the girl. If you had just gone in for the kill and not actively pulled the pursuers away from where the girl ran, we would not be having this conversation. So, you know a little about classic role-play characters. What class do you think you should get?”

Robert thought about Glen’s description of the scenario and the choices he made. “Well, it sounds like an assassin or something.”

“Very good, but the choice I will give you is between an assassin and a ranger. Your interactions with the environment and choices give you those two options. Each will come with its own difficulties and benefits. Choose wisely.”

At that moment, a display popped up in front of Robert with two buttons. One said assassin and the other ranger. He had never played either of those classes. He knew what they did, but he had no experience building them or using them. He guessed that it didn’t matter since those were classes the game offered him.

Being an assassin intrigued him. Sneaking in the dark and eliminating targets while hidden appealed to his cautious nature. There was a reason he played wizards most of the time. He could sit back and see the whole situation from afar and take action. The only thing that bothered him about the assassin class was the clandestine nature of the work. Elysium Online was very realistic so far. He wasn’t sure he wanted his progress to be tied to killing people if it would be as real as it had been.

The ranger was attractive as it shared some qualities as the assassin, but was less focused on the whole murder aspect. He would still have to battle, but he was curious about the other aspects of interacting with nature. He didn’t know what he would need to do to level, but he figured that would work itself out.

Glen said, “Oh. Because this is a unique choice, I just wanted to say that if the idea of good and bad influences you, you know that no class is good or bad. It’s the person who is. There can be good assassins who take missions for a cause or evil assassins who take coin and to practice their trade. The same goes for rangers.”

Robert took a moment to decide and said, “I can see that. Just like in the real world. People are good or bad, not their jobs. That is still an oversimplification, but I get the point.”

As he finished talking, he reached up and tapped on the ranger button. The display faded away, and Glen smiled.

“I’m so glad you went with the ranger. Some of my favorite characters in movie and game history were rangers. I look forward to seeing what you do with it. You should search for a movie with a character named Strider. You won’t be disappointed.”

Glen stood from his chair and pulled up an interface. “Well, I’ve got to go. The next time you log into Elysium, you will be able to view your base attributes. I also encourage you to take advantage of the training with Vulmon. The skills you used in the character creation may not be fully available to you in the actual game. Not everyone gets that. I will see you in the game.”

With that last word, Dr. Glen Kingsley faded into a wisp of smoke and disappeared.