A soft breeze ruffled my hair as I strolled down the sidewalk near my apartment complex. It was nearing evening, and the sun was just peeking out over the buildings to my right, a bright orange in a maroon sky. The cool October air felt nice against my skin, but beads of sweat still built up on my forehead from exertion. Maybe exertion wasn’t the right word, since I had just walked to the store and back, a few miles at most, but it was enough to work up a sweat regardless. I watched the grass sway casually in the wind as I took another bite of the hot dog in my hand.

Why is it that hot dogs from the store always tasted better than when I just made them at home? Maybe because the only cooking appliance I consistently used was the microwave? Couldn’t be. I’ll just chalk it up to the magic of fast food grease. Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest food, but at least I could justify it by fact that I’d walked to and from the store. As I thought this, the spiciness of the crisp jalapenos reached my tongue, so I took a sip of soda and sighed in satisfaction. Maybe the massive soda in my right hand was overdoing it, considering all I’d done was walk a few miles, but I was never very good at controlling my impulses.

With that said, it wasn’t like I was unhealthy or anything. Weighing in at 155 pounds, I was fairly slim for my 6’1” stature. Of course, that also meant I didn’t have all that much muscle on me, but lifting weights just isn’t my thing. It’s not that I don’t want to work, but I want a productive reason to incentivize me to get out of my comfy gaming chair. Some people would consider fitness one such productive reason. It just didn’t scratch that itch for me. I liked sports, though. I really should join some sort of flag football or volleyball league. I’d get around to it… eventually. I may have told myself that a few dozen (or hundred) times in the past. Sue me.

Those thoughts bouncing around my head, I finally made the last turn on my path to my apartment. Straight ahead of me, at the end of the road, was a massive electronic billboard showing a muscular, sweaty athlete drinking a bottle of Gatorade and flashing his pearly whites. Not wanting my personal AI to start marketing me sports drinks, I avoided looking directly at the billboard and turned into my apartment complex. I walked up to my mailbox and disinterestedly checked inside. It wasn’t likely that anything had been delivered in the short time I’d been gone. However, to my surprise and delight, the box wasn’t empty.

Inside was a cardboard box roughly the size of a book. There weren’t any logos or descriptions on the outside to identify what the package contained, but I knew instantly what it was. It had finally arrived! I excitedly crumpled up the aluminum foil from my hot dog and threw it into a nearby trash can as I grabbed the box. The stairs to my apartment on the third floor didn’t take more than 10 seconds to climb as I took them three at a time, but the box was still opened by the time I made it to my door. My suspicions were confirmed as I read the spine of my recent purchase, The Drifting World.

My hand pushed on the door and I rushed inside, barely waiting for my AI to unlock it for me. I tossed the box on the counter and sped to my computer while I pulled out my phone. The sound of my AI greeting me echoed behind me. “Welcome home, Noah.” I brought up my messenger and texted my friend Matt as I sat down.

“My game just arrived! I can’t wait for tomorrow’s launch!”

“I still don’t understand why you ordered a physical copy instead of just downloading it from the website like the rest of us. It’s not like you’ll be able to resell it anyway. Anyway, calm down, launch is probably going to be a buggy mess. It might be better to wait a few days to start playing to avoid all that frustration.”

Matt’s response was almost instantaneous. He was likely just as excited as I was, despite his attempt to calm me down. We both knew what we were getting into with the launch of a new MMO, having experienced a few such launches in the past, but we also both knew we weren’t going to wait a few days to try it out.

“I like having stuff like that to decorate my room. It’s so boring to wake up in the morning and see a room as bare as yours. I don’t know how you find the will to get out of bed looking at those blank walls.”

As I sent the text, I looked around my own room. It wasn’t anything fancy, but I was pretty attached to it. A bookshelf stood against the far wall, the bottom shelves filled with an assortment of fantasy and science fiction novels. Above that was a shelf full of video game cases, and I added The Drifting World to my collection after popping out the disc. On top sat a few various collectables and statues from my favorite games. Nothing too huge, but I liked them nonetheless.

Next to that sat my messy bed, the sheets and blankets twirled together in some impossible shape. Underneath, rolled up nice and neat, were old gaming posters. I liked to cover my walls with posters of whatever MMO I had committed to most recently. With the release of The Drifting World, my previous set had been carefully rolled up and placed under my bed as I covered my wall with new posters. A shining human paladin decked out in full plate mail fighting a massive dragon ten times his size. An undead necromancer raising an army of the dead. An orc warrior savagely fighting off a horde of monsters. There wasn’t anything terribly unique about the concepts, but they got me excited all the same.

Lastly sat my desk, computer, and gaming chair. The desk barely held together, old as it was and made of cheap wood. However, my computer was top of the line and my chair was a comfortable cushion of goodness. I hadn’t held back on the things that truly mattered. I think I mentioned earlier that I’m not good at controlling my impulses. Anyway, I put the game disc into my computer and started the long process of downloading the game. Without much to do in the meantime, I glanced back at my phone.

“Who cares about what your room looks like IRL. Just deck out your virtual space. It’s not like you spend much time looking at your room anyway.”

He was probably right objectively, but I couldn’t change my own thought process. I liked having physical copies of things. It felt more real, even if the virtual reality headsets could now make virtual things feel just as real. In my head, it just didn’t line up. Something was always different, even if I couldn’t put my finger on it. Regardless, it was an argument we’d had several times in the past, so I wasn’t going to rehash the same old thing with him right now. Having it in the real world just clicked a certain switch in my brain, and that was that. Who cared about why?

Taking my thoughts off that, I dragged up the official website for the game and started browsing. I’d looked over all the info on the site before, but the game didn’t launch until tomorrow. With nothing else to do to sate my excitement, I settled for old news. I navigated to the media page and the official trailer started playing automatically. Booming music played through the speakers as a deep voice narrated. I set the video to full screen and leaned back in my chair.

“Welcome… to the land of Araenea.” The black screen quickly filled with stars as the camera zoomed in on a planet in the distance. Most of the planet seemed to be a dry orange color, obscured slightly by wispy brown clouds. A few giant oceans dotted the surface, but the surface was primarily dry land. Large swathes of lively green adorned the surface, as though haphazardly applied with a paint brush. Just like Earth, the north pole of the planet was coated in a layer of white snow and ice, but the south pole was an unnatural black. The cloud cover, also black as night, was much thicker than the rest of the planet. Fiery particle effects traced the edge of the screen as the camera seemed to penetrate the atmosphere on a collision course with the ground.

“A land of conflict…” Abruptly, the camera swooped forward and leveled out to look across an active battlefield. “… of might…” The camera zoomed in on a muscular figure in plate metal armor swinging a bloody battle axe. Veins bulged across his green skin as he roared, spittle covering the short tusks jutting from his mouth. His dark hair flew back in braids as he leaped forward and swung his axe into another foe. “… of magic…” The camera suddenly zoomed out and a figure on the other side of the battlefield was illuminated with a bright light as she raised her hands in the air. Dark storm clouds formed overhead and rained down on the opposing force, charring the ground and electrocuting her enemies. “… and secrets.” The camera took an abrupt turn down as it made its way into a deep fissure in the ground. It seemed to accelerate as it zoomed past floors of a dungeon crawling with zombies, mummies, and vampires until it arrived at a massive chamber. The entire room was dark except for a pair of glowing red eyes glowering in the darkness. A roar sounded as the tattooed face of a massive troll appeared on screen. Just as the boss neared the camera, the screen went black.

“Explore a massive, persistent world where your actions shape the very environment. Discover thousands of quests, hundreds of skills, and the infinite possibilities of character creation.” The music picked up to a more optimistic tone as images of various environments flashed across the screen: barren deserts, towering cities, swampy bogs, and more. An elven ranger shot an arrow crackling with lightning at an unsuspecting bear twice his size. A lanky troll stood in a field of fire spinning his axes as projectiles of flame flew out at a pack of wolves surrounding him. The same muscular orc warrior from before swung his axe at the camera and the screen faded to black before showing the game’s title. “Welcome… to The Drifting World.”

As the screen faded to black once more, the game’s release date once more flashed across the screen in big text. September 2nd, 2104. Tomorrow. I’d seen the video many times before, of course. It felt different somehow the day before release, though. It was as if the website itself was excited, and it was contagious. I quickly scrolled down to see if there was anything new released today, but Titanium Entertainment, the developers of The Drifting World, were as tight-lipped as usual. Slightly deflated, I tried to search online for new information, but there was nothing. It was to be expected, though. The Non-Disclosure Agreement signed by beta testers was strictly enforced by their own personal AIs, so leaks were practically unheard of.

Frustrated and excited at the same time, I made my way over to my bed and crawled into the blankets. However, as my eyes fixated on the poster in front of me, I knew I wasn’t going to be sleeping any time soon. It was going to be a long night.