I sighed and rolled my eyes as Hayden made a light joke that made Liam laugh politely before glancing sideways at Katy. Something that she had said bothered me.

“Say, Katy?”

“I can’t tell you whether Tylie and Jameson made it out safely,” she replied instantly making me blink in surprise.

“Yeah I already knew that,” I responded. “After all that’s part of a Quest that I’m currently on and you’ve already told me that you can’t interfere with that sort of thing.”

“Then what is it?” she asked turning to look at me.

“I thought you said yesterday that you didn’t know what this announcement was about?”

“Oh, right,” she sighed looking at me sadly. “Tyler, I’d just like to remind you; I’m an AI.”

“So, what you’re saying is that you’ve worked out what the announcement is about, not that you know for certain?” I guessed.

“Yup!”

I shook my head wryly, of course she had. I’ve mentioned this before but despite the fact that I knew that she was an AI it was still pretty hard to believe sometimes with how human she and the NPC’s in game acted.

“Ooh, the real deal’s starting!” she exclaimed as Liam stood up and addressed us.

“Soul Core Online is very different from most VRMMORPG’s. Which is a line that I’m sure all of you have heard time and time again. But those of you who have played will all agree that this is the case.” Liam said before pausing to give his words a moment to sink in.

“While there have been games that use a levelling and skill progression system similar to the one that exists within Soul Core Online most of them haven’t been as popular as the ones where you obtain Skills simply by levelling up. However, it wasn’t this that I was referring to but something else entirely,” Liam explained giving us an enigmatic smile as he did so.

I grinned; this guy was actually pretty good at marketing his product. Not only had he just referred to one of the things that made his game different from others on the market without outright saying it, but he had suggested that there was something even better that he was about to tell us. Even if I hadn’t been interested in what he had to say earlier I probably would be now.

“As most of you know AI research met a bit of a dead end about 20 years ago,” Liam continued. I wasn’t old enough to remember properly but the incident that he was referring to was one that had come extremely close to ending AI research before it had really begun. 20 years ago, the first attempt at a true Military AI had been activated and this AI which had been dubbed Merlin by its creators had proceeded to go slowly insane as it was told to send soldiers on missions that it knew full well at least some of them wouldn’t be returning from while being programmed to protect as many of them as possible. Eventually Merlin had decided that the easiest way to make sure that the soldiers it was in charge of was to annihilate anything that its programming designated as an enemy. Unfortunately, at that time there was a massive protest about the use of AI’s in war and Merlin automatically treated them as threats to its own existence and that of its charges and hacked into a warship which it then used to fire missiles at the crowd. It’s supervisors eventually did manage to talk it down but from then on Merlin started acting more and more erratically and eventually it was retired. However, the group that had been protesting used this to essentially stall AI research, they still hadn’t been able to stop it completely, but they had managed to get a large number of restrictions added to any research being done, mostly involving having a lot of government overwatch. This was the reason that any military AI’s now had their emotions removed and personal AI’s were so limited so the fact that the AI’s like Katy and the NPC’s in Soul Core Online were actually even more impressive considering these restrictions.

“But we have succeeded in developing a new type of AI that mainly uses a learning algorithm instead of relying mostly on programming like normal AI’s do. The learning process takes a long time, years in fact but each AI develops a personality in much the same way a human child would just faster.” Liam stated as a look of confusion on Hayden’s face. Hayden may have been reporting on games for a long time but when it came to AI’s he wasn’t very knowledgeable.

“In Soul Core Online each NPC is controlled by a single AI unlike in most games where an AI would control a group of NPCs which limits the responses available to these NPC’s,” explained Liam seeing Hayden’s confusion.

“So, what you’re saying is that there is a massive number of these advanced AI’s acting as NPCs in this game?” asked Hayden.

“That’s correct.”

“I’m sorry but surely the processing power required to have that many AI’s running on the same server is massive, how can you do something like that?”

“Ah, I’m sorry but this isn’t actually my area of expertise so forgive me if I’m a bit fuzzy on the details,” Liam apologised as he took out several small pieces of paper from one of his pockets. “As it was explained to me, each of these AI’s is not only advanced in terms of how it learns and acts but is housed in a new type of core and these cores also share some of their processing power with the server.”

“A new type of core?” Hayden asked the confusion returning to his face. I couldn’t blame the guy for this even I wasn’t quite sure what Liam was talking about, I mean I knew that a core was what housed the AI itself, but I didn’t really know much more than that.

“Well like I said before, this is a bit out of my area of expertise,” Liam said. “But these Cores are made out a new type of artificially made crystal that allows them to increase the amount of data that a core can store by a massive amount, in fact these new cores have as much storage space as the human brain!”

“Hmm, that is impressive but I’m not quite sure where you’re actually going with this,” prompted Hayden. “I get that these new NPCs are different from the ones in other games but that seems to be a comparatively minor thing than what I had been led to expect.”

“Well, you’re not wrong there,” admitted Liam. “But the most interesting thing about these new AIs is their creativity!”

“Their creativity?”

While AIs are typically fairly intelligent, they are usually limited in terms of creativity being only able to come up with solutions to subjects that align with their programming but if Liam was suggesting what I think he was then these new AIs were capable of being as creative as the average human.

“This game Soul Core Online is something of a collaborative effort between us and these new AIs. In fact, almost everything in the game was created by them!”

“Wait are you telling me that this game was created by AIs!” Hayden exclaimed finally understanding where the conversation had been heading.

I gave an exclamation of surprise before turning to look at Katy in shock.

“Wait! How does that even work?”

“What do you mean?” she asked calmly pausing the screen so that we could talk without missing any of the announcement.

“I mean you’re one of the AIs that he’s talking about, right?”

“Yeah?”

“So how come you didn’t know about this?”

“Ah,” she sighed realising that I was asking why she didn’t know about the topic of this announcement from the beginning. “Well I knew that that some of the other AIs were helping out with making the game I just didn’t know that they were doing most of the work until a couple of hours ago myself.”

“Basically,” she continued seeing that I was still confused about what she was saying. “We were in different departments; my job was to learn about dealing with humans in the real world an helping them out in game while theirs was to create the world and live in it. I only really got information about the parts of the game that players needed to be able to understand like Skills and stuff.”

“I see,” I sighed gripping my head in exasperation. Apparently, no matter where you worked people still had issues with communicating although I suppose it’s a bit of a different story when we’re talking about a game that was worth millions or even billions of dollars and that’s without even mentioning how much money the AIs like Katy were worth. Seriously how were they expecting to make money when they were giving away state of the art AIs like this?

Seeing that I was done asking questions Katy unpaused the announcement and I sighed. I guess that I’ll find out the answer to my previous question and if not, I can just ask Katy later.

“Yes, that’s right and as such the game only took 13 months to finish as all we had to do was work out how the players would be able to interact with the world via things like Skills,” Liam continued with a nod.

“Can you explain why you chose this form of gaining Skills as opposed to the way most games these days use?” Hayden asked. To my disappointment he was trying to move the conversation back to the game itself, I couldn’t really blame the man after all his job was to report on games not recent advances in AI technology.

Ah, that’s actually partially because of the special name the development team gave the new type of AIs,” Liam explained. “Because of how similar to humans they act the development team decided to give them the name Artificial Souls. And as these Artificial Souls are housed in cores like any other AI, we came up with the idea of Soul Cores and decided to make them one of the selling points of the game.”

“But don’t most people prefer a system where they either gain skills like they do in the real world or receiving skills based on their class when they level up?” Hayden asked giving the audience a knowing look.

“Yes, games like that are usually more popular but usually games that use skills linked to equipment don’t allow you to create your own skill combinations,” Liam replied easily. “Soul Core Online allows you to do this and later on you also gain the ability to have multiple sets of equipment that you can change between in an instant, even in combat allowing for a massive amount of customization.”

“Well, that does sound interesting actually,” Hayden admitted. “But I’m still not making stat increases linked to the Soul Cores instead of having assignable stat points every level was a good idea.”

“Well there are other ways to increase your stats,” Liam admitted with a grin. “Some players have even worked some of them out already but doing things this way not only makes the Soul Cores that you use and changing your equipment sets more meaningful but also makes it harder for players to get much stronger than NPCs, not without working hard anyway.”

“Hmm, I suppose that’s true,” replied Liam who nodded in understanding. “Alright, let’s move on for now, what can you tell me about things like quests in a world created by AIs?”

“An excellent question!” Liam nodded happily. “While certain things will be repeatable and available for all characters, at least for a period of time most quests will be something for individual’s dependant on a number of factors such as reputation, the character’s level and the situation the quest giver finds themselves in, essentially most quests will be something that only one person or group can receive.”

“So, what you’re saying is that the AIs actually create the quests on their own?”

“Pretty much,” Liam confirmed. “There were a few different things that we put in so that newer players had simple things to start with like hunting quests for different weak monsters that act like pests to the NPCs but even these can become more complicated if the players react the right way.”

“That makes sense,” Hayden nodded. “And now we should probably move on to some questions from our viewers.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Well one of the most common questions that we haven’t already gone over is about how punishing those players who break the laws works in Soul Core Online, which is a subject I’m even more interested in hearing about now that I know more about how the world functions.” Hayden said reading off a list on the tablet in front of him.

“Ah, yes that was something that we had trouble with,” admitted Liam. “The AIs didn’t really know how players would react to finding themselves surrounded by NPCs who acted like normal people so they decided that they would simply act the way that they would if an NPC committed crime, and yes that does happen if that’s the type of NPC they are.”

“But doesn’t that cause its own set of problems?” Hayden asked. “In fact, I think we’ve got a few videos circulating on the net about things that players have done to NPCs.”

“Yes, that is the case, because players can resurrect where the NPCs cannot it does cause problems,” Liam replied looking a little sad. “But in reality, this is the AIs’ world that we’re talking about and we’re actually quite limited in the changes that we can make because of that so the NPCs and any players that are willing to help them have to take care of any issues themselves.”

“I’m sorry, that do you mean by that?” Hayden asked the confusion returning to his face.

I was pretty sure I knew where this was heading, after all I had received a quest to help the NPCs make a new set of punishments for players who broke their laws but there was no way that Hayden could know about that quest as anyone who received it would be keeping quiet about it for obvious reasons.

“Well remember what I said about how quests work in the game earlier?” Liam asked giving Hayden a small smirk.

“Wait!” Hayden exclaimed. “Are you telling me that the NPCs are going to give out Quest to players so that they can learn ways to punish other players who break the rules!?”

“Well actually it’s already happened in some places,” Liam informed Hayden who looked shocked at this revelation. “I can’t tell you anything about the players who have received this quest for obvious reasons, but I can tell you that for the most part they have done a good job.”

“And what about in places where the players refuse the quest?” Hayden asked with a frown on his face. It was clear that he was unsure what to think about the idea of players thinking up punishments for their peers.

“Well in some cases the punishments that a player had come up with somewhere nearby might make their way there. But in others…” Liam paused here as though uncomfortable with continuing his thought. “… they could become lawless regions of the world of Soul Core Online and perhaps eventually even be treated as an enemy by the law-abiding countries.”

“So, the fate of those places and the NPCs which you have told us are basically AIs playing parts like an actor in a movie are completely dependant on the players themselves?” Hayden asked looking a little ill.

I completely agreed with that sentiment, although I actually didn’t quite agree with his comparison to actors. These NPCs truly believed they were real people, they cried when they were hurt and laughed when they were happy. For all intents and purposes, they were alive, and the idea of their fates being left in the hands of people who might simply see them as just another part of a game chilled me to the bone, and I flinched as I felt Katy reach out and grip my hand reassuringly.

“For the most part you are correct,” Liam nodded sombrely. “Except for one thing; the NPCs are completely unaware of their true nature. They believe they are real people.”

“That’s even worse!” Hayden said looking like he was about the throw up.

“Yes, it is in some ways. But in the end, this is a game as well as their creation and we have no right to say how to play the game or deny the AI’s control over their world,” Liam said firmly. “In the end that is what this is, both a game and a world created by AIs for AIs and those players who want to visit.”

Liam turned to look directly at the camera, and I could see that he meant every word that he was saying.

“The players are the ones that will decide what sort of world this can and will be. If you want this world to be one where crimes simply aren’t punished because you can come back from the dead that is your choice alone but if you don’t want that then it is both your right and responsibility to do something about it just like it is outside of the game.”

I was sure that many people didn’t particularly care enough about the NPCS to change how they played the game. It was after all still a game and I wasn’t about to blame them for that, I had played as a ‘bad guy’ in other games and enjoyed (to a certain extent) as well. But as one of the people who had decided to try and do something about the problems the NPCs were having with players, I suddenly felt the weight on my shoulders increase. I truly wanted to help these NPCs, but I had never thought about how my actions would affect the game world, (if I could truly even call it a game) it was a lot to take in and honestly it was intimidating to even think about.

Katy’s grip on my hand tightened and I turned to meet her gaze.

“It’s alright I’m here to support you,” she told me calmly.

I could see that she was troubled by the fact that I was taking this so hard and it actually made me feel a bit guilty, we had only met the other day, but it was clear that she cared about me to an extent that would be abnormal if she was human.

“You’re doing the right thing Tyler, don’t doubt that,” Katy told me seriously. “And I want to be there to help you.”

I nodded at this statement relaxing slightly.

“Thank you, Katy,” I replied. “I’m going to unlock the ability to have you join me in the game as soon as I have some money.”

She nodded seriously and we turned back towards the screen to discover that Hayden and Liam had moved on from the sombre discussion of crime and punishment in a virtual world and were now talking about things that were slightly less worrying but still interesting namely how item grades worked.

In Soul Core Online there were two things that one had to look at to discover an item’s true worth; Item Tier and Item Rarity. Item Rarity was literally how common an item was, it didn’t actually mean that the item was any good, I mean think about it, in the real world if there’s an item that is completely unique there’s actually a good chance that it’s useless which is why it’s unique. Item Tier on the other hand was how well the item was made, what it was made of and/or what it could be used for. It was a combination of these two things as well as any stats that the item had that told you how good it was. A katana was an excellent weapon but not if it was made out of glass that would shatter the first time it struck something.

They continued talking about the various ways that the company was going to make money, both out of the game and the AIs that it would be selling separately through its parent company, these AIs could then be used for any number of purposes including things like lab assistants. The main way that they would be able to make money from the game was through the marketplace; the marketplace was also how I was planning on making money, most games these days had a system where one could buy and sell virtual property for real cash and even convert real cash into game money and vice versa. Another way was of course by selling more copies of the game, as it turned out only the people who pre-ordered the game would obtain an AI automatically everyone else would have to pay a considerable amount to get one of their own which made sense especially considering how much time Katy had obviously spent learning about me, if someone paid for an AI that it later turned out they didn’t get along with that was a problem for the company so the AIs that the people who hadn’t pre-ordered the game would receive were going to be much ‘younger’ in other words newer AIs that had just been created and hadn’t yet formed their personalities.

While this was of course all very interesting I was really starting to get quite tired and I decided to turn in for the night. The unexpectedly stressful events of the day weighed heavily on me as I drifted off into a troubled sleep.