It was in the middle of the 22nd century when humanity entered its golden age of technological advancement. A long red couch was projected on the big screen floating in the air across Time-Square New York. On it sat a man with an immaculate grey suit fitted with an intricately folded navy green pocket square. Next to him was a woman in a white blouse tucked into a simple formal pants which tapered wide towards the bottom while she wore a simple grey blazer on top to finish off the look. Sitting across them was a middle-aged gentleman dressed with a very elaborate maroon coloured suit.

“Greetings Mr. Lander and Ms. Spark and welcome to Late Interview with Blake Nottingham. I must say, the rumour mill has been spinning non-stop and people can’t wait for the big reveal from Future Tech”

The pair sat across the interviewer and smiled and shook their heads at the man who introduced them. Seemingly unable to contain his excitement.

“Well Blake, that statement is very misleading. If I didn’t know better, I would think we’re going to reveal our hand in marriage” replied Ms Sparks while laughing.

“You’re not?” Blake replied with a feigned shock.

“Thank god no. I’m not desperate enough to date Robert, let alone marry him. The guy’s a workaholic” Ms. Sparks replied to the laughter of the audience. “No no, the big reveal as you put it is about our 10 year project, Astrum Online.”

“OOOhhhhhhh” was the voice made by the audience.

“Wait. I thought we’re here to talk about the platform to showcase our new tech?” Robert AKA Mr Lander interrupted. “Gotta have a word with my secretary later.

“Lizzy, why didn’t you tell me about it!” eliciting a dramatic eye roll from Ms Sparks.

“The game is basically the platform you oaf. What a pretender.” she scolded her boss on live TV.

“Ah yes, your 10 year research project” Mr. Lander feigned ignorance. “Sorry Liz, you know I'm rich, I have too much to keep track of and too little time. I tend to forget some stuff” claimed while giving her his famous charismatic half smile most seen on the cover of Forbes magazine.

“Are you sure you guys aren’t getting engaged?” asked Blake as a response to the banter from the couple. Steering the conversation back on track, “What we are all interested in is Astrum Online aren’t we ladies and gentlemen?” To the audiences’ cheers and hoots of affirmation.

“What can you tell us about this game? And why in the name of god, would a leading tech firm with no prior game publishing experience take a plunge into this oversaturated industry?”

“Well don’t look at me, I’m just here to enjoy the free alcohol. I didn’t even know this interview was about Astrum Online” claimed Robert to the laughter of the audience. “She’s the one you want to ask” as he pushes the responsibility to his partner and continues to sip his cocktail while getting comfortable.

“Why yes, first off, as many have speculated from the leaked name, the theme of the game is set in space. And before any of you out there say anything,” she turned towards the camera, curved one side of her lips upward in a mocking smile. “There is no magic. Sadly for you fantasy nerds out there, we’re coming close to the 23rd century. No magic. It’s all about science” she finished off with a wink.

“Sigh. The PR department is gonna have a nightmare” Robert says as he shakes his head in a dramatic mock disappointment.

“Oh you bet. Those elves and Tolkein lovers would be mad” Blake fake whispered to Robert.

Ignoring the banter of the two men, she continued, “What makes this game special, is that the game itself is managed not by us human developers, but by the company’s state of the art, next generation A.I. The fabled class 5 A.I.

“That’s right, Future Tech has spent years developing class 5 A.I. and it is finally time for her debut. And what better way to showcase this sweet piece of technology than incorporating it into an MMORPG”

This time the hall was silent. Only the sound of ice clinking could be hard from Robert’s sip of his cocktail. That, and him laughing to himself at the response of everyone present.

Ms Sparks continued as if what was just mentioned wasn’t of importance. “While Future Tech will still be the main guiding hand for the game’s story and events, the world of Astrum is in its entirety, a living, breathable world. It is wholly managed, balanced, and moderated by our A.I. and the only input from the developers are the general direction of the events and some rudimentary user interface all players will have access to.

“What does this mean? Well, it basically means that even us devs do not have complete knowledge of the story. The nitty gritty of how the story develops is based on the actions and decisions of the players. The NPCs are all controlled by each individual class 4 A.I. while the overarching game is handled by Astra, our class 5 A.I. This level of realism and immersion can only be achieved by the raw analytical and processing power that is inherent to class 5 A.I. allowing game events and player progression to be developed real time." Pausing in thought, she added, "Words honestly doesn't do the capabilities of Astrum justice. You just have to experience it to see the difference.”

“In a sense all this management can be achieved by existing class 4 A.I.s like in existing games but” taking a sip of her drink, “It is limited to one world and spread across multiple servers. Now, where am I going with this? Can anyone guess?”

It is this point that the audience started to murmur.

“Are you saying, there will only be one server in this game? And what do you mean one world?” asked Blake as he gave both of his guests a challenging stare for an answer that would make a highschool teacher proud.

Still nursing his drink, Robert casually replied, “What Ms. Spark is saying Blake, is that players will not be limited to only one planetoid. The Galaxy is open and players are able to fully explore every nook and crannies of known space.

“Knowing how big a full size galaxy is, even if it is populated by NPCs, the world of Astrum will be barren. Which is why, we developed many of our own proprietary technologies so that everyone no matter where they are living, are connected to the same single server.”

Acting as if it was not a big deal, Robert swirls his glass and drop the final bomb.

“Lag. Free.”

Looking at Blake's disbelieved face while he opens and closes his mouth continuously, Lizzy smiled which wrinkled the edges of her eyes. She added in, “We developed a lot of cutting edge technologies at the company to make all gamers’ dream of a single overarching lag free server come true. Which is why Robert lied earlier when he thought the interview was about the showcase platform for the various new technologies that we developed.”

“I do not lie” Robert exclaimed in mocked affront.

“Yes you do my dear” Blake replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “Now stop interrupting Liz.”

Chuckling at the antics of the two gentlemen, “Another rumour or open secret I guess, is that I can also finally confirm that we have developed our own VR pods as well for the game. Naturally, it already has the approval from all the relevant regulatory checks and procedures. What’s more,”

“You have more?” Blake seems exasperated at the continuous massive reveal by the two monsters sitting across him. Looking at Blake with a pitied look, Lizzy continued “We have even bigger plans in the future for the game. For the sake of your sanity, we will not be revealing them. Please look forward to that. We worry your old heart couldn’t take it.”

“Oh come one. I’m not that old, tell us more!” Blake cried out loud.

“You missed out an important detail Lizzy. We established a new subsidiary, Future Games to manage all game related operations” Blake continued to the rapid fire of big reveals.

“Those aren’t important news” Lizzy replied as she rolled her eyes.

“Well it is for our shareholders. We paid good money to be on this show. Other than the good drinks, we might as well make the most out of it” laughed Robert.

Blake put his hand on his heart and pretended to look hurt. The wide plethora of emotions should have won him plenty of Oscars. “How calculative CEOs are these days” Blake replied to the laughter of everybody.

“Blake my dear, you really should consider picking up acting as a side job” Robert said with a grin. “The level of performance, my man, deserves an award.” The interview then started to sidetracked back and forth into a comedic debate on why Blake Nottingham was not in Hollywood.

The show ended with many smaller reveals about the game such as each country having its own starting sector in the galaxy. This was to prevent certain areas of the galaxy to be barren. Friends were allowed to start together even if they were from different countries, however, they ran the risk of missing events due to time zone differences.

Lizzie finally conceded after being constantly pestered by Blake and his audiences to reveal more about the game. She explained, a set of resources were available for every sector but each sector has its own unique abundant resource(s) which will affect the players and subsequent kingdoms’ tech tree progression. The pair remained tight-lipped when pressed to elaborate more, and demurred citing wanting the players to start with an even playing field.

Overall, the interview concluded with astounding success, which resulted in the immediate share prices of Future Tech and its subsidiaries to skyrocket.