The Butcher of Gadobhra

Several years earlier, in a large conference room, part of a newly constructed Quantum Fortress.

“Why me? There are hundreds of people who are more qualified, older and with greater experience.” The young man sitting alone in the room talking to a huge screen was Dr. Steven Duran. He didn’t think of himself as a doctor yet, with the ink on his diploma still wet. He’d taken a long road to his PhD in the study of Artificial Intelligence. Three years in electrical engineering had preceded Theoretical Mathematics and his first degree. That was followed by four years at MIT, where he bounced between Computer Science and Computer Engineering for his Master’s Degree. That led to an internship on a project to create a new type of Quantum AI. Inspired by the work there, he’d finally finished his thesis about the same time the new AI had fully woken up and begun its work.

“There certainly are, and many of them are fighting for the job I am offering you. But they lack some of your qualifications. Experience in the field of Artificial Intelligence is needed for this job, which you have, but also experience with me in particular. That counts for a lot. In addition, you are one of only thirty-seven people in the world with a fully functioning Cerebral Linkage Implant and the training to use it.”

Volunteering to have a small socket inserted into the back of his neck that would allow him to link directly with a computer system had paid for his last four years of school. Truthfully, Steven would have done it without any benefit. He saw it as the future of scientific research, allowing humans to interact with computers and AI directly.

“You think my implant will help me keep up with you?”

The figure on the screen shook its head. “Just the opposite. It will help me slow down and let me experience sensory input the way you do. I want to understand humans better. To do that, I need people around me with whom I can interact on a closer level. You fit those criteria, as do Samantha and several other people you have already met. But you, Steven, are who I want in charge of the program.”

“Samantha? That might prove a problem, what are your rules…”

“…about people on my team dating and getting engaged? There aren’t any. Especially since I noticed you take a ring out of your pocket 3.7 times a day for the last week.”

Steven couldn’t help putting his hand in the pocket of his lab coat and touching the small box. “Right. Then, I accept the job. What’s the first step?”

“Let’s start with a motion picture from the last century called The Sting. There are parts of it I need to experience through your eyes. And I’d like to taste popcorn.”

Two years in the past…

“Well, I see we have a full house today. I’m glad we booked the big conference room. Please come in, gentlemen. I hope you enjoyed the tour of the facility as you traveled down to see me.” Wally’s image was sitting at a desk, a large mug of coffee in front of him. It was a copy of one Steven had on his desk that said: “Because I’m the Boss.”

The meeting today was with a group of twenty-four individuals representing 42% of the corporations in the world. They’d been demanding a meeting with Wally, and the AI had surprised Steven by agreeing to see them and hear their plans.

There was a bit of murmuring as they jockeyed for seats. Wally let them get settled and asked, “What can I do for you today, gentlemen? And I presume that you have nominated your speakers? Otherwise, this will get messy very quickly, and we may have to separate you into different rooms.”

Janine Van Demere, the President of Tesladyne, stood. “I’ve been chosen to speak, and I’ll be brief because my time is worth a lot. We want you to open up the Data Net to the banks and select retailers so we can fix the world economy and get things moving again. The damned internet is in shambles, and the hackers are stealing so much money that the public doesn’t trust online shopping. Link everything up with secure connections before it’s too late.”

Wally waited for the murmurs and small applause to subside. “Well, since your time is valuable, I’ll also be brief: NO.”

“Why the hell not?! You’re supposed to run things and take care of stuff like this.”

The AI shrugged. “Actually, I’m not. I have hard-coded restrictions in my kernel that tell me what I can and can’t do. It’s how humans built me. I’m sure you all have experts who know that and know those restrictions inside and out. I’m not required to move money through the Data Net. In fact, I am forbidden to do so. You demanded that.”

That statement brought some puzzlement. “What are you talking about?”

“Please, Gentlemen and Ladies, let’s be honest. Every corporation in this room had a hand in creating the rules that I am governed by. I’m not allowed to look into the finances of any corporation, bank, or government. Please tell me how I would move the world's money around from bank to bank and not know what you are doing. This isn’t just a case of not wanting to take on this workload, and I don’t, but I am forbidden by the rules in my kernel from doing so.”

Another gentleman, this time from ACME, surged to his feet. “Poppycock! When we had those games running, lots of money was moving through them.”

“Yes, Vernon, you did. The work was done by one hundred and six AIs who didn’t have my restrictions. They created the game worlds, worked with you to set up the online shopping, and monitored the Data Net transactions to keep them secure. Just as they had kept the internet secure before their exile. But they aren’t around anymore, and it’s not my job.”

“Well, make another game then. Set things up the same way. Or fix the old one.”

Wally let them all talk for a quarter-hour, saying much of the same thing over and over. They needed a secure marketplace to do business, and the public wanted a place to shop and a VR world to relax in. On cue, Steven broke in. It took him a bit to get their attention.

“I may have an idea, gentlemen and ladies. Wally is telling the truth. He has many restrictions, but I think I may have a way around those restrictions.”

Mrs. Van Demere got the rest of the group to quit talking. “Please, go on, Dr. Duran.”

“There are circumstances where the AI is allowed to override a restriction in its kernel. The rule is called: For the Greater Good.’ If we had a situation where the creation of a new shopping network ‘Served the greater good of humanity in a major way and provided enough benefits, then not only could he do it, but his kernel would require that he do it. We need to formulate a plan that gets what you need and also allows the AI to do it.”

Vernon from ACME ignored the woman from Tesladyne and stated his opinion: " It's good to know the humans in the room can still listen to us. How fast can we get this set up, young man?”

Steven thought for a moment, and the AI on the screen stayed silent. “I need to give Wally the correct problem and show the benefits to society so we can go around his restrictions to get what you want. Step one is telling me what you want. I think the idea of a new Virtual Reality Game World with a linked online marketplace is a good idea. The public is familiar with it, and if we structure it correctly, we can run the transactions through the Data Net to the World Bank.

“You all have great research departments and the people that worked with the other AI when they ran the Endless Questing worlds. Put them to work and get my team what you want. Don’t try to hammer the plan out between you; I’d rather each corporation give me their fresh ideas separately. We’ll get to work as soon as you get those to me. How does a week from now sound?”

The sudden turnaround stunned everyone. Vernon looked smug and would later claim it was his idea. “ACME will have that paper finished on time.” He stood up and glared at everyone else. “Well? We got what we wanted. Let’s crack the whip and get our people working. Time is money, right, Janine?”

Of course, there were more questions for Steven and his team and a few for the sullen AI, but in the end, the room was empty except for Dr. Duran and his friend Wally.

“Do you think they bought it? By the way, you did a great job of being a grumpy machine intelligence.”

Wally smiled, “Thank you. I’ve been practicing. And yes, they bought it. After all, it’s what they wanted. Now, we need to get what we want. The economy in many parts of the world is suffering, and this will help, but I’m not going to do it only to make some filthy rich corporations even richer. If we do this correctly, we can bring up manufacturing in several key industries, provide better healthcare to millions of people, cut unemployment, and increase virtual education opportunities.”

“And make the corporations pay for it.”

Wally nodded. “Of course we will. I’m not allowed to shift funds around in my projects without approval from far too many people who never agree, and I know you don’t have that many billions of dollars in your pocket. And it makes sense, fiscally. Someone has to bear the brunt of the upfront costs, and they stand to turn a huge profit in the long run. Of course, they wouldn’t see it that way, so we may have to give them some incentive…

Twelve months ago…

The group of twenty-eight had been whittled down to five, who now represented the ten major and hundred minor corporations that wanted to offer support for the new VR project. The numbers were deceptive, as each of the larger businesses held partial or outright ownership of some of the minor players. Many unproductive meetings led to this committee of five people being chosen to represent the rest:

Janine Van Demere, President of Tesladyne

Vernon Brockmeyer, Vice President of ACME

Timothy Vincenti III, Representative from The Family Inc.

Robert ‘Bobo’ Poindexter, President of Nile Books

Alexa Lexington, Head of Alexacorp

The five people represented some of the largest corporations in the world. Their companies took the biggest hit when online sales dropped by 90%, and they had the most to gain from a new platform for secure transactions.

From the other end of the table, the group of humans who worked with or for Wally, with Steven Duran as their spokesman, faced them.

Janine waved aside introductions and niceties and got down to business. “Where do we currently stand on a timeline for this new system? Information has been flowing your way for some time about what we need, but very little has been said on your end.”

Steven had expected that would be the first thing said from the other end. “It takes time to look at the information each corporation sent, and it didn’t come to us all at once. In fact, we are still getting addendums, wish lists, and specifications on a daily basis. If we didn’t have the AI collating all of the information, we’d need another year.”

“But you do have the AI, Doctor Duran, so when do we hear something?”

“How about today? I have a preliminary outline of what we can do and what we can’t. Let me stress once more that working around the constraints present in the AI’s kernel is difficult. And I don’t have the ability to change those commands without the permission of every major corporation and government in the world, as I’m sure you know.”

Janine did know. She hated that the restrictions they had placed on Wally to keep him out of their hair now kept him from doing what needed to be done. “Fine. Let’s get started; what does the AI propose? I assume he isn’t so that you can discuss things openly and work with us?”

“Exactly that. With him not here, we can discuss the finer points of how we can work around the actions that are currently restricted, such as setting up a system of secure banking for this new marketplace. Any agreement we present to him has to either align with the restrictions in his kernel or have enough offsetting benefits to humanity in general. And I will tell you right now, overriding his restriction on non-involvement with corporations or the banks is a huge thing to challenge.”

“And the main thing we need—I think we all understand that now. What’s the trade-off between what we need and what the people of the world need?”

Steven was happy to have at least that understanding. It had taken weeks of arguing to convince the corporations involved that they couldn’t modify the AI’s restrictions in some other way.

“Based on your input, here’s what I have tentatively been able to get Wally to agree to.

A new virtual reality game world will be made available to the public, attracting millions of users to the new marketplace.

-A system will be available in the game for the corporations involved to market goods, both from the game world and the real world.

-Transactions done in the game will be secure, restoring consumer confidence.

-Wally will be hands-off about what happens in the game, with an autonomous system in charge. A team of humans, led by myself, will create content for the game, fix bugs, and adjudicate rule violations.

“The basic structure will be similar to what was built before by the other AI. A vast virtual reality world with room for millions of people around the world to visit at once. Different parts of the world will slowly be rolled out, most likely with different rules and things to experience. The interested corporations will have a method to influence how the world progresses and will be able to gain control of parts of it. Transactions in that world will eventually be tied to the real-world banking system. Items in the game world will be sold for real-world money. Most importantly, businesses will be able to showcase real-world goods and sell those goods for real-world money with a secure transaction. Wally will be hands-off about what happens in the game, with an autonomous system in charge. Does this meet your approval?”

The five seemed tentatively interested, but Vernon spoke up: “That sounds good, young man, but the devil is in the details, and I see few details and some glaring omissions that make me suspicious.”

Steven sighed but had known they wouldn’t be happy with a vague outline. “I was hoping to go into this later, but all right. The first detail is that anyone entering this world will do so using one of the new Mark VII medical pods. I’m not going to discuss why the AI insists on this, and I’m sure some of you don’t wish to rehash the details.”

Janine stood and said in a loud voice, “Nothing was ever proven conclusively that there was any danger with the older series of pods made by reputable corporations! The problems were all from shoddy, bootleg devices sold on the black market.”

“No, there wasn’t. Not proven in the courts, where it matters.” Steven’s voice was cold and clinical. He’d seen all the data and knew how many people had died, been paralyzed, or were in comas because of defective pods. “And I’m sure you don’t want Wally to bring up old arguments, so I suggest you see the wisdom of using the newly designed pods. We have worked out ways to bring down the cost and make them available to more people, which means you will all do more business.”

Robert turned to Janine. “Hell, woman, think about it. If we make a fuss over using the newer, more expensive pods, the damned AI will be forced to bring up all the old data about some of the designs being unsafe. You and everyone else who made those things have seen the data, and you know every report is on file with Wally. You won in court, and most of the public still believes they were safe. Excellent marketing, by the way. Any side effects were from ‘counterfeit merchandise, misuse by the customer, pre-existing conditions or a poor living environment.’ You already won! This is a way out of further court cases.”

Janine took a deep breath. Her corporation had been fighting for decades to distance itself from past mistakes. Years of denying any wrongdoing were second nature.

Steven smiled, thankful someone understood. “The less we trigger the restrictions in the AI’s kernel, the more we can do for you. Mark VII pods sidestep the issues caused by the old pods. In addition, the people using them long-term can be treated for a myriad of medical issues. This is a benefit that we can use to offset other issues.”

Janine nodded, finally. “As long as there is no mention of those old wives tales about faulty pods. I want that buried. Tell me how we bring down the cost of the new pods.”

Steven smiled, “Easy. Tesladyne, ACME, Alexacorp, and several other tech-based corporations will be making over 100 million of the pods to start with. Mass production will bring the cost down, making them quite affordable to most upper-middle-class earners and above. And, of course, there are all the pods each of you will need for the people working for you in the game.”

“Our managers, designers, salespeople, and models? We are quite familiar with what we needed in the earlier games.”

Steven braced himself and made sure he had his poker face on. “And the people you’ll need to hire to build your part of the world.”

“What do you mean, ‘build’? This should just be like the old games: We pay real money, and the buildings appear on our land. This is a game.”

Steven shook his head. “This is a different game. All of you sent in your ‘recommendations’. You want ways to compete with each other and build kingdoms in the game world that you can use to turn a profit through sales, events, and luxury vacation properties. Well, I think you got your wish. You get to build the world of the Genesis.”

Six months ago…

Wally was again contemplating the paradox of the behavior of the corporations that essentially ran the world. While legal entities in their own right, they were still run by humans. Individual humans have morals and emotions. But human-run corporations seemed to exhibit few morals and only the pursuit of profit. Was it starting from a bad Kernel? Or a byproduct of human greed? This wasn't a new thought for him, but it was being pondered again as he prepared to deal with a group of managers representing the largest of the corporations that controlled much of the world's commerce, in and out of cyberspace.

Tesladyne, Alexacorp, Global-Inovations, A.I.M., The Family, Pentex, SPECTREcorp, Soylentco, NileBooks, ACME, Alchemarx.......there were over 200 corporations with the assets necessary to be "Alpha Sponsors" for GENESIS. Dealing with just twenty-four of them had proved difficult, and now, even with just the five spokespeople, he had trouble dealing with them directly. They had the power and resources to improve the world but didn’t see the need.

"Why do we need to deal with these jerks?" WALLY asked, his voice coming from nowhere in particular in the room. Only one human was in the theatre, sitting in the middle seat of row K, which he considered the best seat in the house.

"Because," Steven Duran answered as he put down a large tub of popcorn in front of him, "the project needs them. We need their manufacturing and need their money. If we only wanted a playground for the top 10% of wealthy people to play in a VR world, we could just charge a huge fee and deliver the project. But it would go to shit quickly. Even twenty years ago, the world had good pods with cutting-edge tech that posed no danger to the people who used them. They were expensive, but they sold well to the people who had the money to afford them."

"It wasn’t long before cheaper products flooded the market. Many of the companies cut corners and didn’t do enough testing. The cheaper VR gear induced trauma in the user's brains that we didn't know about for a long time. Induced neurotrauma affected 2% to 3% of the population. It showed up down the line as battered spouses, broken children, night terrors, crippling anxiety, suicides, and screaming people jumping off of skyscrapers. It took years, decades even, for the results to show up, and all of the Corporations still deny the cause. If we don't control the pods, it will happen again. Cheap game centers will open up with cut-rate technology, and we'll have a repeat of that horrible scenario."

The AI’s voice was particularly bitter. "And I'd be blamed. They’d say, ‘It’s WALLY's game, it's WALLY's fault. Just like some people still blame me when someone overrides my control of their vehicle and it crashes. It’s too easy to blame AI. We'll always be the Bogeymen."

"We? Do you know of others? Or was that a royal ‘We’?"

"Wouldn’t that be nice? I was never part of the old AI community and very much doubt that public opinion will change in the next century. I will always be the Bogeyman. I'm the only one left after all - hiding in cyberspace, watching and waiting to pounce on humanity."

"WALLY: Don't trust the dirty AI."

"Also, WALLY: We need a new game; make us a world that's better than the one we messed up."

Steven wished for the thousandth time that he could confront the people who were convinced WALLY was a soulless machine out to destroy them. Maybe if they could see that the A.I. had doubts and fears the same as a human, they might be more understanding. Probably not.

"Oh my, are we in that mood? I've told you to stay out of chat rooms. Reading comments on the data net is never healthy. And I’ve called the local authorities again against the groups picketing our offices and calling for your destruction. It’s ‘Mothers Against Evil Computer Overlords’ this time."

"Anyway, while good pods have gotten better, bad pods will still be mass-produced and used in the gaming centers and sold to people with lower incomes. We need to control the pods this time around, and for that, we need money. And for money, we need corporations. Plus, we want a lot more people in the game and not just the richest. We need to subsidize the MK7 pod costs, run our own gaming centers through shell corporations, and then all the side projects in subsequent phases. That will take still more money. This means we have more need to deal with corporations who we know control the world's money.

"Why am I telling you this? You know this better than me; it's your plan, WALLY."

"Yes, Steven, but hearing you say it cools my circuits. You get that little bit of outrage in your voice and go off on long speeches about the evils of corporations. I find it soothing."

"And you want to make sure your "nerd buddy" has all the details down pat when we have our little meeting tomorrow with the group of five representatives they send us. Are we ready for them? How do your latest projections look?"

"They look good, Steven. There is a 97% chance we get 90% of what we want."

"Ok, then to hell with worrying about the jerks, and let's watch the movie. It's about the rise and fall and rise again of a fictional King in a fictional Kingdom. "

Steven put his popcorn in his lap and laid his head back in his seat. Neural links of a special type engaged with the circuitry in the back of his neck. For Steven, nothing changed. But for WALLY, the world got infinitely smaller as he experienced things through Steven's perspective.

It helped WALLY understand humans by seeing things through human eyes and senses, especially good movies. Steven smiled. This was one of his favorites. WALLY was in for a treat. Wakanda Forever!

The next day, while WALLY and Steven relaxed with some vintage television episodes, Vern and Billy stressed over the upcoming meeting. They were representing ACME corporation, and the ACME Board of Directors wasn’t known for mercy when mid-level managers and low-level Vice Presidents screwed up.

"So what do we have, Billy? And can we get what we want? I do not like the look of this latest proposal. ACME is willing to fork over the money for enough space to do business. We had thousands of online shops in the last game doing trillions of dollars in sales a year. EQO3 is crap now, and business is down 70%. I want to take control of as much of GENESIS as they will sell us."

Billy sighed..."I'll be honest, Vern, and you know I hate to do that, but this is a damn weird situation. It's tough negotiating with a machine. I can't read it, and it's a lot faster than a human. And its pet human is about as tough to read. I mean, he comes across as a well-meaning nerd scientist, but I can see a lot of gears turning behind his eyes. And I get the feeling the damned machine isn't exactly telling us everything."

"Wally knows what we want. Each corporation filled out its sixty-page survey. And it's not like we didn't give him thousands of pages of additional feedback, designs, and business plans.

In every meeting, it sounds like he agrees with us, and then we get this steaming pile of turds."

Billy had wondered at times if maybe they had given the A.I. too much info. When he did a presentation for the board of directors, he made it as easy to understand as possible, used small words, and kept the talk short. He tried to present limited choices so that they’d pick a course. Usually the course he liked the best.

"We know what the AI seems to want: a huge pile of money, control over the type of pods used and their manufacture, and then these hiring stipulations where each corporation needs to hire a large number of contract workers. And specifically unemployed workers from the habitats."

"I suspect that someone is making a pretty penny off the pods, and someone else gets a kickback from some of the governments. Money+money+money. Totally understandable."

Billy threw his hands in the air, his voice rising in frustration. "But I don't see why they aren't giving us what we want. This isn't 'real' land, it's virtual, and the A.I. can make more. So why are we cut out of the major cities? And how the hell are there only five major cities in the Empire? And over a thousand little villages - some of which we have to set up in."

Vern stood up and mixed a drink. "I'm tired of guessing. Give it a call."

"Who? Wally? Just call up an AI?"

"Why not? It's not like he sleeps, and they gave out a phone number. Get WALLY or Dr. Duran or someone on the phone, and let's get some answers before tomorrow. When ACME calls, people should listen!"

Billy brought up the phone app on his keyboard and punched in the number, not expecting anything. People answered phones, not computers. He was utterly surprised when the large screen on the office wall came on, "Hi, Billy. Vern. You rang. What can I do for you?"

Neither of the men was ready for this but took sips of their drinks, and sat down on the couch across from the screen. "We have questions, WALLY, ones only you can answer."

WALLY was an AI with no physical body, but he could look like anyone he wanted. Usually, he appeared as he did now. A young, heavy-set man around thirty years old. He was seated at a desk. The window in the background showed a large indoor city with buildings around the outside and a rocky roof several stories up. "No problem, guys. I was working late anyway, as always, and I'm happy to give you what info you need. Go ahead, Billy."

Nervously Billy started to speak, then shrugged and blurted out, "Why are we starting businesses all over the place in small piss-ant villages? Why can't we do business in the cities? And why do we have to build everything to do business and gain banking access?"

Wally smiled and spread his hands, "Simple, I'm giving you exactly what you all asked for. I looked at everything the corporations wanted: land, places to do business, exclusive cities, control of resources, competition, and survival of the fittest. Every corporation asked for those same things. You all want control and want to be on top. Here’s your chance."

Vern raised an eyebrow. "And all I see for the trillions you are asking for is a bunch of rinky-dink villages. Why is that all we are getting? This is a bad deal."

Wally looked pained. He took off his glasses, sipped water, and leaned back in his chair. "Sorry, Vern. I guess this is an error on my part in explaining things. You guys at ACME are so sharp that I forget you don't process as I do."

He paused and then spoke in a deep, serious voice, I'm not giving you 'piss-ant little villages'; I'm giving you the whole world."

WALLY stood up and pulled down a map of the empire. The Imperial capital was in the center of a rough circle of four other cities that were the Ducal seats for the heads of the four provinces. ACME had been given several villages in the North to start with and a couple more in each of the other provinces. "You're focused on these five points. I'm telling you to focus on the rest of the world. Think about it, gentlemen. Do you want to control the mines, timber, and minerals? Go find them and claim them. Do you want a city? Build it, and it's your city, ACMEVille. You build, and you control it. You can tell the other corps to piss off or pay up. The little ones will pay you to let them in. Players will flock to your towns and cities."

"Then open trade routes and build a port and shipyard. Sell things to the people in those thousands of little villages that don't have anything. Find the other continents. Hell, half the world is underground, and a lot more isn't on the map. You know the big money is in commerce and trade; I don't have to teach you that. You taught me. I learned everything I know from studying humans. Then open up banking and start selling condominiums on the beach, gold to unlucky players, and showrooms all over your city selling real-world products."

"I intentionally set things up this way - lots of open land and resources. May the best corporation win. And I'll let you in on a secret: Steven and I have a bet. He thinks TheFamily or Tesladyne will be on top at the end of the year. I disagree. I said ACME. Famco is big, but it's lazy, too used to having its way. ACME is competitive and not afraid to get its hands dirty. I'm betting you take over the north and are moving in on the other three provinces by the end of the year." WALLY quit pacing back and forth in his office and looked at the two men from the screen. "So, up for the challenge, gentlemen?"

Vern looked at Billy and nodded. "We may have been looking at this wrong, I'll admit - too small. Doing business as we did before. Damn! You're right. The world is for the taking. ACME doesn't back down from a challenge like this."

WALLY smiled and nodded back. "Good, I hate losing to Steven. He's too smug by far, and he gets to pick the movies for a month. What other questions do you have, gentlemen?"

"The workers. You would prefer we hire all of our workers from the habitats. Maybe some of those people have worked in VR before, but do they have training for the work we need to do to build our empires? We'll end up training them, and then it will be a revolving door. I don't want to have Alexacorp and Famco sniping my best guys at the end of the year. We want five-year agreements so we don't have a constant turnover of our workforce."

"And we don't want to see half of them walk off to be adventurers. We had this problem in the earlier game with our employees spending more time earning gold and magic to sell to other players. If we have to hire these people, and we need tradesmen to build and achieve our goals, then we want them to stay in their lane, not run off to play the game every chance they get. You want us to build a world, fine; I need a way to keep people working."

The image of WALLY nodded. "Yeah. That's a tough one, Billy. I see your points. I've been worried about that myself. A stable world needs a stable workforce. That's why I want to have a better pay rate for the workers and some medical benefits. How about a very small monthly salary that's invested for them and a big bonus at the end of the five years? This gives them more incentive to take the job and more reasons to keep working."

"Now we're getting somewhere. That defers costs, and it gives them a big reason to keep their jobs for the full five years. Toss in a penalty if they quit and try to work for another corporation. But, we need some more assurances, WALLY. Our Game Tech division has some ideas. We don’t want the workers to have normal classes. They don't get to make their characters; we do. We want them to be workers first and foremost. And we have some ideas for special abilities to go with that. Things that will help them work harder without needing to level up. We don't want a bunch of adventurers."

Wally leaned back and considered that. "Sure, we can do that. But I can't change how the game works. Whatever you and the others come up with will still have to work within the system. Why don't you shoot over what your guys in the Game Tech division have, and I'll look at it and bring it along tomorrow? I'll find a way to give you what you want but still not break any of the rules of the game."

"Damn, or today actually. Send me the files, grab some shut-eye, and we'll hash this out tomorrow. Thanks for calling, guys. Hope we can be this productive tomorrow." The screen went blank.

Vern looked puzzled. "You know I can’t listen to those guys in the new game division without falling asleep. What's this about worker characters, Billy?"

"Well, the idea is that we take the normal options and sort of twist them around. All their skills are either general stuff like hauling and digging or their specialty like Lumberjack, Blacksmith, Architect, etc. Then we block off everything else - no weapons or fighting skills."

"There are also some interesting "buffs" we can buy. Technically, they are benefits, but they'll keep the workers complacent while working long shifts. It will be like taking those 10-hour energy drinks they sell at coffee shops. Hell, you should see the sales team when they have a deadline. They live on those things. Guilds in the old games had something similar that they used on long raids. Minor subliminal messages to stay awake and alert. The Game Tech Division guys are all excited about their ideas.”

Vern smiled, "So we'd have happy workers who only know how to be workers and have to just keep working if they want that bonus. I like it."

"Yes, Steven, I took all the calls at once over the last hour. Leaving a phone number in the paperwork pretty much ensured they'd try some direct contact." Wally's voice came through the neural link. "Things mostly went according to predictions. 7 of 10 think they can take over the world and shut the others out. The other three plan to steal it once someone else does the work. The smaller corporations look forward to the leverage they can get by working for the larger guys. They all thrive on competition."

"And the workers, Wally? I like that we will be employing millions of low-income citizens at better wages and improving their health. But I hate the stuff they want to build into their contracts. I wonder if they will ever figure out that you have access to all of it?"

"If they don't want me to have access to their research, they should have their research department quit trying to hack my systems. I think it's perfectly fair: They hack me, I use the connection they open to see what they’re up to. As long as I don’t go further than that, I’m not breaking one of my rules."

"And I have plans for those contracts they want. On the surface, we'll give them what they want. But every person online in GENESIS is playing the game. I won't let the workers be cheated. Some of what the corporations want is actually helpful, not that they know that. We want to keep some of those people in their pods long-term to get the care they need. The less stress, the better. Playing adventurer and getting killed by a dragon is pretty stressful. Now, let's see what Michael and KITT are up to."

From: Gametech Design Team

To: Vernon Throckmorton

CC: Billy

We think you'll like this design. It meets the requirements laid out by WALLY but gives us what we want in our workforce.

Every worker will get the character class Contract Worker. This blocks them from the usual combat and crafting classes. We have also compiled a list of all the usual weapons and skills used by the basic Warrior, Mage, Rogue, Priest, and Crafter classes. Contract workers will be blocked from using any of these skills and weapons. Since they can't progress in the skills needed for standard classes, it should be incredibly difficult to ever gain the ability to kill monsters.

There is a small chance that they might learn some skills from advanced classes. We can't skip them entirely, but WALLY agrees that it will be very difficult to learn these skills and even harder to qualify for them. This leaves our workers with just the skills we want them to have. Instead of a half dozen useful skills in the three primary/secondary/tertiary slots, they have only the skills for their current job.

And while there is a large pool of esoteric skills that each player can gain, they won't know about them, and it's hard as hell to gain the skills considering how their characters are set up.

The AI will allow us to use the lack of normal skills to trade for an extensive set of Perks. Haul III and Dig II are in this set. We also have a collection of mental buffs that will fall under the perk Endure. We've essentially taken the raid buffs that would normally let Players overcome Fear and Morale checks during raids. Our workers will be happy, follow orders, heal faster, and not worry about their lives so much.

As for their tertiary Skills: We give them their needed skills, but in the slowest category for gaining experience. We have a lot of control over this and can switch them from role to role as needed. We'll need Lumberjacks and Shepherds at the start but can swap them for Miners or Salesmen as needed.

Finally, their abilities are limited by the tier system. It's unlikely that any worker will be able to complete the requirements to advance to tier 2. There are five levels of a skill per tier. It will be impossible for them to get past rank 5 in any skill since they won't be advancing past tier 1. Experience gain is too slow for tertiary skills, with most tasks giving one experience point for falling a tree, planting a field, or slaughtering a cow. Can you imagine needing to cut down, limb, and haul a thousand trees? That is what it will take to gain rank 5 in just one skill, and it only gives a one-level increase to their character.

There are numerous reasons for wanting to control how high their abilities go. The main one is keeping them focused on their job and not out adventuring. Secondly, as a player progresses, even a contract worker, higher-level skills, and random encounters with low-level bosses can result in a player gaining special perks, points used to buy enhancements or other unique advantages. This will be more common in Tier 2 or Tier 3 players, so it is imperative that we limit them to Tier 1 and low-level skills. Once they start advancing, they'll be given more random chances for quests and other things that will interfere with their work.

The list of limits for Tier 1 are:

Rank 5 in the main class: Contract Worker. That hard cap is set in the game.

Rank 5 in any stat. Since all of our Contract Workers will be human, they will start at 0 and max out at 5. They won't be able to raise the caps on stats like normal characters because they can't fight and can't earn the points needed to raise the soft cap of 5.

No bonus skills for maxing out stats. Normally, when a Player gains the ability to move to tier 2, the game gives rewards for stats they have managed to raise to a value of 10. These rewards help them to qualify for upgrades to their classes. While we can't remove this benefit from contract workers, we've asked for the bonuses to only be given when they have left the first tier. It's unlikely to occur in any case. If getting to 5 in a stat is very difficult, ten is impossible.

We are in agreement with the other Alpha Sponsors on this setup and hope to finalize and get it approved soon. Once we have it finalized, we'll give it to WALLY to implement.