Haven Online
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20XX- a time of innovation, creativity, human advancement in technology seeming to skyrocket into the heavens. Nearly thirty years ago Virtual Reality was making waves throughout the world assisting in a multitude of ways throughout the world. Medical technology corporations dumped millions of dollars into its development and quickly the incentive of financial success and fame pushed VR developers to push themselves and their teams to new levels. Several different media companies saw this rising fad as an opportunity to invest, fueling the flames of creation even further and in a short five years later a new breakthrough was had. Den of Dreamers was developed by a development company called [Open World Works], completely underground with no information on the company themselves and launched for free on the most easily accessible VR system the IRIS. Several popular video game streamers had seemingly known about the launch beforehand and as a large-scale event on their platforms, all simultaneously logged on together to experience it alongside their viewers. What [Open World Works] developed was not a game, but instead an interactive virtual reality experience where people could really do whatever they wanted. Dreamers would be prompted to enter their screen name, and then customize their avatar with nearly infinite assets to do so. 3D Artists could freely upload their creations to the character library, and donations or reimbursement were offered to those who did. Models and customization in the first opening hours of the game ranged in the hundred-thousands, and rarely did people feel they looked the same. There were large meetup chatrooms where dreamers could freely talk to one another, discuss things and even create within the game. It was a massive success and nothing like it had really been created before, capturing a good portion of the Earth's population in it's splendor. [Open World Works] would become overnight millionaires and nobody even knew their names.
Twenty years would pass, Den of Dreamers with constant support from its consumers and anonymous developers kept up with the constant increases of technology. Led the way even. A large portion of PC games were now being ported onto newer renditions of IRIS VR Systems, and rumors of ISIS working alongside [OWW] to create an operating system that would change the world started to appear on Forums across the net. It was on January 1st of the twenty first year, that a middle-aged European man would walk onto the stage of IRIS's yearly press event. Founder, lead developer, main man of [Open World Works] Aleksander Demiter stood humble and spoke with tears of happiness streaming down his cheeks. "We are proud to announce that the ISIS Genium will run with our new operating system. It will be a fully functional Virtual Reality experience with one account for a multitude of different household needs, every website, every social media, every game, the same face will be recognized and experienced as if you were really there. We look forward to seeing your face in Haven." He turned, but immediately the audience roared in wanting confusion. Aleksander stopped in his tracks, a cheshire grin splitting acrossed his face as he paced back to the microphone. "Alongside the launch of IRIS Genium running the DOS [Dreamer Operating System], we will be launching a secret love-project that some of the greatest minds at [OWW] have been working on. When we created our company, completely independent, all of us wanted to create a world better than the one we lived in. It was the namesake of our company, to create a new world, a place where everyone of every race or gender could be who and what they wanted free of constraint. And we have worked on making that a reality since our conception, so I am pleased to introduce you to Haven Online!". And like any good company hype-man Aleksander sprinted offstage and a projector displayed the trailer for Haven Online.
The trailer rolled on with a rumbling of stone as the black screen panned the camera up to beautiful open plains with-- a large volcano erupting in the distance, sending balls of fire throughout the nearby area setting those beautiful plains ablaze. Then a beautifully rendered rabbit-man riding on horseback would race into the cameras view, a staff on his back as he charged headlong into the black smoke. He'd cough as he raised the white-wooden and gold adorned staff in the air, waving it's head in a serpentine motion several times before rain clouds suddenly roared into the sky darkening it. "しゅうちゅうごうう!" Appeared above the rabbit-man's head in an uncharacteristic text block. It began to downpour, extinguishing the nearby fire but the beady black eyes turned their sights to the volcano. Then, a second horse could be heard racing closer and closer.. A human girl, dressed in flashy pink and white lolita clothing flew past the rabbit-man. She could be heard in the distance screaming in Japanese, and the rabbit would grunt sliding from his brown and black speckled horse to the ground lightly. "Just another day.." The camera would then slowly pan out above the two players, showing a dragon circling the volcano, as they got further a Neo-Tokyo like futuristic city could be seen not far from those plains, and on the opposing side a medieval looking settlement with castles and farmland nearby. The title would then slowly appear as the camera aimed towards a great blue sky filled with clouds [Open World Works - presents. Haven Online].
Haven wasn't just your typical SAO Virtual Reality MMO Clone, it was an open slate for creative minds. Artists, gamers, writers, performers, anyone and everyone whom wanted to contribute something to the world would be given the opportunity to. The world was literally endless, new continents could be created to explore if you explored the immense ones OWW released with the game. It shook the world, several companies that survived off the income of their popular online games filed lawsuits on Open World- all of which were unsuccessful. A few even turned to paying immense sums of money to hackers in an effort to ruin the game's experience for the players, futile. The giant was unstoppable and many developers decided to join the party rather than fight against it, integrating their own games into DOS. IRIS and OWW has become a superpower. The world was obsessed with these companies' products, their experiences, and it still to this day maintains itself as a global phenomenon. But there is a darkside to this happy ending. The internet has always been a dirty place, and while there can be numerous layers of security, some bad people are bound to slip through and take advantage of the immense freedoms that are now offered. [NERO] first began to appear in the social media world of DOS holding people's personal information or even their creation hostage in exchange for money. They've been terminated multiple times, but seem to reappear like a family of cockroaches, and now they're beginning to appear in Haven. Six months ago a series of kidnappings in the western Unites States occurred, all of which were non-professional female singers who posted their content in [Mekkaku] a music themed location in Haven. It was never made public, but OWW was sent ransom letters with photos of the girls asking for millions of dollars in exchange for [Your Beloved Players]. While it was paid, the developers have been under a magnifying glass for the security of those who use their software and play their games ever since.
So now they turn to you.
"To all the brilliant minds who call Haven your home. We at [Open World Works] ask for your help, we are seeking the bravest and the wisest. There are evils that trespass our paradise and seek to have it crash and burn, be it from our competitors of those who wish only to ruin this great thing we have. We are developing a new zone called the "Crossroads" and it will be the largest we've ever created. During the next three months we will be enabling a mechanic that wasn't available before. [Headhunt] will allow players reported more than fifty times to be marked as an attackable mob in the game, awarding loot, and achievements based on the severity of the notes flagged upon them. While this may be viewed as toxic, we are willing to take this risk to remove the unlikable or harmful members of these communities we have worked so hard to build."
Stats: While not all players of Haven partake in adventuring or combat, there are a multitude of statistics on your character that factor into non-combat situations. There is no leveling system, and instead the armor, weapons, and cosmetics directly effect your avatars stats and rarer items typically have the best stats.
STR - Physical Strength ; Melee Weapon Damage ; Armor Weight
STA - Literal Stamina ; Health Pool ; Speed of Recuperation
DEX - Motor Skills ; Eyesight ; Ranged Weapon Damage
INT - Cognitive Skills ; Magic Damage ; Spell Speed
WIS - Memory ; Mana Pool ; Lore Retention
LUC - Literal Luck ; Bonus Loot
Combat: There are no action skills in Haven, instead relying on passive skills and techniques learned in game through NPCs or quests. Magic using characters are given a spellbook with the names of actual spells and incantations that they must learn and master themselves and using their voice to cast. As the avatars are unique to the person, there is a nearly infinite amount of combat styles and magicks with more being created all the time.
Avatars: The world is immense and full of people, and both are diverse. The most outstanding feature of Haven is that no two players look the same, everyone is unique and stand-alone in what their thematic motif is. There may be a couple thousand werewolf players, but some of them are Wolf Roleplayers named Redpaw looking like a generic wolf, and others are top one-hundred PvPer Grimme- a fully armored wolfman wielding two greatswords and speaking poor english.
Travel: Players are able to fast travel through the use of a Home Crystal, each major city in a zone has one of these towering blue stones within their walls. However, you can not transport to a Home Crystal that you have never visited before- this encouraged players to travel to newly developed zones right away. People are lazy.
