Kalas

Hikari Academy

@Silver Carrot

I'll have a post up tomorrow. Been a hectic weekend.

NovaStar Game Studios Presents: Arcade All-Stars [eSports RP]

Glad to see another potential player! :)

I'm back to work tomorrow, but I'll start drafting up the OOC in the evening with the hopes of having it done by Wednesday.

Hikari Academy

Happy New Year, guys!

It's not the New Year yet, here in the UK, but I thought I'd get it out of the way early since I'm away from home and won't be able to get online until Monday evening.

NovaStar Game Studios Presents: Arcade All-Stars [eSports RP]

Thanks for the interest, guys.

I'm currently away for NYE and I won't be home until late on Monday. I was ideally hoping for some more interest before I kick-started this RP, so if there's no one else that wants to play before then I might consider not running it at all.

Unless you guys don't mind it just being the 3 of us until other potential players turn up?

NovaStar Game Studios Presents: Arcade All-Stars [eSports RP]

"eSports. Otherwise known as Professional Video Gaming or 'Pro Gaming'. This career-path was once only available to gamers who resided amongst the upper-echelons of the digital scoreboards, whose minds calculated strategies in mere seconds and executed them with extreme precision and sheer efficiency. When 400 Actions-Per-Minute could only be reached by the true greats amongst the Pro Gaming scene. In 2015, the global eSports audience was estimated at around 226 million. At the present year of 2040, that figure has just reached a staggering 5 billion. Finally surpassing Association Football/Soccer as the World's Most Popular Sport.

Throughout the years, the games used to test the abilities of the World's Greatest Gamers have changed many times. From legendary First Person Shooter titles such as Quake, Counter-Strike & Halo. Fast-paced Real-time Strategies like StarCraft 1 & 2. Bone-breaking Fighting games in the form of Street Fighter, Tekken & Super Smash Bros. And the ever-enthralling Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas spearheaded by Dota 2 & League of Legends. Regardless of the title of the game, however, one thing has always remained: Only the greats are remembered.

With the meteoric rise of the NovaStar Corporation globally, the world of eSports has been propelled to new heights and has earned its' spot as the top sport in history. But with new money, popularity, technology and the ever-changing times, there has been a call for new gaming titles to set the standard for the next generation of 'would-be' Pro Gamers. That's why, we at the NovaStar Game Studios are proud to present to you, the next generation, with this..."

The crowd at E3 erupts into thunderous applause, shaking the very foundations of the LACOEX Main Hall. Michael E. Festo, President of the NovaStar Corporation strides across the stage, his trademark smile beaming out towards the adoring press and public alike, as the stage lights illuminate him for all in attendance to see. Despite being the head of the Corporation, Mr. Festo had taken a personal interest in the Game Development division in order to bring about fully-immersive Virtual Reality as a genuine and superior option for gaming around the globe.

"Now, I know y'all have been waiting a long time for this!" Another cascade of cheers fill the air. "Well we wanted to make sure that it was ab-so-lute-ly perfect!" Michael punches the air to exemplify his point. The crowd continues to cheer, followed by further applause. "Today, at E3 2040, I stand before you more humbled than I've ever been in my entire life! But also excited! Excited for this announcement, excited for you guys, excited to be stood on the precipice of the future for all Gamers alike!" He takes a few seconds to look out into the thousands that have arrived for this moment, savoring it. "Today, I am honoured to announce that we have completed the development of the Arcade All-Star Virtual Reality System. A fully-immersive gaming system that lets you dive right into the action and experience the game like never before." The room is filled, yet again, with raucous applause.

"But that's not all!" He roars, animating his point with the wave of his arms. "We are, also, delighted to announce three new eSports titles that will ship alongside the System completely and utterly for free!" Yells, shouts, even screams of surprise come from the crowd in acknowledgement of the man's words. "That's right, Ladies & Gentlemen, for free." Michael smiles more sincerely than he ever had before now. His whole life had been leading up to this moment.

"Now, without further ado, allow me to share them with you!"

____________________

Welcome to the Interest Check for Arcade All-Stars. An RP set in 2040 on Earth, where the advent of fully-immersive Virtual Reality Gaming has arrived, allowing for the World's Most Popular Sport, eSports, to transcend to the next tier of greatness. In this roleplay, the VR tropes usually seen and explored in similar RPs of this genre will play a backseat to the actual characters themselves.

You are Gamers. Either Professionals trying to deal with being thrust in the spotlight of billions of people, or Amateurs working your way up the scoreboards to finally be recognised amongst the World's elite. Whilst this RP will obviously focus on how well you perform in-game, I also want to focus on how your characters react with the outside world. Maybe you're a gaming prodigy, a high-school dropout, a NEET, a scrub or an aging ex-Pro. Either way, these are the stories I'm looking to explore.

The eSports games themselves will all be tied to the Arcade All-Star Virtual Reality System and have all been created by me, with some inspiration from a few games of today. Whilst I will go into much more detail about each title in the OOC, here are the games themselves:

Convict Crucible - A 4v4 Fighting/Sports Game heavily inspired by Deathrow, that includes 1v1 and 2v2 modes.

Roller City Raiders - A 5v5 MOBA Game with multiple levels, first-person camera and Jet-Set Radio-style gameplay.

Triple-Tag Strikers - A 3v3 FPS Game with similar gameplay to Tribes: Ascend, that includes 1v1, 2v2 and 6-player free-for-all modes.

Please Note: I don't expect this Roleplay to start before the turn of the New Year. I still need to write the OOC and even despite my best efforts to tone it down, it looks like this is going to be another High-Casual RP with a lot of detail. So I'm definitely going to need a Co-GM for this, maybe even two depending on the number of players.

Hikari Academy

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^{TIME: Present Day - Morning | LOCATION: Hikari Academy - Grand Walkway | INTERACTION: @Silver Carrot}

"Looks like you behaved yourself this year."

Aster smiled as the words reached his ears from behind, Ms. Mako's sickly-sweet voice had interrupted his thoughts once again. There had been a time when Akane's random appearances had startled him but he had learnt to expect them from her by now, especially so whenever he thought he might be alone. Her gentle teasing referred to his many antics during prior opening speeches, even despite his considerably reformed behavior in recent years. Something made him think that she actually preferred Aster to cause trouble, Akane was certainly mischievous like that.

Aster turned his head slightly to regard her and slowed his pace to allow her to walk beside him. "Fourth year in a row, but who's counting?" He replied rhetorically, flashing his pristine, white teeth. Moments later, a trio of female students walked past them headed in the opposite direction, giggling to each other as they eyed the two teachers walking together. Aster could only chuckle to himself. It seemed that rumours between him and Ms. Mako were as rampant as ever. He wasn't looking forward to the incessant questions he'd be getting once the first-years got around to hearing them. Aster and Akane's supposed 'relationship' had been the subject of the Academy's gossip groups for as long as he could remember. And whilst he had always insisted on dismissing them as such, not wanting to give any credit toward the school rumor-mill, Akane had done just the opposite. Something he was never particularly enthralled about, although wasn't ever really annoyed by it either.

Akane had always been a troublesome woman, much like himself, and she often joked about it whenever they were together, so he had come to the conclusion that it had just always been her way of having fun, rather than being anything serious, which he wasn't too bothered about. Besides, there were certainly worse looking women to have rumors going around with.

"What do you think of this year's lot?" Mako asked, changing her tone slightly but not too much.

"Ahh, you should know me by now, Akane. I never make any assessments before I've eaten." He replied, the glorious smell of breakfast wafting through the corridors from the Dining Hall, making him salivate. His Demonic senses allowed him to sample the aromatic flavors of bread, bacon and coffee far more intensely than any Human could. "C'mon, what say you? A bite to eat to show the Humans how civilized we can be?" Aster offered, winking toward her as he did so.

Hikari Academy

@TheWindel No problem, I'll make the necessary adjustments.

Hikari Academy

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^{TIME: Present Day - Morning | LOCATION: Hikari Academy - Leaving the Great Hall | INTERACTION: None}

'Well that was entirely boring.' Aster thought to himself as he left the Great Hall, wholly engrossed in unwrapping one of his favourite brand of cola-flavored lollipops. Despite being his preferred choice of sweet, Aster had always been infuriated by the difficulty of removing the wrapper. Inevitably, he was forced to resort to using a sharpened fang in order to open it, as per usual. Finally successful, he discarded the defeated sweet wrapper into a designated bin along the large academy walkway, one which he had taken to return to the refuge of his office, popping the sugary confectionery into his mouth as he did so.

As was the same with every one of the Magister's Opening Speeches in recent years, Aster had to refrain from pulling out his phone so that he might cure his boredom by playing EvoMon III. He could still very much remember Vice Principle Reiko's fury towards him some years back, followed swiftly by an actual ass-kicking, when he'd been caught playing an earlier prequel to his current smartphone game towards the back of the Hall during a particularly energetic orientation speech. Aster could occasionally feel the scarred burn mark on the back of his left hand from one of Reiko's cigarettes. He kept it as a reminder of the consequences for his actions, however, his successful capture of a Platinum-Rare Osebon during the speech had made the entire ordeal totally worth it.

Aster had never intentionally caused trouble for himself, or the Academy for that matter, even despite the near-destruction of his classroom a few weeks back. Things just seemed to go awry whenever he was in the vicinity, though he would never admit to it being through any fault of his own. Bad things happened to everyone at all times, he just so happened to be around for a lot of them. Many of his peers were quick to pin it to his Demonic heritage, although to that notion he merely laughed. Demons were misunderstood as it was. But Demon Princes? They were a whole new level entirely. Virtually unknown, 90% of the Earthen Realm's population didn't even know of their existence, let alone that one had made their way into this realm and was currently teaching at one of the most prestigious Magical Academies in history.

The largest contributing factor was that the Demon Princes were almost extinct. These days only a handful remained. The last census had the number at around 45, not including half-breeds. The reasons behind their critically endangered status had been kept hidden behind stories and legends, none of which could be verified by anyone save the Council of Elders, who themselves only knew the truth from 2 surviving members of the 'Old Times.' The most prominent legend, however, had it that the Princes had once aligned themselves with the Great Witch only to be nearly hunted to extinction by the very first of the Dawn Slayers after the Witch's downfall. To Aster, this had always seemed like the most likely of occurrences. The Demon Princes had forever stationed themselves above the other Demon races, acting like some kind of royalty, which explained their chosen name. And even now, in their direst of times, certain elements of the remaining numbers still considered themselves superior to all others.

As he meandered down the walkway, Aster considered the history of his race and what his kin would think of him nurturing the future generation of Dawn Slayers.

Hikari Academy

Merry Christmas you guys! Hope you've all enjoyed your day.

I'm working on a post now, but if anyone would like to interact with Aster in a future post just let me know! :)

Hikari Academy

@EpicKDP We certainly are! :)