RobertScorpio
Pariah
Prolog…
The city lights of Las Vegas were far off in the distance. For most of those who walked the strip, the Vegas strip, the lights and sounds were magnets of fun. Las Vegas truly was one of the most decadent cities in the world in that it was fueled by what many called sins, gambling and sex, and yet it had become, over time, a living and breathing animal all of its own volition.
Nigel Cromwell had come to Vegas for the fun and excitement. He had become quite wealthy as one of the major technical advisers for the online game called World of Warcraft.
The game, W.O.W. as it had become to known, had truly become one of the most successful stories in the business world. By some conservative estimates it made over one-hundred million American dollars a month, some say it made twice that. Players, who created characters in the game, spent real money in the real world buying weapons for their character. China actually dedicated millions of its own cyber-geeks to play the came, non-stop, so as to build up in-game characters which they would in turn sell for real money for the gamers in the western world who wanted to wield power in the game.
Nigel Cromwell was one of those who had helped design the game at the start. He was one of the many who had played ElfQuest, and knew how to take that game’s good parts and how to improve upon them for WOW; which he and the early programmers of WOW did, on a grand level.
But now, five miles out from Las Vegas, on his vacation time, he found him self on his back on a dirt path, his face buried in the sand. Earlier he had been in his room, opened the door for room service, and then he was forced down a back exit of the hotel, jammed into a limo, and brought out to the dirt path. All the while, on the ride away from the city, he was drugged and beaten, and forced to explain the ins and outs of what he had done to help create WOW.
He had told his attackers everything; everything strategy, every marketing ploy, that the creators of WOW did to make that game the money maker it was.
“What are you going to do to me now?” Nigel asked his masked attackers, who wore dark ninja masks to hide their identities.
One of them pulled out a handgun with a long barrel and placed up to Nigel’s forehead. Without so much as an answer, the attacker pulled the trigger and the silencer that was on the tip of the gun made two swift noises; Nigel was dead. But with Nigel’s death, and other deaths in the coming months, the foundation for a new STAR TREK online game, much like WOW, had been cemented.
STAR TREK fans had complained for years about the lack of any really good TREK games to play online. All of that was about to change; and the only real cost? All it cost was the death of men and women like Nigel. It was a small price to pay in the creation of; STAR TREK : MMOG
Next time; the Chairman of the Board.
The city lights of Las Vegas were far off in the distance. For most of those who walked the strip, the Vegas strip, the lights and sounds were magnets of fun. Las Vegas truly was one of the most decadent cities in the world in that it was fueled by what many called sins, gambling and sex, and yet it had become, over time, a living and breathing animal all of its own volition.
Nigel Cromwell had come to Vegas for the fun and excitement. He had become quite wealthy as one of the major technical advisers for the online game called World of Warcraft.
The game, W.O.W. as it had become to known, had truly become one of the most successful stories in the business world. By some conservative estimates it made over one-hundred million American dollars a month, some say it made twice that. Players, who created characters in the game, spent real money in the real world buying weapons for their character. China actually dedicated millions of its own cyber-geeks to play the came, non-stop, so as to build up in-game characters which they would in turn sell for real money for the gamers in the western world who wanted to wield power in the game.
Nigel Cromwell was one of those who had helped design the game at the start. He was one of the many who had played ElfQuest, and knew how to take that game’s good parts and how to improve upon them for WOW; which he and the early programmers of WOW did, on a grand level.
But now, five miles out from Las Vegas, on his vacation time, he found him self on his back on a dirt path, his face buried in the sand. Earlier he had been in his room, opened the door for room service, and then he was forced down a back exit of the hotel, jammed into a limo, and brought out to the dirt path. All the while, on the ride away from the city, he was drugged and beaten, and forced to explain the ins and outs of what he had done to help create WOW.
He had told his attackers everything; everything strategy, every marketing ploy, that the creators of WOW did to make that game the money maker it was.
“What are you going to do to me now?” Nigel asked his masked attackers, who wore dark ninja masks to hide their identities.
One of them pulled out a handgun with a long barrel and placed up to Nigel’s forehead. Without so much as an answer, the attacker pulled the trigger and the silencer that was on the tip of the gun made two swift noises; Nigel was dead. But with Nigel’s death, and other deaths in the coming months, the foundation for a new STAR TREK online game, much like WOW, had been cemented.
STAR TREK fans had complained for years about the lack of any really good TREK games to play online. All of that was about to change; and the only real cost? All it cost was the death of men and women like Nigel. It was a small price to pay in the creation of; STAR TREK : MMOG
Next time; the Chairman of the Board.
