Minerva (Min) Gange, aged twelve, slotted her new Game World Linking attachment into the USB port of a class computer at lunchtime on Thursday, September thirty, two thousand nine hundred, the day after her twelfth birthday. It had taken a years worth of top three in the class grades and promise that she wouldn’t slack off to get it but finally she could enter Game World and play it the way it was meant to be played. No more messing about with a mere Internet connection for her!

Most adults and people over say, twenty five thought Game World was just that, an online game world with a three dimensional connection. Only those who actually played it and the interface designers knew different. Game World was an entirely different dimension, accessible thanks to the fact that it had suddenly intersected with their dimension thirty years ago.

Influenced by the radiation (and having being mostly shut inside by the rotten weather caused by Game World’s sudden intrusion) various game designers scrambled to build and test out devices the schematics of which came to them in dreams. With these designs came the inspiration for a number of other machines and devices and technology practically bounded ahead over the successive years… nor has it slowed any since then. Things such as third world countries don’t really exist any more.

Scientist scrambled to figure out what was happening but by then, a proto-type was perfected and tested, allowing access to an on line world that while it had the feel of a regular RPG (role player game… think online Dungeons and Dragons) was in fact an entirely new, real world in a completely different reality.

At first the governments of the world wanted to lock down all the technology concerning access to Game World but by then it was far to late. People were coming up with new and better designs for interfaces to Game World all the time and eventually the world governments settled for regulating access instead. They had more important things to think about, like how to cope with a planet where the weather had gone mad. Not that it wasn’t edging that way before… thanks to the mess humans had made of their home world’s environment but the intrusion of Game World accelerated things to the point where world countries had to put aside their differences and co operate… or be wiped from the map by the weather.

Min didn’t really care about any of that though. Nor did she care that such technology allowed her to grown up with the idea that living in a large domed city, with carefully maintained and restored parklands just outside and artificially controlled weather inside, was normal. It didn’t have an name really, just a designation and was powered mainly by the now handy elemental forces of solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy (for cities near the coast) and geo thermal energy (for cities further inland.) as another effect of Game World’s intrusion was to stir up volcanic activity.
Most of the world lived in such cities now and many places outside these cities and parklands had been reduced to swathes of desert, world wide, though countries with the money for it had reclaimed quite a bit of it. The only people who didn’t live in a city were those who lived on the double space rings orbiting Earth, those who lived in artificial space colonies just of the ring and small scientific communities scattered hither and yon over the planet studying the effects of this that and the other.

What she did care about was now slowly running through connecting protocols as she twirled her dark hair around her fingers. Hers wasn’t the most up to date unit available but she didn’t care. As long as it did the job it would do. Privately, she though that Game World reminded her of some of the anime she’d seen. Specifically Digimon –in that the person crosses from their dimension to the RPG world physically, Pokemon – in that the Gamer usually begins at a very young age, nine or ten (in her case it was four… but she’s always been a precocious sort) or thereabouts and are able to travel without adult supervision and Hack/Sign- In the type of RPG and World set up.
While not an anime fan herself, she’d seen plenty of them baby-sitting her younger, total anime junkie, twin siblings. Her elder brother had been something of a mad keen gamer before he won scholarship to attend University on the space ring as well, so she was passing familiar with most of the gaming classics too.

The main and most exciting difference between Game world and other RPGs though was that it was fully possible to be physically harmed or even killed Not that most of the worlds populous believed that either. Accidents with their origins in Game World were always blamed on something else.
Min believed Earth wasn’t the only dimension Game World butted on to. Many other dimensional plains also intersect there or are accessible from Game world. Min also had the theory that this wasn’t the first time Game World had intersected their world. It was filled with and a collection point for many creatures from human myth and legend. This was only her theory though and until she gathered proof she was keeping it to herself.

Out of her seven siblings (two older and four younger… larger families were encouraged as despite safety protocols… fatal accidents weren’t unknown on the colonies and the space rings… oh and for genetic diversity of course.) Min was the only one to request a Linker unit to Game properly and even she wasn’t sure why parents like hers would be willing to allow their kids to play in such a dangerous place… but then her parents were the kind who believed the government assurances of total safety over the word of their kids. Maybe, it was because unless a person was from a merchant or military family, people couldn’t really travel anymore.

Physical traveling, even from one city to another (let alone country to country, where sea crossings are required) has become a dangerous option… though subterranean tunnels have been built connecting most of the world’s countries. Even so tourism is discouraged, except for those under thirty who chose to take part in a Cultural Exchange. These are used to keep the population of the world from inbreeding. Of those that access C.E., fifty percent stay in one of the host cities they visit. It’s like a world tour pack at a cheap price to keep the young and the restless interested.

Most parents aren’t fond of this option though as it’s odds on they won’t see their children in the flesh again or get to meet their grand kids unless they too wish to do the C.E. This might be one reason why Game travel is encouraged. Their children can get out and explore with out leaving the city.

Regular tourism is discouraged except for the extremely wealthy, due to the need for commercial types having right of use to the underground passages. Merchants and defense personnel are exempt from the travel lock down, as are their families. This is part of the reason why Min’s parents were so proud when their oldest son, Yohan, was chosen to attend the space ring Uni… it means he has a chance to be accepted into the military and thus travel wherever he wishes… with them along for the ride.

Min shrugged. If she was being completely honest Game World was safe… as long as a player stayed in certain areas and followed only the paths the Game World Corporation vetted... or traveled with a Game corp. guide for a slight extra fee. It was also completely safe if a player didn’t use the Linker unit and thus never fully entered Game World. Then, even if they were killed they’d respawn (appear again alive and intact) at the last ‘safe’ point in Game World.
Min wasn’t sure what happened if a player was killed while using a Linking unit but she could guess it probably wouldn’t be good. Nor was she going to volunteer to find out what happened for herself.

At least the Internet had become dirt-cheap. Min could pay for her own connection using her pocket money. Her opinion of her parents for making her pay for her own connection was pretty unprintable but maybe they though she ‘s give up playing game, or use up all their downloads or something, and as it’s now the primary way for people like Min’s family to keep in touch with family members who’ve settled elsewhere during their Cultural Exchange, she can understand why they wouldn’t want the downloads used up.
As the cities are weather controlled and the satellites housed in the orbital rings, they have clear satellite linkage.

Most children, since it became available, spend a year or two Traveling in Game World to get whatever urge to leave their hometown out of their system, and then resume their lives in the normal world. Like the love of the colour pink and horses in little girls, Game World is a phase that passes quickly. Those older sibs with accounts or Linker Units generally pass them down to their younger siblings… whether voluntarily or under parental ‘encouragement’. This doesn’t always work, but getting parents to understand the how and why’s is difficult.

Only about 20% stay Gamers their whole lives and make their living in Game and Min plans to be one of them. She loves Game World. She heard that some parents choose to pass their items and such on their children or other trusted types but hers aren’t anywhere near that cool. She had to start from scratch.

Unlike most Games, experienced identities can’t be sold, though noobs can use an experienced player’s Game Link, items and familiars to help them bring their rank up quickly. A friend of hers borrowed her brother’s Linker unit and did that. Got her into a bit of trouble too as this only works with the active support of the player whose identity they are piggy backing is actively agreeable as familiars and even a player’s hand held Linking unit (it they have one) can be extremely loyal to their humans.

While Traveling in Game World is a fad for most people, Min is serious about it. She’s researched all she can about it and the latest up grades and features available and has come up with a theory as to why inanimate items like the Linkers (the hand held linking units) are able to develop preferences. While they are built with a low level of ‘smart’ technology, Min believes that it’s the radiation, the influence of Game World and all the worlds and dimensions that link with it, that Linkers to develop personality and preferences. Another theory she’s keeping to herself until she can prove it.

Finally the sign in page comes up on the school computer and Min’s dark eyes narrow with concentration as she signs in using her Linker for the first time. Now is the time to decide if she will begin a new game or continue with the old one she’s been pottering around with for the last eight years. She’s not a very sentimental type but she does have a few items from her old game (that haven’t been stolen by hackers yet) that she’d like to keep. She creates a new game and identity for herself but links the old one to the new game through her Linker unit. This way, while she might not have direct access to her new game at home, she can continue with her fairly innocuous old game and thus give her parents no cause to complain. They disapprove of her Game play for some reason, so while she was playing from home she was careful to stay on the vetted paths and visit only towns appropriate for her age, so they wouldn’t ban her. With her own Linker she can go where she chooses and do what she chooses with her parents none the wiser. Finally she can take on the title of Traveller… a gamer who isn’t restricted to the ‘safe’ paths and towns. She’ll also be able to see if a Gamer using a Linker really does always exit the Game world at the point where they entered it…(though there are rumours on the ‘net of a rare few, with a great deal of power of one form or another behind them who are able to Travel in Game and physically exit where they wish. These are only rumours though. No one has ever met a person like this.)

For her use name Min chooses ‘Girl’ and thanks to the individual identity code from her Linker, the name is accepted. She likes the anonymity of Girl and decides, when in Game, that’s who she’ll think of herself as.