The Reality of Simsense Options

[Mightyflapjack]

Here is a short datafile of some drek I conjured up as food for
thought. Don't complain too loud chummers, it was free.
-MF

The Reality of Simsense
By Mightyflapjack

Reading over the materials for Shadowrun simsense gives you a very
high-level picture of the simsense industry. I am trying to reveal
some of the details of that industry.

Reality #1 "Our boring existence."

Most people in 2070 go about their day feeling more like a number then
a person. Most things in their lives have been designed to be
mass-produced and fully recyclable. The average wage slave wakes up
in his or her tiny apartment and goes to their tiny economy car that
looks like every other car in the gridlink lanes during morning rush
hour. They go to a job where more and more is done by computers,
smart frames, and semi-autonomous knowbots. They do their work (not
too much for fear of increasing their workload) but not too little for
fear of being the lowest producer and getting fired by some
over-zealous accounting program trying to cut costs. Then they go
back home that night, engage the Autochef to cook meal #4 and sit in
their economy couch that feels more like a pillow on a cardboard box.

Their lives are tedious and manufactured and more then anything they
want to feel 'special.'

Gone are the days where a 30 minute sitcom on TV will bring people
happiness, now they need a more convincing lie to hide the truth of
their sad lives.

This is the void that Simsense had grown to fill. Simsense has
allowed these people to jack a program and suddenly they are Max
"Hammerhand" Ficher kung-fu trained cop on the right side of the law.
Simsense allows them to enter a world where they are important,
noticed, and free. They always get the girl (or guy). They always
win.

===========

Interview of Molly Megapixels (Sim–Starlet turned TV Anchor) with Riz
Tanker , Bartender at a known hotspot.

Molly: So Riz, thanks for taking the time to talk to us, can you tell
us about the current BTL trade?

RIZ: You suits are all alike. You look at bottom column on the red
side and think that the worst stuff is the most dangerous. Chummer
you have no idea.

Molly: BTLs are not dangerous?

RIZ: Gimmi a fraggin break! Of course they are dangerous. One too
many hits on "Urge Male -99" and you will be a null-head, zip, zilch,
fed through a tube. But those users tend to burn out quick. You
don't see them hurting other people, just frying their own brains nice
and quiet.

Molly: So what is the concern Riz?

RIZ: It's the Thrills omae. The Thrills are what cause all the
damage. But no one ever wants to talk about them. Some sorry biff
sees a few too many rape sims and decides he wants to try one for
real… BTLs? Sheesh.. they just cause dead people. Thrills are
seductive. At first they just seem naughty.. but the wrong one, in
the wrong person… creates monsters.

===========

Reality #2 "A Taste of the Dark Side."

Eventually everyone gets tired of the same diet. We need some spice
to add. But, we don't want to have to suffer any consequences.

Enter the black-market of "Thrills" simsense. These are not the famed
"BTLs" that rot your brain and make you addicted. No, these are just
simsense recordings of people doing dangerous, illegal, or immoral
actions.

So what does it feel like to run into a gas station with an Ares
Predator and rob the place? (Yeah, we know they don't have a cash
register anymore.. but they have NERPS!) What does it feel like to
drive a get-away car in a police chase and escape! On the darker
side, you have people wanting to feel the simulation of a rapist on
the prowl, or even a murderer on a mission. You want even darker then
that? It is there. And that is what should scare you.

Thrills are a larger market then "BTLs" by far. These are not
physically addictive, but they do tend to give users a darker
perspective on the world.

Most Thrills are sold via organized crime. They collect the raw
recordings from the streets, usually paying 5-10% of street price.
They edit it and remove any 'evidence' if necessary (blur
images/faces, etc.) and do some mild post-production work to make it
more sellable. Usually these copies are sold with limited playback
functions to keep users coming back for more.

Some 'gray' Thrills are put onto the Matrix for free. These are the
types of clips that you would find on the old internet. Things like a
revenge simsense of a dumped boyfriend having sex with his now
ex-girlfriend. If the clip is funny, interesting, lucky/unlucky, or
just sexy/erotic/fetish; it is likely to be posted up somewhere.

You might wonder if some Shadowrunners have gotten into making Thrills
are you would be correct. Many runners have found some nice
additional income in selling their simsense recordings of daring raids
on corporate targets, shoot-outs with security, or fights with
paranimals. Generally these Thrills are sold to fixers or directly to
organized crime for a better then street fee (~30%). However, these
Thrills have been known to take down shadowrunners by giving the
corporation the evidence they needed.

Thrills have their share of fluff and filth, just like any other
entertainment. Many "fluff" Thrills showing "Illegal" activity like
rape or assault, but they are just staged incidents where actors and
special effects have created the illusion of illegality.

One "filth" side-industries of Thrills is the new "Celebrity KnRs".
They find a celebrity (usually not an A-List start due to high
security, maybe a B-List on their way to being an A list) The masked
team kidnaps the celebrity and in the course of an hour humiliates and
rapes the celebrity before cleaning him or her up and releasing them.

These KnRs have only recently become popular, and already have put the
entertainment industry on high alert, adding tons of extra security to
anyone they feel is at risk. The sims are seductive to the audience
that has grown numb to regular simsense and need to be 'naughty' to
get a rush. Street prices can go as high as 10,000 nuyen for an un-cut
hour long never-expire copy for a popular celebrity.

Even though there have only been about 9 known KnRs produced, 6 out of
the 9 celebrities were so traumatized they ended up quitting their
jobs and retiring to seclusion.

======================
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Just a small taste. If there is any interest I will add more.

-Mightyflapjack

[Moon-Hawk]

Good stuff!

[Lorka]

Nice thank you mate, I think I can make a run or two with this.

[knasser]

Wow! That's a fantastic piece and some excellent ideas as well. You even get a NERPS reference in there. I'm happy. :D

Sole suggestion: remove the reference to reading over shadowrun materials at the start and you pretty much have an in character fluff piece that I can print out and give to players.

Definitely interested in seeing more.

Thanks for this,

-K.

[laughingowl]

agree with the above.

Very nice piece, very nice campaign / scenario seed.

[Mightyflapjack]

Thanks for the votes of confidence. I will consult my notes and see about adding a next installment.

-MF

[Thane36425]

Very interesting. Simsense would serve a combination of today's fluff TV, MMO's and internet chat rooms. If you have a datajack, you can get some benefit from the system, with all the Simsense gear being even better.

I can really see not just the hard core gamers of today, but a large number of people hooking up to the matrix and "living" a second, more interesting life in an evolved version of World of Warcraft or Second Life. It wouldn't be just staring at a screen, one would actually BE there in person, more or less. They could interact with others, eat, drink, fight all within the virtual safety of the Matrix. Sex would even be possible without worrying about pregnancy or STDs.

Add in the anonymity of the Matrix and the ability to change appearance, have multiple accounts and, of course, accounts on different "worlds," one could be just about anything they wanted to be at a given time. Can't go from being an elf to a troll at the local club.

Very interesting, but very chaotic for society.

[Kyoto Kid]

...nice. You have just given me an interesting angle for this weekend's run.

..and NERPS to boot! :biggrin:

[psychophipps]

One of my favorite things to do is to screw with a players head using pirate broadcast advertisements and other less legal/moral simsense. They get too close to a pimp cowering in an alleyway and suddenly, in mid-firefight mind you, they get the sensation of the most amazing oral sex of their lives through their rig. That's gotta be worth a good -2/-3 dice right there. Sure, they can turn it off but then they have to risk turning off all their other neat little toys...ack?
Try flickering their vision as they try to shadow someone or have some low-rent vid shop blaze their nuggets so they don't see the ganger as they try to quickly step out of range. Good times and a great way to add tension to a scene if the group is tag-teaming over comlinks. ;)

Mark(psycho)Phipps( HAHAHA! )

[Mightyflapjack]

Reality #3 “Not Just a Roller Coaster Ride Anymore”

Back in 2046 when MegaMedia brought out Honey Brighton’s novahit, Free Fall, it was an instant success to a stunned world as if they were seeing ‘color’ for the first time.

Now in 2070, 24 years later, our own kids look back at that sim flick and hack it too pieces calling it dull, Hazy, single PoV, and above all “static.”

In its first decade (2046 – 2056) Simsense was all about taking people for a “ride.” There was no way for the viewer to change the story or interact with the characters, they were in effect trapped inside the movie and every action that occurred was already pre-destined.

This is not necessarily a flaw; it is the normal state of entertainment throughout the ages. People have sat in theaters or concerts and experience entertainment without participation.

However, by the year 2056, many industry executives were pushing their technical departments very hard to try and create some form of interactive simsense.

It was the combination of technologies of decking and simsense that finally made it possible. In 2056 small interactive environments began to show up. These were anything from gardens of simulated plants, simulations of prototypes for industry, and of course simulated partners for online adult entertainment. They started out very crude, but quickly improved (as the mega-nuyen started rolling in).

Many of us today forget about the 2063 novahit “Down but Not Out.” Which was not the best of simulations, but it was ground breaking. It was the first in which the audience was allowed to interact with the sim during the experience. In that situation, however that person chose, the sim would go down a different plot line and the user would in effect change the sim.

Like the archaic “choose your own adventure” tales, now Simsense was able to add in areas of interaction into their episodes that allowed them to pre-film several different scenes and endings and then tie it all together into a web of decisions.

If the hero decides to save “Bunny” the brunet secretary, then they would have a scene togther. If the hero instead saved “Corona” the blond executive, then instead of a “Bunny” scene the sim would have a scene with Corona.

Now, by 2070, The majority of simsense is still non-interactive (People are still lazy and would rather watch then interact most of the time). But for hour long sim features, most now have interaction as part of the whole experience.

It is in Augmented Reality and Sim Products where interaction has become the way of the world. Many products now rely on simsense interaction to work. The new “Sim Pets” allow a user to upload a custom pet to his Commlink and then he or she can summon their pet at will and hold it in their arms, stroke its fur or scales, and feel its warmth and hear its heartbeat. In the Augmented Reality world, people are constantly in touch with interactive simsense, from the perfect smell of Baked Bread (simulated) coming from a bakery, to the icy chill wind you get walking past an advertisement from “The Ring, The Final Ring, The Ring is Actually Going to Kill You This Time.” Simflick. Sure you need a Sim Module on your Commlink to experience all of that, but since they are so inexpensive now it is stranger for someone to ‘not’ have one.

At its highest level, interactive simulation is almost exactly like an Ultraviolet Host of the 2060s. On October 31st this year, there already is buzz about “Death Castle” a new fully interactive simulation where the theater has challenged users to spend the night. Anyone who can stay the whole night will be entered into a prize drawing, which includes a 1 million nuyen top prize.

=====

[Moon-Hawk]

Again, this is really good stuff. I appreciate that you don't get so wildly "creative" that you start to contradict people's interpretations of the setting (which could start to alienate a part of your audience), but at the same time you really develop and show an interesting perspective on the things which canon tells us are there, but never really get much attention.
In other words, I love it, keep it coming! :-)

[knasser]

I like it. Still more good ideas. Comment though - I'm not sure how this fits with the level of reality you get in the matrix. The realistic VR environments are said to be found in only the most secure and high-spec nodes. If everyone's portable SIMmodule is now capable of doing SIM movies in real time, then you wonder why matrix nodes aren't doing the same.

I like what you've written but I'm not sure I'd go with realistic interactive SIMs yet. Perhaps in dedicated SIM booths at shopping centres, and such?

[Moon-Hawk]

[knasser]

[Moon-Hawk]

Well, previous edition fluff doesn't tell us much, considering the improvements in the matrix, but that quote is pretty solid.
But it does say that it can have photo-realistic levels of detail, so the fidelity of the simsense might be very, very good, but it won't fool the person into thinking that it's real.
Hmmm, interesting.

[knasser]

[Moon-Hawk]

True, very true. I guess I just got the impression somehow that AR was more believable than that, but it seems like maybe I've just made that up.

[knasser]

[Therumancer]

My impression has always been that a lot of the Simsense Chips and such are not creating virtual realities within computers, but modifying the brain and creating the images there directly, and stimulating parts of the brain (like pleasure and pain centers) in time with the recording. Some of the programs are probably interactive, but still fairly limited.

While the goverment is weak in SR, it's still out there, and I believe some technology is "limited" by the framework the Corps and such work within. This is why things like BTL type chips are illegal (for the protection of citizens and consumers) as they set the neuro-stimulation too high and can be addictive.

I'm sure there is a demand for "VR" games and such, but I tend to think that Matrix-type VR and "Sim" are for the most part seperate technologies, although VR can be set to send impulses in time to the program through a Sim rig or whatever.

The differance being that in VR your working within a program, with an actual SIM it's a program working within you.

While I get the impression my outlook is a bit differant from many others (overall) I think Shadowrun is pretty jaded. I'm not sure if most of what is defined as "Thrills" would mean much, when you see death and depravity pumped over the airwaves from places like Aztlan 24/7.

For the most part I'd imagine that while there is normal stuff, you could pick up an XXX-rated rape/snuff sim (most likely faked/acted) through quasi-legal means. That would be like picking up a BDSM magazine nowadays, your not going to find one at the local corner store, but just about every community has a shop someplace selling such things. You go into illegal territory when the rape/snuff
is real, or when someone decides to cut out the inhibitors and take it from simple simulation, to levels that could not be achieved (or survived) in reality by the chip modifying your brain chemistry in time to the program beyond the safe parameters.

In many cases however the most decadent pleasures are for those who can pay, and will say go and see illegal bloodsports (various clubs in differant supplements have them) or have live snuffsex or whatever in the nasty places that are glossed over in some of the books. Most people basically sit around and think about this stuff and experience it vicariously/secondhand though SIMS or Television.

One of the adventures I have (I think it might have been Ivy and Chrome) dealt with defining "Urban Brawl" and it seemed to be basically "let's have a bunch of armed psychopaths murder each other for fun, and record it for TV/Sims"... and that was legal.

In general I guess what I'm saying is that legality of chips mostly seems to be dependant on the intensity of the experience. While it's still illegal to rape and murder people, the very existance of the SINLESS makes it a touchy subject, since some people are "non entities" and don't have any rights. On top if it there is always the question of whether it was faked or not. I means sure you have a Sim of a 13 year old girl being chased through a twisting basement, pinned down, and raped to death by six trolls, but how does anyone know for sure that she wasn't a porn star involvec concentually, and noone actually died (that part was faked).

Thus while organized crime would be involved, the most "dangerously illegal" part of producing nasty BTL chips might not be the part that makes sense today. It would all be about what level of "output" the chips are manufactured with.

Such is my opinion/observations, but then again I will admit that despite how I come accross, I am far from the biggest expert on the setting.


>>>----Therumancer--->

[Ravor]

Good stuff, although something to note is that I'd imagine that if the rest of the team ever found out that a Runner was recording their runs he/she would end up as the 'star' of a Troll Gang-rape Snuff BTL.