Oi Chums,

While writing for a gaming session I was thinking about Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality . As I pondered the digital world I was wondering, how would an AR user appear to a Full VR user when they were both on line in the same node? Would th AR user have a full Icon? Could the VR user stare back through the AR users interface and see his meat body? That last question is just a joke, but really, how would the two seperate systems appear to one another?

Any thoughts or R.A.W.*

I'd imagine that would depend entirely on the icon's scripting and level of automation. You can use Software to make new ones in day long tests, as I recall.


As I see it, well, games these days has emotes like /dance and shit. An AR user could trigger something similiar by 'typing' - but wouldn't be nearly as fluid as a full-body vr user.

i would say that yes, the AR user has a full icon.

think of both AR and VR as different interpretations of the raw stream of data.

that is, for each, the node says "there is a icon at location xyz, and here is the basic appearance", and then each users comlink would have to interpret that as required for what access mode they where using.

and lets not forget that AR can be accessed via trodes or similar, and so could in theory make use of the same level of control that a VR user could over the icon. Smile or snicker at a joke while using trodes or jack, and your icon may well also do so, if its designed to such detail. Only when using gloves and glasses would the interaction be somewhat more limited, but even then, thanks to apparently flawless text-to-speech/speech-to-text translation, the user at the other end could see and hear your icon speak whatever your typing out using your gloves.

hell, here is a real life example. All browsers have the ability to apply a custom CSS to any page, or even disable the site provided one. Try that at some random page, and envision CSS as AR or VR. Its still the same site, still the same html, but its being interpreted differently by the browser, at the request of the user.

Oooo. Nice analogy.

Also, it really doesn't matter if the what mode the user that is being perceived is in. You see an icon. Your link may be able to tell you if the user is in full VR or in AR, but in the end, it doesn't change anything. A node is a node. The user of that node can perceive it however they like, as in the CSS example.

It's all the same matrix. How you perceive it is up to the user.

So in the end it all boils down to your reality filter?

The reality filter and the user's icon. (Which, as a GM, can add up to some very humorous juxtapositions... an icon of a cutesy anime panda bear in the middle of a dark, dank midevil castle. )

At least, that's my interpretation of the Matrix. And, to me, that's simultaneously the beauty and the biggest pain of the Matrix rules...the complete customizability of it. You can do ANYTHING with the Matrix because it's all based on perception...but there is NOTHING really there to guide you, so you end up doing a lot of work to make it a believable system.