Development and Impact of the BloodLines MMVE by DreamState

1: Introduction

DreamState pioneered the now global MMVE industry in the early cycles of the Second Wheel, actually beginning development of BloodLines before the link to the Grid was available for individuals or households and launching the Open Beta shortly after. BloodLines is recognised to be the first commercially available MMVE and still the largest in number of participants, consumers and revenu. It is also recognised that BloodLines and the Grid were interdependent in the development of both; without BloodLines the Grid wouldn’t have grown exponentially in such a short time and without the Grid BloodLines could not have existed.

Even though DreamState has been notoriously secretive about the early stages of the development the following can be extrapolated.

2: Start of Development

Aliens!

Neolithic (Agricultural) Revolution

It is the beginning of the evolution of human societies which cumulated in the one we inhibit today. Before the Neolithic Revolution humans, which had evolved into what they are over millions of years, were hunter gatherers. But domestication of crops and livestock allowed for the establishment of settlements and subsequently all sorts of developments and innovations.

Before the Neolithic Revolution the human population of the planet was pretty much stable for thousands of years, hovering around the 4 to 5 million mark. After the Neolithic Revolution, in a period of a couple of thousand years, the population increased something like a thousandfold. To sum it[1] up:

VE World issue #153

Sparking fury amongst newer players who are less influential because of limited Bloodlines and thus VE influence DreamState announced today that first generation (vanilla) players will be rewarded for their 'loyalty, input and persistence' with longer life spans for their character.[1] "But," it added, "we are also listening to newer generations, who should not worry too much, the dice will roll again soon enough."

Bloodlines Announced

VE World, issue #11

Bloodlines Announced

DreamState today announced the first Massively Multiplayer Virtual Experience with the upcoming title ‘Bloodlines’

DreamState will dedicate a significant portion of its HMI grid to create an ancient and primitive world in which the player embarks on the quest to establish a bloodline and struggle for survival in a hostile environment to subsequently expand a family tree and range of influence.

The ancient world is loosely based on our known history with enough creative license to ensure originality and unpredictability while simultaneously sticking to some degree of physical and biological authenticity. Therefore the world of Bloodline is comparable but different and, most important of all, unscripted so the player can and will influence the unfolding of an alternative history ... while it unfolds.

The Smart Rat

The Smart Rat

Recently¹, the brains of two rats have been connected, allowing them to send a signal from one brain to another over vast distances, with a computer in between. This is highly interesting all by itself since it shows that brain-computer interfacing can be achieved and, given the accelerated speed of inventions nowadays², will lead to human brain-computer interfaces in the relatively near future. Soon there's going to be sender/receiver rats. And then sender/receiver rats in a network.

In many circles this is considered to be one of the possible ways to achieve the Technological Singularity, where the creation of super (and subsequently hyper) intelligence means we will no longer be the smartest species on the planet. We'd be, to compare, the dolphins, and something else the humans with capacities and motivations dolphins can't begin to phantom.

Or we'd be, to compare, the rats.

2013 CE

Today

It's March 2, 2013. Current time where I am sitting is 23.00 GMT or UT, which is the same thing. And the fact that we are still, in the days of global interconnection by means of a relatively new invention called The Internet, messing around without a globally accepted, understood and universally used definition of 'what time it is' I find mind boggling. Decades into the space age, surrounded by a massive web of global communication satellites that support said interconnection and when we want to make a phone call to a continent, or even another country more than 15 degrees from our present location in the MeatSpace, we still have to calculate and possibly visit one of those nifty time conversion websites to figure out what time it is on the other side of the device. My MMORPG's are always patching when I'm not expecting it because I didn't get that Mountain Time or some such right. How bizarre is that? And it gets worse.

Introduction: Occam's Sword.

I've been thinking about the Technological Singularity a lot, recently. And about Artificial and/or Autonomous Intelligences. About evolution, science, history, games and all kinds of stuff that appears to be far apart. I've been doing that thinking because many things in human history up into our current society just don't add up. Lack reason or logic. I have this nagging feeling current scientific consensus is in many area's actually standing on pretty thin ice. I have this 'something is just not right' gut feeling for decades and have played with it on and off for quite a while. This time I embarked on formulating a general theory and illustrate it with supporting data that would pass the test of Occam's Razor[1].