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Old 2012-12-14, 13:30   Link #3
Sunder the Gold
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
The Accelerated World used to be very, very different. Without a doubt, it was a lawless, wild period, for a number of reasons.


For one thing, the first Burst Linkers had no "Parents". The "First Generation" recieved Brain Burst program anonymously. This fact has a number of facets.

First of all, that meant that none of the other Burst Linkers knew the identities of the others. Everyone was equally a stranger to everyone else.

Second of all, it meant that all of the First Gen player had to decide entirely for themselves what to make of this game. They had no mentors to offer advice or suggest philosophies. No mentors whose higher levels, greater experience or knowledge of true identities could be used to pressure the new players into acting according to someone else's will.

The only guidance available would be any instructions provided by the game itself. Perhaps the creator of the game sent anynomous messages to that first generation as well.


Another major aspect of the first years is that nothing like Legions existed. Only at Level 7 can a Burst Linker create a Legion, and it's possible that they don't get "the Judgment Blow" until Level 8.

Without Legions, it's possible that territories didn't exist either. You couldn't join a group to gain immunity to random challenges from people who didn't belong to the group.

Even if people did form groups before Legions, without a Legion Master, being a central authority figure and convincing people to follow your orders would be purely a matter of personal charisma. The Judgment Blow was not yet available to distinguish individual Burst Linkers as "official" leaders, or to offer a powerful tool for enforcing policy on trouble-makers.


But arguably the most important factor contributing to the chaos of the early years is that, until Burst Linkers reached Level 4, there was no way to gain Burst Points except from other Burst Linkers. And the most obvious way to do that was to defeat other Linkers over and over, taking all of their points and erasing them from the game.

And why not erase other players? If you didn't, someone else would do it and get the points for themselves. If you didn't, the other player could turn around and erase you instead. Besides, no one in the First Generation knew or was known by anyone else, so it was easier to dismiss other players as non-people. It's hard to feel guilty about eliminating people with whom you simply don't sympathize.

Higher Level players had less reason to fight single battles against lower-level opponents, since each victory would return fewer Burst Points than one against an equal foe. But at the same time, higher level players had more to fear from lower level opponents, since losing a fight would steal away MORE than 10 points.

So higher level players had less motivation for simple, random duels, and MUCH more motivation for relentless, punishing hunts -- challenging a lower-level player over and over again until they were drained dry and eliminated.

Another practical side to this is that higher level players had gained more tricks than newer ones, and smart players want to keep those new tricks as secret as possible. Therefore, one wanted to eliminate any witnesses, especially before those victims had the time to think of (or develop) countermeasures to your tricks.


But the lack of access to Enemies meant something more than just a way to gain points without stealing from others. It meant that Burst Points were a vanishing commodity.

See, everyone starts with 100 Burst Points. When you win, the other player (presumably) loses a number of points equal to the amount you gain. While not confirmed, it's even possible that if you defeat an opponent with less than 10 points, even if your victory should have given you 10, you might only get as many as the opponent had left.

(If this is true, it would make it impossible to effectively add new Burst Points to the "economy" by defeating someone who'd dropped below 10 points.)

Further, losing battles wasn't the only way someone's BP could drop! Of course, you lose one point every time you Accelerate to challenge someone. Even if you win against an equal level opponent, you only enjoy a net gain of 9 points.

And that's assuming that, when you pay to Accelerate, there is anyone around to challenge. Or anyone that you DARE to challenge.

Finally, there's Accelerating for reasons unrelated to fighting other Burst Linkers, such as to cheat at tests, or sports, or anything else.

In short, everyone started with a limited number of points, and many of those points were lost forever from "the economy" of the Accelerated World. Without Enemies, there was only one way to inject new life into the system:

Creating new players.

In a way, it's amazing that Burst Linkers continued on past the First Generation. The easiest target of all for stealing away points is a weak, inexperience player whom you know exactly when and where to challenge. I'm positive that a number of ruthless or desperate Burst Linkers created new players just for the opportunity to drain them dry of those 100 beautiful points.


Is it any wonder that Kuroyukihime considers the current peace a bad joke, compared to the dog-eat-dog atmosphere of the past? As she said, the other Kings themselves destroyed countless players on the path to get where they are now.


But however nasty the Accelerated World was at the start, it would have begun to experience a significant change when the first players reached Level 4 and the Unlimited Neutral Field, populated with its NPC Enemies.

Because the Enemies are apparently so strong as to require teams, and since each victory only generates 10 Burst Points (and we don't know if those points are DIVIDED between all the teammates or not), the change would have been slow. It would still have been easier to steal points from other Burst Linkers.

Further, the Unlimited Neutral Field actually made it EASIER to prey upon other players. For one thing, the only players to hunt were other Level 4s. This made fights more dangerous, but also more rewarding. Not only could one get 10 points for victory, but eliminating another Burst Linker in the UNF meant killing off one of your greatest threats -- other high-level players.

Further, the UNF had no time-limit and no space-constraints, and escape was impossible if you could keep someone from reaching an Exit Point. So while setting ambushes was tricky ( because of the differences between Real Time and Accelerated Time), it would be possible to gang up on, ambush or kite opponents until they died, and then wait at their Spawn Point to repeat the process until they were totally gone.

Just like Noumi did to his brother.


The real changes to the Accelerated World wouldn't begin until the first players reached Level 7, creating the Legions and providing safe territories.

This was the start of Kings and something approaching a stable balance of power. Suddenly, other players -- the Kings -- were officially elevated above all others, with power that came from authority as well as personal strength. From this position of authority, they could impose their will on many other Burst Linkers -- and most within their vicinity -- by issuing and enforcing policies.

Even the Black King -- she who was so desperate for victory that she would betray her rivals and even destory the Accelerated World -- she formed a Legion and gathered treasured friends and allies to her side.

Last edited by Sunder the Gold; 2012-12-21 at 14:07.
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