Again Paul knew his selection without hesitation. The thing he liked about these games is that he could relate himself to the character and imagine becoming this great warrior, priest, mage, bard, druid, ranger... well this great savior of the world he was playing in, revered, honored, praised. Not mocked in the locker room.
If he were something other than human he would have different abilities and wouldn't be in the same situations. Its the same reason movies edit out shots that caught the camera guy, it would make it harder to believe he was there.
So Paul selected human and was asked for a first and last name. Without thinking he entered his own not thinking about online privacy with leaderboards, player to player auctions, pvp events, or other multiplayer functions which may come in the future.
Much to his surprise a cut scene was playing showing what appeared to be his character in the middle of the street.
"WHAT?" Paul exclaimed in irritation. He didn't get to pick a class or even what his character looked like... "What a gyp. they had better fix that before the final release." he mumbled under his breath.
There was a quick tutorial that familiarized Paul with the controls then a popup that explained how the class system, what skills he could pick, and how the world worked.
"This world is much like your own in that people may pursue any path they desire but you will find that some paths will be much harder than others due to your natural aptitude and how vigorously you pursue the talents you desire. How you treat others will determine how you are treated, as well as what you have done for or against them. This game will automatically save your progress before each course altering event so unlike the real world you may try another course of action to diffuse, or create conflict. To gain new abilities you must find someone to train you or develop them on your own through study. You begin your journey as a teen, your choices will determine how your character will grow and develop as time progresses. At this age you begin initial studies for trade skills and professions. Familiarize yourself with your home town, talk to the people, see what you can learn."
This game seemed like an interesting mixture of other games you knew... El Baf: The Recovered Libros had programming where you could watch your character grow older, more muscular, fat, holy, or sinister depending on what you did. And Oblividad: the Oldest Tome had a huge myriad of skills that naturally progressed with usage rather than collecting skill points and suddenly being able to do things, your character had never seen.
With renewed excitement Paul clicked next. The popup disappeared and a shadowy overlay appeared and pointed out the different tools on the display. "Here is where you find the money you have saved from gifts and doing special chores and achievements around the house. You currently have 138. Here is your characters Inventory and how you change clothes and equipment..." It was eerily ironic how close that matched up to the hundred-ish dollars he had in his savings account, the 15 he had left from birthday money and the 20 he had to pay for a new school lunch ticket...
The overlay disappeared and Paul zoomed into his character to see what he wanted to change. El Baf allowed for different hair styles and colors, Oblividad had a detailed character starter which allowed for height and weight but this game didnt seem to allow for that. It was unnerving how closely the character resembled Paul, unkempt light brown hair, in need of a cut. Thin frame with a small gut starting due to playing games like this too often and eating junk food. The randomly generated generic teen even had his excessively pimpled face...
Paul shot an uncomfortable glare at the web cam and decided he may look for a barber first, he may be able to buy a beard to cover his pimply face and change his hair color. Then he will try to start a training, maybe a profession, or quests to start farming some money.
As Paul started to move around town he noticed his character was slouching while he walked and looking at his feet. This game was starting to hit too close to home.
Running around he saw the barber pole on his mini map and ran to it without talking to anyone. Upon entering the shop he clicked on the barber to initiate dialogue. To Paul's surprise the barber said "Ah, Paul, How can I help you today?" and rather than options, there was an empty textbox for him to type.
Paul typed, "I'd like to buy a beard." and pressed enter.
The barber's brow furrowed, apparently the game had a powerful, natural-speech engine which was processing this. A moment later the barber said, "We cut hair Paul, we dont make it grow, ha ha ha. You may want to try the Apothecary for that. You do look like you could use a haircut though, I'll throw in a complementary shave, who knows maybe it'll encourage your beard to start, the old wives tail and all. Ha ha ha."
This time there were two options for responses, "Yes, Thank you." and "No, Thank you."
Paul selected no and located the Apothecary. The same blank textbox came up when Paul clicked on the old man NPC. Paul hesitated unsure of what to write, "I'd like to be able to grow a beard."
To this character there was no hesitation, "Ah, easy, give it two, maybe three years. You'll be right as rain."
Paul didnt know if the character was telling him there will be a cut scene of sorts where the character will age up when he gets out of this area or if it was similar to 'the old wives tail' from the other shop keep.
The textbox was still there so Paul continued, "You misunderstand. I'd like it now, not in 2-3 years."
"Ah, well son, that's a bit more expensive." A new window appeared showing 4 options. Mousing over each Paul read.
Ointment of hair- 200 - Used to combat the evil spirits of baldness. Effectiveness varies.
Tonic of Masculinity- 500 - Fabled to have been derived from Minotaur testes and magic herbs, enchanted for extra potency true recipe is known only to a very few.
Powder of Passing Time - 3000/year - Not recommended for personal use as life expectancy will drop by a year. Makes a unique weapon. Subject will instantly become a year older permanently.
Enhanced Powder of Passing Time - 8000/year - Recommended for personal use. Subject will become a year older permanently, but will not age any further until they would have naturally reached that age. Their body may still change during that time.
Paul didn't have enough money for any of those on a whim he asked about all stock. Additionally the shop keep had:
Pill of lessen minor pain - 10 - good for headaches.
All purpose Anti-venom - 100 - 100% guaranteed to keep you from dying or the original purchaser may request a full refund.
Ointment of HealDamu - 20 - good for minor cuts and scrapes. reduces heal time by a day and keeps wounds from getting infected.
Hair Paint - 3 - if you overdosed on powder of passing time and your hair has lost its luster, use this to regain it until your hair grows out.
Scroll of name change - 130 - Did your parents give you the worst name ever? Are you a boy named Sue? If so, this will make everyone think you have always been named the name of your choice. It won't help you hide, but it will keep away embarrassment.
Paul saw the Scroll of name change and realized he had put his real name on the internet where a google search could easily expose him and his family. He purchased it and used it noticing the autosave feature activate. then appeared a box asking for first and last name... he typed _____ ______ before saving his own version and going to bed.