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“...pedo...”
No. I heard that last one wrong.
“Grand denizens of industry.” A booming voice flooded the room, drawing my attention to the stage. I’d met the man up there at the auction...
Dustin, that was right. He’d lost the costume and was dressed in a shirt with the same single spade on it that had been tattooed on his colleagues’ arms.
“Thank you to everyone for coming out last minute.” He spoke with the kind of confidence that kept everyone’s attention on him. The Rinslet logo appeared on the screen behind him. “I’m sure you’re all wondering what this is about. If you’re not, I didn’t do my job.”
Light laughter rolled through the room.
“It’s because tonight, we’re excited to introduce AcesPlayed—because we’re the first and we’ll continue to be the best at what we do. Most of you know our team from our time at Rinslet—previously the most awesome gaming company in the world to work for.”
The image on the large screens morphed from a Rinslet logo into the spade on his shirt, with AcesPlayed beneath it. “We’re going to miss our colleagues. It’s been an amicable parting of ways, but we have parted regardless.”
Murmurs rolled through the crowd, and I felt the ambient curiosity and excitement in my bones.
“Tonight, we say goodbye to the people we came up in this industry with, in the most gaming way possible,” Dustin said. “A little friendly competition, in the game we’ve built. This is where you want to be recording, if you’re not, because this is where I get salesy and show you something you’ve never seen before.”
Cell phones came up, raised above heads and all pointed at Dustin. He explained this was a new kind of multiplayer RPG. It wasn’t an MMO, all the servers were private, because they offered two things no one else had in this configuration.
A strictly adult only game, complete with nudity. Sex. Any sorts of hookups a person wanted, as long as it didn’t break any local or federal laws. And players could either be the adventurers or the monsters.
“Ballsy,” Graham muttered.
“Because Judith has bigger balls than most of the people in this room.” Oz’s words were nothing but respect.
Wow.I was witnessing video game history. I was here for it. I channeled my excitement into my thoughts, where chibi Luna was clapping and bouncing and squealing with anticipation.
Dustin introduced developers from each team. Rinslet would play the adventurers, and AcesPlayed were the boss monster and his add-ons.
As the teams battled back and forth, the room erupted in a wave of cheers and friendly boos. It was a close game, with dead on both sides, and stat bars in the red for anyone left standing. In the end, giant red letters flashed on the screen announcing the adventurers’ party had wiped, and evil maintained its control of the valley.
Applause and boos filled the room, all good-natured.
This was abso-freakin’-lutely incredible.
Judith rejoined us as Dustin stepped forward to take questions.
“Wow.” It was the first thought that came to mind. I could be more articulate than that, but for three letters, wow encompassed a lot.
Judith opened her mouth and someone called her name. She scowled. “Hold that thought.” And she was gone again.
“So that’s what innovation in gaming looks like these days.” Graham sounded as impressed as me.
Oz even managed to look stunned in a good way. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen something like that. Pretty cool.”
“…guys like that do in a game like this…”
“…in the tavern with Loli’s…”
I scowled at the nearby whispers. They weren’t talking about us. They couldn’t be. But the words tugged at doubts and insecurities that lingered near the surface.
“…who needs to fuck cartoon little girls when he’s got a real one?”
I clenched my jaw.
“Luna.” Oz worked my fingers loose from the fist I hadn’t realized I’d clenched them into. “Do you want to step outside?”
