Ona: The Memory

Level 1

In a local video game store, my best friend decided to improve his gaming skills and I refused to offer advice. He purchased the equipment required to access the virtual reality world. I agreed to guide him through the first levels until he could play without calling me for advice.

I was a professional gamer in high school.

The World of Ona was a fantasy-themed virtual reality game. It was a world of simulated landscapes with castles, towns, villages, and underground caverns to explore. The developer stopped releasing updates when the subscriber levels fell below a thousand active players. The game was re-released as a free legacy title, but numbers continued to decline.

The game menu opened with a short animated introduction. The narrator said, “Welcome to the World of Ona.”

“No no no no no!” said Loaf. The character’s name was the perfect description of his real-life personality.

“Not good!” I said to Loaf in the virtual reality game. “Restart the tutorial level.”

The tutorial level was named Castle Bromme so I chose the character name Bromme. The game-play mechanics increased in difficulty as you progressed through the levels. The artwork was impressive, but I could understand the reviews. The story was missing a feeling of progression.

The summer was hotter than I remembered from past college breaks, and the air conditioner was on night and day. I lived between the real world and the dream world.

The tutorial was completed within fifteen minutes. I decided to get lunch since the connection was slow and it took another fifteen minutes to disconnect from the virtual world.

I returned to see a message on the screen.
“Bromme, where are you? The controls are not responding and all I can do is walk in a straight line.”

The players shared link feature included remote control so I helped Loaf pass the basic movement tutorials when needed. The confidence returned and he started to advance in the training sessions.

Loaf was so determined he repeated a basic jump between platforms at least twenty times. He repeated the message. “Bromme where are you? I need the remote control assistance with this jump.”

The level was in a small courtyard near the entrance to the keep. The bronze doors opened and a young woman stood in the shadows observing my student fail another test of the basic controls. The game paused and she said, “I will drop the game difficulty to the lowest setting.”

I laughed and said, “Loaf was never good at games.”

The young woman said, “He is the only active player in the tutorial. The training area is a reflection of the past.”

“So these characters are all part of the game? Or a recording of previous players who started the tutorial?”

“Yes, a recording of player movements as they advanced through the game.”

“The world is creating non-player characters using the recorded progress of real people who tried the game. Interesting idea.”

The girl said, “I see all things in the world and remember all things.”

“Are we the last active players in the game?”

“No.”

Loaf completed the training and selected the icon to start a conversation. He said, “Who are you?”

“Ona. I am more fire than grace, like the world you see in the distance. Congratulations on passing the tutorial.”

In an instant, the castle dissolved into a three-dimensional world. The slow loading time made the background shimmer into a void of nothing for a split second.

Loaf and I stood on the road outside the castle and read the completion goal of the first-level quest. “Find the tower on a hill. The road leads through a forest with many dangers. The entrance to the dungeon quest starts at the tower. Got it, let’s adventure!”

Ona stood in the shadow of the castle gate. She said, “Emotion is the end and the beginning.”

Loaf danced around like he won the lottery. “The characters were all game generated? I can adventure without other people commenting about my low level of skills.”

Ona said, “No more delays.”

The background dissolved and we stood at the entrance to the dense forest below the foothills of the mountain region. The ground shook as thunderous footsteps approached. A giant ogre crashed through the trees, holding a wood club.

Ona said, “The guardian of the forest is here to challenge your skills.” The young woman stepped back to watch.

The ogre attacked me first, sensing the higher level of skill and I blocked his club with a shield. “The giant has no eyes,” I shouted to Loaf.

Ona said nothing.

Loaf rushed into the battle, his character design moving like a human-sized relative of the ogre. He wrestled the leg out from under the monster and it fell to the ground in slow motion, then vanished with a burst of pixels.

I said, “Are we done? The first level has no boss battles according to the guide.”

Ona shouted, “Run.”

The ground shook and a large number of ogres approached. I ran with Loaf into the forest. The surrounding trees were rendered in with lifelike detail, but there was no sound. The natural world was silent and we found a clearing to rest.

The young woman appeared.

I said, “Ona. The game is missing the background sounds of the forest. Was the level design completed?”

“The world is what you see! Level 2.”

© J. Bateman

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