dothack: MODIFY, a .hack/sign fanfic

.hack//MODIFY

March 2009

So, when you buy a book of roadmaps from a truckers' rest area in the middle of the American countryside, you're going to find that the country's greatest landmarks (namely, the locations of a plethora of McDonalds franchises), you're going to wonder to yourself why Carl's is almost never marked. The easiest answer is that McDonalds is an American icon, while Carl's is an obscure relative. Carl's is the Green Arrow to McDonald's Superman. Such is the way of business.

A trucker nibbled on his Carl's burger. In front of him was the vast, open road, cleared of its wild buffalo some centuries ago, but no less daunting in its vastness. His name was Carl as well; his choice in fast food is a biased one, based solely on the superficial link of bearing the same christening. Carl pumped up the volume on his Willie Nelson compilation (on a prehistoric MP3 player, no less), and before turning on his truck's massive engine, browsed through the instant message archives on his wireless notebook. His appointment for the documentary was on for tomorrow, the beginning of the weekend.

Carl worked for a company called Johnny Stone Potty, or JSP. JSP produced executive portapotties with a marble finish and gave enemas. JSP had risen from the obscure annals of ambitious, upper-class suburban curiosity, and became the sole proprietor of the protection of the asses of the rich. JSP has many clients that any stockholder ought to recognize, including CC Corp, developers of the online MMORPG The World.

The World is the subject of the documentary that Carl is scheduled to be interviewed for; he is, when not driving on the road, a fan of The World, and sells rare items over the Internet. Directed by Horatio Segara, the film was poised to be the most definitive look at how this little computer game put the world under its hypnotic spell.

He took a few minutes before departing the truck stop to send his "customers" some of their latest orders; high-level weapons and armor. He even had some fully-realized offline mods that could turn The World into single-player action RPG versions of Japanese anime series. Once the fans realized that CC Corp's expansions of the game were becoming half-hearted in execution, ambitious, intelligent designers got to work on creating their own expansions, and even stretching the limits of the game. One mod even transformed The World into an FPS (the title? Counter-World, creatively enough).

He hit the road. His legitimate role as a truck driver called to him like the scent of blood to the jackal.

***

Carl agreed to an interview at his home in the quaint village of Selado, Texas, and his family politely greeted the three crew members ("That's it?" wondered his children, who had expected a media bonanza) when the arrived on a lively autumn weekend. The leaves brought with them a change to the physical world, but The World did not need much fanfare when it changed, in subtle ways, daily. Horatio "Bone" Segara shook Carl's hand first, with a wide smile, and had his eyes slightly wander around the foyer of the neat one-story house.

Carl's family was comprised of himself, his wife Dorothy, his oldest son, sixteen-year-old Brad, and the eleven-year-old twins Leon and Jill. Bone made the immediate observations. Carl was a man of about 5 feet, 11 inches, wore a t-shirt and blue jeans, and had a buzz cut. Dorothy had long, curly hair, wore a simple red dress with a flower pattern, and donned an apron that had the embroidered, cursive words "HOME SWEET HOME." This couple was aged in their early- to mid-thirties. The photos which portray the couple together date back a couple decades; obviously a pair of high school sweethearts, the most traditional love one can find.

Brad had on shaggy hair and a t-shirt, and the twins had bowl mushroom cuts and overalls. Not much could be deciphered from the children's appearances alone.

This was a normal home by every means; the wooden walls were adorned with an anthology of photographs from both sides of the family, a television was not too far off in the living room, and the toys which were unevenly strewn across the carpeted floor were an indication of the children's own, recent doing.

Bone appreciated seeing homes where its children were free to play with their toys.

Behind Director Segara was his wife and cameraman, Christina Lauren Segara, and his close friend Vincent "Redblack" Cantos. After exchanging pleasantries, Redblack admitted that he wasn't really a filmmaker by any means.

"I don't know. Something about this game strikes a chord with me, you know? So I figured, if I come along with Bone on this ride, I can learn how The World ticks." Redblack was almost apologetic, but his black attire, and decidedly blood-red hair still made him appear intimidating.

"Everyone who got into The World started off just like that. Who'd know some video game would get so addictive?" Carl invited his guests to a seat in the living room, which was adorned with recently purchased (an excessively comfortable) furniture; no doubt bought with money gained from Carl's veritable hacked game trade.

"Heh. I know what you're talking about." Brad opened up to Redblack, almost admiring the innate badassedness that all around him basked in. "It's an addictive game. I can't put my finger on it either."

"I can remember just a few years ago when video games were just for kids." Christina said, while recording all on digital camcorder. "Well, Bone and Redblack played them a lot even back then. They were guys you know, and guys can be a lot like kids." Dorothy nodded, adding an amen. "But, when the Internet crashed and was brought back...there was literally nothing but this game. I tried it out once, and I have to say...it really showed me that there is something special in gaming after all." Chris and Bone felt each other's hand. "Bone was right. You can find art in anything if you have a heart ... to act as mediator between you and the real world."

"Don't you mean, if your heart acted as a mediator between your brain and your muscles?" Carl quickly interjected, recalling the classic Fritz Lang film Metropolis.

"That's a classic." Dorothy, mirroring the Segara couple in their own love, embraced her own husband. "You can experience art in so many mediums in our age. Ten years ago, there was no way you could get anyone to acknowledge a video game as an artistic experience."

"Things change often, ma'mn." Redblack cupped his hands together, and tried to read his future. ... Nothing. "Unpredictable." Christina checked the lighting conditions. After a few adjustments, the switching off of a few light bulbs, the use of the natural sunlight beaming from the front windows, and a tripod, the positioning of the interview was set. The lens pushed its way into Carl the Trucker's soul.

"Okay...Carl. I want to begin by asking you what drove you into playing The World in the first place?" Bone's tone of voice quickly changed from a soft admiration to a sharper, more decisive, but considerate journalist. It was the mark of a true interviewer.

"Well...after the Internet came back on Christmas...excuse me, the Virgin's Kiss, the doubts we had about buying a new computer after that big virus left when we saw all the commercials and stories on the news. Then, when some of our friends and neighbors starting snapping up computers at discount prices, we finally broke down and got one. It was preloaded with a trial of The World and the 3D goggles. Since not even the kids had played anything with those kind of goggles before, we were curious, and so were they. Once we all had a knack at the game...we were all hooked. Line and sinker, save the twins." Carl was especially lively with his hand motions, which danced as a sprite in a twilight gale.

"When did you learn that you could make money by selling items that could be used in the game?" Bone put his hand to his chin, while only intensifying the focus of eyes on his subject.

"I learned from a friend of my oldest son's. He bought some high level weaponry online, and once I learned how much profit could be gained from buying weapons at premiums and selling them individually...it was like that. Snap. I was making virtually a solid grand a week."

"You also offer free character models as a service to your customers, and sometimes even full-fledged mods, which can be patched onto the game by the person you upload the files to. Please describe how you select hackers into your employ."

"I look at their work, first of all. Most of the times I scout on IRC channels, message boards, et cetera. Other times I get recommendations from other hackers, and in a few cases, they come to me. CC tries to crack down on sites which offer these textures, so I help gather them down for gamers."

"The process of using a hacked character is easy enough due to the self-patchers these characters come with. But how does CC crack down on these characters? What have they been doing?"

"They've been deleting some characters, but a few of the players using the models come from the higher tiers of the Internet gaming social hierarchy." Carl scratched his head. "It's really elitist like that sometimes, but it worked out for the better because there are some admins who don't want to upset the more popular players by deleting their character models."

Redblack scratched his chin. Hmm. Would be sweet if I could get one of those custom characters...

***