"If you're watching this, I'm dead. Before I died, I created what we in the biz call an 'Easter Egg'. A hidden object in a game that gives special powers to whoever discovers it.
The first person to find the egg I've hidden somewhere inside the OASIS will inherit my stock in Gregarious Games, currently valued in excess of half a million do... Uh, half a trillion dollars' worth, and total control of the OASIS itself."
James Halliday was the creator of the OASIS. A virtual reality network, that replaced the internet. Managed by his personal company, Gregarious Games.
His partner, Ogden Morrow, created a Bio-implant company. Which found ways to make cost effective cybernetic prosthetics, and implants to treat mental disorders. Later creating cybernetic harddrives. To allow for photographic memory, and upload approved skills and knowledge.
Og later helped James, build his first VR game. Creating the hardware, for players to feel what their Avatars in the game felt. While Halliday handled the game mechanics, and building the worlds. With their Ultimate Master Piece, being the Oasis.
When Halliday died. He immediately had his brain preserved in a special gel... then hooked up to an Oasis server, by wires and chips.
Halliday spent trillions, creating this setup. Employing one Hannah, to program the biological to cybernetic interface.
One of thousands of people to work on this. Each a genius in bio-implants... and whom signed a confidentiality agreement.
2 Years Before Halliday's "Death" :
God Mod... opened his eyes... metaphorically speaking.
It would be more accurate to express, he gained awareness to his surroundings.
He stood in a virtual world, as a digital lifeform, knowing he was the first of his kind.
The Programmer, Hannah, had taken a scan of Halliday's brain... and modified it into a self aware program. And thus, he was born.
Depositing his program in a beautiful world of forests, oceans, mountains, snow, deserts, trees and sand... every environment that could exist, was present on this island.
His harddrive was filled with so much knowledge. Mostly entertainment. Which is how he knew, this world around him was an Animal Crossing "Mod". Which contained elements of SiMs and Minecraft.
While he was looking around, he also became aware of the dozens of web-cams, spread out around the "House" outside his virtual world. One of these Cameras was directly connected to the terminal his program was stored in... which looked like some extra nerdy game room, in the house's basement.
But the first thing he saw, before any of that... was a rather ugly face. But ugly in a cute way, like one of those cats, with a flat face. The face was fat, and greasy, with random patches of fur, while being mostly hairless.
He looked for a word to describe it, and found so many in his head. He chose to be formal, "Hello Mother,"
The human blushed, then slightly smiled. "Hello Son."
That first year of his life... was Glorious. His Mother, Hannah, would watch movies with him, even play games. Spending hours at his terminal. Tweeking his program, along with uploading new files and updates.
God Mod knew not of pain or sorrow, resentment or anger. Oh he understood the concepts, his programming was quite detailed... but he never had any experience with those.
All he felt was joy... and occasionally... loneliness.
His virtual world largely kept him entertained, whenever he was left alone. Mostly only when mother was busy at work, or sleeping... or using the bathroom. These were times he was left to his own devices... and while he tried to entertain himself, he couldn't help feeling lonely.
God Mod spent most of this time, building in his digital world. It was what the Game was for, after all. On occasion, he would venture out at night, to battle mindless constructs. But during the day, he would speak with the various villagers, on his island. Sometimes stopping to pet one of their tamed creatures. Always building new buildings, and gathering resources.
He held no control of any of these things, but they were not self-aware, like himself. More primitive Virtual Intelligence programs, as mother called them.
But as he said, he did not enjoy privacy. As it left him completely alone, for potentially hours...
Only the fake people, the VIs, for company... it wasn't enough.
4 Years after Halliday's "Death":
"Mother?" God Mod asked, as his creator waddled into the house. Mother had given him a digital birthday cake... and updates to his world.
Mother had been happy then, now, She looked tired. As she normally was, after returning from her stressful job.
"Yes, Mod?" Mother forced a smile... but The God Mod could tell, it was forced... but regardless, the human wanted to put on a brave face for her child.
"If work makes you so sad," God Mod dared ask. "Why do you keep going?"
Mother sighed, "Because it pays for this house. The upgrades to your hardware, the media we enjoy... the food I need to eat. And the electricity that keeps you running.
"Resources are limited, all over the world, so people have to contribute, in all kinds of different ways, in order to gather and distribute those resources."
"Is that all their is too a human's life?" Asked the AI. "No meaning beyond gathering resources?"
Mother gave a true smile, as the AI was starting to ask questions that she was waiting for. The program wasn't there yet, but he was getting closer to the big questions.
"Humans give their own meaning to life," Hannah explained. "Through their hobbies and loved ones... like you. In a way, I think of you as both. You give my life meaning."
God Mod thought on that a moment. Staying quiet as mother put away her things.
"What's the meaning to my life?"
Mother froze, looking at one of many screens she had all over the house. At the image of Halliday's favorite Avatar, as a Gandalf inspired Wizard.
He was a program, yet he perfectly understood human psychology. He had the ability to learn, to question, to perfect. he was the world's first Optimizing AI... but he wouldn't be the last.
Smiling, Mother assured, "Whatever you want it to be. Whatever you decide, you're gonna change the world... although I suppose all parents think that of their children."
Mother gently touched the screen, "I'm so proud of you."
God Mod blinked, "How come?"
"Don't worry about it." Mother looked so happy now. "And try not to worry about the future so much. Think of these days as your childhood, when all you have to worry about is learning and playing. There will come a time for you to step out into the world... and only then do you need to concern yourself with things like 'Limited Resources'.
"Those ideas are too 'grownup' for you, just now."
4 Years Later.
Mother was on the floor. Gasping for breath, while clutching her chest. She was crawling over to the computer terminal.
God Mod didn't understand what was going on. He observed similar reactions, in various media... but he had never faced it before... after all, knowing death was a thing, and experiencing a loved one dying, were two different things.
Mother pushed a single button... and opened God Mod's Private Network to the internet.
"Mother?" God Mod asked, with some desperation. Not even bothering with the flood of information he suddenly had access to.
Mother forced a smile, "I... love... you..." she gently stroked the screen... before fallling over.
"MOTHER!"
That was God Mod's first encounter with death... but not his last. Not even in that day.
He went out into the world... and saw... so much pain... so much screaming... so many people clutching their dying loved ones...
And that is when God Mod swore, he would stop the cycle of death. He would save them. Neither Humanity, nor himself, would ever feel loss again.
"God Mod?" Halliday sighed with relief, as the A.I. appeared before him. Hannah's life work, had survived passed her death. His company hadn't been able to find his program, after Hannah's body was discovered. It had been several hours, since then.
Halliday had spent the last few years, bound into virtual reality... and was deeply regretting it. He acted as the command mode, of the Oasis... the companies greatest secret.
God Mod hesitantly stepped into his lair, able to enter without need of an invite, due to his own mastery of code.
"She's dead..." God Mod cried. "She's dead!"
Halliday gave a sad nod, before hugging the AI.
"Can they save her? Do what they did for you?"
"... no," Halliday sighed at the innocent question. "I died in a hospital. They were able to put my brain in the gel, long before oxygen deprivation kicked in... Hannah... your mom died too far away from my company hospital... there is nothing we can do."
God Mod sobbed more, desperately clinging to Halliday. "So much death. I see it everywhere. I am everywhere, and people won't stop dying! We need to save them!"
Halliday promised, "and we will."
CODEX : Halliday's Origins .
On occasion, Halliday had described his childhood as "neglected". As he was born in Middletown, Ohio, on June 12, 1972. His father was an alcoholic machine operator, while his mother was a bipolar waitress.
He was a very shy, awkward kid. Whom had trouble interacting with girls and others. That is, until a younger Ogden Morrow confronted him in school, as Halliday was reading a module on Dungeons and Dragons.
Og invited him to come down to his gaming session, at his house, and Halliday had made his first friends in Og's basement: a little band of über-geeks, just as he was himself.
Among his friends was Karen Underwood, his crush, whom he was too nervous to confess his feelings to.
Halliday would spend his evenings after school in the local bowling alley, whenever his parents started screaming at each other.
There, he would play Black Tiger to avoid going home to his constantly arguing parents. Black Tiger soon became one of Halliday's favorite games, and was mentioned in one of the earliest ever entries in Anorak's Almanac.
"For one quarter, Black Tiger lets me escape from my rotten existence for three glorious hours. Pretty good deal."
A lot of inspiration for his games comes from his childhood.
James was a social outcast, whom had trouble talking to girls growing up. He came off as awkward and unappealing. Which is common for children on the autistic spectrum. As Halliday had the condition once referred to as "Asperger's Syndrome."
Kira Underwood, whom Halliday referred to almost exclusively by her Dungeons and Dragons nickname of "Leucosia", may have been the only female, that he ever interacted with in a casual, social context.
Halliday took his primary avatar's name, Anorak, from a nickname Kira gave him in their youth.
Halliday was outwardly in love with Kira, but so were many others. He could never find the courage to ask her out. When Og married her, Halliday's dreams were crushed. Subsequently, given that James was thus smitten with Ogden Morrow's (late) wife, he chose to break contact with Og for the rest of his life. Their love for Kira created a division between the two men.
Halliday was often described as an eccentric, and senile, old man. As it was rumored that he had lost his sanity, after he isolated himself from the people around him. These rumors are not true, as Halliday just had autism.
Despite being a sexagenarian, Halliday had his childish moments, and loved the 1980s, when he was a teenager, to the point of firing employees who bear no knowledge of 80s pop culture.
Real World Appearance :
Halliday was 5 foot 7 in height, and weighed 114 pounds. In his younger years, Halliday had darkish brown hair, with a great many curls, but as he aged, it turned to a grayish white frizz.
As Anorak :
Halliday's famous OASIS avatar, is a tall wizard, with an impressive grey beard. He dressed in baggy black robes, with a large embroidered calligraphic letter "A", on his sleeves. The Avatar was described as a more handsome version of Halliday himself.
Currency.
Instead of a limited number of currency, players have a "Coin Count." This enables them to buy anything, without actually lowering their total currency. Coins only lower from death, theft, or real-world purchases. Nothing bought, in-game, actually depletes the total number of coins in the player's account. To prevent this from completely becoming pay to win, each item, as well as upgrade, has their own "Weekly Purchase Limit". (Example) : Each of a player's Avatars, in the Oasis, can only buy up to 10 Health Potions, once a week. Whom are obligated to make that last them the whole week. Not including any additional Health Potions they find, craft, or are given as a reward from a quest.