02-03-2013, 01:21 AM
Vostok is a more democratic groupwrite. We'll start with the genre and a brief sketch of the environment, and flesh out the world communally as we move forward.
The genre is cyberpunk. The environment is St. Petersburg, Russia in the year 2079. Life is divided into two worlds: the Waking World, of train schedules and hunger and orgasm and rain; and the Net, of glitz and glamour and freedom. In 2052, a Chinese scientist developed a neural mechanism for projecting a user into the internet as a virtual world. This neural implant, while by no means ubiquitous, has come to be as common a device as a mobile phone, and only the thoroughly impoverished lack the docking mechanism (typically a reclined chair) required to 'jack into' the net.
To save costs, everything but the small handful of jobs that actually require physical interaction (medicine, specialized construction and manufacturing that hasn't yet been solved by robotics, prostitution) are handled entirely by jacking into the Net and wiring into a virtual office environment. A few corporations reacted to the changing business landscape faster than others, and grew exponentially more powerful: AkiraTech, specializing in robotic prosthetics and neural implants; Delphi, specializing in expanding and developing the virtual infrastructure of the Net; and PeaceKeeper, the largest virtual security provider. There are some competitors, but each of these corporations exert a dominance on the market approaching a monopoly.
However, for all the power and wealth of the corporations and political structure, advances in security of data (including corporate and political secrets) have not been strong enough to keep out the better hackers, whether unaffiliated activists, or international spies. As a result, a global political organization, The Unified Net Assembly, made up of Net Ambassadors from participating countries (to include practically every world country), has developed proposals for a 'safer Net,' which is another name for regulations. The landmark Net-Safety Proposal of 2069 required that all persons participating in the Net must make themselves immediately and easily identifiable, by way of their actual and full name. Obscuring one's name by way of some anonymity script is considered a serious felony and grounds for a minimum ten-year prison sentence. This caused a massive uproar, and was answered with significant and persistent attacks on political and corporate structures alike. Nevertheless, it was ratified worldwide on January 1, 2070, and the imprisonments began almost immediately. Nine years on, the attacks still have not diminished.
The story begins in December 2079, as the ten-year anniversary of the ratification of the proposal approaches. There is a general sense in society that something drastic will happen, but only the participants know what's coming.
The genre is cyberpunk. The environment is St. Petersburg, Russia in the year 2079. Life is divided into two worlds: the Waking World, of train schedules and hunger and orgasm and rain; and the Net, of glitz and glamour and freedom. In 2052, a Chinese scientist developed a neural mechanism for projecting a user into the internet as a virtual world. This neural implant, while by no means ubiquitous, has come to be as common a device as a mobile phone, and only the thoroughly impoverished lack the docking mechanism (typically a reclined chair) required to 'jack into' the net.
To save costs, everything but the small handful of jobs that actually require physical interaction (medicine, specialized construction and manufacturing that hasn't yet been solved by robotics, prostitution) are handled entirely by jacking into the Net and wiring into a virtual office environment. A few corporations reacted to the changing business landscape faster than others, and grew exponentially more powerful: AkiraTech, specializing in robotic prosthetics and neural implants; Delphi, specializing in expanding and developing the virtual infrastructure of the Net; and PeaceKeeper, the largest virtual security provider. There are some competitors, but each of these corporations exert a dominance on the market approaching a monopoly.
However, for all the power and wealth of the corporations and political structure, advances in security of data (including corporate and political secrets) have not been strong enough to keep out the better hackers, whether unaffiliated activists, or international spies. As a result, a global political organization, The Unified Net Assembly, made up of Net Ambassadors from participating countries (to include practically every world country), has developed proposals for a 'safer Net,' which is another name for regulations. The landmark Net-Safety Proposal of 2069 required that all persons participating in the Net must make themselves immediately and easily identifiable, by way of their actual and full name. Obscuring one's name by way of some anonymity script is considered a serious felony and grounds for a minimum ten-year prison sentence. This caused a massive uproar, and was answered with significant and persistent attacks on political and corporate structures alike. Nevertheless, it was ratified worldwide on January 1, 2070, and the imprisonments began almost immediately. Nine years on, the attacks still have not diminished.
The story begins in December 2079, as the ten-year anniversary of the ratification of the proposal approaches. There is a general sense in society that something drastic will happen, but only the participants know what's coming.
![[Image: av50fd.png]](http://i55.tinypic.com/av50fd.png)
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