A Story Idea

I’ve had an idea for a story for a while now that I think would be pretty interesting to write. In the future, a computerized virtual world would be accessible to most people like a utility, much like the internet. Users could interact with the virtual world like a virtual reality game, where your sight and hearing are tuned to the virtual world, not the real one. Its use has become so pervasive that people do many things in the virtual world that are currently done in the real world, such as playing games, meeting people, conducting business, collaborating, performing financial transactions, etc. People from all over the world can access this virtual world. Virtual items are exchanged between users in the virtual world and have real-world values according to average real-world resale prices.

It would be interesting to explore how loyalties, alliances, and power might shift and reform in the virtual world, independent of the real world. Most people from the same country share common feelings of loyalty to their own country. What if you and your next-door neighbor in the real world were secretly members of opposing factions in the virtual world? What if those differences had real-world significance, like support of or opposition to human rights or national sovereignty? Could virtual allegiances lead to a shift in real power?

It would also be fun to explore the role played by the organization, perhaps a company, that created and maintains the virtual world. Do users who obtain and possess items in the virtual world own them in the real world? Is the organization responsible for changes in property values due to changes in the virtual world’s rules or content? Should stealing in the virtual world be a criminal act in the real world? These are some interesting questions that game makers and players struggle to answer even today.

I actually cannibalized this idea for a short story I wrote for a fiction writing class I took last quarter. Instead of focusing on the broader implications of such a system, I narrowed the scope to focus only on two strangers who interact in the real and virtual worlds simultaneously without realizing it. One person is chasing the other in the virtual world. Eventually, they both realize who the other is. Then the other person chases the virtual chaser in the real world.  I still haven’t come up with a good ending to the story.  If anyone has any ideas, please post them!