I've been waiting four years for this day to come; for the release of Aecheland. It isn't the first time I've been able to play it of course, as I received an email invite to the alpha. Everyone in our friend group got the play during the open beta, except for one; she wasn't around then. Most of our group had a plan for release day. My stepbrother took the week off work as soon as the release date was announced. I always told him that it would probably be delayed. I was wrong.

  It wasn't long before his co-workers wanted those days off too. Too bad they didn't have that competitive mentality. To be the first to race to max level, to first complete each dungeon, to lead a train of players to the next town. First was paramount.

  Aecheland at its core is not a competitive game, not in that same sense. While it has player-versus-player, that isn't what drives its players to compete. Rather, territory, and leadership. Respect and prestige. Most of it was in the form of cosmetic items if I'm being completely honest with you. Titles, ranks, unique weapons, and exclusive skill variants. They wanted to be recognized for something; for expert efficient use of their free time.

  I wanted that. My step-brother wanted that. My friends wanted that.

  Aecheland would launch to critical and audience acclaim. In my opinion, surprising, being the first game of its kind. It touted a "half-dive" virtual reality experience. People compared it to other "quadruple-A" games. Nobody bought into the claims, and then everyone bought the game. The open beta was the real seller. The game had 10 million pre-orders, selling over 50 million copies during the release week. Aechel Studios, the developer, generated billions in revenue overnight. Committing to a live service that would last "at least a decade", or so they said.

  Since Aecheland is a virtual reality experience, it requires a virtual reality headset. The Horus 2 is a marvel of modern technology. Its first series required a bunch of positional tracking systems to be set up; one in each corner of a room. Like surround sound but for VR. The Horus 2 doesn't need that, due to an array of angled proximity detectors on its face. It can detect distances very accurately, and build a model of your location to the millimeter. Learning its place as it moves. The game sold people this headset.

  The Horus 2 comes with a haptics rig that straps to the wrists, ankles, and around the waist. Its killer feature is the ability to read electrical pulses from the brain. It is rudimentary and requires a bunch of calibration specific to each individual, but it does work. It can often react faster than your muscles and the controller can. Combined with a basic haptics rig it creates an experience unlike any other. Thankfully, Aecheland can be played on a controller. I don't like to rely on its sense to react, but I have it on in case it proves useful.

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  My computer was already on as I sat down at the desk. It always stayed on. This was one of the few times in my life I would reboot a computer for superstitious reasons. I didn't want to have some update, memory leak, or blue screen interrupt what has so far been a great day. On the table was every snack, chip, cookie, soda, and energy drink I enjoyed. Still sealed, I'm no slob. Not for the first few days here anyway.

  When she opened back to desktop, and all the startup stuff was running, I opened our chat server. Then I launched the game. The logo splashes played on the comparably little screen inside the headset through its lenses. I took my glasses off and laid them on the table, since the headset lenses were matched to my prescription; then put it on.

  It wasn't long before I was greeted by a demo cutscene and skipped through it. This revealed Aecheland's signature menu screen. A young attractive woman, with auburn hair holding a large blade planted into the ground. Standing on a beach overlooking choppy waves, with a massive organic bony structure beyond thick fog. She was wearing what I would have described as a cybernetic suit if I didn't already know it was actually runic.

  In the top left the word Aecheland was split into "Aeche" and "LAND", with the latter stretched horizontally in a different font. Subtitled below it was 1.00.34b3, followed far below by lines of text which read: "Continue"... greyed-out, "New Game", "Options", and "Features". I choose the obvious...

  > "Options"

  After ensuring that vertical sync was on, brightness was turned up, and controller vibration, motion blur, and depth of field were disabled; I backed out to create my character.

  > "New Game"

  This wasn't my first time here, so what was before me was familiar. Albeit with a few quality of life changes between now and the beta. On-screen was a large man. A warrior with the build of a dorito, and months without a leg day. This was a Force Breaker, what Aecheland called its single target melee damage per second class.

  The character creator allowed a choice between a masculine and feminine body type, as well as a blend of the two. Selected with a slider between the two, and a triangle of "fat", "muscular", and "smooth". Beyond that where many more options for specifics about each facial feature, body part, age, complexion, and countless other aspects of appearance. I was told by a friend that I could change my appearance at any time in-game, but I didn't trust that. I didn't plan on changing it anyway.

  A tall, thin, and mildly muscular young adult man. Short jet black hair with medium sheen, just a smidge toward blue to trick the black into seeming darker. Not unlike me, except for the face. That didn't look like me in the slightest. I chose the "pretty boy" preset, number 31, and then altered it with wider, thinner lips, smaller ears, and blue eyes.

  I briefly considered making a female character instead, as I'd always found it easier to get stuff playing as a girl in MMOs. Then I remembered that Aecheland had proximity voice chat. Regardless of the class I planned to take, this guy is what I would look like anyway. That is what I asked myself... what class was I going to stick with?