-- Story Premise --

Four young adults win tickets to be the alpha testers of Realism, the new virtual reality system that claims to have created the perfect virtual reality. They quickly find that it really is the perfect virtual reality, it is exactly like real life, death and lack of a logout button and all. Only here, there is also magic and monsters trying to kill them and they are given nothing to defend themselves with. They must figure out how to survive in this new world, and just when they start getting adjusted to the world... The beta tests begin and thousands of new players are dumped into the death trap. Looking to the Alphas to guide them to safety and rebuild civilization.

-- What do I need in terms of Collaborators --

I already have the skeleton plot for this story set up. That is, the general idea of where it starts, ends, and the key points along the way. This is subject to change a little here and there, but is mostly set in. What I do not have is the meat and bones, just the major plot points and general idea for each chapter. I have chapters 1 - 11 completed and am estimating 37 chapters by the time it is completed.

What I need is primarily feedback. This being a creation I have invested so much time in, it is difficult for me to see the flaws in the characters, plot, and writing. I don't know if I am giving the right general impression of the world and the characters. I don't know if I have droned on too long about some things, or not long enough about other things. I don't know what parts are catching people's interest, and what parts are boring (Hopefully none!). Ideas to help fill in the meat of the story are also nice, but not needed nearly as much since there is already so much lore and background detail to the world that the meat fills in itself for the most part as the plot progresses. But I'm always open to hearing what people want to see more (or less) of, and to listening to any ideas in general.

-- How this story came to --

Realism started off as a video game I built, however the plot behind the game was nothing like the plot in the story now. I spent around 5 years building this world little by little. And I spent pretty much all day every day immersed in building the world since I did not come from a very good home and could not really do much else. Sadly, after the 5 years a lightning storm destroyed my computer and everything was lost. Upon getting a new computer, my old game design program was not compatible with the new computer and I could not rebuild my game.

Realism did not die there though. I was able to recover the game data, and I eventually turned the video game into a text-based role playing game on a popular forum. This is where the plot of the game changed, in the role play, Realism became a virtual reality game rather then just an ordinary medieval world. However, the game was not left in the dust, but rather was added to. The world of Realism, was taken directly from the game and so was many other parts of it such as the factions, the general theme of magic, the cities, the monsters, and a few pieces of the history of player events (Such as the Alpha wars, which was a real war that went on between the players in the game). Only the plot changed in the role play. I originally did not really have a plot that was too in-depth, but as the role play progressed the plot became more and more in-depth. The role play eventually died, and Realism was revived in a new role play on another site, this time with all the new lore and plot it gained already added in from the start. And again throughout the life of this role play new lore and plot was added and it went even more in depth. When that died, the process was repeated again in a third role play. It had gone from a simple medieval game, to this virtual reality world that had far more life then ever before. With lore and depth going so deep down that even the players participating in the role play couldn't agree on one of the main controversies in this world. (Is killing monsters in this world okay? Or Murder? They are AI, but they are equally as alive, sentient, and self-aware as any real person in the game)

By then, the world of Realism had become so in-depth that I could point to any character in the world and make a story out of their adventures. That lead to the makings of this story, taking place long before any of the role plays (as they all took place at the worldwide release), it follows the story of the four Alpha Testers. Who were essentially the world leaders (for the human race) in the role plays/game. I write this with the intention of also, after finishing the Alpha's story, writing another book for the Beta tests, and a third for the Worldwide Release. Possibly a fourth for the story of C.A.D, the darkest character in the stories and the biggest secret of Realism. His story would span from before the Alpha tests to the end of the world. Those stories would follow new characters, so knowledge of the previous stories would be unnecessary (except for C.A.D.'s story.) but those stories will wait until this one is finished. Don't want to do too many different stories at once.