Simulated Environment Xtreme(Closed for atenai)

[amchentai]

It had started as a joke, a play on words, but had become one of the leader game companies of it's time. The company was the to perfect a full body virtual reality game. Their first game "Quest of the Wild" sold out with in the first 24 hours, and the resulting sales game them the cash they need to work on "Quest of the Wild 2", which like it's predecessor sold out with in the first day. They now owned 10 floors of a ultra modern skyscraper that not only severed as their place of work but housed half of their staff. The top 3 floors were for the staff, the next 3 for the computers and servers for in house testing, the next two were the VR rooms and testing center for the new VR games, the floor below that was offices, and the bottom floor was for letting the staff relax, also kitchens and such to make food. S.E.X. was in the very center floors of the building and even had their own elevator to get in and out, the offices were still connected to the main elevator shafts, but could only be called by from the buttons in the area, and would be skipped by if one got in them at the ground floor. They had put a add out seeking new Female testers for some up coming games. The leader designer would be giving the interview to the and he waited out on the balcony over looking the city and bay waiting for the last interview of the day. A young man, mid 20s, short buzz cut black hair and brown eyes, he sat enjoying the view and cool breeze as he waited for the women to be shown in.

 

[atenai]

Kira wasn't really sure how to approach an interview with a gaming company, did one dress up? Down? In between? So in the end she put on her nicest pair of blue jeans and a red cashmere sweater, and called that good enough. Testing virtual reality games wasn't exactly a white collar office job, but she didn't want to make a bad impression when she arrived.

It had taken awhile to find a friend who owned "Quest of the Wild" who would let her test drive it, but she'd begged and pleaded and was able to try it out, which she hoped was going to be something like what she was interviewing for. Kira didn't know what was involved in testing VR games, and hoped that some experience playing computer games would be good enough. She certainly wasn't a programmer, but the graphic design courses she'd taken might be useful... she'd made sure to put them on the resume she had sent in.

 

[amchentai]

Jeff looked over the resume for the last interview of the day. And when she finally showed up he greeted her and motioned for her to take a seat in the chair next to his over looking the city.

"Hi, Kira was it? I'm Jeff, Jeff Maxwell. I'm the lead designer here at Simulated Environment Xtreme.. And yes, the name was a joke... It just kinda stuck and here we are today, know as S.E.X. The leader in VR games today. Says here you've logged a good number of hours in Quest of the Wild... I'd like to hear your thoughts on it, what you liked, didn't like that type of thing... As you know, you will be testing games like it and probably many more... Did you have any problems with adjusting to the VR sim hook up?" He asked, she meet everything they needed but he wanted to know a little more about her as a gamer, seeing as she was one of the only ones to have a good number of hours logged in a VR game already she had a edge over the other applicants.

 

[atenai]

Kira sat down rather hesitantly, giving the view a quick glance before she gave her interviewer undivided attention. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Maxwell. Yes, I did spend some time trying out Quest for the Wild, though I was somewhat rushed to try and finish the main arc. I... it wasn't quite what I was expecting. You know how in the movies they have those headsets, but they don't really bother with the science of how to actually immerse you in the sensory input?" It took her a moment before she realized she was rambling a bit. "I wasn't expecting the full hook-up, is all. But I think it worked well enough once we got past the issue of my friend's gear being three sizes too big for me." She gestured to explain. "He's a big guy. Quarterback big."

Thinking of a friend put a smile on her face, which lingered as she returned her attention to the interview. "I don't think I'd have trouble once I got used to things. Are... um, if it's not a secret, anyway, what kinds of games are you testing? I'm not sure how much good I'd be with sports or things that will require a lot of athletic ability. Other than that I can probably handle whatever you're ready to throw at me." The poor woman didn't really consider that with a name like theirs, sooner or later they'd be into mature content, even if they hadn't crossed that boundary yet.

 

[amchentai]

"Hmm I see I see..." He knew she meet all the other requirements but he had to know how she would deal with the game, also he noted that Quest of the Wild hasn't been adjusted to change it's armor size based on the different users at the time. He laughed a little

"Yes yes, A problem we fixed in two. If you logged in under your friend's game in two it would have adjusted the armor to fit better. He shook his head at her next question.

"It's not that it's a secret, but most of the games are code named and also we're not at liberty to talk about it since we're working on more then just our games now. Though I'm sure you've heard by now that there is another Quest of the Wild in the works." Knowing that someone had leaked it a few weeks ago, though he didn't mind, it helped keep gamers playing the old ones to get ready for the next.

"But honestly you'll probably be testing all sorts of games." Jeff went on, he turned his gaze back to Kira and and asked.

"Do you have a problem with excessive violence, male, female and other nudity, and sexual situations" He knew some of the games they were working on were M+ rated and wanted to make sure she knew this going in.

 

[atenai]

Kira nodded. She'd checked out the company's recent media flags, and one of those had mentioned a sequel in the making. She shrugged easily enough at the mention of fixing the size. "It wasn't that bad, it just took a bit to get used to. I don't imagine that would be a problem when testing things on site here."

She licked her lips, eyes moving slightly as she formed her question about the games they were working on, trying to word around the secrecy and non-proprietary rights issues. And he continued before she could ask what part of other games they were working on, if it was the VR interface with graphics and ideas from outside, or what... and she flushed, struggling with the appropriate words even as her imagination spun out the possible repercussions of the question. "There are limits to my tolerance of violence... I won't be a good tester if you make something as defunct as the depths the Grand Theft Auto series sank to." That she wasn't ashamed of. It was the rest of the answer. "Nudity doesn't matter that much to me, but, um... could you be a little more specific by what 'situations' you think might arise?" That was about as politic as she could manage. "I... I don't think it will bother me," she hurried to assure him, hoping the job wouldn't rest on these words. "But that's an awfully big blank check you're asking for."

 

[amchentai]

"Don't think or don't know?" He asked to, needing a clear answer to the question. They were helping make a good number of games and in fact had just signed a deal to make a sexual heavy game. It was one of the whole reasons they needed a female tester. And mentally he had to shake his head, at the fact that the company itself was named SEX didn't help things. Still they were making more then enough money to not take a offer such as the one to make the adult game, but everyone knew that with the name and with the group who started it, it would have to try it at least once to see how it goes. Though Jeff wasn't sure about the themes seeing as it was a Japanese based game, with monster and such, but from the design side he wanted to see how it would play out.

 

[atenai]

Quickly blushing to a rosy hue and staying that way, Kira folded her hands in her lap to give herself something to grip hold of. She hadn't wanted to be forced to say something quite this blunt. "Sex doesn't bother me. Violence does, sometimes, especially violence for violence's sake alone. Brutality, obscenity, excessive gore... if you think I'm going to say it won't bother me and then test a game where I could get turned into some sort of sick zombie prostitute, you've got another thing coming." She took a careful breath, trying to word this so she wouldn't be denied the job flat out. "I have limits, and I don't have any idea how far you're asking me to go until you give me some idea what sort of situations you imagine might arise."

 

[amchentai]

Jeff grinned at the comment and looked at Kira a good moment before speaking again, making a quick note to add some type of Zombie prostitutes a enemy of some kind in a game later down the road.

"Well if you were to test Quest of the Wild 3 for a example, would you have a problem killing things in that? On the other end of that what if we asked you to fuck a Minotaur in a game we might be working on? All of it would feel real, seem real, but it's all fantasy I can insure you..." Jeff said, seeing if it was the type of violence or if it was violence itself that she had a problem with.

 

[atenai]

The young woman tried not to squirm under the man's gaze, concern mounting for a moment that she'd screwed herself of a snowball's chance in hell. But she relaxed when the next sentence was probing, not rejecting. She didn't really have a chance for her cheeks to lose their color, however. Minotaur? Really? "I don't think I'd have a problem with Quest of the Wild, even if you tried to make it extreme. You're not promoting graphic senseless killing and violence. There was some form of plot, not just killing for the fun of it."

She had to swallow a couple times in rapid succession to manage beyond that. "So someone pointed out you'd have to do it sooner or later?" she asked with a quick smile. She clearly grasped that much of the company's new games' rationale, anyway. "I think I can handle that." Even with his questions giving her some idea of what he thought the big picture held, she was a bit hesitant to firmly agree to unknown sexual encounters. "Aliens and monsters won't phase me too much."

 

[amchentai]

She held more promise then the last few and so he thought for a moment and look out over the city. He shifted in his seat to get more comfortable and then finally looked back to Kira.

"I'm gonna level with you here, You're the most promising applicant we've had so far.... But Quest of the Wild 3 is going to be much more real then the past two. But that's already been covered and will be out on news stands tomorrow... We're still toying with builds but this time there will be more then just the one traveling merchant that sells you your stuff, towns, cities, people... People you will have to kill if it comes down to it..." He looked back over the city and over the bay. Knowing this might change her mind but he thought better to have it out on the table for her then to keep it a secret till she got the job.

"We also have a half dozen or so adult games, meaning sex won't just be human on human. And some of them will be game over scenes... Meaning, if you remember that small semi painful shock from Quest of the Wild 1 and 2, well this will be much more real... And this new "game over" thing isn't limited to the adult games either. None of this will threaten ones life, by no means are we trying to kill anyone, but it is meant to feel real, both pleasure and pain, a new element to the games we're working on will change VR games even more then we already have in the past." He told her letting her know this wouldn't simply be all fun and games, sure there would be fun and games testing, but some might involve testing how the game over scene works and if it is everything they wanted it to be.

 

[atenai]

She didn't flinch as he laid out the details of the game she knew about, and the ones she didn't. She was fairly sure in her belief that the original line of games wouldn't bother her in the least. Even making it real... these weren't mindless violence. Kira just nodded.

This concept of graphic game over scenes... that she wasn't as crazy about, but it made sense the way he presented it, anyway. She took the time she needed to form her thoughts into sentences, but didn't hesitate. "It would've happened sooner or later. And it doesn't really surprise me that getting yourself killed isn't the only way to end the game. I don't know how much of a death scene I'd want to feel in the VR sim, but if it doesn't feel real then it's only your head telling you not to lose the game, not an immersed reaction to the environment you're in. If it's not harming me in reality, and presuming that... at least within reason, it's not too much pain to handle safely, I think I can live with that. I'm sure your people know the human body's sensory tolerances well enough, I'm not going to nitpick the science of it."

 

[amchentai]

"Well not all game overs are bad ends. But like you said, if it's not real you won't worry about getting yourself killed by the monster or enemies in a game. Feeling small amounts of pain will make you want to avoid that. And with that I think you have the job miss..." Jeff paused a moment and blushed a little.

"I didn't catch your last name..." He said and stood up. She had the job and he would sign the papers and get her in as soon as he could.

 

[atenai]

Kira's color had gradually receded back to her normal pale skin tone, but the little twitch of her cheek muscles might've been an embarrassed smile waiting to happen. "Oh, sorry. Kira Emerson." It was on her resume, but it was a little bit lax of her not to have introduced herself properly at the beginning of the interview. At least it hadn't mattered too much, it seemed she had the job! "And, thank you!" she added eagerly as she rose as well. A little voice in the back of her mind wondered what she'd gotten herself into, minotaur sex and all, but she tried not to listen. It was entirely possible that, providing she could keep her composure, she would be enjoying the game testing a bit more than she'd anticipated when she called for the interview.

 

[amchentai]

"Well miss Emerson, I would like to get you signed and moved in as soon as we can. You will also be working with a few other testers so you'll want to meet them. Though some of them are not here at the moment and are testing some stuff over at another company we're partnered with so you will be one of 3 testers here at S.E.X. for the time being." He said to her. As he motioned to shake her hand.

 

[atenai]

"Please, call me Kira." She shook his hand with a smile on her face; she hadn't expected to get the job on the spot, even if he had planned to hire her. A day or two, whether to confer with others or to make sure no questions arose... but apparently not. It made her feel spectacular, that somehow her limited experience with games or testing had been eclipsed by the amazing quality of her answers... she almost giggled at that. Her answers hadn't been so amazing. He must've just liked her.

She waited for him to move in the proper direction, then followed a step behind. "How many of the games are single player, how many will be tested with a group?" This hadn't occurred to her before, though why not she didn't know. "Will I be testing things with these others that might lead to... embarrassing moments once we get outside the game?" She had said that minotaurs wouldn't phase her, but dealing with some other tester she'd just fucked in virtual reality? That wasn't quite what she'd anticipated, either. It made her glad she'd hedged somewhat, at least that kept her dignity intact.

 

[amchentai]

"Most if not all the games will have multi-player of some kind. Though your focus will be on testing player VS environment so you will be dealing with encounters with NPCs mostly. Jeff told her, and it was true, they really didn't need to test the user to user interface as it was done on many VR games already, and it was far less complex then user VS npc as NPCs were some times not very human at all. It was a simply matter for touch sensors from player to player to be used, be having a tentacle wrap around one and be lifted up into the air was something very different.

"As for sex between co-workers, that's up to them, though we do ask that it not interfere with work... But to answer your question, the need may call for it, but unlikely in our current set of games." He insured her, knowing that most of the adult games were focused on encounters with things less human. It being a adult fantasy game allowing both men and women to engage in sexual activates with fantasy beings, Elves being some what human to things such as centaurs and tentacle monsters.

"And I hope you can move in and start ASAP, with half our testers off site right now we really need a female to test a few of the games we have going and get some feed back on them" He told her.

 

[atenai]

Player versus environment she could handle. Social skills of other nerds in and out of games... that one was debatable. Kira stayed in-step with the designer as he led her through the building. "Thanks," she admitted after a moment's thought about coworker relations. "I just want to know where I stand compared to the other testers." A few blinks more were devoted to the same line of thought, before she realized she was being rude and jerked her attention back to Jeff.

"I'm happy to start now, if you want me to. Whatever's left of the day, anyway. The, um, calmer the starting game the better I'll ease into it." It seemed like a safe statement, for all she wondered how much of his need for a female tester meant that it was the tentacle porn that needed testing. If it was... well, hopefully the game would start out somewhere less extreme. Minotaur porn she could probably handle. She had to stifle a giggle before her guide realized her mind was wandering again. Minotaur porn? Where the hell did that come from?

 

[amchentai]

"No, I'll take you to meet your feedback handler and you can move your stuff in as soon as the paper work is done." He told her and took her to the the main testing room. He showed it to here, it wasn't what one thought of when they thought VR testing room, it was a simply room, black walls and white tile floors. about 10 chairs all hooked up to a long custom built desk with many many computers and wires all over connected to all the different chairs.

"This is the testing room, where you will be working most of the time, the chairs are custom made so you shouldn't have any back problems from sitting in them too long." He said and pointed to them, they were large full body chairs that were meant for VR testing so arm and leg rests were able to move and follow the user if need be and would bend back if needed.

"Now lets go meet Elle" Jeff said and closed the door behind them. They went down to the lounge area where the staff who lived on site went to goof off or simply get away from work. There were not many there right now, a pair of mails playing a old school gaming system on a big screen TV and a woman digging in the frig for some food. Jeff lead them over to the woman and called to her as they walked up.

"Elle, I've got your new tester here... I'd like you to meet her. The woman pulled her head out of the frig and smiled at Kira. Kira would make note that Elle's eyes were rather different, they looked almost robotic, and her iris glowed a soft blue in color.

"Heh, Nice to meet you... And yes they are special contacts..." The women said, a soft voice. She was off the clock and so she was in a baggy T-shirt and panties, she had caramel skin and dark chocolate hair, that was kept short just below her ears, and her bangs were kept to her right side and some times would cover her right eye. She was slightly smaller then Kira and had a nice C cup, and she wasn't wearing a bra under her shirt, it was also a shirt for Quest of the Wild 3

 

[atenai]

Kira smiled and shook hands with the woman, trying not to betray her surprise at Elle's state of undress. This was a business, after all, wasn't it? "Nice to meet you. I wasn't going to ask, don't worry," she added, meaning the contacts. "I'm just trying to soak all this in. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, applying for this." She looked around, vaguely recognizing the game on the screen as something at least a couple of her friends had played, but she thought it was fairly old at this point. It wasn't any of her business what they played in their time off. Maybe they were sick of the new stuff, anyway, since they tested it so thoroughly.

"I know we want to get paperwork done," she told her guide, so she smiled at Elle. "But I'll be back in a bit, and I'd appreciate it if you could show me what the hookup is like. If you don't mind, anyway. I don't think my limited experience with the first Quest game is likely to count for much once I get started."

 

[amchentai]

Elle smiled and shook hands with Kira before she left. Jeff took her to one of the offices and got the paper work all signed and also got her address to send the movers to get her things since she would be living on site for the time being. After that he called up Elle again and showed himself out after Elle came and got Kira and brought her back to the testing rooms.

"So yeah, we'll load up one of the beginning quests for QW3..." Elle said as she opened the door to the VR testing room. No one else was there and Elle slipped behind the custom desk and to her normal work station.

"And since you don't have a body suit we'll use the normal headset interface..." Elle said. One of the chairs lit up with the simulator and the headet, more of a half helmet really lit up as well and Elle motioned for Kira to the chair that had lit up.

 

[atenai]

"Alright," Kira agreed, following the other woman's lead. "Sounds like a good place to start. Do you mind if I ask, do you test also, or just run the..." She waved at the desk. "Computer side?"

She moved obediently to the lit chair, ducking to get her head past the helmet edge. "Are the body suits for the same games, or is that for games that need a, um... need wider access to the body?" She had a feeling such a suit might be part of the more mature games, and wondered if it was gender-specific in order to place stimuli in all the places required for minotaur porn. That's stuck in my head now, great. She waited long enough to get Elle's reply before reaching up and pulling the headset into position, not knowing if the test controller had a way to converse with the tester... though it'd be stupid if they didn't, she realized late.

 

[amchentai]

"Hmm lets just say I enjoyed the Adult games too much... And someone found out and now I have a job making them..." Elle replied and looked up and saw Kira duck under the helmet.

"Oh those come off the holders Kira, just move them forward a little. The wires will seem in the way at first but you'll not even feel them once we boot it up.." She told Kira as she looked over and smiled.

"No the Body suits are simply to get a better read on responses from the users body. Make sure we're not hitting a nerve in a foot at random or something. But we will get to that another time.." Elle waited for for Kira to put on the helmet and settle into the chair before turning it on.

The room seemed to go black around Kira and soon she found she was standing on a dirt road at a fork in the road. The air was crisp and the sounds of birds could be heard in the trees off to her left, a open field to her right had a large animal of some type, a cross between a rhino and a tiger or some other large cat. It was eating the grass in the field and looked up at her once before continuing it's meal. But before she could read the signs or look around much more she heard a voice in the sky.

"Your in, this is the starting area for the humans... You've been loaded up as a level 20 so nothing around should give you any problems..." The voice said, it was Elle and the voice didn't seem to scare away the animal near by so it was a safe guess she was the only one who could hear it. But before she could reply a stiff breeze went past her and she shivered and looked down at the first time, saw that she was stark naked at the moment, and apparently a blonde woman with a neatly trimmed patch of hair kept in a upside down triangle pointing at her slit. Her breasts for her character were large and firm, and her blond hair was short and kept out of her face by a clip on each side. She couldn't see but she had deep green eyes as well.

 

[atenai]

Kira's lips twisted in a half smile as she put the helmet on properly. It amused her that Elle's job had come from the games that made her uncertain about keeping her own. Ah well, at least she knew they appealed to some. They'd have time enough to discuss how those went.

She reeled a little as the world appeared out of the blackness, but it was a decent enough place to start. The fantasy animal drew her gaze, just because it was different. "Do you want vocal input as we go, Elle?" she asked, hoping she was speaking at a normal volume but not quite positive due to the way the helmet covered her ears. "Or just the 'oh crap' moments, if they arrive?"

She shook her head at the fantasy blonde starting image. "Why do these games have to be so cliche?" she asked quietly, mostly to herself. But the chill made her focus, and she looked around to see what her options were.

 

[amchentai]

"Whatever works for you, you can play the game and write up a report or simply give vocal feedback as you play. Doesn't matter, this is about testing the interface with the system, do the sights and sounds seem real, does it feel real?" The voice trailed off for a moment then came back out of nowhere.

Right.. Um... Sorry about that..." Elle's voice said and a pile of gear appeared next to Kira. A simply sword and some chain mail armor.

"Your the first female to load up so the character didn't have any gear or class set.." Elle told her. A moment later a gust of wind just about blew Kira and the pile of armor and weapon away and caused her to look up and see a low flying Dragon go over head and head west and it was bigger then anything from the first two games. a new player might follow it, but doing so would probably end badly seeing as Dragons were high level enemies most of the time. But from her view on the ground the red scaled Dragon was a wonder to see.

"Honestly this will be the beta testing area when it's released in a little while. So most of the bugs have been worked out but your co-workers have said the feed back is off some so yeah, might as well just go exploring for now. The best feedback is from playing the game, you have the fun and easy job, I'm the one looking at all the text and input data out here." Elle said as she did indeed watch the screens for the data coming in from Kira.