Chapter One Hundred and Three - Our Final Hour

Mass multiplayer online role play games of MMORPG's have a huge grip on the entertainment market, making billions in revenue and stimulating imaginations across generations.  Still the most popular genre of MMORPG has to be the fantasy genre, where players wield swords and utilise magic.  Most of the top ten favoured MMORPG games are set in this genre, including Lost Legends and Magic, Myths and Monsters.

Not to be ignored, however is the impressive array of Science Fiction MMORPG's.  These are usually set in space, which therefore gives them an ever expanding universe to play with, fantastic technologies to drool over and spaceships to utilise as transport and weapons.  Recently coming third in the top ten favoured MMORPG's is Galactic Battles and it's popularity is only set to rise.

But breaking into the top ten, the lesser known Our Final Hour MMORPG has been quietly rising through the ranks since its release and is now proving its value.  Set in a post apocalyptic era, this first person MMORPG has been winning fans across the globe, though only its European Servers can compete with the Servers of other well known games at this time.  Let's not mix this up with a Zombie Apocalyptic Era, however, there's no need to destroy endless waves of undead here!  Our Final Hour focuses mainly on how humanity will deal with dwindling resources.  That might have become its downfall in terms of gameplay, however the imaginative boffins of Our Final Hour's producing company Pure Technologies, added 'dimensional rifts' to the game as part of its history and to act as dungeons and battlegrounds would in a fantasy type MMORPG.

Speaking of Apocalyptic Era's, the Apocalypse Convention is about to begin.  This relatively new event celebrates all types of Apocalyptic books, games and movies.  So naturally representatives of Our Final Hour have been invited to attend.

In other news, Black Operations, one of the best known game creators have announced...

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Just as music festivals seemed to be popping up all over the place and becoming even greater in frequency, so were conventions, celebrating comics and manga and movies and cult games.  The Apocalypse Convention had only been running for three years, so it was fairly new as an event.  It had been created by an anonymous billionaire, who was amused by all of the predictions about the end of the world, so had set up the convention celebrating all movies, books and games that were about the end of the world and what happens next.  The date he chose for this convention happened to coincide with the prediction for that year.  It turned out to be pretty popular.

The crowds attempting to enter were by far larger than those of previous years, for this year a few well known authors of books set in this genre had been invited to speak or to sign books.  A small time actor, who had three lines in the movie "The End As We Knew It," was also attending.  And as a new sponsor, Our Final Hour had set up stage for live battles in dimensional rifts that are due to open and invited a few large in game guilds, known as factions to play.

Our Final Hour was played in the first person and could be played on various major consoles.  Servers were regionalised and large numbers of players could play on each.  On the stage was ten consoles, allowing for two teams of five to compete.  There was no professional league for Our Final Hour so all of the players were casual gamers and most likely had a life outside of the game.

The stage was set beside a large screen, which displayed a crumbling skyscraper, it's shattered windows reflecting the light of a red sun.  Sand swept across a vehicle that was merely four wheels and a steel frame.  A person covered from head to toe in protective clothing, goggles and heavy boots trudged through the sand and grabbed a bottle of water from their belt.  It was stolen in a flash by a mob of punk like characters riding motorised buggies with large wheels and laughing over his misfortune.  Only their wheels were shot out by a sniper from inside the skyscraper.  They were ambushed!  And then began a battle between the punks and another group, pipes clashed against swords, baseball bats clashed against bin lids and guns blasted bullets into anybody that moved.  These were the opening credits of Our Final Hour.

There were also scenes where strange distortions tore holes in the fabric of reality and monsters would pour out.  People ran through the distortions to find strange mazes or landscapes beyond them.  There were scenes showing communities that had formed in sewers or military bases or hospitals.  There was even a still collage of some of the games top player characters including a tall man wearing a mix of black and red ripped clothes, a red bandana pulling back his long black hair and tribal tattooes on his face and neck.  He was not the one to stand out the most, however, that was a man with short pale blue hair, spiked upward.  He wore a leather waistcoat over a long sleeve white top and with matching leather pants and boots that were knee high.  He had a pierced eyebrow as well as pierced ears.

These characters were Black Zeus, leader of the largest faction, Last Surviving Fortress and Requiem Knife, Leader of the top player killer (PK) faction, Thirteen Levels of Purgatory.  They were huge rivals and every fan of Our Final Hour was looking forward to seeing these two individuals fight it out live.

As two of the top two factions in Our Final Hour, they fought over rifts and resources at every moment of the day.  Purgatory were known for their flashy toys, the top vehicles, the premium gear bought with real money and their snotty attitudes.  Fortress were known for their abrupt behaviour and often overwhelming numbers. Seven Chances was a player of the Fortress and released weekly podcasts, most contained the two factions fighting.  Other factions often challenged these two, but it was difficult to compete.

Both were due to show up in numbers at the Apocalypse Convention and their leaders and most famous players were said to be amongst them.  Naturally other gamers showed up planning on watching a real life confrontation between the two factions.  Texts and online message boards for the convention were going crazy at that moment.

[OMG, I think I just saw Suffer My Wrath in person!  She was next to me in line when she got her badge!]

[Wrath is from 13lvls right?]

[Wrath is Requiem Knife's in game wife!]

[Is she pretty?  Tell me she is not pretty, please!  That bastard is all premium!  Would suck if his wifey is too!]

[Hey has anyone seen Black Zeus yet?]

[Does anyone know what Black Zeus looks like?]

[Black Zeus - Voice of God!  Ah should spam Seven Chances! Black Zeus should be a permanent part of his podcasts, not just a guest.]

[I know, right!]

[Omigod!  Crowd believed to be Fortress gathering over here!]

[Take pictures, take pictures!]

[Which one is God Leader and which one is Seven Chances?]

[Woh!  Tell me hottie with the double d's is Trinity Desertflower! She is fiiiiiiinnnnee!]

[Wait... there is another crowd approaching Fortress!  I think that's 13lvls!]

Indeed, a group of teens and young adults were moving towards the other crowd, though most of a similar age group.  They were led by a fashionably dressed young man wearing all branded clothes.  Despite being only average of height and of face, he still stood out amongst the crowd. He had a slightly bored expression on his face.  Beside him were other youths wearing the odd branded item and attempting to look as cool and refined as their leader.  However, they seemed to long for this confrontation more than the sour looking boy.

The crowd believed to be gamers from Last Surviving Fortress, stopped chatting amongst themselves and turned to look at the approaching youths.  There were looks of disdain and jealousy on many of their faces, one girl felt threatened and stepped behind her guild leaders.  One slightly muscular youth, thanks to his work in mechanics and other physical part jobs he has had over the past couple of years, glanced upward, his arms crossed about his chest.  Did he really have to deal with all of this posturing?

Freddy, played a character called Song of Doom who was not part of either of these factions.  In fact the faction he had joined, the Valkyries, only accepted female players.  Naturally he was yet to admit that he was a man, he never used a microphone letting his factionites believe it was busted.  He was just about to find a bathroom when he noticed the action and took out his phone to film the confrontation.  Not because he really cared for the drama, unlike others around him, but because there was some real eye candy over there.  Look at those lines!  Did that man come in more shades of yumminess? Oh and seriously, caveman, come throw me over your shoulder while you are at it.  Still, he did wonder what would happen when the two opposing sides clashed.

No one expected that when Owen Miller aka Requiem Knife took one look at Adam Harris aka Black Zeus, he would stare for a moment, turn on his heel and leave.  Adam took a stunned few steps towards the fleeing boy, only to be stopped by his friends.  Freddy tapped his phone upon his chin a few times in thought.  Well, well, what do we have here...

Definitions;

MMORPG means Mass Multiplayer Online Roleplay Game. The games I named above are not real. Examples of real MMORPG's would be World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Final Fantasy XIV and Star Wars; The Old Republic.

First Person or Third Person; Just like in books, but you play from the character's perspective as if you are looking through their eyes in first person and float behind and/or above your character (like a spectral stalker) in third person.

Dungeon, Raids and Battleground; Dungeons tend to be places separate from the rest of the map where people usually go in a small team and fight harder enemies and get better item drops. Raids are harder versions of dungeons and require more players. Battlegrounds are where groups of players fight against each other in a mini-war.

Player Killers; Player Killers are simply players who kill the avatars of other players. A Battleground is all about player killing.

Avatar; This bunch of pixels is your character, but despite how long you might have spent creating it, you either don't get to see it much or only see it from behind! Basically all that work is for other people's enjoyment not yours! Ha ha!