The large box certainly looked out of place. Sure, it was sitting on the stairs where the mailman usually left packages. And sure, it had a clear address label on its top. But it didn't look like any package Erin had ever received before. The 2-foot wide box was shaped like a cube and was jet black, with no apparent flaps or openings.
The box did have her name clearly printed on the top: Erin Feston, 119 Palm Blvd, and so the young woman who had just gotten home from work bent over to pick it up. The box was made of some hard plastic material and was heavier than Erin expected. She was able to get it up and into her house, wondering who on earth could have sent her such a box.
Erin set the box down in her living room with a grunt of relief and set about trying to get the thing open. There wasn't a single discernable opening on any of the box's six sides, and the hard plastic felt like it might be quite difficult to cut. There wasn't even a return address listed, just the label with her own address. Since that label was the one thing that seemed removable, Erin pulled it off, and was rewarded by finding a note on the back that read:
"Congratulations, you have been randomly selected for a beta test of our new role-playing game. The box you have received contains highly advanced and proprietary technology. It is critical to us that we get an unbiased review of the game before bringing it to market. That is why we sought out random testers instead of self-selecting volunteers. If you agree to test this game, you must commit to total secrecy during the two-week testing period. You may play as much or as little as you want during that time. Testers will receive $500 at the end of the testing period. If you would like to participate, please say 'I agree'."
This was not at all what Erin was expecting. She hadn't really known what to expect, but she never would have guessed this box would be an offer to make $500 for playing some new high-tech game. And all she had to do was not talk about it? That wouldn't be a problem. Erin lived alone and she had recently broken up with her last boyfriend. She always got a bit of a geeky thrill out of new technology, and she didn't have any other plans for her Wednesday night, so it didn't take long for her to state out loud: "I agree."
As soon as the words were uttered, the top of the box flipped up like a lid, revealing a 2-foot wide computer screen on its underside. Beneath the lid, the box was as solid as ever. "Cool," thought Erin.
The screen came to life, displaying an androgynous humanoid form rotating slowly on a black background. A computer voice announced that the first step was to build the tester's avatar. The voice then started asking Erin a string of basic questions.
As Erin told the box about herself - female, Caucasian, 30 years old, 5'-8" tall, 125 pounds – the rotating figure on the screen began to take on her characteristics. The questions got more specific – inseam, bust, waist, hips, cup size – and the rotating avatar adopted the firm but curvy figure that Erin herself was so proud of.
The avatar stopped rotating and faced front as the box asked Erin to hold still while it took her picture. The box asked Erin to turn 90-degrees to her left and then to her right as it took more pictures. The avatar's face then blurred and a second later resolved into an incredibly accurate representation of the new tester.
Erin was quite impressed as she watched herself rotate on the screen. This was more than just photo shopping her picture onto a computer image. It was as if she was actually watching herself on the screen. Every detail had been faithfully represented –her long dark hair, her small nose-ring, the necklace she wore around her slender neck. The avatar was even wearing the same flowery summer dress that Erin was wearing, which fluttered as it spun, showing off even more thigh than the real woman.
A small door opened on the side of the box, revealing a set of four red bands. The box instructed Erin to clip one band around each wrist and ankle, explaining that these would give her avatar the ability to mimic all of her movements. Erin did this without hesitation and was thrilled to see that her likeness now mirrored all of her own movements. When Erin raised her hand, her avatar raised its hand. When she jumped, it jumped. She got more excited about the game to come.
The box then gave her a short list of options for role-playing games, and Erin quickly picked out the Police Academy option. She had always thought fighting crime would be exciting, and her real career as a city environmental inspector was considerably less fun. The box gave her a brief run through of who her character was, then explained that from then on the box would give no more out-of-character instructions. All interactions between her and the game would be as her avatar: Erin Feston – new recruit.
The screen went black, then lit up to show Erin standing with a group of about ten or so other recruits in front of the police training academy headquarters. Captain Anderson, who was apparently in charge of the place, gave them a quick motivational speech, then directed them inside.
Erin's avatar stood still for a moment as the rest of the group started leaving her behind. Then Erin quickly discovered that if she walked in place, her Avatar on the screen would walk forwards. It looked pretty sloppy at first, but she quickly got the hang of it. It was amazingly simple, really. It was also a hell of a lot of fun just to watch the depiction of herself do things like step up the stairs in time with her own raised legs or hold the door when she reached out with her arm.
Erin marveled at the technology. She had no idea that this was even possible, and she felt like she'd won a jack pot to get to be the one to test it.
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By the end of the week, Erin had become quite an expert at controlling her avatar. She played late into the night on Wednesday and into the wee hours again on Thursday. She hurried home after work on Friday, ready to spend her entire weekend in front of the black box.
The box had proven to be amazingly versatile. It produced a plastic handgun for Erin to use while her avatar was being trained at the firing range. It unfolded various loops and bars when Erin and the other recruits were running the obstacle course. A full police baton slid out of a side compartment when she was taught various crowd control techniques. And the coolest feature so far had come out during hand-to-hand combat. The whole top of the box opened to unfold a full-size mannequin, complete with a padded torso and mechanical arms that Erin could physically spar with.
Erin had quickly decided that the people who made this were freaking geniuses. Even without all the nifty gadgets that popped out of the box, the game would have been incredibly cool. In just the two evenings that she had been playing, she had guided her avatar through 2 weeks of training. That was possible because she was automatically fast-forwarded through all the boring parts: law interpretation, report writing, conflict resolution, and of course sleeping.
Erin felt as though she'd formed real relationships with a number of her fellow recruits and a few of the trainers. Early on, she decided that her character would be outgoing, spunky, flirtatious, and tough – characteristics that the normally reserved Erin didn't often display in real life. But when she was playing, she felt like she could do or say anything. This attitude had made her some very close girlfriends from among the recruits, and had also irritated at least a couple of her instructors. But who cared!
Erin was happy that her house was so secluded. It wasn't far out of town, but it was far enough away from other houses that she could scream at the top of her lungs and nobody would ever hear her. Her living room, where she was playing the game, was also in the back of the house. The windows looked out onto a small yard and a forest, and she had literally never seen anyone back there. This meant she could be loud and act as ridiculous as she wanted while playing the game, and she didn't have to worry about anyone seeing or hearing her.
When Erin got home Friday, she snarfed down some very quick dinner and grabbed the clothes she was using as her 'trainee' outfit. That was one part of the game that seemed odd at first. Her avatar had arrived at the first drill still wearing Erin's flowery dress. The trainer had scolded her and sent her back to the women's dorm to change. Erin tried to mime changing into some clothes that she saw on the screen, but her avatar wouldn't change until Erin actually took off her dress and pulled on some workout clothes.
By Friday, changing clothes for real just seemed right. It certainly helped Erin to feel as if she was actually the avatar who going through the Academy. After Erin clipped on the wrist and ankle bands, she slipped out of her clothes and lay on the floor in her bra and panties. In the academy, she had left her avatar sleeping, so she'd have to pick up where she left off. The first night, she'd been ridiculed by the other female trainees in the dorm for sleeping in her clothes, so she quickly started 'sleeping' in just her underwear the way they did. It felt rather silly the first couple times to have to strip and lay on her floor for a couple moments while she was fast-forwarded through the game's night, but by now it was old hat.
Erin was excited for the first drill of the day – arrest techniques. Their instructor discussed the correct procedure for taking an uncooperative suspect to the ground and handcuffing them behind their back. The trainees were paired off to practice on each other. Erin was glad to be paired with her closest friend, Jenna, a tall red-head whose spunk matched that of Erin's character.
The box produced a set of very real-looking police handcuffs and unfolded the mannequin. It was obvious from the display screen that the mannequin represented Jenna. They decided Erin would go first, so she tucked the cuffs under her belt and took a firm hold on the mannequin's left wrist. She twisted that wrist behind the mannequin's torso, and heard Jenna on the screen say: "Oww, hey! Take it easy!"
"Toughen up," Erin replied as she pushed the mannequin onto its face and placed her knee in the small of its back as she had been shown. She then pulled the mannequin's other wrist behind it and cuffed the wrists together. She glanced at the screen when she was done and enjoyed the sight of herself, kneeling on top of her cuffed friend.
"You look great like this, hot stuff," she whispered into Jenna's ear.
"Yeah, yeah," Jenna replied, "now get off me!"
It was Jenna's turn to practice on Erin next. Erin had thought, somewhat optimistically, that this would just be skipped over. When it became obvious that it was going to happen, she got a bit nervous. Those handcuffs certainly felt real, and she was pretty sure they wouldn't come off without the key that she had just turned over along with the cuffs to the Jenna mannequin. But she felt comfortable practicing with her friend, so she wasn't too worried.
While Erin was mulling this over, Jenna went ahead and grabbed her wrist and twisted it roughly behind her. Erin said "Take it easy!" the same way Jenna had moments ago, and was ignored in the same way as well.
