Some of you may already know about Versu, [1] the nifty text-based social simulator created by Emily Short, Richard Evans, and many other fine folks at Linden Lab. Now, I’m proud to officially announce that over the last few months, I had the chance to work on a couple of new stories for the platform, which have now been released: “Office Politics: The Interview”, and “Office Politics: The Party”.
With the initial content of Versu taking place in a Jane Austen-esque Regency England setting, I wanted to create some stories set in the present day. I found the choice of a modern-day high-tech office to be ideal to write for in this system, because of all the meticulous social rules and procedures involved in a corporate setting. I also thought it would be a great excuse for characters of varying ages, backgrounds, and beliefs to come together and clash with one another in interesting and sometimes comedic ways.
Some of the folks you’ll meet in these stories are as follows:
- Dave, the overly-friendly boss who really wants to be liked and respected
- Alice, the snarky feminist graphic designer who wishes she could just make art
- Patrick, the former frat boy who thinks he’s way better with the ladies than he actually is
- Jordan, the keener fresh out of business school
- Linus, the quiet senior programmer who resents all the constant distractions from his real work
- Storm, the ambiguously-gendered die-hard fan of the hit TV series, Professor Whatever
Also written in the same universe is “Jamey Beanman’s Burrito Quest”, a short interactive fiction game in which you play a young pop star who must go out and get a bite to eat without being seen by the paparazzi. It runs on the web in dio, another shared space created by Linden Lab. You can check it out here.
Footnotes:
- Currently only available for iPad 2 and above. ↩
