Omnitopia Dawn
May. 31st, 2011 12:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doranwenSo I read Omnitopia Dawn, by Diane Duane, last night. I'm not a gamer but I found it very fascinating--if this software/hardware existed, I would totally go in to just have fun with things on the non-battle side, lol. If you play MMORPGs or anything of the like, or have an interest in hacking in some way, you definitely should read it. Very interesting.
And just because I had so much fun reading, here's a short passage that cracked me up:
Dev stood there a moment and took in the newest evidence that his shuntspace crowd was a law unto itself. Keeping the naughtier Omnitopia players in the dark and well fed with manure byproducts often wore on them. As a result they tended to act up, or out, in ways that other Omnitopia employees didn't, so discovering that they had erected a triumphal arch at the gateway to their virtual space was merely a matter for amusement. It really was a spectacular construction, pure white marble, intricately carved, and five hundred feet high at least. Across its great lintel was graven in very perfect Trajan Roman letters the first part of the ancient warning:
FACILE DESCENSUS AVERNO
"It's easy to get down into Hell . . ." Dev chuckled to himself, realizing they were reminding him of another, older joke. He walked forward under the triumphal arch, toward the portico leading to the main door of the Palace. Above the door was the space in which some wit three years ago had written (in beautifully drafted archaic Latin) that other famous Dantean quote, ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE. Having seen this apparition and been reduced to guffaws on the morning it turned up, Dev had Frank send the building maintenance guys around to formally incorporate the writing into the arch. However, his jokey threat to make the inhabitants of the palace pay for the alteration had resulted in six hundred sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents’ worth of nickels and dimes (and six pennies) being dumped on the lawn outside Castle Dev by a private contractor who found himself unable to identify the culprits because they had also paid him in nickels and dimes (and six pennies). All Dev could do then was have Frank arrange for a cleanup crew, find out which of the city’s charities was best set up to deal with vast numbers of nickels and dimes (it turned out to be the Archdiocese of Phoenix), and make a note to schedule all the shuntspace management for salary reviews.
*snicker*
And just because I had so much fun reading, here's a short passage that cracked me up:
Dev stood there a moment and took in the newest evidence that his shuntspace crowd was a law unto itself. Keeping the naughtier Omnitopia players in the dark and well fed with manure byproducts often wore on them. As a result they tended to act up, or out, in ways that other Omnitopia employees didn't, so discovering that they had erected a triumphal arch at the gateway to their virtual space was merely a matter for amusement. It really was a spectacular construction, pure white marble, intricately carved, and five hundred feet high at least. Across its great lintel was graven in very perfect Trajan Roman letters the first part of the ancient warning:
FACILE DESCENSUS AVERNO
"It's easy to get down into Hell . . ." Dev chuckled to himself, realizing they were reminding him of another, older joke. He walked forward under the triumphal arch, toward the portico leading to the main door of the Palace. Above the door was the space in which some wit three years ago had written (in beautifully drafted archaic Latin) that other famous Dantean quote, ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE. Having seen this apparition and been reduced to guffaws on the morning it turned up, Dev had Frank send the building maintenance guys around to formally incorporate the writing into the arch. However, his jokey threat to make the inhabitants of the palace pay for the alteration had resulted in six hundred sixty-six dollars and sixty-six cents’ worth of nickels and dimes (and six pennies) being dumped on the lawn outside Castle Dev by a private contractor who found himself unable to identify the culprits because they had also paid him in nickels and dimes (and six pennies). All Dev could do then was have Frank arrange for a cleanup crew, find out which of the city’s charities was best set up to deal with vast numbers of nickels and dimes (it turned out to be the Archdiocese of Phoenix), and make a note to schedule all the shuntspace management for salary reviews.
*snicker*
