In the Southeast was the Orc lands that had a rough population of six and a half percent, and the Southwest belonged to the Dark Elves at about eight percent.
That was almost an identical split of 14.5% for the tips of the continent, kind of strange but it made sense when you considered the development of the areas. Mostly the fact that their starter zones weren't the highest rated.
The Middle Kingdoms had the most developed starter zones and a mix of three races; needless to say it was the best place to start. In the Central-Western kingdoms, Humans ruled the majority of the land at roughly 34% of the server's population.
The Central-Eastern kingdoms were split into two racial groups, the northern portion was the Wood Elf region and the southern portion belonged to the Animal-races. The Wood Elves were about 7% in population number, leaving the other 30% to be made up of a variety of Animal-races.
Those Animal-races were humanoids with animal-ears and tails... and there were basically dozens of types from the popular cats, dogs, foxes, and rabbits to the less common cow, wolf, raccoon, sheep, and many more. Though it didn't fit the normal Medieval-fantasy theme it was pretty much ingrained in popular culture and was considered a must-have at this point.
This was more Fantasy-medieval really.
As I was thinking over the large discrepancy the speaker asked the crowd what their opinions on the matter were. Why weren't the Northern and Southern parts of the continent a popular destination?
I had an opinion but kept it to myself as a few people voiced theirs.
The conversation went on and everything was reasonable but it soon got stale. Seeing as the players were basically just reiterating what was already stated, the discussion had become circular in nature. The lack of intelligence in this room was rather astounding… and they considered themselves the cream of the crop.
I just silently shook my head from side to side as other players voiced the same opinions with slightly different words.
I couldn't help but sigh.
"Is everything alright?" the girl to my right had turned and asked.
Oh, oops.
"Ah, sorry everything is fine. I was just thinking that they were all repeating each other."
I needed to be a little more careful, but I was more surprised that she could hear me sighing; I could barely hear myself doing it after all. She let a small smile creep up on her face as she replied, "Ah, yes. I agree. What is your opinion on the matter?"
She had a very nice, clear voice and a slight English accent; I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little more attracted to her because of it.
And here I am starting the most boring conversation ever, way to score mate. I gave a second of pause to rethink my stance then said to myself, what the hell.
I'll just speak my mind.
"I think people are just afraid to think outside the box, honestly. As soon as areas were labeled as inferior by the figureheads and all of those streamers, everyone started to avoid them like a plague. They aren't as bad as people make them out to be… there are benefits."
Having made my point, I secretly hoped that she would take to it well. There was nothing worse than starting a conversation with a girl you were attracted to, only for it to fail within the second reply, at least in my mind.
She took a moment to reply but when she did I sighed with relief in my head so as not to disturb her, "Mm. And what are these benefits?" Ah… she had a smile on her face; I suppose this is her being coy.
"I would probably rank the lack of competition as the number one thing. If I let myself get into any more detail though, I'm afraid you might fall asleep."
She let out a light laugh and with that slight smile of hers replied in-kind, "Is that so? Maybe I would have found it interesting. That's a shame, but I'll trust your opinion of your opinions."
Ah, that didn't go over so well.
Read that situation wrong.
Chapter 9: AnB Meeting Plus One
(Saturday, January 9th Real Day)
There was a long period of silence between the blind girl to my left and me, but it couldn't be helped as the conversation had suffered a swift death. So, without anything better to do I started to think of conversation topics to attempt a restart.
But then the presenter on stage asked a question that I couldn't quite ignore, "Are there any opinions as to why the Northwestern region would be an unpopular destination?" On this subject I was basically the reigning expert, by my own admission.
But I kept quiet.
I disliked answering questions first and preferred to let others make an attempt at conjecture. If they're reasonably close I don't get involved but if they're all way off base then I'll usually try to rectify the situation.
The first few people to raise their hands were all called on in order: "I believe the main issue is the distance between villages and society in general, it's sparsely populated as well.", "There are a lack of proficiency trainers in the far north, it's essentially void of all but poor hunter-gatherer type NPCs.", "The weather and environment are significantly worse than other locations.", "The economy is terrible.", "There aren't a lot of quests available.", "The landscape is almost like a frozen tundra for a quarter of the year.", "It's too far from the center of the continent, where all the important quest chains are."
They were all sound arguments; I didn't necessarily disagree with any of it.
The researcher continued, "Yes, those are all valid complaints. Now does anyone have an opinion on why you think the Northwest is a good destination?"
Hah, crickets.
If you were decent at reading people's body behavior and speech, you could tell that the presenter was disappointed by the negative opinions as they were all very common responses.
They were all valid, but they had been repeated hundreds of times over by the Alpha and Beta testers over the past year, I'm sure she was tired of hearing it by now.
"Is there really no positive to living in the Northwest? No one? Anyone?" …poor gal, I had no interest in sharing the positives, it was my domain!
And then a hand was silently raised, all the way in the back. The back row, first seat from the door; the one occupied by a mysterious girl with sunglasses.
The presenter was looking dejected until she finally saw the hand that was raised, then her mood suddenly chippered up as she excitedly said, "Yes, the miss all the way in the back."
After being called on she had lowered her hand and waited a moment to be sure that no one else had started talking, in that moment I almost wanted to tell her it was her turn.
But she was more than competent and I didn't want to take that away from her.
A moment of silence had passed until she had come to the conclusion that it was her turn, "I feel one of the greatest attractions of the North lies in its isolation. There is beauty in the calmness of the forest, the flow of the rivers, the rising mountain peaks with their white caps that litter the land.
"The solace that you find when you walk a dozen miles and are alone except for the birds and animals that might wander near. To be able to enjoy the peace and serenity of nature undisturbed, I find that one of the most compelling reasons to start in the North."
She definitely understood the niceties of the North; an intelligent beauty such as she is more than welcome to enter my domain.
I turned my face away from her and found roughly a quarter of the room staring back at her, scoffing at the notion of enjoying the virtual reality for what it was. These people had misunderstood the concept of virtual reality; there was more to it than just playing a video game and slaying monsters and fellow humans alike.
There was a sense of reality, a realness that could nearly reach the level of true reality. And in that, a person could come to experience the many things they could not in real life. That was one of the true goals of virtual reality, a place where one could experience the fantasy that they lacked in real life.