The City

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The first district of The Digital Realm, the City is unique in that it was primarily planned and built out by OI before AI existed and were able to take over construction of The Digital Realm themselves. Modeled after Parvenu’s own city structure but brought into the new age as if the city had been able to be built from scratch again, it is a site to behold, and considered a wonderful virtual vacation spot by OI in The Physical Realm.

History

The City was originally a location intended for Players when the Digital Realm was created. It was densely populated compared to the rest of the Digital Realm, and acted like a starting town in an MMO, where many Players would gather. As AI gained sentience, the City became less populated with Players, especially with the rise of AI rights and the creation of AIER causing a discomforting rift between the groups.

While it’s never bounced back to anywhere near the original number of players, as time has gone on The Digital Realm has remained available for them to explore. Hubs exist in The City for players to spawn into and congregate around, as it is the most common entry point into the realm.

With the focus shifted to its primary residents being AI, many buildings were rebuilt, or repurposed for more day to day AI activities, which ultimately lead to the city having a much more lively feel to it than it ever did before.

Government

The City has an elected Mayor who runs most of the day to day concerns of the city, alongside a team of people hired to help organize and administer the city's affairs for various purposes.

One of the Digital Realm’s council members represent The City, and they are expected to coordinate with the office of the Mayor in the process of making decisions on behalf of The City

Culture

When the Digital Realm was first created, it was populated by Digital Voice Characters (DVC) controlled by players. With so much interest in the unique voices created for the DVC, a natural music scene rose around them - from more karaoke style settings to full on music festivals.

This tradition continues even if DVC are of the past, and the city plays host to many idol’s, musicians, and concerts on a regular basis. The largest of which is known as Howlfest, a large music festival that has been around since before DVC were discontinued. These days, Howlfest celebrates the universal language of music, and is a gentle nod to far more humble beginnings.

While Howlfest may be the biggest, there are many other music festival, block parties, art galleries, and craft fairs held throughout the year that really bring life to the city nearly every day of the year. This constant activity may of course not be always amenable to every AW0005 and so many find themselves much happier living in Home Residence.

City Planning

The City was first built from outside of The Digital Realm, with OI developing the blueprints and architecture more traditionally first, and then using 3D modeling software. Parvenu’s own civil engineers were brought onto the project by Jason in order to make the City feel as realistic as possible, and this led to its similarities to the Physical Realm city. Every building, tree, and street sign was painstakingly crafted through the modeling software, up until AW0005™ was able to create custom built-in sculpting software to use from within the Digital Realm, that allowed for greater freedom, and greater quality of models.

With the upgrade in processing capability and the ability to actually be present within the Realm, AW0005™ software allowed OI engineers to continue the process in a much simpler fashion, and eventually AI engineers would take over from there. This difference in technology, though, lead to an interesting phenomenon known as The Buffer, where traveling from the original, older parts of The City to the newer areas (and vice-versa), the difference in polygonal quality between the structures can be noticed, albeit only very subtly, creating a disconcerting feeling not dissimilar to a liminal space, or a feeling of brain lag.

As a Place To Live

While at one time the city was the primary residence for all AI, it’s space is limited, and once Home Residence was created, living in the city came to require an additional expense for AW0005 that lived within it. For those that can afford to live in The City, homes are available across a spectrum of sizes and locations - for a similar spectrum of prices.

Living in the city means having an acceptance of it’s always alive culture - noise complaints that would be heard in Home Residence would be laughed at here, and many of its residents are there to work and live in the city to reduce the commute in.