The Internet is full. Go home. — poster for benicetobears.com
This is a book about being there.
Where is “there,” exactly? That’s simple. It’s neither where you are nor where I am. It’s where we are together.
Take this example: You and I talk on the phone. We may be at opposite ends of the country, but for all intents and purposes, we’re in the same room. That room does not exist in our “material” reality, but nevertheless, we are there. We can hear each other clearly. With effort, we can practically sense each other’s presence. In material terms, though, we are not in the same room. We’re here, not there.
You and I can’t step into that room. We may be aware of it, but we can’t enter it physically — yet.
Some people can.
This is a book about those people, that room, and the stories that take place in there.

Reality 2.0

The meat is rotting. That’s no big surprise to anyone. For the last three decades, the Virtual Adepts have been trying to prepare a place online for humanity (or at least the good parts of it) to move when the vultures finally feast. In their comer: the wild idealists of the Etheric Cybernautical Society, and a few clueful mortals. Against them: The Technocracy (would-be CEOs of Creation, who were none too pleased with the merger between the Virtual Adepts and the Traditions), a few random elements like Neffies and Mad Ballz, and a horde of clueless mortals. The ring: a new, essentially free Zone, a Noah’s Ark for the future of humanity. The rules: what rules?
Well, on reflection, everyone noticed one really big rule: Don’t crash the Net. As the contestants for Reality 2.0 soon discovered, large or violent shifts in the strands of the Web cause the whole area to shut down. At best, a so-called “Whiteout” kicks Webspinners offline in a hurry. At worst, it can kill.
On November 10, 1997, it killed — a lot.
For three eternal seconds, it all went away. Every connection between RealSpace and Webspace was shattered by a gargantuan wave of pure White. When things came back online, dozens were dead, hundreds were dazed, crazy or catatonic, and decades of formatting had been undone or corrupted. In the mortal world, screens went blank, networks froze and data disappeared. In the deeper, more magickal levels of the Web, the damage was far more severe.

Now the rebooting begins.

One additional complication: Although both the Adepts and the Technocrats planned to eventually bring “normal” humans online to share their new paradise, no one anticipated the sudden explosion of Net-mania… or the traffic that would come with it. With very little help from Awakened conspirators, the “sheep” turned the Net inside-out practically overnight. The “Information Boom” of the ’90s has turned an Elite playground into all that is best and worst about humanity. Even worse (to some views), the new technology, perceptions and creativity that came with the Boom blurred the lines between Sleepers and the
Awakened to such a degree that even the magi are often confused. Once again, the vaunted Awakened and Enlightened Ones have underestimated the so-called “Sleepers.” Reality 2.0 has just grown far more complicated than anyone was prepared to handle.
Welcome to the Net, heebo. The future is now!
How To RTFM
For the most part, Digital Web 2.0 is presented “in character” — that is, through the eyes of its masters, the Virtual Adepts.
SITE I: UNCLE TOAD’S NET TOUR offers a guided trip through the important parts and parties
of the modern Net.
SITE 2: LIFE ONLINE dives headlong
into the societies, manners and particulars of spinner life.
SITE 3; SECTORS AND AVATARS takes you into the Spy’s Demise, passing by other important sites and legends as you go.
SITE 4: ADMINISTRATION goes into gamespeak, offering Storytellers a host of hints about Web-based chronicles.
SITE 5: PROGRAMMING SYSTEMS offers the rules of the game and a plethora of toys, and
SITE 6: RUNNING IN THE REAL WEB rounds the book out with details about online gaming.
What’re you waiting for? Armageddon? I’ve seen it, and the movie blows.
Point and click..

Related posts:

1. Fragile Path Testaments of the First Cabal
2. The Book of Chantries