The dozen volunteers looked at the kit they were given. Sets of glasses and what looked like a laser tag setup, chestplates and plastic blasters.
"This is all a very early proof of concept here of course, but we have plans for more elaborate equipment for the future. What we envision is a combination of augmented reality technology, and use of hypnotic suggestions to create a unique physical gaming experience," one of the testers said.
"So how does it work?" One woman asked.
"First you will all put on your glasses, and then a five minute induction program will commence. It will place the players in a state of hypnotic trance, and then give them the rules of the game. This test is a simple freeze tag game. We'll try different team sizes and also a free for all."
"So what, we get hit we stay still? Why's that need augmented reality and hypnosis?" A male volunteer asked.
"The AR is for visual effects and eventually for NPC enemies and such once we get more advanced with development. And the hypnosis is to ensure you stay still. We'll try a free for all first to make sure it all works..."
Five minutes or so later, the twelve players moved out around the arena, the simple plywood walls and barricades transformed by the glasses to seem like the interior of a spaceship. And then the game began.
The plastic blasters buzzed and zapped as the twelve players began their first fight. The man who had spoke up before was hit and found that he simply couldn't move at all, his glasses simply telling him he was frozen for the next thirty seconds counting down.
And with the glasses, other players saw him standing there stiff inside a block of ice that existed only through the eyes of the augmented reality devices. Without them, the players simply stood statue still.
The same thing happened to other players, hypnosis ensuring that they were literally frozen in place by their hits, and soon enough the arena was a small gallery of living statues (or ice cubes through the glasses), some 'thawing out' and having ten seconds immunity from further hits, but their own weapon useless for that time as well.
"Seems to be going well enough," one of the developers said.
"Yeah. Here's hoping that when we try out the status effects with the RPG game they work just as well."
The plan there was to allow visual debuffs and buffs through AR. Petrified players turning grey, players turned to frogs seen as hopping shapes while they croaked and ribbeted, moving slowly and fighting weaker, players hypnotically aiming better with an accuracy booster, and so on. The development team had many ideas on how to enhance the games through the aid of hypnosis....