Okay, as I’m what amounts to a complete and utter newbie to the lore of the Matrix, I’m absolutely full of questions.  I’m not sure the questions below are in any special order beyond off the top of my head, but I DID make an attempt to search out the answers from various fan websites and these forums before posting.  So please be gentle if the next thread over explains everything and I somehow missed it.  

1. Mega City is where the current game environment is located obviously, but is it the actual total supposed expanse of the Matrix?  I’m trying to figure out if the Matrix is a global simulation of the entire Earth circa 2100 or just Mega City, with boundaries no one ever questioned for some reason like the movie Dark City.  Or is the whole world simulated, visiting Paris and New York and Moscow is possible, and we just suspend our disbelief as players about not being able to go there for the same reasons we have to in any other game where real estate of the fantasy world is limited by development time and technology?

2. RSI are the visual representation of how our characters perceive themselves, right?  So do they age or change at all based on any changes the operator is undergoing in the real world?  Is that up to the redpill at all, or is the RSI mostly a subconscious manifestation?

3. Once a person becomes a redpill, gets unplugged, and starts jacking back in as an operator for their faction, what changes actually happen where their ability to relate to bluepills and the world they knew is concerned?  The redpill knows the truth, but the bluepill isn’t any wiser.  Is there any reason a redpill couldn’t carry on like normal with bluepills if they desired to?  If they had family and friends, could they still safely carry on with those family and friends if they wanted to?

4. Another question on the same train of thought, what other in-Matrix changes take place for a redpill as far as their former bluepill lives are concerned?  Yesterday, they had a bluepill identity, a job, financial responsibilities, maybe property, and so on.  Today they’re awakened to the truth and living on a hovercraft.  Do they still have access to all that stuff in the Matrix if they desired?  Are the changes forced on them by their new status in the Matrix or is it just usually by choice?

5. Once again on the same track, without understanding all the details of the current state of affairs, what is the general idea of what each faction is generally working toward?  What is the general view of each major faction toward the Matrix and how it should be interacted with or even lived in by their redpills?  It occurs to me that a hovercraft crew might be annoyed by a crew member that wants to jack in and hold onto parts of their old life, because that is just wasted time taken away from furthering the mission of the faction.  Or maybe not? 

6. I saw a reference somewhere to a place called Abaddon?  It seemed to infer that it might be some kind of Merovingian follower’s holding in the real world?  Like New Zion, but for Merovingian types?

7. I’ve seen a thread or two about where non-Zionist redpills live outside of the Matrix, with a suggestion that the Machinists might live in barracks outside the Machine City, but there wasn’t much about where the Merovingians might live beyond their hovercrafts.  I guess a Merovingian aligned hovercraft visiting New Zion is out of the question too, right?

8. My vague recollection was that if you die in the Matrix, you die in real life on the hovercraft too.  What is the explanation for why our redpills survive defeat and are able to come back?

That’s probably enough for now, though I’m sure I’ll be back for more.  Thanks so much for any responses and helpful guidance ahead of time!

Welcome to the Matrix Online!

1) I believe that Mega City is the entire Matrix.  It's massive city spanning thousands of miles.  It's my opinion that any memories of leaving the city are fabricated by the Machines. 

2) Your RSI is how you perceive yourself to look.  If you think you're a six foot blonde, then theoretically that's how you'll appear.

3) There are some redpills who have taken a more civillian lifestyle in the Matrix.  The belief is that most people who left the Matrix were socially detached so friends/family wouldn't be likely.

4) I would guess that it's usually by choice.  Most leave and never look back on their former life.

5) Most everyone generally works for "a better future" but methods and perceptions of such a goal varies.  Machinists want peace and mutual coexistence.  Cypherites want to keep everyone plugged in.  EPN and Zion both want everyone freed.  The Merovingian wants to profit from the war and continue to rule the underworld.

6) I'm not aware of such a place though I'm sure Merovingians have some place to take shelter in the Real.

7) Right.

Emergency Jackout Protocol, developed by the late Danielle Wright.  The program initiates your jackout routines when your body is near death.  Essentially when you "die" in the Matrix, you've only reached the borderline created by the EJP.

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My opinions on the answers.

1.

A key element your going to find that overides lore and story is what i call game mechanics versus rp. The matrix itself was a completely digitized version of the world as represented in the first movie when referencing Morpheus as an international terrorist, with websites that featured him in differing languages and differing countires and locations. However to create a game space environment that actually has continents so large and vast it feels like the planet, we'd have to have blizzard backing us - and by that i mean more people playing mxo. The year set in mega city to the generally agreed upon standard is that it is the year 1999 - add on the three years the game has been running if you think that even the blue pill world moves forward so you are looking at 1999-2002. So yes essentially we could go anywhere, but there are limitations in this medium.

2.

You risk walking into a dangerously philosophical realm where in which most answers remain to be seen, but for the most part, the RSI is defined not by belief but rather physical perception - outside of just your sense of space and self which would define your body size, but also truths beyond conceptions like your hair style, or the shape of your hair, the color of your eyes. Different additions can be made, as it can be argued that if we should change our appearence in the matrix, then they become our digital avatars and as such we freely can manipulate them as seperate entities. That being said it would really depend on the individual. For example a patron of RP here (endlessvoid) - his charachters RP is that he has no eyes, as in in the real his eyes would be gone, in the matrix, the digitization of his rsi places eyes in his head, but they are completely black - void of substance - no pun intended. Also scars that you recieved and are wary of would be present on your structure in the matrix.

But then again - we are what we 'know' we are, if one should be dimented, disturbed ect. - and their beliefs about themselves are amiss, one wonders if they would still be animated normally, of if the system would indulge their mental diss-array. But focussing, essentially yes, as long as you know what you look like, and can feel yourself phsyically as in aging - your rsi will also show those signs. A key note to remember though is that it isn't you in the matrix. But i'll stop here before i go on about legs not being necessary to walk.   

3.

Well the transistion to redpill from bluepill is essentially a small representation of a journey to truth and enlightenment - but at the same time it comes to mean different things to different people, that's defined by the individual and their story. However the problem with relating to the bluepills that you once knew in your former life is that you have to explain where you've been and what's happened to you. The problem with this is that the general concept is that when one frees themselves of the matrix, their bluepill self either crumples on sight or dissapears completely.

In the case of one Michael Popper- he'd have to explain to his friends and family how he died but wasn't really dead. For them to bury him as they did, his mind would transcend his digital form thus the husk of his bluepill life is no more, and he is granted a new avatar upon comming back to the matrix. (The kid - leader of EPN). But a lot of this would truly depend on the individual in question, and the circumstances behind their awakening. The interaction with blue pills is defined by their own intelligence and abilities, and more then likely made easier by anyone who becomes self-aware  or rather self substantiation. Also with the lack of truce in place, your knowledge of the truth could make you a threat to those bluepills and many might try and stop you from dealing with them by any means necessary thus completely causing more damage then helping.

4.

It would depend on the situation behind the bluepill, but one must figure if the machines control our lives like essentially they do, when one battery falls out of placel, they fill it with another. When you know too much you become a risk, it was different with the truce as those who wanted out were 'allowed' to leave, but now with the war back on, essentially things should be the same, the moment you begin to know too much the 'government' will come after you as a means of either silencing you or getting back at the ones who are trying to show you the truth behind the matrix. But questions like these are subjective to cases really, and i think the best way to look at it is the redpill is a personal journey, in that regard, it affects everyone differently. And since we write our own charachters, go nuts since no ones going to complain about you being able to go back to work as a redpill when we have vampires, immortals, demons, god modders, munchkins and so much other fun stuff.

5. Subjective based on people as always, but if you want a general idea this is what i think works for it:

Zion - Currently working on security of new zion, their goals are to continue to wage war with the machines with a deeper desire for total human freedom, but while looking to keep their security high they will also do what it takes to get an upper hand against the machines and merovingians.

Machine - Essentially they want complete control of humanity for the sake of peace, they want to keep us under control so that things run more smoothly for all of us and the war can stop, however their cold and effecient ways are highly dissagreeable to many, the same could be said about zions pro-humanity views.

Merv - As always the ones who enjoy the fruits of the matrix and do what they need to do to not only protect their way of life but enrich it fully - by any means necessary. Information is power, and power is what they want.

EPN - Rebuilding old zion as it's a holy place in their eyes, they want to awaken those trapped within the system to aid zion in their war with the machines, they are a splinter org of zion so with the exception of event prizes they freely work together. *chuckle.*

CYPH - A splinter org of the machines they desire to protect and save the bluepills of the matrix by preventing them from being awakened, and harmed by all. Though the leadership they recieve from cryptos keeps this is mind, the actions of veil aren't always so representative of the 'cypherite pro-blue pill' way.

That's orgs in a general perspective though, the people and factions behind those orgs are individuals and define their own views and actions, subjectivity is the name of the game. 

6.

Can't say i know much 'Abaddon', but the generally accepted RP placing is that there are outposts in the real in place for the machinists and merovingians or that the machinists are still plugged into the matrix - though this would completely upset faction and crew mechanics - but that's my opinion. Also with the ability to transgress themselves as exiles into 'shells' in the real it's completely possible. The general had a base in the matrix known as stalingrad but it was 'destroyed' by the machines? Attacked all the same, cleared out of his recruits.

7.

Depends on RP, always will. Before there were two zions, outside of the outpost business i referenced in 6, an accepted view was that there were so many people in zion that the loyalty of all of it's people would be impossible to determine. As in it would be easy to go un-noticed in the walls of zion, and unless you've been 'awakened' by the machines or self-substantiated, my opinion is that we all end up in zion and go our own routes from there, but that had to change when outposts were set up for machines and merovingians now that they too can preform awakenings, though why machinists would is beyond me. Also if a merovingian hovercraft showed up in zion, if they knew of it's alliance the goal would be to more then likely aprehend it's passengers as traitors to humanity and arrest them.

8.

EJP - Emergency Jackout Protocol

A small addition to the technology of ones neural jack in port that essentially makes you jack out or rather jack back to the loading area to prevent death from occuring to the person in the real. Death as a side effect to death has been reduced to the 'death effect' - a debuff that runs on your rsi for i believe 5 minutes post suffering the traumatic experience of death in the matrix.

This of course is a game mechanic over rp because if you make an mmo where the charachter you work so hard on dies for good when it dies people would tear their hair out and eventually stop playing.

Phew, that was a work out, and no doubt someone just beat me to replying in this post so it's not really been a good use of my time. Hope this helped.

~Darminian

Wow, nice answers!

As a newb to the game myself, I very eagerly read through this thread.

Wow, thanks everyone for all the fantastic answers and input!  I’m loving this community here, both ingame and out.

RE: Scope of the Matrix simulation

Darminian jogged my memory a little I think with comments about how Morpheus was an international terrorist in the movies.  I don’t remember exactly those actual scenes but I think that is what I came away from them with years ago as well; the inference that the Matrix was a simulation of the entire planet, just rolled back to 1999 with a restart through the ‘the One’ cycle every unknown number of years. 

I don’t really see any issue with that working that way in the Matrix Online either just because out-of-character game development/technology constraints prevent players from doing that.  You have to deal with the same thing in City of Heroes, for instance.  Just because you can’t technically leave Paragon City with your superhero doesn’t mean the rest of the world isn’t there.

It sounds like an MxO game developer has established that the game doesn’t follow the movie on this though?  Or is it suggested that the various suggestions about Morpheus’ global status are just propaganda from the Machines to further the illusion and emphasize that he’s Public Enemy #1 (or was at the time)?

Hmm, actually…if a problem with the original versions of the Matrix was that they were being rejected by humanity for various failings, maybe that’d be an argument for the idea that the Machines reproduced the whole planet for their simulation.  Having all of the human battery farms plugged into the Matrix located in a single city that no one ever truly leaves seems like it’d make for a lot of opportunities for people to self-substantiate (did I use that term right?).

RE: Bluepill to Redpill transition

Thinking about it after posting, I can definitely see how returning to a job or having any lingering concerns about finances or general property wouldn’t make a lot of sense given the nature of the Matrix and coding things into existence within it.  So it is more the social aspects I’m pondering I guess.  

I’m still a little confused about what you’re all saying about the changes surrounding the transition itself.  I guess I just assumed that our characters were born, grew up, and appeared a certain way as a bluepill.  Then whatever happened that led them to be awakened and become a redpill, and then they still looked just the same physically, just much more stylishly (hee).  It didn’t occur to me that the system might make updates to the simulation to compensate for a pod suddenly being empty though beyond what the bluepills would do on their own.

For instance, because I’m such a complete newbie, it has been easy to roleplay my character Balletic as…well…a pretty clueless newbie.  She has really been groping around in the dark.  I’ve been reluctant to do a lot of character background design or fanfic writing yet until I had a better grasp of what’s really going on so I can color within the lines as much as possible.  So I haven’t really decided a lot of details about her previous life as a bluepill, the extent of her local family and friends, other than she had some that she cared about.  I’ve mentioned an aunt she was close to in game.

My thinking was that it wasn’t necessarily the case that much may have changed for the bluepills she knew.  Say her aunt is her only family and they don’t talk every single day.  So Elle/Balletic doesn’t call for a week (the week since she was awakened and has been stumbling about her new reality), that might not be too great a departure from the norm to raise the aunt’s concerns.  Maybe a week isn’t long enough for a missing person’s report to be filed?  And if it was, what if Elle just suddenly showed up again with a story that she’d been hiking in the mountains or off to a dance convention out of state?  Maybe out of her previous character, sure.  But out of the realm of acceptable possibility, I wouldn’t think so.

I guess I’m trying to establish whether it is believable that she would be able to safely salvage social links to bluepills she was close to without putting them all in danger, or if it was even possible if they think she’s dead now because of some sort of system correction when she was unplugged.  It sounds like there are a fair number of obstacles to consider and brainstorm about.

At the end of the day it's really your call, you seem like you want to be respectful or understanding of rules and concepts which we don't enforce or judge (too harshly.) it's really more about designing your story in the background and playing it out, nothing is the exact same for every person, but it's refreshing change to see someone so concerned with canon as they say.

~Darminian

I don't believe that the MegaCity is all there is to the Matrix.  Aside from the reference of Morpheus being seen at Heathrow, there is a mention in one of the Matrix comics about some redpills traveling to Mexico.

The city may not be the entirety of the Matrix, but I do believe it's where most if not all of the hardlines were placed by the Machines (probably to keep a better eye on the redpills they knew would be using them).

Illyria

I don't believe that the MegaCity is all there is to the Matrix.  Aside from the reference of Morpheus being seen at Heathrow, there is a mention in one of the Matrix comics about some redpills traveling to Mexico.

The city may not be the entirety of the Matrix, but I do believe it's where most if not all of the hardlines were placed by the Machines (probably to keep a better eye on the redpills they knew would be using them).

 

 

Illyria

Illyria22 wrote:

I don't believe that the MegaCity is all there is to the Matrix.  Aside from the reference of Morpheus being seen at Heathrow, there is a mention in one of the Matrix comics about some redpills traveling to Mexico.

The city may not be the entirety of the Matrix, but I do believe it's where most if not all of the hardlines were placed by the Machines (probably to keep a better eye on the redpills they knew would be using them).

 

 

Illyria

And let's not forget the infamous "core network" line from the movies which I always thought of as meaning in the city proper.

But there's also a message from Agent Pace suggesting that an Unlimit who was from Brazil only had memories of being there and that they were artificial. So who knows for sure.

To be honest, unless you "Godmod" (Say you're Neo's cousin/sister/mother/aunt etc) or you pretend to be a 5000 Year Old Lesbian Vampire who "One Shots" mortals, most people will listen to your RP.

Oh and I didn't pull those examples out of my @ss. We have 5000 Year Old Lesbian Vampires. Long story...

Balletic wrote:

1. Mega City is where the current game environment is located obviously, but is it the actual total supposed expanse of the Matrix?  I’m trying to figure out if the Matrix is a global simulation of the entire Earth circa 2100 or just Mega City, with boundaries no one ever questioned for some reason like the movie Dark City.  Or is the whole world simulated, visiting Paris and New York and Moscow is possible, and we just suspend our disbelief as players about not being able to go there for the same reasons we have to in any other game where real estate of the fantasy world is limited by development time and technology?

Adding my own 2$i... There's different takes on whether the Matrix is just the Mega-City, or if there are other, foreign cities in the simulation. My take has been, these cities exist, but the outflow of Redpills made it hard for the Machines to keep those simulated cities up and running, on account of the power drain caused by all the Awakenings. Thus, it's hard to impossible for us as Redpills to access those parts since they're not running as well as they did.

2. RSI are the visual representation of how our characters perceive themselves, right?  So do they age or change at all based on any changes the operator is undergoing in the real world?  Is that up to the redpill at all, or is the RSI mostly a subconscious manifestation?

I personally it's possible that some changes could take place: since the RSI is a manifestation of the person's mental image of themself, it's possible that as the Redpill's level of self-confidence, etc. develops, their mental self-image could also shift. There again, I think it's also likely that the RSI could be different from how their physical body looks: in one of the early Archive Missions (Zion 1.2, I think), a woman who was born as a man in the Matrix is mentioned, and the running theory is that this refers to Switch, the androgynous blonde woman in the first movie. I've also played that Sieges's physical self is three inches shorter than her RSI.

3. Once a person becomes a redpill, gets unplugged, and starts jacking back in as an operator for their faction, what changes actually happen where their ability to relate to bluepills and the world they knew is concerned?  The redpill knows the truth, but the bluepill isn’t any wiser.  Is there any reason a redpill couldn’t carry on like normal with bluepills if they desired to?  If they had family and friends, could they still safely carry on with those family and friends if they wanted to?

It's possible: there's even a few "retired" Redpill NPCs who show up in the storyline, including Danielle Wright, the inventor of the EJP and who also helped develop a different grade of the Red Pill, in an effort to make it harder for the Machines to trace an Awakening; Grace, the mission contact in Akasaka, who was involved with an Exile named Long; and Naomi "Madame T" Tarasova, the mission contact in the Historic District, who claims to have Oracle-like powers of intuition. However, given the edgy nature of the Matrix, it's somewhat inadvisable for a Redpill to become too involved with their Bluepill relatives and friends, since this could twig the System to trace the Redpill.

4. Another question on the same train of thought, what other in-Matrix changes take place for a redpill as far as their former bluepill lives are concerned?  Yesterday, they had a bluepill identity, a job, financial responsibilities, maybe property, and so on.  Today they’re awakened to the truth and living on a hovercraft.  Do they still have access to all that stuff in the Matrix if they desired?  Are the changes forced on them by their new status in the Matrix or is it just usually by choice?

It may be possible, but I consider it inadvisable, mostly becase I have a feeling this could cause some mental whiplash for their friends/family/co-workers. The System has probably pronounced the Redpill either missing or dead and law enforcement has been duly instructed to inform them accordingly.

5. Once again on the same track, without understanding all the details of the current state of affairs, what is the general idea of what each faction is generally working toward?  What is the general view of each major faction toward the Matrix and how it should be interacted with or even lived in by their redpills?  It occurs to me that a hovercraft crew might be annoyed by a crew member that wants to jack in and hold onto parts of their old life, because that is just wasted time taken away from furthering the mission of the faction.  Or maybe not? 

Bolding mine. I think it depends on the organization: Zionites might consider such behavior suspect, while the Machinists or the Merovingians might simply shrug it off, though I think the Machinists would consider it a bit odd and inefficient, but I could be wrong.

6. I saw a reference somewhere to a place called Abaddon?  It seemed to infer that it might be some kind of Merovingian follower’s holding in the real world?  Like New Zion, but for Merovingian types?

Abaddon is/was a Merovingian city created by folks on the Syntax instance, but to my knowlege, most Merv players either gypsy around in their own pirate-like hovercrafts, or they've devised small outposts in the Real. The Devil's Advocates maintain Outpost Styx, and Le Prieure de Merovingien/The Connection has Outpost Segur, built over the now-restored ruins of the southern French village of Rennes-le-Chateau.

7. I’ve seen a thread or two about where non-Zionist redpills live outside of the Matrix, with a suggestion that the Machinists might live in barracks outside the Machine City, but there wasn’t much about where the Merovingians might live beyond their hovercrafts.  I guess a Merovingian aligned hovercraft visiting New Zion is out of the question too, right?

Yeaaaaah, I don't think that's likely to happen, but I could be wrong. 

Archangel wrote:

Illyria22 wrote:

I don't believe that the MegaCity is all there is to the Matrix.  Aside from the reference of Morpheus being seen at Heathrow, there is a mention in one of the Matrix comics about some redpills traveling to Mexico.

The city may not be the entirety of the Matrix, but I do believe it's where most if not all of the hardlines were placed by the Machines (probably to keep a better eye on the redpills they knew would be using them).

 

 

Illyria

And let's not forget the infamous "core network" line from the movies which I always thought of as meaning in the city proper.

But there's also a message from Agent Pace suggesting that an Unlimit who was from Brazil only had memories of being there and that they were artificial. So who knows for sure.

The only odd thing is that if Morpheus was an international terrorist inside the Matrix, causing trouble for the Machines on a global scale, then isn't that proof that the Matrix does indeed extend beyond the city we're limited to in the game (keeping in mind that if this is the case, that we're limited to it for game design reasons and not fantasy of the game world reasons in the same way you can't leave Paragon City to visit Los Angeles in the MMO City of Heroes)? 

My reasoning there is that Morpheus was operating from outside of the Matrix at the point that he's being slandered as an international terrorist right?  So he and his crew mates would be fully aware of where he is actually visiting inside the Matrix simulation while jacked in.