Heh! This is actually an area of the setting that I hadn't given much thought to. Virtual reality definitely exists, and the full-immersion spelljacks make it very believable. Monsters that exist as programs couldn't get into the real world, but it's possible that some sorts of ethereal beings might be able to get into the game. Could be a good premise for a fan-fic!

I wonder what settings folks would use to play MMO's in Metamor City.  I imagine galactic-scale science fiction would be popular, as what we consider "fantasy" would be more like "history" to them.

Maybe their fantasy is the world without magic, kinda more like our world. As far as historical based games it'd be kinda like going back to Metamor Keep. O_o I wanna play the Metamor version of Civilation.

etherius why couldn't the monster exist in the real world I mean, it wouldn't have a body, I mean sure, the monster is just code. But well that code is running it would be essentially an impulse so if it was done right. Well the person is Jack into the game all the monster would have to do is find the path to the brain and try and reside there

True A.I. doesn't exist in the world of Metamor City; manufactured things can't develop the spark of sentience on their own. To make a construct "alive" -- whether it's a program or a machine -- you have to bind it to a pre-existing source of intelligence.

The SPECTIR that Brian encountered in Viscount's security system was an example of this: a computer program bound to an elemental spirit of air. The clockwork constructs of the old Suielman Empire were another example: their mages would build a machine and then bring it to life by binding the soul of an animal to it.

The monsters in a VR game aren't sentient; they're just complex computer programs that mimic lifelike behavior within the context of the game. They don't have any will or self-awareness, and they can't grow beyond their programming, so they could never leave the game by getting into someone's head. Their software is only meaningful within the context of the simulation in which they're running, and the human brain doesn't have the capacity to "run" that program without the server on which the VR game is being played.

etheruis that is true but say you need to cause damage and you dont care who gets hurt. cause that would be better
so real all you would need is
1. coder
2. doctor ( neurological) 
3. magic user (real strong one )

the coder code the monster and use the doctors knowledge on how the brain works to get it there and to tell the monster to look for the right lines for say sight and stuff and you magic user to cast a spell on the program well its running to keep it running no matter what

I know that this thing could not learn but still that is one way I see it could be done.

give me a day or 2 to real think about it I could most likely come up with a better lay out

Perhaps something like the thing in Troubled Minds mimicing a monster within a game. Some sort of psycological infection that convinces a person they are still in the game or forces their own personality into dormancy while the creature steers.

Another way possibly is someone trying to bind something into the software like the air spirit, but using too powerful a spirit, causing the spirit to be in the software but not necessarily as restricted as the programer had wanted.

> Another way possibly is someone trying to bind something into
> the
software like the air spirit, but using too powerful a spirit,
> causing
the spirit to be in the software but not necessarily as
> restricted as
the programer had wanted.

Ooh, I like that idea. :)

that is a real real cool idea

The real question then is what would such a thing get up to? It wouldn't necessarily have to be destructive, although that would still be a fun route to take it. The whole idea kind of reminds me of the leviathan lose on the internet in Spirits in the Wires.

it could be used to pass on info or even make someone think there going off the deepend

@cerberus
etheruis that is true but say you need to cause damage and you dont care who gets hurt. cause that would be better
so real all you would need is
1. coder
2. doctor ( neurological) 
3. magic user (real strong one )

If you didn't care about who you hurt there are easier (and cheaper) ways to go about things.
Such an approach would make more sense where you had a specific target in mind, but couldn't easily get close to him/her with a bomb or a gunman.