ReBoot

Professor WhizzyWig here, writer of the Arrival pitch. Before we get down to doing the V2, I figured I would share some of my notes from the workbook I used to create Arrival. Here's an entry on Corrupted Programs, a concept that didn't make it into the final pitch (because there wasn't room). Many of the concepts I mention in here have changed (aliens, "other Nets," etc). Don't get hung up on them. :)

CORRUPTED PROGRAMS

When sprites manage to slip by the upload portal (just as the heroes did using the NullFire) Gnosis constantly works to delete them. If he cannot achieve deletion, Gnosis captures them, imprisons them, and reprograms them. Bob and the heroes refer to these unfortunate sprites as Corrupted Programs.

Corrupted Programs are essentially sprites that have "gone bad." In addition to brainwashing them into recognizing Gnosis as their leader, Gnosis uses the Corrupted Programs as his own elite mercenary guild. The heroes never know if a new sprite they meet has been corrupted, though usually some small sign unveils them.

Just as with the Avatars, Corrupted Programs are prone to erroneous behaviour. Though Gnosis is a prolific programmer, his codes are rarely "clean," resulting in unstable and buggy programs. Corrupted Programs usually start off with clean codes, so Corrupted Programs' errors don't stand out as strongly as Avatars'.

Many individual Corrupted Programs will become regular enemies of the heroes.

Anyone like the sound of that idea?