Worldbuilding is about making places and people! Whether you worldbuild to write, for an RPG, or just for fun, welcome!
A different take on cyberspace?
A little background here. This world combines elements of cyberpunk, biopunk, and solarpunk - but without any of the dystopian elements of cyberpunk. The point of divergence is the late 19th century, where the solar machine caught on quickly. So the solar came first, then the bio (including cloning), then finally cyber. All wars from WW1 up have been averted in this setting, and all government-controlled states have become decentralized communities.
Anyway, I guess this is another worldbuilding-inside-of-worldbuilding post. What could we could take our favourite fictional settings, and simulate them in the cyberscape?
I figured that, in the cyber/bio/solar universe, the Nintendo company from Japan would get into the video gaming industry about four decades prior - including the much popular Mario and Zelda franchises. So, by the time cyberspace is finalized in the early 1980s, I can see Nintendo being one of the major first adopters to create Mushroom Kingdom and Hyrule on the cyberscape - without it being overrun by villains, of course!
Let’s face it! Both Mushroom Kingdom and Hyrule would be very interesting places to visit. Of course, not only would it be morally unethical to attempt to create cyber versions of Bowser and Ganon - but I think there would be limitations altogether with determining the exact personalities of cyber folk. Even if you could create a starting/background point for cyber folk - ultimately, once the cyber folk gain sentience, they would go on to develop their own personalities and quirks. After all, I’m a firm believer of free will for everyone!
I was also thinking of how “augmented reality” would work with this setting. Pokemon is yet another popular Nintendo franchise, even if it’s somewhat newer than Mario and Zelda. In this setting, I think Nintendo would maybe do Pokemon GO in reverse. Instead of the Pokemon setting being a fantasy world like Mushroom Kingdom or Hyrule, they would maybe overlay the Pokemon society over the “real world” - a la Google Maps. The exterior and interior of most places would be much the same as in “reality” - but the inside furnishings wouldn’t necessarily match. If you set the VR setting to Pokemon, when you fall asleep - you would “wake up” in what looks like your bedroom, but you would instantly notice that the surrounding are quite different. Poke buddies would typically be the Pokemon folk that share your residence in Augmented Poke World.
One major issue with it, of course, is that Pokemon wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea - and many might be unnerved by the idea of “sharing” their residence with a Pokemon, even if it’s in a different dimension. This would certainly raise a lot of questions and queries about the “fourth dimension”.




The part of this sort of idea that interests me is, how would the world be different with truly convincing cyberspace/vr introduced.
What we have now is just starting to hint at that, but if you look at how people already lose track of the real world and sink days, months, years into online gaming and entertainment, you can easily extrapolate how all encompassing it may become.
What will happen to the world outside of the virtual? Will it collapse? Will it flourish? So many options you can explore.
Adding in augmented, and you can get some great stuff as well. Mostly I’ve seen darker portraits of the possibilities, but recently was thinking how awesome it could be. Everyone could live in what appeared to be royal level accommodations, with windows out to the alps and dynamic full time virtual luxury projected into their augmented perception. Sure it’s not physical, but once you got past our ingrained aversion to that, it might not matter. People could be genuinely happy to have a virtual embellishment on top of their daily lives.
So is your world the cyber world? At some point, characters might need to tend to bodily and/or mechanical needs, do you have a way to handle that in story? If not, it may be better to stick to your previous idea of worlds split by dreaming levels.