Virtual world

An interface allowing access to the Virtual world.

The Virtual world (or V-world) was a realm experienced by holoband users in the Twelve Colonies prior to the First Cylon War. V-world allowed access to a wide variety of landscapes, games, and activities - all digitally created constructs.

Overview

The datastream comprising the structure of the Virtual world.

In the years before the Fall, "holobanding" was a popular pass time on the Twelve Worlds. Developed by Graystone Industries of Caprica, holobands were the conduit through which users gained access to the Virtual world - a digital construct where users' avatars were able to access a myriad of licensed material. The pornography sites were the first to license holoband technology, creating virtual scenarios and locations where sexual activities could take place, free of real world concerns such as disease, pregnancy or even fatigue (CAP: "Pilot", "The Imperfections of Memory").

Holo cafes arose in places like Caprica City where users could access the Virtual world in restaurant or coffee shop like settings which boasted unlimited bandwidth, multi-port access, planetary interaction and appealing credit terms (CAP: "Gravedancing", "Know Thy Enemy"). [1]

Out of the technology, underground sites arose, in which users hacked the holoband code to create meeting places and games such as the "V-Club" and New Cap City. Users caught accessing hacked sites were subject to criminal fines under Caprican law of up to 352 cubits (CAP: "Pilot", "Gravedancing", "There is Another Sky", "Know Thy Enemy").

The Virtual world - primarily its pornographic and illegally hacked sites - were attributed to a moral decline in Colonies by certain pundits, including Baxter Sarno. Groups, such as the monotheist terror organization Soldiers of the One also objected to the Virtual world, targeting holo cafes in Caprica City (CAP: "Gravedancing", "Know Thy Enemy", "False Labor").

Licensed Sites

Virtual Graystone Industries

The Virtual Graystone Industries welcome scenario and menu options.

Initial access to the Virtual world from Graystone Industries' holobands included a welcome scenario in which holoband inventor Daniel Graystone introduces the user to the menu system. This scenario takes place in "Virtual Graystone Industries", a digital recreation of the company's Caprica City campus. Though the likeness to Graystone was generally convincing, of his virtual counterpart, Daniel Graystone said it was "not even well rendered" and feared it would frighten small children (CAP: "Know Thy Enemy", "False Labor").

Among the suggested virtual locales accessible from the menu were "The Seas of Sand" on Gemenon, Golf, and Caprican Nightlife. The illegally hacked sites were not accessible from the menu system (CAP: "Know Thy Enemy").

The Virtual Graystone Industries bore a strong resemblance to the interior hallways of the Cylon baseship seen in Battlestar Galactica, with datastream graphics appearing in a stripe along one wall.

V-Match Sites

Tandem flying in V-world's Viper Flight Simulator.

V-Match, an online social networking and dating site, provided access to virtual activities and dates for holobanders. Among those accessible from the V-Match site were a V-Club Pass, Dinner Cruise, Flight Simulator, Message for Two, Hiking, Beach Picnic and more... (CAP: "The Imperfections of Memory").

It's not clear how V-Match, a seemingly legitimate social networking site, allowed Philomon and "Rachel" to access the V-Club from its website as the pilot episode of Caprica established it as an illegal hacked site.

Flight Simulator

The virtual Flight Simulator allowed users the opportunity fly real world-accurate atmospheric Viper jets. Though piloting skills were required for the simulation, users could simply tweak their avatar's skill sets in order to become Viper pilots. Still, the simulation - set over oil rigs in a Caprican sea - even depicted accidents and crashes, though with no fatalities (CAP: "The Imperfections of Memory").

Hacked Sites

V-Club

The V-Club.

The V-Club was a hacked night club in the Virtual world, in which young people gathered to indulge in various questionable activities. The club was a "no limits" environment featuring drug dens, group sex rooms and the "kill zone" - an area in which visitors could fight others hand-to-hand or with firearms. There was also a ritualistic sacrificing of a virgin on stage, an offering to the goddess of the underworld, Hecate. (CAP: "Pilot").

The V-Club was shot at the Orpheum theatre in Wikipedia:Vancouver, British Columbia for the pilot episode of Caprica. This was the same location utilized for the Opera House on Kobol. For subsequent episodes, footage from the location shoot was reused in conjunction with smaller, digitally expanded sets.

Zoe Graystone and Lacy Rand initially visited the V-Club for the party atmosphere, but later came to view the V-Club as a sign of the Twelve Colonies' descent into hedonism, decadence, and ennui. Graystone went on to create a separate chamber accessible from the V-Club, where she housed her duplicate, avatar in a replica of the Monotheist Church retreat on Gemenon (CAP: "Pilot", "Rebirth", "Unvanquished").

A VIP room attached to the V-Club provided a private meeting place - later utilized by Rand and the Zoe Graystone avatar (CAP: "Ghosts in the Machine", "End of Line").

Though it was a hacked site, the V-Club was accessible through the V-Match dating site (CAP: "The Imperfections of Memory").

New Cap City

Main article: New Cap City

A street view of New Cap City.

New Cap City was a virtual recreation of Caprica City, nearly identical to its real life counterpart, but featuring a darker atmosphere and violent, gangster-style game play. The game was widely known for its violence and corrupted reflection of the real life Caprica City, updated to reflect current events in the physical world including the bombing of Metropolitan Levitation Mass Transit System. Unlike the genuine article, this version of Caprica City reflected a bygone era of propeller aircraft and was patrolled by an enormous, well armed dirigible that would, at times, shoot indiscriminately at users on the streets below (CAP: "There is Another Sky", "The Imperfections of Memory").

Notes

According to Serge's Twitter Account, each colony has its own V-world.

The transition in and out of Virtual world proved a trial and error experience for the production staff of Caprica. According to David Eick's podcast for "The Reins of a Waterfall", the "blood cell tunnel" effect was created to clarify the transition from the real world to the virtual one. The blood cell tunnel featured the distinctive Cylon datastream graphic which first appeared in "Exodus, Part I". [2]