The design for this story can be found here: http://www.gamedev.net/topic/647075-newsretention-feedback-on-the-concept/
History
From the discovery of the Higgs Boson, scientists had set out to work on a device that could that could convert any matter to this Elementary Particle, and from that to any matter. Over the years – through a lot of trial and error, and from the increasing pressure from the decay of natural resources, a breakthrough led to the manufacture of this device, called ‘Merlin-S’. The original intention for Merlin-S was to be an Earth Saver. Space exploration was well underway, which lead to a very effective way of mining worthless material from other planets as a fuel. This in-turn created the very well-used opportunity to manufacture food, supplies, and any other commodities that were greatly needed.
To create something, scientists originally scanned what was needed, and created a direct replica of it. This was mainly because the data needed to produce a product was too large to be stored in any standard method. The process was slow, but it worked. After a few months, DNA storage became a possibility. The array of data needed for an object, known as a ‘Byton’, was decoded from an object, and stored on a couple of DNA strands. The strands –to increase the lifespan through time, transportation, and other various elements - were stored on an octagonal chip, no bigger than the human hand. Blank disks were known as templates.
Initially, large corporations invested in this technology hoping to bring an end to the need of natural resources, and to have the capability of creating anything that they needed. This then grew to satisfy military needs, and eventually sold out to smaller Processing Companies. The companies saw the potential gain in reselling the product to any citizen who could afford it. They would have to purchase a template physically, then purchase whatever item they wanted from an online store and download it to the template. They would then have to send it to a Processing Company of their choice for safe-holdings until it could be processed and the end product delivered. Users were prohibited (and largely did not have the means to) store the data locally.
Over time, the world adopted this lifestyle into their routine. But, developers in the companies soon saw some loopholes in the system, which created a huge personal market if done right.
The age of the protagonist was born.
Protagonists were developers who found ways of re-coding templates to be able to create a completely different item. This allowed them to purchase very cheap Byton’s and change it to something much more valuable. The secret was kept between them, but like all news, eventually leaked out. When companies found out about the loops in the system, they invested heavily in external Security Systems to help protect their systems. These systems were vastly successful, and almost all of the original protagonists were removed from their position. Fortunately, they left some back doors open on the company's servers to be able to access them later.
Realising that they now had almost no stable income, and their names tarnished, they deployed a community of their own, to learn how to exploit the backdoors created in the systems. This lead to quite a bit of smaller companies going bankrupt – from lawsuits to not being able to afford security - as the protagonists moved in and destroyed files.
Larger companies sought to end their rivals by employing protagonists to do the dirty work for them. Whether it was to destroy company data, move Byton’s from one server to another, or find out about their customers banking details, protagonists were becoming a much needed part of any company.
The community of original protagonists created a group known as ‘The Hall’. To hire a protagonist, a company would send a request to The Hall with details of the job at hand. The Hall would then allocate a protagonist with the appropriate inner rating to the task.
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For opinions I'd like to know if this is firstly believable?
Does the story draw you in enough to finish it and maybe find out more?
Any pointers to changes or additions will be greatly welcome.
