Unlike the information highways of the past, Colony.net has been designed to be a totally first-person interactive experience. While one has the option to simply surf, download, and view data through a screen, most prefer to take advantage of the network's incredible virtual reality interface. At first glance, such devices appear to be nothing more than a set of wrap-around goggles with attached headphones. However, despite appearances, they are capable of much more.
When activated, the interface gives one a direct sensory connection to the Colony.net. For users, it is as if they have suddenly been transported into an entirely different world, though they can move and interact almost as much as they would in reality. All stimulus and motor functions are translated through a digital avatar, which may or may not be an accurate representation of the person behind the computer. Most users usually create a fictional persona, with an idealized appearance.
With this avatar, users can explore the Colony.net as if it were a world within itself. Programmers have gone to great lengths to create simulated environments, from modern city streets to medieval villages, to vast deserts and fields. Care has been taken to add several realistic details. These different realms, often hosted on independent servers, can serve as meeting places, commerce zones, or even gateways to specific programs. An online shopper could move through a simulated mall, filled with other shoppers, and try out or order for products as if he/she were in the real world.
Likewise, a user can just as easily jump into a popular Colony.net game, competing or working with others in fantasy adventurers, complex murder mysteries, simulated sports, sci-fi epics, and so on. Avatars are adapted for each setting, given a role to play, and a selection of abilities for their user to activate as they please. The only limitation is a dependency on commercial programmers to come out with new games, since very few people have the knowledge to compose their own Colony.net software.
While there are practical and fun uses for the Colony.net, there are also parts of it which are not considered very productive nor entirely legal. Cyber crime is as alive and well in virtual reality as it is in the real world, perhaps more so. The evolution of full-sensory computer interfaces has given rise to a growing market for online prostitution and "drugs." The latter usually manifest as black market programs that cause a user's VR equipment to over-stimulate the brain and body, creating an artificial high that can be just as addictive anything cased by real substance abuse.
Most of the illegal net trade goes on in unregistered and unregulated servers that are not usually open to most users. These hot spots also serve as marketplaces for a number of other illicit and dangerous goods, from actual narcotics to black market weaponry. In response to this growing misuse of the Colony.net, local authorities have created a special task force to deal with cyber crime. These investigators employ a variety of tracers and enforcement programs to catch their marks, but they also face dangers from the sensory feedback virus' that several of these traders use to protect themselves. These applications can inflict very real damage directly to a victims body. Of course, safeguards exist to prevent lethal doses of it, though they do not always help.
Hackers are another wild element on the Colony.net. Though not entirely common, a handful of self-styled cyber rebels do run through the system, using their talents to their own advantage as much as possible. Most have a working knowledge of the environment's technical side, and can reprogram elements of it to suit their needs, or even endow their avatar's with an unusual amount of power and access. Such alterations can upset the general flow of the net, and have been made illegal. Only authorized personnel and enforcement officers are allowed to alter or reconstruct aspects of the world or themselves, and only with proper clearance.
Crime aside, the more pressing problem created by the Colony.net is addiction. Some users become so obsessed with this electronic fantasy realm that they dedicate most of their lives to it, abandoning their usual obligations. The truly hooked find ways to tie their wage-earning into the net, be it through trade or as a technician, legal or illegal. Though a few of these net-addicts are anti-social or introverted in real life, they can be extremely flamboyant in their online personas. Of course, this is a stereotype, and not always the rule. Most net addicts are closet-users, who manage or cover their habit. Still, even if it is a growing affliction, net addiction has not yet become a serious enough problem to merit any official attention or reaction from governments.
It is only natural that the Colony.net develop its own forms of terminology and jargon. Only a few users truly embrace this material, usually the ones who actually know what this gibberish actually means. Two common terms, however, are used by most visitors: Ghosts and Doubles. The former is a nickname given to net addicts who practically live online, taking time off only to meet nutritional and hygienic needs. The latter term refers to users who use the net to lead a double life, creating an entirely new personality for themselves while they are logged in. The most attentive Doubles even take the time to give themselves a credible looking fake background, able to fool any average user and even a few enforcement officers.