MATRIX THEMES
Does anyone have a resource for matrix systems descriptions? I’m starting my own shortlist of Matrix Themes, with reference for the different kinds of nodes/alerts/ICE so I don’t have to come up with as much on the fly.
Pinterest has been a great source of inspiration photos for coming up with a starting point.
I don’t have any such resource, no. But my personal interpretation of Matrix aesthetics is that large corporations aren’t particularly imaginative. So if you’re looking for the Matrix representation of their office, it’s probably going to be a big tower with their logo displayed prominently. In general, their VR metaphors will be reasonably simple and obvious, and their look will be somewhat sterile, matching their real-world branding without anything to distract from that branding. Picture an Apple Store translated to cyberspace.
It’s the other organisations where things get interesting… non-profits, smaller corporates… potentially offshoot brands of the megacorps if they’re hiding their parentage. I’d expect them to be more interesting, potentially very attention-seeking… some of them probably borrow from street culture if that’s the target market, so things like graffiti-art would be an inspiration.
Essentially, look at the branding that companies use today – in physical stores, and in their online presence. Because I see little reason why things would be much different in a VR world – it might be free of real-world constraints, but the real world will still be the major inspiration.
Potential route to take is to flesh out a couple of ICE security firms, and flesh out their styles. (A) it shows the corps out-sourcing, and (b) let’s your hacker feel like they’re developing expertise (“Oh, this is clearly a Funion ICE configuration; I’d recognize that military installation theme anywhere. Obviously it’s going to be lots of walls and trackers.”)
Good point… companies will probably be using systems sourced from some Cisco equivalent, unless they have in-house expertise in such matters. So hackers might reasonably expect to take a look at the login gate and immediately have some idea of the characteristics, even if they’ve never hacked this particular installation before.
Of course, there’s always room to mess with those expectations – because, a good sysadmin is just a hacker with a different coloured hat, and knows all the tricks. So the building control system, with the default icons and with the timestamps indicating it’s a stock install that might even have the default password? It might be real. It might also be a honeytrap filled with Black ICE.