The Dream Park series is set in a near-future Earth, the first book taking place in March 2051. Technology is used to create realistic games in which participants act out the roles of free-willed protagonists in various stories. These are role-playing games and foreshadowed many aspects of modern live action role-playing games. The games use elaborate sets. In one novel an entire island is created for the game; in another, a crater on the moon is domed and heavily developed. Holograms are used for special effects. The blades on sharp weapons can be removed and replaced with holographic edges; this allows participants to engage in safe combat. A combination of computers and gamemasters monitor events, prompt actors playing non-protagonist parts, and resolve simulated actions. Thus, after a player's character has been repeatedly struck with a holographic sword a computer might determine that he has died. The player will be informed that he should pantomime a death and is removed from play. Although the Dream Park concept assumes future technology, it is still an expensive proposition. Players pay fees to play the games. In addition, the first game played is both broadcast live and recorded. The creator of the game takes the recorded footage and edits it into a movie and other media for resale. While the resulting movies are heavily influenced by the game's creator, the actions of the players are unscripted. In this way the books anticipate reality television. The games in the Dream Park series are heavily regulated. One of the regulatory groups is the International Fantasy Games Society or IFGS. The creator of a game has nearly unlimited power in the game; he could arbitrarily change a game to doom a given player's character to death and eject the player from the game. IFGS existed to protect the interests of players and limit abuse by game creators. One group of fantasy based live action role-playing gamers have taken the IFGS name for their rules and organization. In each of the novels, the plot moves at multiple levels. The reader is given parallel stories involving the game story itself as the player characters learn the scenario, solve various puzzles and engage in simulated battles with enemies; the players and their real-world relationships with each other and the game organizers; events affecting the venue staff; and usually some kind of out-of-game plot or conspiracy that will impact everyone involved. These are high-stakes games with massive publicity and cutting edge technology, and they are therefore attractive to a variety of criminals.
Cultural references
The novels Achilles' Choice and Saturn's Race, also by Niven and Barnes, are set in the 2020s and feature a quick reference to Dream Park technologies. The events of another novel, The Descent of Anansi, by the same authors, are referred to in the latter two books of the Dream Park trilogy. An antecedent to Dream Park is the 1973 movieWestworld, in which vacationers pay to spend time in one of several historical role-playing "worlds".
Theme park
In the mid-1990s a real company took the Dream Park name to try to realize many of the ideas in the books. Their stated goal was a large theme park with ongoing minor events in which attendees could participate. They would also run the sort of immersive games described in the books. The company made a number of adjustments for limits to existing technology. Instead of holographic weapons, players had foam-rubber weapons. Plans were to attach sensors to the weapons and players. The sensors would beam information about strikes to computers that would track a simulated health for each character. Players would wear headsets, a radio allowing the computers and game masters to inform players of important status information. A head-up display on the headset would display special effects like a dragon's fiery breath or a magical spell. The complete theme park was never built, though a fantasy dungeon was created and tested. The company eventually went bankrupt in 1997. The new attraction MagiQuest in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina follows a similar combat-less approach using electronically enhanced wands that interact with objects around the attraction.
reviewed Dream Park in Ares Magazine #11 and commented that "Dream Park is Niven's best novel in a long time. It shows flair and imagination not evident in, for example, The Magic Goes Away; the multi-level plot is more than intriguing enough to hold the reader's attention."
