The virtual world is coming soon, in fact, quite soon.

IBM Japan wants 208 people to come along to their office and test their 3-D avatars. Their main goal is to create a gaming environment as same as the anime Sword Art Online, where you fight your opponents not from boring iPhone apps, or controllers but actual real environment by moving your spiritual “mind.” Sound vague? But just a year ago I went to an Attack on Titian exhibition in Tokyo to experience their Oculus virtual world device, and it was speechlessly awesome. I could control my mind to look in a 360 atmosphere while charging forward with AoT characters, including Mikasa and Arumi, and only the body motion part was still undeveloped. But when that part is squared away, it is time for people to throw away their social life, simply because the dream world is many times more entertaining.

IBM Japan made the announcement on Februrary 22nd, taking a serious move in teaming up with hit light novel, manga, and anime franchise Sword Art Online, and are using several their latest components of IBM technology to recreate the virtual reality massive multiplayer online role-playing game (VRMMORPG) as closely as possible. Maybe, besides the real-world death penalty in Sword Art Online The Beginning.

The alpha testing of 208 volunteers will begin from March 18th to 20th between 13:00 and 19:00 in Tokyo. The selected candidates will be given their own 3D avatars to participate in a VR environment hosted on IBM’s SoftLayer cloud service.