Hmm!

Interesting question! I guess, for purposes of answering this, I’m gonna disregard the more silly theories, and accept the usual interpretation…

(that the toga/tunic does in fact indicate being a novice– a new player in the Games– as suggested by how Flynn had it from the moment he rezzed in, and all the new guys training along with him had it too)…

In which case, I would imagine that getting the tunic happens normally the way it happened for Flynn.

all programs that the MCP stole from elsewhere would enter the system at the same sort of “entry port,” with their assigned uniforms already on them (as chosen by the MCP, depending on what he planned to do with the program).

If they were chosen to compete in the Games, that would include the tunic.

I suppose some novices were programs originally from Encom– in which case they wouldn’t be rezzing into an entry port. For them, I guess the MCP would have to put them through some in-system ritual to add the tunic.

I haven’t really given this ritual much thought. It could go a lot of ways.

I guess the easiest way, from the MCP’s viewpoint, would be just to run the program through the same sort of process that gets them to an entry port, and rerezz them there with the tunic (or any other necessary gear) already programmed on.

We know the MCP has the ability to teleport programs (and digitized Users) from one place to another– that’s how Flynn and friends got to the Lightcycle grid.

I’d imagine that this is more-or-less a “cut-and-paste” function, on the code level of things.

But I’m sure the MCP could add some coding that would adjust the program’s visual render in any desired way (adding accessories, etc) before “pasting.”

So maybe this is how a toga/tunic is added for some programs.

And maybe this is also part of the ritual in which the toga/tunic is removed, when a program graduates to not being a novice anymore.

I don’t have any detailed thoughts about how programs graduate to that level. But I would guess it happens after some number of achievements on the Game Grid.

We know it’s more than 1 win, because Flynn didn’t lose the tunic right after beating Crom. Or maybe he didn’t lose it because he didn’t kill Crom? It could indicate a number of kills.

Maybe it takes ten wins, or a hundred? Or maybe it’s a certain type of win… (win once at each type of game? beat multiple opponents at once?)

Or maybe it’s just surviving for a certain amount of time.

In any case, Ram and Tron had both outgrown the tunic by the time they met Flynn.

Ram, interestingly, has that weird complex vest thing…

Which clearly means something of its own, separate from the tunic. Tron didn’t have the vest. Nor did Flynn.

And Crom, brand new in the system, had both the tunic and the vest.

I don’t have any serious guesses about what the vest means, though. My only guess is that it signifies, “this is a financial program.”

But, to be brutally honest about how my own brain works, that’s less about Ram being an actuary and Crom being a compound interest calculator…

…and more about “inVESTment” being a pun.