Chapter 386: Chapter 373: Are We Going to Lose in Such a Place?!
Translator: 549690339
As a game developer, it doesn’t really matter who gets the first place.
Well, that’s how it should be.
But Lincoln felt somewhat displeased when he saw that the players from Daxia were not doing well.
Mavis leaned in close, hugging Lincoln’s arm and gently shaking it, making a suggestion: “Master, why don’t we check the progress of all the players? Maybe some of them are ahead of these streamers, but they’re just not live streaming?”
Lincoln looked at Mavis’s hopeful eyes, somewhat hesitant.
Technologically, there is no problem at all – in fact, Mavis herself can do it.
However, Lincoln had told her before: “Do not check on a large scale the real-time game progress of players without reason.”
That requirement limited her.
Lincoln’s limitation was also designed to protect the privacy of the players.
After all, detecting and recording all player’s game data is one thing, while directly viewing their in-game screens is another.
One is “knowing what the player has done,” and the other is “witnessing what the player has done.”.
In the era of traditional gaming, this distinction was often blurred.
But in the age of virtual reality gaming, the two cannot be equated, as they require completely different levels of access.
As for what constitutes a “large scale”…
Lincoln’s standard was: “If there are no special circumstances, no more than 50 players can be checked at once.”
This limitation seemed somewhat feeble.
Since if Mavis really wants to see, she could just divide every 50 players into a group, and then view group by group…
Fortunately, Mavis is very obedient and has never done it this way before.
When she wants to watch the players, she would usually lie down on the sofa with Lincoln and check indirectly through live streaming platforms.
The authority in Mavis’ hands is mainly used when Lincoln needs it.
For example, Mavis directly pulled up the game screens of the 8 players who were not streaming.
Mavis’s suggestion tempted Lincoln.
He wanted to see but felt that it was a bit excessive to go through the live game screens of tens of millions of players just to watch the fun.
Even if there was surplus computational power, that’s not how it should be wasted!
However, there is a compromise!
So Lincoln said to Mavis, “That’s too much. Let’s do this instead: Mavis, find the top 100 players who completed the main missions of “Assassins’ Alliance” the fastest and check their progress now.”
He couldn’t believe that among these 100 players… no, among these 98 players, there was none who didn’t care about the difficulty and just wanted to be the first to complete, getting the champion’s trophy!
It’s not like they can’t replay the game at higher difficulty after getting the trophy!
“Alright!” Mavis excitedly waved her little fist.
In the next moment, all the players’ game screens in front of her were swept into the corner.
Rows of game screens were captured by Mavis and projected in front of the small sofa.
In each screen, there was a player fighting hard.
Some were speeding on the road, some engaged in gunfights, some were surrounded, some smashed their empty guns at their opponents, some slashed with their knives, and some were swarmed by enemies…
But there were also players waving chips in the casino, holding hands with beautiful girls, wearing swimsuits and bathing together with young girls, dancing wildly with exotic beauties in night clubs…
The so-called unrecordable stores were always for limiting players, not the game developers.
Seeing these players not focusing on the game, Lincoln felt that a vein on his forehead was about to burst.
“Mavis, kick out those who are not doing their job!”
“All right!” Mavis agreed cheerfully.
As a result, the 10×10 neatly arranged screens in front of her disappeared, leaving only 22 left!
That’s absurd!
Keep in mind that it doesn’t mean only 22 players are not doing their job.
It just means that “at this very moment, 22 out of the 100 top players are not doing their job.”
If the time were extended to the three days since the game was released, the number of players not doing their job would certainly far exceed this figure!
“I think I understand something now!” Lincoln suddenly wanted to cover his face, “Mavis, look at the data of these 100 players, see how many of them have been to nightclubs, customs stores, and other such places.”
“Wait a moment.” Mavis’s eyes gleamed with tiny streaks of light, and she quickly found the answer: “Mavis has checked it out! 73 people have been there!”
*Slap!* Lincoln smacked himself on the forehead.
“I knew it!”
“Places like customs stores are a novelty for the players in Daxia, and the temptation is irresistible! Everyone says that humans are slaves to their appetites, so when the opportunity presents itself, who wouldn’t want to go in and have a look?”
“But in Izumo, that’s their local specialty. Not to mention how many people have seen it, heaven knows how many have actually experienced it. Their ability to resist the temptation is naturally much stronger than that of the players in Daxia!”
“So, there’s a gap in time and progress between them. It just widens, doesn’t it?!”
In reality, the situation was quite similar to what Lincoln had thought.
In the remaining 78 game screens, players were indeed pushing the game progress, but their progress compared to the speed runners in the live streams was not significantly faster.
In fact, the furthest advanced player was not faster than Tim…
So there was no way it could achieve the “turn the tide” effect Lincoln had hoped for.
This also basically confirmed that places like “night clubs” and “customs stores” were indeed an important influencing factor.
But Lincoln discovered that he couldn’t do anything about this factor…
What should he do, carry out an anti-vice operation in Night City?
That’s crazy!
Before, players were already angry, but it was just about delivering some stuff and complaining online.
It took quite a bit of effort to calm them down.
If they suddenly shut down these “mysterious stores” at this point, many players might really do something irrational…
“No way! Are we seriously going to lose because of something so outrageous?”
Lincoln felt that the world was truly strange and absurd, but at the same time, he had to mentally prepare himself for the possibility that players from Daxia might indeed lose in this competition…
This made him feel a bit down, so much so that he no longer had the mood to discuss the new game with Randall and Fred.
So he sent them both a message: “I need to think more about the new game, so let’s not discuss it this afternoon. You guys can focus on your own tasks for now, and we’ll talk when I have a clearer idea.”
Randall sighed after receiving the message, but he was indeed very busy, so he turned to the preparations for the knockout round.
Fred, on the other hand, was completely speechless: “What am I supposed to be busy with? Giving my team members vacation?”
But soon, he received another message from Lincoln.
When he opened it, it turned out to be a two-hour-long video!
Having experienced the “movie-watching meeting” before, Fred immediately understood: This was a video the boss had specially “made” for Speed Chase 2, which would help him understand the story of the game’s sequel.
Fred cherished the video, and after handing over his current tasks, he began to watch it quietly.
*
As for Lincoln himself, he sank into the sofa, watching the live stream and occasionally checking social networking posts to see players’ online chatter.
It wasn’t until he was about to log off and go eat that he suddenly thought of something:
There was a serious flaw in this speedrunning battle: Some players were using dynamic difficulty settings, while others were using fixed difficulty settings, which were more challenging.
However, they were competing for the same first completion champion trophy!
This was clearly unfair!
This loophole had indeed put Daxia’s best speedrunners at a disadvantage in the competition.
“We must learn from this experience!”
Lincoln immediately thought of a loophole-fixing measure:
The “fastest completion” achievement trophy for the next game must have two sets!
One of them remains the same, without any restrictions: Whoever completes the main missions first gets the trophy.
The other set has a restriction: One must turn off the dynamic difficulty settings and be the first to complete the main missions with the more challenging fixed difficulty!
With this change, the second set of more difficult achievement trophies would undoubtedly become the more valuable and recognized set by players.
To ensure the second set of trophies have more value, the design can be even more sophisticated with unique elements.
This way, all the hardcore players can be brought back to the same race track for a fair competition.
Perfect!
“I’ll make a note of it, and in the afternoon, I’ll sync these requirements to all development teams.”