Chapter 208: Chapter 206: A Game with a Conscience?!
Translator: 549690339
As 2:00 PM approached, the number of posts on the Vortex Forum plummeted.
Visits to the Cloud Dream ‘Light Encounter’ Game Zone soared.
Camille Victoria and Super Tomato started their live broadcast early, not playing games, but chatting with the comments and waiting for the launch time.
Yi and Ye Lang a bit big were pressured by the audience to end the investigation into the rumors of “seeing NPCs taking baths through windows in the villa area.” They returned to the virtual house, opened the Cloud Dream Gaming Platform, and found the “Light Encounter” page and began waiting.
Thanks to Focus Mode in Mirage 2.0, Shuihua’s intelligence did not improve, but her learning efficiency increased significantly. She dared to mute her mobile phone, hide it in her drawer, and secretly watch the live stream.
Countless people took a break in advance, went fishing at work, and guarded the live broadcast room.
Of course, not all players were looking forward to it.
Lance, at least, didn’t care at all. He trained with his club teammates in an abandoned factory.
After all, Lincoln said in the live broadcast, “Competitions can be expected.” For clubs, this was a blatant hint.
And the “Assassin’s Alliance”, the first major virtual reality work, broke the record with 15 million sales, which determined that the first related competition would be truly eye-catching!
What had been the imagination of many esports players and club managers – a game dominating the market with a higher heat than all other game events combined – might finally become a reality!
During this period, most esports professional players were training hard.
Not to mention core combat skills like [Shooting Expertise], [Curved Shot], and [Assassin Bloodline], even [Driving Expertise] and [Locksmith Mastery] were leveled up.
Any skill that could be trained and strengthened was pushed to the max by them tirelessly!
They even collected network information from clubs to test various armor damage reduction effects and installation and use of modified parts, sparing no effort.
Not only them, but many heavy-duty players, including Warehouse Bird, also leveled up skills and levels without yielding to professional players.
The spontaneous small-scale PVP events have bloomed everywhere without Lincoln’s notice.
These people don’t care about “Light Encounter” at all. When they log in to the virtual world every day, they only think about killing their opponents or being killed by them!
Their only regret is that there are only ten players in a world, and five against five is not exhilarating enough!
At Cloud Dream Studio, when Lincoln appeared in the virtual world, he found that almost everyone had temporarily stopped working and was paying attention to the launch of the studio’s third game.
Randall was extremely nervous, pacing back and forth and keeping an eye on player dynamics online.
His behavior made Little Chun, who was beside him, very speechless.
She did indeed put a lot of effort into the game and was initially a little nervous.
However, after seeing her boyfriend’s level of nervousness, which was ten times her own, not only did she not feel nervous anymore, but she also found it funny. She patted Randall and said, “Instead of doing this, why don’t you check how the second issue of Assassin’s Weekly is coming along?”
The other zirls who participated in the production of “Light Encounter” also
had reactions similar to Randall, both excited and nervous.
Even Camille Victoria, who had seen the big scene, was no exception.
Lincoln clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention, “Alright, let me tell you a secret – do you know how to effectively relieve tension?
Everyone looked at him in confusion.
“The answer is, throw your hat over the fence!”
After saying that, Lincoln directly opened the backstage panel and started the sale in advance!
The employees were about to reach out and stop him, but he had already completed the operation.
Randall swallowed the word “don’t” before it left his mouth, hurriedly opened the backend, and started monitoring the data.
Camille opened more than a dozen windows in a row, mostly anchor live streaming rooms, and a few were Spiritual Rhinoceros hashtag, Vortex Game Forum ‘Light Encounter’ Zone channels where players could voice their opinions. She nervously paid attention to dynamic changes.
Everyone had no time to be nervous, and they quickly started paying attention to the sales situation.
Here, Lincoln’s actions were naturally discovered by players immediately, after all, there were a massive number of people paying attention!
In Camille Victoria’s live broadcast room, countless comments immediately reminded her that the game was on sale.
In the virtual house, Camille Victoria refreshed the page and didn’t see the price, subconsciously feeling deceived, “You guys lied to me again…”
But before the sentence was finished, she realized something was wrong: the gray “Not Yet Available” button had turned bright red with “Enter Game” on it.
She tried to click on it, and in a moment of confusion, suddenly found that the world around her had changed dramatically!
On a small patch of sand, she stood with the sofa, furniture, and even the walls disappearing. In the endless sea behind her, there was a narrow path in front of her, at the end of which was a cave.
Camille Victoria was not in a hurry to proceed, but rather a little dumbfounded.
At the same time, many players and anchors, like her, felt baffled.
The reason was simple – this thing was actually free again??
For a moment, casual players who didn’t understand the game were calling it a conscientious release.
Senior players felt a strong sense of unease in their hearts – free games sounded expensive!
But this time, they were overthinking it.
Lincoln had already cut most of the pay-to-win methods, leaving only the monthly card, and kept the relatively conscientious price of thirty bucks.
In combination with the virtual reality version of “Light Encounter,” many “useless actions” that players could do on their own had been removed, greatly reducing the consumption of in-game currencies like candles and hearts.
Basically, players would not have to become hardcore players to get all the rewards.
This differed from his initial idea.
When he first decided to make this game, Lincoln’s idea was that it would be best for players to spend all day in the game, either farming materials or engaging in social activities, the stronger the stickiness, the better.
But later he reflected that his ultimate goal has always been to expand the user base, sell more consoles, and ensure that more residents can be housed in the virtual world in the future.
So, if the game was too much of a grind, it might produce the opposite effect.
The “Light Encounter” of his previous life had very high positive reviews, but the scale of its player base never expanded much. Players’ spontaneous word-of-mouth recommendations could hardly attract many long-term players.
The reasons were, in addition to the type of game and the lousy operation of the company, an issue of “degree of grind” could not be ignored.
So Lincoln ultimately decided to significantly reduce the “grind level” and approach the style of “Wind Journey,” emphasizing a focus on providing players with a more complete and shocking gaming experience.
He encouraged player social interaction, but tried to guide players gently rather than forcing them to grind daily like going to work.
As for what to do when the players have run out of content, and their social stickiness isn’t strong enough to keep them interested?
The previous life’s “Light Encounter” team had to worry about this issue, as it would mean losing users as players quit.
But now, it’s not a problem at all!
How many more games does Lincoln have waiting for players to play?
He is not afraid of not having games to play, but rather worried that if you only play old games and don’t try new ones, it’s actually a real problem!
Lincoln’s ideal situation is for players to be happy playing for one or two months, then most players leaving to play new games.
Players who are really into the game would stay, but they would only have long online times during events, and maintain a light gaming state at other times, feeling relaxed and stress-free.
In a month’s time, players willing to invite friends to play should have also brought enough of them along.
So, overall, this is truly a very conscientious game!
Only someone like Lincoln who doesn’t care about money, or whose goal is not to make money from games, can achieve this degree.
In a sense, this behavior is similar to how internet companies burned money to grab users in their early stages.
As long as there are enough users, there are countless ways to make money!
