Alexander Smith
Today is the first day of phase two and the starting base is officially given the name of Oryn as per the sect announcement board spread across key areas in the town. Alex is sitting in a café near the awakening building awaiting his two brothers to join him after completing their in-game tutorial.
Sipping a hot beverage that tastes similar to coffee, Alex has been busy adjusting his game plan base on the sect's latest announcement. Though he managed to gain snippet of intelligence that the sect leader has the intention of achieving self-sufficiency in phase two, he was still caught off-guard by the fact rapid expansion of the game world. The game has not only introduce the establishment of twelve new settlements, these settlements are also spread across the far reaches of Eldorin.
Alex has made the wrong assumption that the base will continue to expand outwards with a few new forward bases to be setup a few hundred miles away from Oryn to act as collection hubs for the resources obtained within the bases vicinity. Now that the location for the twelve forward bases are easily thousands of miles away from Oryn, Alex will have to seriously consider the issue of logistic and the room for error has become increasingly smaller. Any mishap in the new frontier can potentially be a major setback as warned by the sect leader. Increasing the redundancies as failsafe is easier said than done when he is already on a tight budget.
While deep in thought, Alex did not even realise the arrival of his two brothers, Henry and Joshua.
"Alex, you should have told us how amazing the game is! You would not have to spend so much time convincing us to try out the game if you have given us more details," exclaimed Joshua.
"Sorry, I'm bound by a Non Disclosure Agreement while the game is still in beta test. I believe you have already been warned not to disclose the more sensitive features of the game to anyone outside of the game. I don't think there is a need to risk losing my spot just to give you those details. You probably will not have believed me until you have personally experience it yourself anyway," Alex defends.
"That's true. I still can't believe that technology has already reached a point where we can achieve full immersion. I would have assumed that the whole world would have heard of such a ground-breaking technology when the scientists achieve even a small breakthrough. It is uncommon that scientists nowadays can be so tight lipped about it." Henry joins in.
"I suspect this is most likely military technology that has just matured. If you find the full immersion technology amazing, wait till you fully experience the time dilation technology used in this game. I am confident
"What do you mean by the time dilation technology?" Henry questions Alex with great interest. Alex spent a few minutes explaining what he has experienced so far as well as his take on the technology with his two brothers.
"Wow, if what you say is true, the world will go crazy over
"That's why I am currently revising my short-term plans. Originally, my plan is to leave both of you with some resources to accelerate your cultivation while I head towards the frontier. I will come back from time to time to give both of you extra resources." Alex explains and goes into details on the original plan he had come up with. "Now that the frontiers are much further than I have anticipated, my short-term plan is no longer feasible."
Henry cuts in before Alex can continue further, "Alex, I think the expansion of the game world got your judgement clouded. There is actually no need for you to chase after the shiny new toy. Analysing your initial game plan, there is actually no need for you to rush off to any of the twelve settlements at this point in time. The sect leader has already announced that Oryn will be the hub of all manufacturing in the near future. Since your plan is to setup a workshop manufacturing magical machineries, our foundation should be in Oryn and not any of the twelve settlements. If we set Oryn as our base of operation, the only reason for us to venture out to any of the new settlements are to secure the needed contribution as required to redeem those close beta player slots. Instead of rushing out to the frontiers now, I think your original plan is still the most viable. It is not too late for the three of us to venture out to the new settlements once Joshua and my cultivation has been sufficiently raised. Moreover, resources in the new settlements might be less scarce a few months down the road. Our objective there is clear, we will leave to moment we have achieved the needed contribution for close beta player slots."
"I like your idea. Let's do as you say." Joshua agreed before giving his providing his own opinion. "There is something that has been on my mind. Based on what I have heard so far, I suspect the game studio does not have God-like ability to directly interfere in the game like all the other games we have played so far. If my guess is right, we can't use conventional gaming common sense on how the gaming studio will proceed with debugging and making the whole gaming experience more balanced during the beta test. This is what i think, the game world is not actually programmed piecemeal by piecemeal. The world is generated as a whole like those world generator feature when you start a new game. Once the world has been generated, it is locked and even the programmers can't enter god-mode and change things directly. Think about it, we are only in phase two and they already gave players access to the whole gaming world. You can get clues as to why I say the game studio can only interfere indirectly inside the game. The NPC during my tutorial has already said that Eldorin will not get a fresh reset when the game officially goes live. If you don't delve too deeply into what is being said, one can interpret it as whatever gains or advantages we have obtained during beta test is our remuneration for being beta players. The way I see it, the game studio can't have millions of players descent on a planet that is almost empty of any form of civilization. The idea of having to built everything from scratch might appeal to some hardcore players, but it won't work for the masses. All the construction milestone to achieve the next phase means the game studio can't just make cities to magically appear out of nowhere when needed. Since the game developers have no direct control in-game, we can't use normal beta test gaming convention to assume what the game developers will do. This also brings me to the next point on how we can test if the game world has already been completed. The NPC has also told me how complex and powerful the game engine is and we can even invent new stuff as long as we know what we are doing. By normal gaming common sense, we shouldn't be able invent stuff at this point in time until the game studio have patched up the game. We don't have to try anything too fancy to proof my point. Maybe a simple modification to a beginner spell or runic script? Think about the possibilities if my guess is right."
"If your guess is right, we will definitely have to change how we do things." Alex agrees with Joshua analysis. They will no longer need to wait for the game studio to announce the introduction of "new features". On the contrary, they should be actively experimenting on what's the limit and where the freedom stops playing