Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 214 - 213: The Desolate Experience Store

Chapter 214: Chapter 213: The Desolate Experience Store

"Ah, brothers, it seems like I’m about to be discouraged from playing a game by Nitiandang again!"

"Huh, why did I say ’again’?"

Wang Dawei felt helpless. Ever since he started playing Road Rage Simulator, he had felt a nameless rage growing stealthily inside him, taking root and sprouting, making him more and more angry the more he played!

He thought that changing his profession or playstyle might make things better, but in the end, he realized that almost every playstyle led to the same frustration!

It could even be said that the developers were deliberately creating an environment that could easily trigger road rage, keeping players constantly in a state of tension, anxiety, and irritability. They then deliberately created friction through NPCs or other players, and finally added fuel to the fire with the special traffic rule of "mandatory rescue after an accident," igniting the players’ anger to a blaze!

At first, Wang Dawei thought the developers couldn’t be that irresponsible and it must be a random mess.

But now it seemed that was absolutely not the case.

They were definitely well-prepared!

How could one describe this behavior of the developers?

Utterly insane!

"Ah, I think Nitiandang’s approach to this game is a bit thoughtless! Ascension can be played like that because it’s an action game, but if a driving game makes players this unhappy, who will keep on playing?"

Wang Dawei played for another half an hour, and soon, he discovered an even more serious problem.

The traffic situation in Civil City... was still getting worse?

One very important reason for this was the mentality of the players.

In the beginning, everyone played very cautiously, but as the game subtly influenced them, their moods got worse and worse. So naturally, their driving became more and more reckless, and one accident often triggered a chain reaction, leading to more accidents!

As a result, the accidents Wang Dawei saw in the city became more and more frequent.

Although Wang Dawei had come a long way, learning a lot about first aid and being able to provide the correct treatment on-site, saving people came with no rewards, whereas the time lost from his delivery job was real and tangible.

Moreover, not many players were like Wang Dawei; most had fallen into a "broken jar" mentality.

They realized that even with careful driving, accidents could still happen. So they might as well play haphazardly. After all, if this character is ruined, they could just start anew with another one.

This mentality further deteriorated the city’s traffic condition, somewhat like the bad driving out the good.

At this moment, Wang Dawei had a strange sense of déjà vu, which reminded him of the matchmaking mechanism in some MOBA games.

For various reasons, these games introduced the notorious ELO mechanic, trying to keep all players’ win rates around 50% in ranked matches. Players found that playing hard and getting MVP in one game only led to having even less reasonable opponents in the next game.

And if they slacked off and were carried to a win in one game, they would be matched with decent teammates in the next one.

So the players started to throw games deliberately, feeding like crazy at the slightest disagreement in hopes of manipulating the ELO system to climb ranks. This behavior spread rapidly, turning intentional poor play into the mainstream of the game.

Now, Road Rage Simulator was also showing such a tendency, especially in online mode!

Wang Dawei sighed, "Forget it, I’m done! I’m going to play something else to clear my mind."

He exited Road Rage Simulator. By now his playtime had reached over four hours, clearly too late for a refund.

If it were an ordinary player, they would certainly leave a negative review in anger, but Wang Dawei couldn’t be bothered to review. He only felt one thing: exhaustion!

Looking at the mini steering wheel controller, Wang Dawei’s previous good attitude had also vanished.

"I initially thought this accessory was okay, but now it seems like the developers were just using it to piss us off!

"Ah, let’s disperse, it looks like Nitiandang’s new game is finally going to flop!"

...

In the villa, Gu Fan was eating chips while stealthily glancing at Lilith’s expression.

It was clear that Lilith was in a very good mood!

Everything was going according to her plan.

By now, the reviews for Road Rage Simulator on the official platform had become "mixed."

It hadn’t turned into "mostly negative" or "overwhelmingly negative," which was somewhat surprising.

Looking at the positive reviews the players had left, the reasons varied greatly.

Some thought getting out of the car for rescue was well done, claiming it taught them some first aid knowledge, especially the Heimlich Maneuver, and now everyone knew what it was for;

Others thought that the game distinguished itself from other driving simulators by having more actions to do. Although the experience was fragmented, it could be optimized later;

Some found the streamers’ meltdowns highly entertaining, so since they weren’t really playing, why not leave a good review.

But overall, those who left positive reviews were mostly there for the entertainment! They didn’t have much actual gaming experience. Although they had some positive emotions, their amusement came from the humor, not the game itself, so it didn’t impact the negative emotions Lilith had already collected.

And the negative emotions generated by the game itself would be genuinely collected by Lilith.

"Gu Fan!

"Look, ’Road Rage Simulator’ is doing great; everything is going according to my plan! There haven’t been any bugs so far!"

Gu Fan said impassively, "Indeed, I’m truly happy for President Li!"

Lilith cast a meaningful glance at him, her expression speaking volumes.

Clearly, the more Lilith suspected Gu Fan of being a traitor.

Every time you’re here, the game bugs out, but the moment you leave, it runs normally without glitches. How do you explain that!

Of course, Lilith hadn’t openly confronted him because the situation wasn’t yet clear—it was only the first day, after all. Many games had bugs that only appeared on the second or even the third day.

Whether there are bugs or not will only be determined in a few more days.

Regardless, the game was off to a successful start, and Lilith was in a great mood. As she switched to another streamer’s broadcast of ’Road Rage Simulator,’ she said to Gu Fan, "Gu Fan, I’ll visit the experience store tomorrow night, make sure you’re prepared."

Gu Fan nodded: "Understood, President Li."

...

...

The next day, Sky Against Heaven Game Experience Store officially opened!

However, unlike other store openings, the Sky Against Heaven Experience Store opened without any flashy ceremonies. There were no flower baskets or firecrackers, just a plain ... opening for business.

After all, there were strictly speaking only three people in the store at this time: Gu Fan as the store manager, an employee, and a part-time cleaning lady.

Of course, this situation wouldn’t last forever. At the moment, Gu Fan had placed a sign at the door, displaying two eye-catching characters: Hiring!

Beneath it were a few lines of smaller text, listing the working hours and hiring requirements.

The experience store’s business hours were from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., divided into a day shift and a night shift. Considering that the store would be open as usual over the weekend, Gu Fan initially planned to expand the staff to three employees and later increase the staff based on actual needs.

The store’s only employee at the moment was named Sui Tao, whom Gu Fan had recruited by chance during the preparation phase of the experience store.

Sui Tao was just over twenty years old, having worked in some mobile phone stores before. Although he did not have any particular achievements, he was quite knowledgeable about the business and had a decent attitude toward service, so Gu Fan brought him on board.

By the time Sui Tao joined the company, the experience store’s renovation work had been nearly completed, and it soon officially began operations.

The current opening scenario of the experience store was indeed an eye-opener for Sui Tao.

"Manager, is our store opening ... a bit too rushed?"

After hesitating for a moment, Sui Tao finally voiced the doubt that had hovered in his mind for a long time.

Without any promotion, who would know there is an experience store here!

For other new store openings—be it a restaurant, a specialty store, or a gym swimming pool—there’s usually some fanfare, like setting off firecrackers to liven things up, then handing out flyers on the streets to notify the surrounding residents.

And the more banners and display boards, the better.

Although Sui Tao wasn’t particularly fond of handing out flyers, as he didn’t want to bother passersby too much, it felt especially jarring to have none at all!

But even if he wanted to distribute flyers now, it wouldn’t work because there were only him and Manager Gu Fan in the store. He couldn’t very well expect the manager to attend to the store personally, right? That would be inappropriate.

"Also ... Manager, isn’t this a Sky Against Heaven Experience Store? Shouldn’t it be closely related to Sky Against Heaven Games? So why haven’t any players from Sky Against Heaven shown up?"

Sui Tao was bewildered on many counts.

He had only been employed recently and didn’t know much about Sky Against Heaven Games, just that it was a rather unconventional gaming company that had appeared recently.

He didn’t know what position Gu Fan held at Sky Against Heaven.

But he figured it couldn’t be too high; otherwise, why would he be running an experience store?

If this was a Sky Against Heaven experience store, where were the players from Sky Against Heaven?

Gu Fan cleared his throat lightly, "This situation is pretty normal, after all, Sky Against Heaven hasn’t done any promotion for our experience store.

"We have to rely on our own efforts to build up the store’s performance first. After that, we can do some promotion. Wouldn’t that just let us take off on the spot!

"If we initially attract a big crowd with Sky Against Heaven’s promotion, but fail to handle the excessive customer flow, that would be bad."

Sui Tao somewhat speechlessly disagreed with the manager’s remarks.

Who complains about having too high foot traffic in a new store!

But there was nothing he could do; he was just a worker. He could only sit in the store, idly passing the time, waiting for new customers to walk through the door.

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