Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 280 - 289 Chronic Illness of Shadow World

Chapter 280: Chapter 289 Chronic Illness of Shadow World

In the evening, Purgatory Demon Cave Haunted House.

Lilith stared at Qin Fengliang, who sported a serious expression and an attitude that couldn’t be more upright.

"President Li, I swear to the lamp, this time my suggestion is absolutely flawless!"

"Unless..."

Her voice gradually lowered, "Unless something exceptional happens."

Seeing Qin Fengliang like this, Lilith also felt a surge of frustration welling up.

A fine advisor she was, so why had she become useless?

Previously, Qin Fengliang had already offered her two pieces of advice. The first was to organize a speedrun competition, and the second was to buy a cyber army to trash talk those racing motorcycles in the game. Both plans were sound in theory, but the actual execution turned out to be nothing short of disastrous!

Indeed, they did manage to generate a small amount of negative emotion at the beginning, but it quickly got paid back double, even leading more players to fall into the trap of the game and contribute quite a bit of Positive Emotion Value!

If it weren’t for the fact that Lilith knew Qin Fengliang through and through and had enough trust in her, she would have dismissed her from her responsibilities at the Haunted House by now!

Of course, that was an angry remark, since the Haunted House was still continuously generating negative emotion. The failures in other areas hadn’t affected the business of the Haunted House. Lilith had no reason to quarrel with the negative emotions she had secured.

"Alright then, tell me what should we do this time.

"I’ll selectively listen."

Lilith seemed notably deflated, lacking the excitement she had felt the previous two times she listened to Qin Fengliang’s suggestions.

Clearly, Lilith still didn’t have much doubt about Qin Fengliang’s loyalty, but she truly no longer trusted her capability. She definitely couldn’t blindly follow her advice this time, and for some suggestions that seemed unreliable, Lilith considered directly ignoring them.

After all, the situation in Shadow World was already pretty bad, and it couldn’t get any worse.

Since the players discovered the "Boundless Mode", Shadow World had been continuously generating Positive Emotion Value among max level and core players, and the rate of increase was pretty alarming.

However, for Lilith, the situation wasn’t all that bad since the game was currently producing more negative than positive emotions.

This was thanks to the design before reaching max level.

Because of the existence of "Boundless Mode" after reaching max level, which attracted many new players to the game, the difficulty of leveling up and the lower level dungeons remained quite challenging and unchanged.

Although some max level accounts with Boundless Mode activated could help the lower level ones, these people were ultimately very limited, as they still needed to research builds and pioneer raid content.

The majority of the lower level accounts still had to fend for themselves.

And during the process of them fending for themselves, negative emotion was still being produced endlessly.

Of course, the negative emotion harvested so far was far from Lilith’s expectations. If there was any way to slightly turn things around and increase the negative emotion, Lilith would welcome it with open arms.

Qin Fengliang opened a webpage on the computer, "President Li, I see Shengjing Group’s ’World of Star Spirits’ released a preview for a new version update today, announcing a brand new ’Boundless Mode’ test server.

"You’re aware of this, right?"

Lilith nodded, "Yes, I know."

This matter was quite absurd in itself.

Many players had thought these popular MMORPGs would ride the wave of Shadow World’s multi-class gameplay, but nobody expected it to happen this soon.

The importance of speed was evident, and Shengjing Group was clearly the first off the block.

They immediately announced on the official website and game launcher of ’World of Star Spirits’ that they were developing a new version test server for "Boundless Mode" and expected to meet the players within two months.

This announcement stirred up quite a frenzy.

Many players were stunned. Good heavens, it was the first time they’d seen someone copy another so blatantly!

At a glance, any player who surfed the internet could tell that this so-called Boundless Mode was a rip-off of Shadow World’s multi-class gameplay.

But the problem was, the law does not protect gameplay.

The fact that Shengjing Group was using their ’World of Star Spirits’ to create a mode with full skill and talent selection was entirely legal and compliant, even though they were riding on the popularity, it was difficult to criticize them too harshly.

Aside from "World of Star Spirits", other popular MMORPGs within the country were also brewing something new.

Some might have been discussing internally whether to follow suit, while others might have already started preliminary planning and design.

But none of them were as swift as "World of Star Spirits"; their version development wasn’t even clearly defined yet, and they had already released teasers.

However, from the perspective of Shengjing Group, it was understandable. Announcing it now could capture a lot of attention immediately and maintain momentum for themselves.

Online, the players’ attention is limited; everyone is competing for popularity. They’re all copying Shadow World, and copying it early could mean reaping huge profits, but copying it late could leave them without even scraps to enjoy.

Speaking of which, Lilith was a bit angry. She furiously pounded the armrest of her chair.

"This Shengjing Group is truly despicable! Intercepting us like this, the attention to Shadow World has risen again!"

For the players, after all, Shengjing Group is a big company. Though their reputation is so-so, having one of their older games that had been operating for four years so brazenly copy Nitiandang’s gameplay, it’s a bit hard to swallow.

While Shengjing Group was hyping up their own game, they inevitably also brought some hype to Nitiandang.

After all, Shengjing Group’s actions also indirectly proved how fun the original all-class gameplay of Shadow World was.

Qin Fengliang shook his head slightly, "No, President Li, you’re wrong!

"What Shengjing Group is doing is actually helping us a lot. We shouldn’t be angry but should instead be thankful to them!

"And if necessary, we should even help push the boat along!"

Lilith was somewhat puzzled, "Hm? Help to promote them? If we could dissuade players and make them go play Shengjing Group’s games, that would be fine. But the players are enjoying themselves; why would they switch games?

"We can’t change our game!"

Qin Fengliang nodded with some glee, "President Li, isn’t this a good thing?

"Think about it, what is Shadow World’s all-class gameplay built on? It’s built on bugs!

"So, this all-class gameplay actually has many flaws and is not perfect.

"For instance, when learning other professions’ skills, you still have to go to a Trainer; there’s no way to see all skills and talents on one page, needing to keep notes. Moreover, this mode hasn’t been specifically balanced, and imbalances between different builds are inevitable. Following this, it won’t be possible to update with more builds. Once players have figured them out, they will find the game boring...

"Aren’t these all issues that exist in Shadow World?

"And these problems ultimately can’t be solved because Shadow World can’t be updated.

"But Shengjing Group’s ’World of Star Spirits’ doesn’t have this problem. They can update anytime, not only optimizing features and balancing various builds but also continuing to introduce new gameplay.

"Once players have played the optimized version of ’World of Star Spirits’, they will find it quite uncomfortable to return to Shadow World.

"As a result, wouldn’t negative emotion continuously arise?

"Therefore, we should not only help to stir the waters and promote it, but we might also go to greater lengths, offering discounts to our players, encouraging them to play ’World of Star Spirits’!"

These words left Lilith stunned.

She fell silent for a long time, her brain almost failing to catch up.

But after understanding it, she suddenly felt that it made some sense.

Especially the issue of "balance", which indeed was the crux of the problem!

If it had gone according to the original plan, and the bug of Shadow World’s "all-class gameplay" hadn’t appeared, then the issue of balance could be considered almost resolved.

Because according to the original design, each profession’s skills and talents were fixed, and all these had been balanced, there wouldn’t be any particularly overpowering profession.

But now, after players can choose their skills and builds (BD), they would inevitably figure out two or three optimal solutions, and from a numerical standpoint, there might even be one single best solution.

After all, the way to get the highest bonus from talents and the highest priority skills, as well as what’s most practical in raiding or PVP, can generally reach a consensus.

If based on the roles of tank, damage, and healer, then it’s very possible that the many original professions could solidify into a few specific builds (BD).

That would lead to the problem of a rigid meta.

Are other builds (BD) playable? Yes, but mostly they would lack strength and serve only as a pastime.

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