Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 475 - 458: There’s Nothing Wrong with My Product

Chapter 475: Chapter 458: There’s Nothing Wrong with My Product

But the problem lay in the fact that as time passed, players began to understand the usage of the back triggers!

When the back triggers helped them master GP faster, some of the exhilaration they gained from GP naturally transferred to the controller.

This resulted in the controller starting to generate positive emotions.

However, Gu Fan had ample reasons to justify this.

"President Li, I think this should be considered a normal phenomenon? Besides, gaining some positive emotions isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

"Firstly, the controller must have some appealing features. If it lacks any highlights, why would players buy it at all? Right?

"We have to ensure the controller sells well and on top of that add a premium price to make players feel the pinch. That’s the optimal solution.

"Moreover, from a product positioning perspective, repeatedly releasing similar products will generate more negative emotions in players after their purchase."

Lilith paused, then upon reflection, it seemed there was indeed some truth to it.

The scheme of the trigger back keys indeed greatly raised the controller’s price, which indeed was a good strategy for generating negative emotions.

And Gu Fan’s words also addressed another of Lilith’s questions, that was: why still make controllers?

Why not other physical products?

Initially, Lilith thought Gu Fan did this for security, for making money. After all, the micro steering wheel controller had a good effect previously, so continuing to release more co-branded controllers was justifiable from a business perspective.

But listening to Gu Fan now, it seemed that wasn’t the case.

Repeating products had a benefit in that it further increased the negative emotions players experienced after making a purchase!

Take a simple example, if this time Nitiandang didn’t release a "Blood of Lies" co-branded controller but instead a co-branded keyboard or mouse, just adding a wheel side button simulating Transform Slash on the mouse.

Then, players wouldn’t develop too much negative emotion, because even if they couldn’t use this side button at all, they could still use it as a normal mouse.

Previously buying a controller, now buying a mouse, both can be used, not hindering each other.

But controllers are different; many buyers of this controller had previously purchased other co-branded controllers.

They bore a high premium to buy a new controller hoping it would provide them an unprecedented experience. Yet once they found the new controller hadn’t changed much, or might even be less comfortable and handy than the old controllers, the new controller would become completely useless, starkly differing from keyboards and other devices.

From this perspective, Gu Fan’s initial motive didn’t seem to be wrong, did it?

Only that the controller actually proved useful, which was unexpected.

But... did Gu Fan really not anticipate that the new function of the controller would be popular?

Lilith was highly skeptical of that.

Seeming to realize what she was about to say, Gu Fan hurriedly continued to explain, "Also, President Li, even if the controller now has some positive emotions, it’s not a big issue, haven’t you noticed that the negative emotions from the game are still increasing?

"Much of this is also attributed to the controller."

Lilith paused, then on further thought, it did seem to be the case.

With the controller now generating positive emotions, it meant many people either started playing because of the controller, or were previously deterred by "Blood of Lies" but decided to give it another go because of the controller.

Did the controller provide convenience in practicing Transformation Slash GP? Definitely, without a doubt.

But considering the overall difficulty of the game is still very high, mastering Transform Slash against one boss only to struggle against a later boss.

Compared to quickly discouraging players and making them quit early, fattening them up before the kill clearly seemed to be the better strategy.

Just take the recent uproar for example, unpacking videos validated the changes in the GP Invincibility Frame and the existence of reverse Dynamic Difficulty in the game, causing many players to be so furious they wanted to quit the game.

Once they quit, they naturally wouldn’t generate negative emotions anymore, which was undoubtedly a loss.

But including the co-branded controllers among other factors, these factors showed a glimmer of hope to players thinking of quitting, managing to retain them again—this could also be considered a great achievement.

From this angle...

Did the controller indeed play a positive role? Of course, under the premise that "Blood of Lies" continues to consistently amass negative emotions.

Lilith looked at Gu Fan somewhat suspiciously.

Gu Fan coughed twice: "President Li, what might this look mean? The mission of my peripherals has always been clear—to safeguard and aid the game by collecting negative emotions!

"You may feel that all this seems calculated by me, which sounds preposterous and risky, but what I want to say is, my strategy is actually simple: to make high premium, niche products that can assist the game to a certain extent.

"Any product developed with this guiding philosophy is generally unproblematic.

"Think about it, isn’t that so?"

Lilith thought carefully, and it indeed appeared to be true.

The previous micro-controller steering wheels also followed nearly the same strategy and indeed achieved the goal of gathering negative emotions.

As for why the breakdown happened afterward?

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t the product that broke down, but the game that did, dragging the product down with it.

If the game had simply died a normal death, continuing to contribute negative sentiments, then the peripherals would have continued to contribute negative sentiments as well.

But once there was a problem with the game, the products also started to have problems.

Ultimately, it was an issue with the game, the product’s concept itself was not flawed, and Gu Fan’s approach still seemed to be the best solution for harvesting negative emotions using physical products.

At last, we come back to that familiar question, "Blood of Lies" could be reliable? Could it continue to collect negative emotions without fail in the future?

Lilith wasn’t sure, but from what she could see, it seemed quite hopeful.

After all, the unboxing videos were out, and no one had found any serious bugs so far. Logically speaking, shouldn’t it be half stable by now?

With this kind of mindset, Lilith sat on the sofa eating chips while she continued to watch various streamers’ live broadcasts, closely monitoring the developments of the game.

After the initial period of suffering passed, players began to understand the mechanics of "Blood of Lies" more deeply and gradually moved into the middle and later stages of the game.

Not only was the storyline becoming clearer, but some players who advanced quickly had already reached the game’s end.

It must be said that many players were indeed gaming relentlessly, sleeping only five or six hours a day after the game launched, spending their remaining time in the game. Moreover, some cheaters started to explore the game mechanics after tweaking a few settings, greatly speeding up the decryption of the game’s storyline.

However, as the storyline was explored and the endings became known, controversy surrounding the game surged once again.

This was because players realized that the two endings they had achieved were both bad endings!

This was somewhat frustrating.

The first ending achieved across the internet was the human ending.

This ending was not good, so many players thought that the puppet ending should be a good one, considering most puppet players never lied.

As an honest person, achieving a basic good ending shouldn’t be an issue, right?

Turns out, the puppet ending was also bad?

This slightly shattered the hopes of many players who were full of anticipation.

Of course, the developers had never officially defined what was a good ending or a bad ending, such notions were players’ subjective feelings. But the majority of players did indeed feel that these two endings were far from "good."

Moreover, the presence of these two bad endings severely limited the space for other possible endings.

Usually, there are only 2 to 4 endings in a game.

If there are two, there should be one good and one bad ending; if there are four, then there should be one bad ending, one standard ending, one good ending that follows a specific side quest, and one true good ending.

But now, "Blood of Lies" had two bad endings right off the bat.

Moreover, players felt they had played correctly, so why the bad endings?

Or was it that the game never had a good ending to begin with?

Suddenly, various suspicious voices arose, creating widespread controversy.

According to the information currently held by players, the storyline of "Blood of Lies" could generally be divided into three stages.

Both human and puppet players, despite differences in details, generally followed these three stages.

The first stage was the exploration stage.

In this stage, players arrived in Charlton City in a state of confusion, whether as human or puppet protagonists, seeking to install Puppet Prostheses, cure diseases, and achieve a healthy body, and if possible, heal psychological scars from the battlefield.

But the sudden disaster threw everything into chaos. The protagonists controlled by the players could only search around the city for a way to escape while being forced to fight to save the innocent, and also passively seek out the truth behind all the disasters.

The second stage was the decision-making stage.

In this stage, players had to make numerous choices, such as whether to lie, whether to undergo modifications, and how to respond to NPC requests.

This stage typically began after defeating the Lie Hunter.

Although players had already made decisions to lie or not before the Lie Hunter, there were still opportunities to reverse and change those decisions. However, as the story progressed, many choices would accumulate and become difficult to change, ultimately affecting the final outcome.

During the second stage, players would gradually delve deeper into the truth, encountering the instigators behind the disaster, various secretive cults, and Ancient Gods that drove people to madness.

The third stage was the revelation stage.

After exploring most areas of Charlton City, players could unlock some special maps, most of which were hidden places, like the academy where the offspring of the Ancient Gods were experimented on, or abandoned ports where the Ancient Gods were discovered.

After exploring these Ancient God-related maps, players would return to Charlton City, which by then would have undergone changes, especially the cathedral that would become the scene of the final battle.

In this phase, the storyline was comprehensively displayed, with various conspiracies exposed, and players would face the final outcome based on their earlier choices.