Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 497 - 480: A More Willing Explanation to Believe

Chapter 497: Chapter 480: A More Willing Explanation to Believe

"Utter nonsense, it’s just utter nonsense!"

Lilith was fuming with anger; she simply could not understand why such a far-fetched conclusion could gain so much agreement from the audience.

However, it was clear that as the views on this video continued to rise, the public opinion online had started to shift.

The situation had now developed into something akin to a dispute between the "Bug Faction" and the "Mechanism Faction."

Originally, in City of the Abandoned Gods, the Bug Faction held the absolute upper hand, with most people believing that manipulating dynamic difficulty and GP judgment frames were absolute bugs.

Because they did indeed look like classic bugs: the former was a typical floating-point error in the programming, while the latter was a hereditary skill from Legend of Infinity Fantasy.

But with the emergence of the anchor fraud scandal, the Mechanism Faction resurfaced.

And began to gain more and more support.

The reason was nothing else but that these two bugs matched too well with the game plot and the real-life anchor fraud incident, almost seamlessly.

Moreover, there was the addition of fervent fans of Nitiandang and the anchors bolstering this wave.

For these two groups of dedicated fans, "fraud" was absolutely an unacceptable term.

The games of Nitiandang had always had a very good reputation and had accrued quite a fan base.

Similarly, for the event this time, Nitiandang had invited famous anchors with good images, who also had their own group of hardcore fans.

Originally, facing indisputable evidence, they could only accept the term "fraud" and chose to remain silent.

But now that they had found an explanation they were more willing to believe, wouldn’t they grasp it eagerly?

Wang’s video next door served as casting a brick to attract jade; he proposed the main theoretical framework, and the task for these fans was to continue to seek more details that could testify under this framework and to spread this theory widely.

Suddenly, numerous posts in the comment sections of forums discussing the "Nitiandang Anchor Fraud Incident" began to vehemently proclaim a "turnaround."

The volume of voices from this group was indeed terrifying.

It should be noted that City of the Abandoned Gods originally had a fragmented plotline, which strictly speaking, isn’t even qualified to be discussed as "good" or "bad" as it wasn’t a complete story at all; how could one evaluate it?

But the most opportunistic aspect of a fragmented plot is that players will fill in the blanks with their own conceptions, imagining a plotline they consider to be the best.

Just as when people look in the mirror, they also feel they look better than they do in photos, because the human brain automatically omits undesirable parts and imagines a better appearance.

With a multitude of interpretations available, every player could find an analysis that matched their expectations.

Thus, the originally neutral spectators were also swayed.

Interestingly, many literary works have a particular threshold.

When a literary work scores below 60 points, its original merits are also ignored, becoming worthless;

But when a literary work exceeds 90 points, its faults are also regarded as merits, and it might even receive many exaggerated interpretations that get reiterated and endure for a long time.

City of the Abandoned Gods was exactly such a peculiar work, having just surpassed this threshold among its core player base, thus its original faults were covered by increasingly complex analyses.

...

Seeing the change in online public opinion, Li Wenhao finally breathed a sigh of relief.

That was incredibly close, almost a total disaster!

Although there were still many criticisms, overall, it was somewhat salvaged.

It wasn’t a complete redemption, but at least they avoided total ruin.

For these anchors, maintaining their base was most crucial. During such serious public opinion crises, what mattered was not providing the most perfect, most reasonable explanation, but rather providing an explanation that their base was willing to believe—and doing it quickly.

Although this explanation wasn’t particularly reasonable, as long as the base believed it, the objective was achieved.

This video was a result of the collective efforts.

Li Wenhao proposed the initial concept, Chen Tingquan perfected the game’s story part, Gan Di analyzed the two hidden mechanisms, and ultimately everyone turned to Wang next door, who was tasked with recording and releasing the video.

After all, Wang hadn’t participated in this event and appeared to be an impartial third party, so having him release it was less likely to provoke the netizens’ antagonism.

The other participating anchors and content creators did some degree of cooperation—that is, they acquiesced.

These anchors had unified their views from the start: although the currently proposed explanation could effectively confuse the public, if it were put forth or enthusiastically promoted by the anchors themselves, it would likely prompt users’ opposition, creating an impression of "whitewashing."

Therefore, the best approach for the anchors was to coolly accept, simply acknowledging.

This tactic, though unscrupulous, was also very effective.

Moreover, many anchors genuinely agreed with the content of the video and regarded this so-called "fraud activity" as a part of Nitiandang’s promotion for City of the Abandoned Gods.

What else could they do?

Surely we couldn’t actually admit to being fraudsters, could we?

Whenever anyone makes a mistake, they subconsciously excuse themselves or seek a rationale for their actions.

If the explanation in the video was to be followed, although this event might have caused harm to some players by making them mistakenly think the game was easy and enticing them in, it also created talking points and fun outside the game, balancing the good with the bad, right?

If we don’t go by the explanation in the video, then... then it would just be pure malice, and the anchors themselves couldn’t quite accept that either.

In such a confusing situation, the discussions regarding this event had shifted from factual debates to positional arguments.

Nitiandang’s employees believed the truth of the matter should be as interpreted in the video;

So did the streamers;

As did Nitiandang’s core players, die-hard fans, and the fans of the streamers;

Even many of the original Mechanism faction players and fence-sitters thought the same.

Who thought otherwise?

Players who were more serious, black fans of Nitiandang and the streamers, as well as President Li herself.

Unfortunately, the latter group was in the minority and naturally had a smaller voice, putting them in a disadvantaged position. Hence, their voices could hardly be amplified online and were quickly drowned out.

"I don’t understand, I just don’t understand!

"What on Earth is going on here?"

In the Infernal Hell’s Haunted House, Lilith looked like a defeated rooster, her twin ponytails drooping sadly.

From the data, it was evident that although the "Nitiandang Streamer Fraud Incident" had indeed sparked an online controversy, it had virtually no negative impact on Blood of Lies’ reputation and sales; in fact, there was even an increase.

As for the collection of negative emotions?

There was no ground to even start discussing that.

Instead, it generated more positive emotions!

Players, initially furious about the unreasonable mechanics, suddenly found reasonable explanations for these issues once the video’s interpretation spread.

Unreasonable Dynamic Difficulty? This was actually in line with the game’s themes!

Two bugs? Those weren’t bugs at all but hidden mechanics, officially encouraged. Just use them freely without any guilt.

Thus, players began enjoying their game experience more, internal frictions disappeared, and the negative emotions Lilith sought to collect naturally vanished too.

From a direct cause perspective, Qin Fengliang was definitely to blame.

If she hadn’t decided to play this trump card, selling out all the streamers, they wouldn’t have ended up shooting themselves in the foot.

But could you really blame Qin Fengliang?

Even if Lilith wanted someone to take the fall, it was hard to pin this on Qin Fengliang.

Who could have expected such a turn of events!

The explanations in the video were a result of multiple coincidental factors. For example, the plot design of Blood of Lies, and the accidental bugs.

If even one or two of these elements had been absent, the video’s claims wouldn’t have gained wide acceptance, and Qin Fengliang’s plan to harvest negative emotions would have succeeded.

But all these coincidences did happen.

At this moment, Lilith felt like "It’s my destiny not to succeed," so much so that she lost the will to blame Qin Fengliang and felt an inexplicable kinship with her.

"President Li, I..." Qin Fengliang herself felt a bit embarrassed.

However, Lilith, quite magnanimously, waved her hand and said somewhat dejectedly, "Don’t mention it, I know it’s not your fault.

"From the moment you suggested it, you did all you could. It’s just... it seems luck isn’t on our side."

Qin Fengliang was startled, "President Li, although we’ve failed again, you mustn’t give up! Up to now, Nitiandang hasn’t explored many types of games, and there’s still a vast potential out there!

"Moreover, although we are currently at a loss for negative emotions, the negative emotions previously collected are still there. We can still make a comeback!"

Hearing this, Lilith’s mood improved significantly.

Indeed, someone still supports me unreservedly!

Although Qin Fengliang hadn’t been able to contribute much to Lilith’s plans, her initial ideas for Blood of Lies were good.

It was just a near-success.

Perhaps giving her another chance would make a difference?

Of course, Lilith also knew that relying solely on Qin Fengliang wasn’t enough. The flaws in their plan sprang ultimately from a lack of collective strategy.

The power of one person is ultimately limited.

Perhaps bringing together all trusted individuals to execute an idea might have a good effect?

But before that, it was necessary to settle on an idea or at least a type for the new game.

"What do you think would be a good type for our new game?" Lilith asked.

After a moment’s thought, Qin Fengliang replied, "President Li, do you have any thoughts on a strategy-based business simulation game?"

Hearing this, Lilith was somewhat deflated, "That, we’ve already tried. Isn’t City of the Abandoned Gods just that? That damned fake-AI, I swear I’ll never cooperate with it!"

Qin Fengliang felt slightly disappointed, "Oh? Already tried that? That’s a pity.

"So, President Li, how about we completely skip the fake-AI this time and do a two-player cooperative strategy business simulation game? What do you think?"

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