Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 499 - 482: Gu Fan’s Little Treasury

Chapter 499: Chapter 482: Gu Fan’s Little Treasury

"Going against the grain?" Lilith was intrigued.

Qin Fengliang explained, "Why do players enjoy playing strategy simulation management games?"

"For me personally, I think one very important reason is the pleasure of controlling everything.

"Watching a small, fringe nation flourish and expand rapidly under my diligent governance, with all indicators improving swiftly, and eventually conquering north and south to unify the whole country, brings me a great sense of achievement.

"Moreover, during the game, even if I fail, I don’t feel too frustrated.

"Because I know, there’s nothing wrong with the game; I’m just not skilled enough. If I try again and fix my previous errors, or simply follow the guide step by step, I can achieve a different result.

"So, traditional management strategy simulation games provide a lot of positive emotions for players.

"It’s a game where a little effort most likely brings a reward."

Lilith nodded slightly, "Hmm, indeed."

She was well aware of this, so she tried to avoid this aspect as much as possible when developing Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon and City of the Abandoned Gods.

However, the solutions at the time were not mature enough and had flaws.

Qin Fengliang continued, "So it’s extremely easy for us to collect negative emotions, just do the opposite!

"Turn the simulation management game into a two-player game, with one player acting as the leader and the other as the bureaucrat.

"The leader has higher authority and can make policies, even to the extent of raiding the bureaucrat’s family and exterminating them.

"However, the player acting as the bureaucrat won’t be eliminated. Even if the bureaucrat he’s currently playing is raided, he will reincarnate as the next bureaucrat.

"The bureaucrat might have less power, but he is responsible for implementing specific policy directives.

"For policies he dislikes, he can defy them in secret by not making much effort to push them through.

"If there is any data that is unfavorable to him, the bureaucrat can choose to alter the data or even hide it altogether, preventing the player acting as the leader from finding out.

"The player acting as the bureaucrat can also, under the appropriate circumstances, choose to betray the country or even attempt a coup.

"Thus, the two players engage in endless intrigue, turning a strategy simulation management game into a PVP game, and then isn’t negative emotion continuously generated?"

Lilith’s eyes shone brighter the more she heard, "Hmm? This indeed sounds like a great idea!"

Previously, Qin Fengliang had mentioned the shortcomings of traditional strategy management simulation games in generating negative emotions, but introducing a two-player mode seemed to solve them all!

For example, traditional strategy games don’t usually induce a severe sense of defeat.

Players are well aware that it’s their own fault, and after restarting the game and correcting previous mistakes, or following the guide, they can achieve a good outcome.

But with the two-player mode, it’s completely different.

Even if they lose, players don’t know exactly why, whether it’s because of their own wrong choices, or if the other player was messing things up?

Most players faced with this situation will first attribute the fault to others, a phenomenon commonly known as blaming.

Trying again might not necessarily solve the problem either.

Because each situation changes, the other player might not cooperate 100%, and even if they want to follow a guide, it’s unlikely the two players will agree.

Not to mention those players who specifically cause trouble—if you happen to play with such players, then you’re really in for it.

As for various minor frictions and accidents during this process, they continually produce negative emotions.

Of course, the special case where players cooperate sincerely isn’t excluded.

For instance, if one player is extremely compliant, unconditionally accommodating the other, there might not arise too much negative emotion.

But such cases are after all rare.

Qin Fengliang added, "Not only that, President Li, there is another great aspect of this approach—it doesn’t require us to worry too much about the fake-AI issue.

"Because the truly important decisions are made by the players."

Lilith suddenly nodded, "Oh, right!"

Why had they suffered badly from fake-AI before?

Mainly because, in single-player games, players interacted with the AI.

This interaction could easily lead to unexpectedly special situations.

But in a two-player mode, even if players interact with the AI, it would only make the situation more chaotic.

For example, if the leader player is already suspecting the bureaucrat player, and at that moment, a fake-AI NPC suddenly reports in secret that the bureaucrat player has a rebellious tendency...

Wow, think about the thrill!

It could blow your mind.

It’s hard for players to trust another player, and similarly, they can’t fully trust a fake-AI.

The original player-AI mode was like a stable binary star motion, easy to recognize its pattern.

But now, with the introduction of another player, the system has formed a chaotic system of player-player-AI, becoming completely perplexing.

"Good, very good!"

Lilith was pleased. She excitedly stood up and paced a few steps, her previously downcast mood from Blood of Lies instantly swept away.

Of course, for Lilith at this moment, Blood of Lies still had much follow-up work to be done, and she could attempt to make a last-ditch effort.

But with the new game idea, she almost immediately dismissed Blood of Lies, now fully focused on the new game.

"Have you decided on what type of simulation management game background to create?" Lilith eagerly asked.

Qin Fengliang shook his head, "No, President Li, you know I’m not so good at these details.

"I just provided a general direction—what specific background to use is up to you."

Lilith nodded, "Okay, you’ve done well; that was not easy, thank you!

"I’ll take care of the rest!"

Although it was settled that they would make a two-player strategy management simulation game, there were actually many possible themes.

For instance, they could do ancient war themes, modern business management themes, future sci-fi war themes, or even apocalypse survival themes...

Almost any story background can be seamlessly integrated.

"Okay, I’ll give it some serious thought."

"If this endeavor proves successful, you shall be the chief contributor!"

Lilith left, filled with ambition.

...

The next afternoon.

At a corner of a coffee shop near the villa area.

"Your recent performance has been quite remarkable, and Heaven has collected a record high of Positive Emotion Value.

"Keep up the good work and maintain it."

Xiamiel set her glasses aside, her expression dignified, giving an impression of leadership even more than Gu Fan.

However, after she took a sip from the coffee on the table, she couldn’t help but frown.

"Too sweet."

Gu Fan didn’t say anything, just quietly scoffed to himself, thinking she should have ordered an Americano if she found it too sweet...

Despite complaining about the sweetness, Xiamiel kept drinking it, the epitome of saying one thing but doing another.

Gu Fan cleared his throat, "Of course, Mr. Xia, I would brave any danger to gather Positive Emotion for Heaven!

"Even though President Li... oh no, the despicable Hell Demon on her side is being extremely wary of me, trying all means to sideline me, I still withstood the pressure and completed the task flawlessly.

"Mr. Xia, do you think it’s possible to slightly increase my commission?

"I’m not asking for much, just an additional 5%."

Xiamiel set down her coffee and after a moment of thought, responded, "5% might be unlikely, but I could possibly do 2% within my authority."

Gu Fan was pleased, "No problem, I’m happy with 2%."

Xiamiel, curious, asked, "I’m actually wondering how much Positive Emotion you’ve accumulated so far?

"You don’t seem to be using much Positive Emotion to create happiness or good luck for yourself, are you saving it up?"

Gu Fan replied earnestly, "Of course, those Positive Emotions are meant to leverage even more for Heaven; how could I use them for pleasure?

"I’m not that kind of person."

Xiamiel’s lips twitched slightly, "Come on, you humans never tell the truth.

"But that doesn’t matter, if you didn’t have this quality, you wouldn’t be able to fool the clever Lilith.

"As long as you continue to work diligently for Heaven, I can turn a blind eye to many things."

Gu Fan quietly muttered to himself, what did she mean by "clever Lilith"?

Heaven and Hell indeed have an excellent matching mechanism.

Heaven appointed their best angel, Xiamiel, to compete against Lilith, and now Xiamiel feels intellectually matched with her.

It was somewhat difficult to maintain a straight face.

As an angel, Xiamiel could indeed see traces of Gu Fan using Positive Emotion.

As a human, Gu Fan could only utilize Positive Emotion in two ways: happiness and luck.

They could be used on others as well as himself.

Take happiness, for instance, Gu Fan could choose to consume a certain amount of Positive Emotion Value to increase the happiness a specific group of players derived from the game, thereby leveraging more Positive Emotion Value.

Similarly, Gu Fan could also directly use Positive Emotion Value to make himself happy.

However, if he used these Positive Emotions on himself, as an angel, Xiamiel would be able to see the traces.

That’s why Xiamiel was surprised, as so far, Gu Fan showed no signs of using Positive Emotion on himself.

Was this human’s will so strong?

Generally, it’s difficult to control curiosity and not try it out, right?

Obviously, Gu Fan believed he was currently treading on thin ice; what if he became overly happy and let his guard down around Lilith, leading to a mishap?

That could result in a lifelong regret.

By now, he couldn’t count on angels to save him.

So far, Gu Fan had cautiously used Positive Emotion to leverage even more.

Either creating some unique coincidences or enhancing the happiness specific groups derived from the game.

With such meticulous calculation, Gu Fan’s accumulated Positive Emotion Value had reached an astonishing number.

Specifically: 2.59 million.

This number would likely make Xiamiel envious.

After all, the initial Positive Emotion Value Xiamiel used for Gu Fan’s test was only 1 million, and Lilith was happy with just several hundred thousand of Negative Emotion Value.

Of course, Gu Fan had no intention of revealing this number to anyone, including Xiamiel.

As for why he hoarded so much like a stockpiler, it was naturally due to Gu Fan’s sense of crisis.

He was worried that Lilith might suddenly come up with something big one day.

In that special case, a large amount of Positive Emotion would be his backing to turn the tables and continue his covert operations.

Naturally, Gu Fan’s commission was 10%. Considering these games had already accumulated at least 40 million Positive Emotion Value for Heaven, Xiamiel likely had a rough estimate of the actual Positive Emotion Value Gu Fan had received.

But as for how much he had spent, she had no idea.

Thus, Xiamiel was also unaware of the exact number in Gu Fan’s private vault.

"Lilith’s next game, can you predict what it will be?" Xiamiel had finished her coffee.

Gu Fan shook his head, "Of course, I can’t predict.

"If it were just her, I might try to guess, but she likely has some other advisors.

"I’m not very familiar with these advisors, so naturally, I can’t predict.

"But it doesn’t matter, we’ll handle whatever comes our way. When the game design plan is out, we can slowly think of strategies during the development process."