Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 541 - 524: The Power of Public Opinion

Chapter 541: Chapter 524: The Power of Public Opinion

"Not at all, not at all, that would just be too unreasonable!

"How could I think of Game Light Nitiandang in such a way?"

Gan Di found this line of reasoning to be utterly absurd.

Since it wasn’t about deliberately disgusting the player, then such a design was very interesting.

Gan Di watched the silicon-based dwarves bustling on the screen while seriously pondering the true purpose of Nitiandang’s game design mechanism.

"Could it be... that this deep game mechanic is actually emphasizing the importance of public opinion?

"This kind of gameplay is actually a third path, beyond the leader and Governor!"

Gan Di reviewed his past gaming experiences and suddenly realized this.

Originally, "Star Plan" only had three different modes of play:

The first was the leader overwhelming the Governor, ending in a path of the Governors acting as dogs to a solitary autocratic leader;

The second was the Governor overwhelming the leader, ending in a path where the Governor pledges by the Comet, plotting to seize power;

The third was the standard ending that many people played out, in which the leader and Governor compromised and cooperated with each other, and then left the Comet together.

At first, everyone was reaching the standard ending, but soon people discovered that this game could be played as a zero-sum game, and so they fell into mutual scheming and internal consumption.

Especially after the iconic event of "pledging by the Comet," it became increasingly difficult for the leader and Governor to trust each other, and matchmaking with strangers almost turned into a Dark Forest.

If it stopped there, what is "Star Plan" as a game? Could it be considered an excellent game?

That is arguably debatable.

Because from the entire political structure, these three endings, after all, are just the interplay between the leader and Governor and can be said to resemble plotlines of princes and generals in ancient novels.

But what about the silicon-based dwarves on the Comet?

Throughout the whole process, they were utterly unnoticed tools without any sense of presence.

Clearly, that wasn’t reasonable.

Because these silicon-based dwarves are also sentient beings, they have certain subjective initiatives; by the middle and late game, they could even cause trouble, not only by creating various group incidents and making demands but by actually inserting parts into the production lines and causing sabotage.

Do these silicon-based dwarves not deserve to influence the game’s ending?

Clearly, they do.

The silicon-based dwarves are precisely the real builders of the Comet; without their arduous labor, the miracle of the Star Plan could never be achieved.

Compared with the Governor, who personally plans all the construction schemes, or the leader who holds the power and sets the plan’s objectives, although they also play a very key role in the success or failure of the Star Plan, they are ultimately replaceable.

Only these silicon-based dwarves truly cannot be replaced.

Hence, there’s an additional line in the game, and that’s the one in which these silicon-based dwarves truly exert their subjective initiative.

That is the line Gan Di was trying out at the moment.

Or to be precise, there are actually two lines:

If the leader and Governor both indulge in apathy, caught in meaningless, endless internal consumption, then the Comet will quickly head toward destruction—this is the "Internal Consumption Ending";

But conversely, if one party wakes up in such internal consumption, for instance, if the leader doesn’t want to wallow in apathy and wishes to play seriously, then it’s entirely possible to bypass the Governor by improving public opinion and complete the Star Plan.

Viewed from this angle, the game’s depth and freedom of choice just ascended to another level!

"I see now, this ties everything together!

"This hidden ending is actually emphasizing the role of public opinion, which is to say, it’s emphasizing that the people are the movers and creators of history and are truly the backbone of completing the ’Star Plan’!

"And whether you’re the leader or the Governor, no matter how intelligent or clever, you must rely on the masses to exert any power.

"Why does the game set the halting of the Comet as the final tally point?

"I think this is obviously a political allegory!

"Every planet, every civilization, has a lifespan and a cyclical law.

"If the players do not fully deploy the power of the masses, once they leave the Comet, they will perish along with their governance."

"The leader and the Governor, no matter how excellent, no matter how wise, are ultimately bound for extinction.

"If the player chooses not to enable popular wisdom, then the moment the leader and the Governor leave the Comet, they are essentially setting off down Old Lu’s path.

"Even if on the surface, the Comet civilization has reached its most prosperous era, what follows is just a meaningless cycle.

"Therefore, the game decisively cuts off at this point because the plot afterward just repeats itself, and there is no point in continuing.

"Only when popular wisdom is fully enabled does the whole Comet civilization actually retain its vitality, no longer the stage for the leader or the Governor, but for all silicon-based life.

"So, whether it’s the Silicon-based dwarves staying on the Comet or those who’ve arrived at the new planet, their activities can keep this save going forever because every day that follows is a new one!"

After summarizing, Gan Di suddenly felt an epiphany.

But someone quickly raised a question,

"Ah? But isn’t enabling popular wisdom not 100% successful? If the Governor disrupts the process, the ending can’t be achieved, right?"

Obviously, one important reason why Gan Di was able to achieve this ending was that the initial Governor player chose to idle.

If that Governor had nothing better to do and just stayed on watch, tearing down every building the Silicon-based dwarves built, it would have been very hard to develop in the early stages.

Because although the leader could execute the Governor, it still had to follow due process. In the time it took to do so, the Governor could have caused significant damage, greatly reducing the survival rate of those Silicon-based dwarves.

Gan Di nodded, "That’s true, but that doesn’t conflict with my conclusion, does it?

"While the power of the people is strong and full of endless possibilities, if there is a clear reactionary force among the Governor or the leader, that too can lead to disaster.

"If you look at human history, it’s like some key historical figures making mistakes with consequences that last for millennia, or even leading to centuries of great chaos.

"Even worse, it could lead to the direct extinction of a tribe.

"So, the Star Plan’s approach doesn’t overly emphasize the importance of public opinion, nor does it claim that the people will certainly triumph once they exert their power. It can only be established under certain specific conditions."

Another member of the audience asked, "Then why hide it? Why not just open a separate tree for popular wisdom?"

Gan Di explained, "That’s where the brilliance lies!

"Because the option to invoke popular wisdom is also hidden in reality, the game is clearly an homage!

"Think about it, in reality, in the long, ancient societies spanning thousands of years, wasn’t it all about the great man theory? It was the constant struggle between Emperors and ministers. And the common people below them, what were they?

"Exercising the power of the masses has never been a transparent option.

"If the game made it a separate tech line, it would be directly telling players they could play that way, and then they wouldn’t need to think anymore, right?

"On the other hand, hiding it and cleverly splitting it into the leader and Executive branches not only confuses players but also aligns with reality.

"If the player, as a leader, only increases public opinion to a limited extent to restrict the Governor and starts to control or stop the improvement of public opinion once they think it’s too strong, that public opinion will never truly awaken.

"Only by wholeheartedly enhancing public opinion, not viewing these Silicon-based dwarves as troublemakers or their actions as disruptive, can their true potential be realized."

At first, the streaming audience thought these views were far-fetched, but the more they listened, the more it seemed to make some sense.

Didn’t it mysteriously all match up?

Of course, everyone understood that Gan Di’s explanation certainly included some overinterpretation, but overinterpretation presupposes that the gameplay and reality share enough coincidences to allow for it.

Without coincidence, where would the space for overinterpretation come from?

Everyone was aware that the two biggest highlights of the Star Plan game were the traditional production line gameplay and the simulation of politics.

Whether players were engaged in PVP mind games or acting as Governors to nefariously plan population purges of the elderly, both inherently carried strong political metaphors that could be mapped onto reality.

This political simulation effect is precisely the highlight of the game.

Of course, there were also complaints that the politics in the Star Plan game were too simple, just the leader and Governor in a cyclical power struggle.

And now, isn’t it less simplistic?

Turns out the fake-AI is also a variable!

The more Gan Di thought about it, the more he felt it made sense. "In that case, Nitiandang’s design for the ’game settlement mechanism’ seems even better than what any of us originally anticipated!

"Before, we just thought about using mods to extend the gameplay, but that would essentially be breaking the game’s own mechanics from the outside.

"Whereas Nitiandang’s approach is clearly more natural and profound!"

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.