I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 345 - 128: The Astonishing Gamble Setup! Netcom Employee: I Get It!

Chapter 345: Chapter 128: The Astonishing Gamble Setup! Netcom Employee: I Get It!

"Although ’Eternity’ is quite similar to other battle royale games in terms of setting,"

"it has a core mechanic that no other game in the genre possesses."

"Rock-paper-scissors is the absolute core of this game."

These were the first words Ke Jin spoke after closing the project proposal.

If one only heard these words, the whole audience would probably be completely confused.

Rock-paper-scissors?

This probably doesn’t even qualify as a puzzle game, right...

By integrating this element into the game, are you planning to make it for toddlers to play?

Early childhood education, that’s it!

Netcom Maternal and Childcare Company!

But when Ke Jin broke down the logic behind rock-paper-scissors, every employee in the audience had their eyes shining and was greatly shaken!

Rock-paper-scissors itself isn’t very interesting.

An ancient gameplay mechanic that simply revolves around the three choices: rock, paper, scissors.

The gameplay isn’t fresh and is even quite monotonous.

Yet it has been passed down for centuries and still thrives.

There must be a reason for this.

And that reason is game theory.

People have a psychology of competitiveness.

Even without any rewards, just by winning a game of rock-paper-scissors against you, I would feel happy.

Why do I feel happy?

Because I emerged victorious in this game, it proves that at least in this moment, in this event, I am powerful.

This kind of feedback builds confidence and pleasure.

It is a positive and uplifting form of reinforcement.

Getting a headshot on an AI zombie compared to headshotting a real player.

The sense of achievement is completely different.

The pleasure from the latter is obviously much greater.

This is also the key reason why competitive PvP games have a breeding ground to thrive.

The explosive popularity of battle royale games is without a doubt elevating this game theory from one-on-one to one-on-many, one on dozens, or even one on hundreds.

Your opponents are varied, each with their own style and tactics, and yet you are able to emerge victorious, ultimately clinching the first place.

The supreme pleasure that comes from this is something 1v1 fighting games cannot offer.

But this kind of game theory is also powerless.

There is an invisible, natural barrier—the gap in skill.

You might joyfully have looted for fifteen minutes, securing level three armor and helmet, a ghillie suit, and even an AWM in hand.

Only to be headshot by an expert player from a distance.

This sense of frustration could make players not want to touch similar games for a long period of time.

Because bullets are too fast, and they leave limited room for players to react.

Many players did not get to experience the feeling of strategic play; they only felt frustration after being instantly killed.

"So, can we slow down the game theory aspect?"

"Give players a chance to react to it and make corresponding changes, or even counter it move by move."

"There is, rock-paper-scissors," Ke Jin had just finished speaking when a Netcom employee exclaimed loudly from the audience.

"Mr. Ke, I have a question. The rock-paper-scissors you mentioned must be a variant of moves, right? Like, I have an offensive skill, then you have a defensive skill, and a third player has a special skill that can support the offense or strengthen the defense, resulting in strategic interactions. However, our previous game ’See the Sun Again’ was designed based on this logic, but it still tanked."

Some employees echoed this sentiment.

"Yes, we’ve actually discussed this internally before, and the final conclusion was that it’s impossible for a game to keep players engaged in strategic play at all times."

"Even ’Pubg,’ the pioneering battle royale game you created before, Mr. Ke, did not value game theory as much as skill."

"Although everyone knows if game theory could be integrated into the gameplay, it would definitely enhance the game experience, it’s really hard to incorporate... It feels difficult to find this balance."

The crowd discussed with various opinions.

Before ’See the Sun Again’ was overhauled, although it wasn’t a martial arts-themed game, the planners at Netcom were not slackers.

They had also extracted some of the essence similar to what Ke Jin mentioned from ’Pubg.’

For example, game theory.

Therefore, they tried adding some skills that would allow players to engage in strategic play.

But the results were not pronounced.

Before the game was close to shutting down, the most common feedback from players was that the skills were flashy and required too high a learning cost. Although there was interaction between players, there always seemed to be something off.

"Because you did not give each character the ability to use rock + scissors + paper. Instead, you assigned these skills to three different roles, so the person with scissors can only ever use scissors, whether it’s an optimized or an overpowered version of scissors, and they can only defeat characters who use paper," Ke Jin replied indifferently.

"If a player chooses a scissors character, then his role in the game is essentially locked in; he can only go after those paper characters and must avoid fists. The round he experiences is incomplete and unbalanced, and after killing a paper character, the joy from victory is diminished due to innate attribute suppression. Conversely, when defeated by a fists character, because he is naturally at a disadvantage, he will feel even less convinced, believing that he has done everything perfectly but still cannot win, and then his anger is directed at the game itself."

Before coming here, Ke Jin had also analyzed ’See the Sun Again’ and had done his homework.

Its positioning was a bit like an FPS version of ’Eternal Ring,’ stripped of its core gameplay of game theory.

The characters had their own skills, which seemed to interact.