I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 612 - 192: Malicious Acquisition and Urgent Call for Help! Please Help Me, Top Player!_1

Chapter 612: Chapter 192: Malicious Acquisition and Urgent Call for Help! Please Help Me, Top Player!_1

It’s no wonder that the executives at Hope Flute held such disdain for the ’open world’ concept proposed by the top player.

After all, this concept was not exactly novel on Blue Star.

As early as around the turn of the millennium, designers had proposed such concepts.

Of course.

The term wasn’t ’open world games’; it was ’Infinite games’.

As the name implies.

The idea was to liberate players from the constraints of linear gameplay, replacing a single path with an expansive surface, thus creating endless possibilities for gameplay.

However, more than twenty years after the concept was proposed, not a single ’Infinite game’ had been created.

In the early days, there were indeed a few gaming factories of reasonable size that started working on this genre.

When the development of the games reached the internal testing phase, a group of players was invited to experience them.

But the results left the game designers thoroughly disillusioned.

Even though they had made a considerable effort to fill a large map with various elements,

nearly all the players who participated in the internal testing still followed the linear structure of the main storyline provided by the game.

As a result, nearly 80% of the game map’s content went unexplored.

Latter, when the game publishers collected feedback from the beta testers, the majority of the conclusions were—

’It doesn’t attract me enough,’ ’It feels uninteresting,’ ’There are so many side quests that I get a headache just looking at them; I simply don’t want to do them,’ ’I can guess that there might be some weird and wonderful things waiting for me further away, but what’s the point of exploring? I genuinely don’t care whether what’s ahead is a singing flower or a moving stone; none of it helps me level up.’

When one or two players say this, it might just be a matter of personal taste.

But when nearly all the internal test players say so,

the game publishers have to consider whether ’Infinite games’ are truly viable or just an impractical fantasy.

And just at that time, the ability of massively multiplayer online games to make money had proven their potency to game publishers worldwide.

Together with the rise of card-drawing, character-developing games alongside high-quality graphics and model-intensive, heavy-spending games.

Since then, ’Infinite games’ began to be ’indefinitely shelved’ by the various big game publishers of Blue Star

Because the multiple problems of ’huge but hollow maps that fail to attract players, where players still follow a linear narrative to play the game,’ remained unsolved.

It gradually became an old almanac.

So much so that the newer generation of players had never even heard of the ’Infinite game’ genre that once existed on Blue Star.

However, those working at Hope Flute were acutely aware of the history of game development.

Countless predecessors had already stumbled and made mistakes, including some influential manufacturers; tasks which they could not accomplish.

And now you, the top player, think that by changing the name of ’Infinite games’ to ’open world,’ players will take the bait?

If it were really so simple that by filling a map with stuff players would naturally start exploring,

why would we need you to do it?

We would have done it long ago!

The fact that it’s been shelved for so many years just shows that ’Infinite games’ are not feasible!

And so,

when they heard from Conna that the top player was preparing to attempt ’open world,’

all the top executives at Hope Flute couldn’t help but laugh in contempt.

Everyone laughed, but only Kate couldn’t bring himself to do so.

He had personally experienced the three games that the top player showcased at the game design conference.

Although Kate himself wasn’t clear on how the top player would solve the dilemma of ’a map full of stuff failing to attract players to explore,’

could the chief designer who created ’Isaac,’ with its multitude of item combinations and a variety of gameplay, really not have considered these factors?

Or was it that... the top player was also groping his way across the river by feeling the stones?

After pondering fruitlessly for a moment, Kate shook his head helplessly.

Although he didn’t get along with George, perhaps he wasn’t wrong about one thing.

It seemed like he really had turned into Ke Yi’er.

As soon as he heard that it was the top player, that Ke Jin himself was leading the team to create the game,

it always seemed to him that this game was very mysterious.

Now, even when things were still speculative, Kate couldn’t help feeling that his own company was going to be trounced...

This thought was unacceptable.

’Never mind, maybe I am indeed overthinking it.’

’So many Blue Star designers have proven it to be a dead end; the top player probably won’t make a difference.’

’Perhaps it’s more about the hype.’

As Kate muttered to himself, Conna caught the reactions of everyone in the boardroom.

If no one took the matter seriously, then there was no need for him to regard this up-and-coming company from East Asia as a rival.

Consequently, Conna tapped on the table to quiet everyone down, then announced a second piece of news.

It was less of a discussion than an announcement.

"Following the board’s instructions, Hope Flute is preparing to acquire Gaul’s largest gaming platform—Nplay. Everyone get ready; once the acquisition is complete, we’ll need you to send some staff to Gaul to take over the platform."

Upon hearing this, the top executives at Hope Flute just blinked momentarily before regaining their composed demeanors.

Although Conna used the word ’acquisition’ here,

those who were altogether familiar with Hope Flute’s practices knew very well this was clearly another routine hostile takeover.