Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 222 - 222: 220: Establishing Rules

“Remove all NPCs to make room for players. Players appear in teams of 10 with basic weapons. The playable area gradually shrinks, forcing players to fight until the last one standing is the winner…”

Lincoln felt a strong sense of déjå vu. How did his original vision of a massive free-for-all battle end up resembling “Battle Royale”?

Is the end of the universe just a Battle Royale?

“This won’t do. It needs to change.” Players might be interested in this gameplay, but Lincoln was already tired of it. Plus, it wasn’t very entertaining. He needed to add something fresh!

“Let’s keep all the NPCs. If all NPCs are gone, there would be no point for the Metropolis Police to go on strike.”

“But if players indiscriminately shoot NPCs…” Randall worriedly said, “It will have a very negative impact, especially if we’re going to live stream.”

“That’s related to what I’m going to say next.” Lincoln simply took over the conversation.

“Introduce a scoring mechanism. Defeat opponents to gain points, accidentally kill Metropolis NPCs to lose points.”

“In the end, when choosing the winner, let’s divide the spots like this: 60% based on score, 40% based on survival ranking. If there’s an overlap, it’ll go to the next person.”

Randall thought about it and hesitated, “Should we add a mechanism so that a team’s total score can’t be o? Otherwise, even if we continuously shrink the players’ survival area, someone could still make it to the end by hiding. That seems unfair to those who actively fight.”

Lincoln pondered, Randall’s point was valid.

Others risk their lives and fight hard to make it to the end. If they don’t get selected due to intense fighting, but those who do nothing but hide make it to the finals, how unfair would that feel?

But if he completely eliminated this hiding-based strategy, he’d feel like it’s a waste.

He quickly thought of a solution, “How about this? We can add a punishment mechanism for passive gamers. Players who haven’t joined a battle for a long time will be marked as passive gamers, and their positions will be displayed on the map for everyone to see.”

“The marker will be removed automatically one minute after joining the battle.

How about that?”

Randall nodded without hesitation, “That works.”

“There’s one more issue.” Randall spoke up again, “Should we place heavy weapons in the event map? Will that affect fair competition?”

There were heavy weapons available in the original Metropolis map. In terms of destructive power, landmines and hand grenades were nothing.

Armored vehicles, mortars, helicopters, even Gatling guns were available!

Though many players would likely never have a chance to get them, and even if they did, they probably wouldn’t know how to operate them.

[Shooting Specialization] skill did not include heavy weapons. Of course, [Driving Expertise] wouldn’t cover helicopters either…

But with so many players, who knows?

What if a team of hidden talents rolled through the streets with armored vehicles and Gatling guns, not held back by Metropolis police? They could sweep the competition!

Unless another team could take a helicopter and fight back with 30mm machine guns…

Randall shook his head vigorously, banishing this absurd idea from his mind. “Keep them,” Lincoln said, even considering adding more heavy weapons for players to have some fun with.

“Anyway, acquiring those weapons is difficult. It’s a skill to obtain them, and the higher risk means higher returns. There’s nothing unfair about it.” Unable to find a reason to object, Randall could only nod, “Alright.”

“Then let’s start preparing today. Add more randomly generated maps outside Metropolis, arrange the locations where players will appear, making sure it can accommodate 10,000 players without squeezing them all together at the start. For the distribution of equipment and supplies, we must control the density and guide players to gather and fight.”

“Understood.” Randall nodded.

After finishing, Lincoln looked at Shen Ping, who was in charge of publicity, “We can start preparing for the event promotion now. This time, post the event announcement two days before the release of Metropolitan News, so players will have time to form teams.”

Shen Ping nodded. Everyone, influenced by the vast majority of netizens, had become accustomed to calling the program “Metropolitan News.” The title “Assassin Weekly” had unknowingly been replaced.

“Alright, everyone go and work on your tasks.”

With a deep sigh, Lincoln wanted to steal some time to rest.

But suddenly, he received a message from the administrative department: the person in charge of Southern Branch’s marketing department had arrived and wanted to discuss cooperation.

“Discuss cooperation? Why are they looking for me?” Lincoln was a bit impatient.

“Didn’t you tell Jerome that if they want to cooperate, they have to come and see you personally?”

Lincoln thought about it, oh, indeed, “Alright then.”

It had been almost a week since the negotiations with the Southern Branch. To Lincoln, this had already been listed as a “past event.” Why are they coming back now to discuss cooperation again?

With mild interest, Lincoln logged off and headed to the resting area.

“Mr. Lin, hello,” The well-dressed person in charge stood up politely and shook hands with him.

“Hello,” Lincoln sat down with him.

‘Meeting Mr. Lin is really not easy. It’s even more difficult than meeting our boss. You must be very busy.”

Lincoln blinked, feeling that something was off with that statement, but he didn’t want to dwell on it. He cut straight to the chase, “Yes, I am quite busy, so what’s the matter?”

The person in charge from Southern Branch, named John, sighed to himself, thinking that a nouveau riche truly didn’t understand etiquette. He didn’t let it show on his face and said, “Of course, it’s to discuss matters of cooperation with you.”

Lincoln frowned. Hadn’t the cooperation already fallen through once? Now they were acting as if nothing had ever happened. Who were they trying to fool?

“What kind of cooperation? Let’s hear it.”

“You should have heard the report from your employees, but I’m willing to explain it to you in detail again.” John appeared very patient.

Lincoln also patiently listened to his explanation, wanting to see if they had changed their minds after a week.

However, all John did was talk incessantly about how powerful Southern Branch’s brand was, its cultural depth, and international influence balabala… He implied that the gaming industry was considered insignificant and could not compete with the mainstream, and that it would be a blessing for Cloud Dream to collaborate with them…

He didn’t say it outright, but it was quite easy to deduce that he didn’t think highly of the gaming industry, despite his respectful demeanor.

Lincoln’s eyebrows furrowed as he listened, but he couldn’t directly confront him since he didn’t explicitly say it.

He turned to look at Cheryl to make sure she hadn’t started filming but was just muttering as she attempted to direct the dog in a scene. Then he called out, “Cheryl, do me a favor and get this… gentleman a glass of water.”

Lincoln had hosted an all-hands meeting, and as soon as it ended, John arrived.

There were only a few administrative girls who were busy handling tasks assigned during the meeting, so they had overlooked serving tea.

Cheryl looked at Lincoln, surprised, but quickly understood and said, “Oh, alright.”

Apart from alcohol, there were all sorts of snacks and beverages in Cloud Dream Studio, but Lincoln specifically requested “a glass of water.”

Cheryl quickly realized that their guest was unwelcome.

So she really took out a pack of disposable paper cups, unsealed one, filled it with water, and brought it over.

She put it in front of their visitor and then served a cup of Lapsang Souchong tea to Lincoln without stopping for a break.

— Cheryl was actually inexperienced with tea art. As someone who studied film directing, she knew nothing about tea art beyond the fact that one shouldn’t drink the first brew. Nevertheless, the main point was to mock their guest, and the effect was spot-on.

At first, John was only curious why Cheryl only served him water and not

Lincoln, but he didn’t think much of it and assumed Lincoln didn’t need any.

However, not long after, he saw her bring a tea cup to Lincoln, and the contrast was glaring!

John’s face stiffened as he realized that Cheryl was still not finished with her performance!

She took out three delicate porcelain bowls from the drawer, filled them with water, and put them on the ground. The cats and dogs gathered obediently around the bowls to drink water.

Cheryl even glanced at John before going back to petting the cats and directing the dog in the “scene.”

John’s eyelids twitched. How could he not understand her meaning now?

— Even dogs had porcelain bowls to drink from, while he only deserved a disposable paper cup?!

He used sheer willpower to suppress the urge to throw the paper cup, and finally lost interest in their roundabout conversation, moving on to the main topic.

However, all Lincoln heard was the old plan: turn all clothing stores in the Metropolis virtual world into Southern Branch’s virtual storefront. These stores would become safe zones and function like an amusement park.

“Hold on, I think we’ve already rejected this plan once.”

“Mr. Lin, don’t rush. A businessman should be mature and make decisions after careful consideration.” John was still confident, “Collaborating with Southern Branch, Cloud Dream will benefit greatly from the brand effects. You have to know that partnering with high-end brands is a rare opportunity! And our offer this time is — a full 10 million!”

“Why wouldn’t you want to earn 10 million for just making some changes in the data?”

Lincoln frowned, “Don’t you have misunderstandings about the gaming industry?”

“What do you mean?” John asked, puzzled.

“Last Saturday, I sold 17 million consoles. Do you need me to help you calculate the total revenue?”

“Last Friday, our new game went live. We made 160 million in just three days.”

“Oh, and regarding the ‘Assassins’ Alliance’ game you want to collaborate on — I don’t know if you’ve done the math. We sold more than 15 million copies at a price of 500 dollars each. What does that add up to?”

John was rendered speechless by these figures. He wanted to argue that his collaboration wouldn’t conflict with their earnings, but…

“This is not a competition of who has more money.” John’s voice became a little bit lower, as this was the power of money.

Does your prestigious Southern Branch have more revenue in a year than I make in a month?

If not, then shut up!

No matter how John promoted the culture, influence, and brand, they couldn’t withstand the gap created by this enormous wealth difference.

“We’re talking about cooperation, a win-win situation. 10 million for advertising is already a generous offer.”

But Lincoln was no longer interested in wasting time and didn’t care much if John’s behavior today was part of some negotiation strategy or if he was just clueless.

He stood up and said, “We don’t need your small change, so keep it for yourself.”

“Don’t mention cooperation again. Please leave..”