Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

Chapter 17.1: Anti-Harassment Protocol

While 8 a.m. wasn't ideal for a server launch during the long holiday where most people tended to sleep in, "OtherWorld" had garnered high levels of interest from both helmet-owning gamers and helmet-less internet trolls due to the prevalence of live streams, mocking videos, and sarcastic essays regarding the game.

That was why, despite the announcement for the server opening at 7 a.m. on the same day, "OtherWord" was able to achieve over 90% of registered players coming online when the server opened at 8.

And then… before even half an hour passed, more than 50 of these over 280 players were disconnected.

So, what would these unfortunate players do during the half-hour "resurrection cooldown" in real time?

Naturally, they went to the official website's message board to engage in fierce wars of words with online trolls.

While it was frustrating for players to learn that they would have to wait a day to download the in-game screenshots they had taken, it didn't dampen their spirits much. They had finally played the game, experiencing being slain by highly intelligent NPCs generated by the game's artificial intelligence.

Thus, even without screenshots, these players confronted both the "willing to pay gamers" as well as the internet trolls that were smearing the game.

With a full 30-minute "resurrection cooldown" on their hands, they had some free time.

After venting their frustrations during the cooldown, they went back online to continue playing as the new batch of "deceased and forcibly kicked offline" players took their places.

However, despite the game's players battling in turns, the official site's message board, which allowed commenting without a login, was still overwhelmed.

The reasons for this were simple. Vanilla Pudding's viral video had attracted excessive attention, and the long National Day holiday meant that there were too many idle people that found it enjoyable to group up and launch attacks without any consequences or risks.

Yang Qiu was about to upload some entertaining clips of players dying on the official site when he noticed the message board was in a more chaotic state than ever before. After mulling for a moment, he posted a notice saying that the message board would be closed in 24 hours.

Then, he spent a small fee to get a college student he found online to create a player forum. The forum had no moderator nor administration, a single section, and required a registration in order to post anything.

Afterward, Yang Qiu couldn't be bothered to manage it. He checked to make sure the seal on the Earth server room was intact before leaving for the magic plane to deal with players wanting to boost their reputation with the Mage Apprentice Instructor despite not even reaching level 1.

Ignoring the reactions caused by Yang Qiu's decision to shut the message board on the official site, the real commotion was stirred by a video titled "50 Dumb Ways for Beta Players to Die," released by the game's development team…

This video had the same background and art style as Vanilla Pudding's previously released game footage. It showcased the deserted Exile Town, where ID-bearing skeletons ran rampant, and human NPCs indistinguishable from actual people in movies as well as the methods used by these NPCs when killing skeleton players.

The video posted on the official website surpassed 100,000 views within half an hour and continued to gain traction due to its ease of sharing.

Players who had previously obtained login helmets but sold them away before binding a game account to it couldn't help but curse when they saw the video.

At noon on the day of the open beta, the first batch of players logging off normally for lunch visited the official site to find that both the message board, which allowed non-verified comments, and the new official forum, which required a registration, were filled with messages and posts begging to buy helmets…

"Hahahaha, if only you guys saw this coming!"

"Give up already! Once the helmet is bound to a character via the official site, it can't be transferred anymore! Moreover, anyone that's willing to sell now is definitely a scammer!"

"Moderator, please do your job. Why is the entire forum flooded with posts begging to buy helmets?"

"I would like to thank the studio buddy who scammed me three days ago, selling me a helmet at 300 yuan and claiming it would increase in value. Thanks a lot! I've already bound my character and played the game. It's really awesome, no regrets!"

"Hahaha, I also bought a helmet from a studio. They sold it to me for 300 yuan and now are asking if I'm willing to sell it back to them for 500 yuan! Too late, I've already started playing!"

Having been intimidated by the external public opinion and spending the past few days anxious because of the doubt, this group of players now found themselves standing in an unbeatable position. Therefore, it would be strange if they didn't indulge in wild taunting.

Of course, besides deriding "outsiders," the atmosphere among the players themselves wasn't exactly harmonious. Scrolling past the huge influx of buying posts, there were some discussions by players regarding the issue of unfairness within the game. (The following content is from a post made by user Tell Me A Tale)

"SMH, this game is fun, but are the game devs brain-dead? A randomized Potential system that doesn't allow players to reset their characters or reroll initial stats. What were they thinking? Aren't they afraid of the players' backlash?"

"Get lost if you don't want to play. With the realism of this black technology, I reckon that I can even become a special forces soldier in a year."

"I just don't get it. Having fixed Potential values would benefit everyone, but why insist that some people have to eat sh*t? Do they not eat enough sh*t on their own and want others to suffer too?"

"Maybe the game devs have their reasons. After all, the beta just started, and it's too early to draw conclusions. Besides that, I've been gaming for so many years and have never heard of this game developer before. Let's be a little more tolerant of small studios."

While these players that logged off were having their lunch and participating in a debate over whether Potential values were fixed or not, a player with the ID "Ou Huang" suddenly jumped in and drew animosity by saying, "Am I the only one who finds random Potential values interesting? How would we be able to exhibit our uniqueness in OtherWorld if everyone is the same? Of course, my Potential values are maxed out, JK."

As a result, comments such as "Ou Huang must die," "Get lost," and other derogatory remarks appeared beneath his post.

At this point, another player, "Unceasing Entropy,'' posted her thesis: "Compared to discussing whether it's fair to have fixed Potential values, I think we should first consider the principles behind our operations in the game.

"My friend mentioned to me that our actions in the game should be accomplished by brain waves since we are wearing helmets. This idea seemed slightly presumptuous, but after careful consideration, I realized that it made sense.

"Proof being that high-intensity activity in the game seems to make us hungry quicker.

"If we say that we consume 'brain power' during the process of playing the game, then that said process should be concentrating and carrying out a certain sort of labor. And this feedback to our bodies in reality means that sugar and calories are consumed faster.

"Thus, could it be possible that people with stronger brains, mental strength, and ability have higher Potential values?

"Of course, I don't have any more reliable evidence to support this conjecture at the moment, so everything is just speculation. However, I still insist that there is a correlation. After all, among the three closed beta players whose Potential we know, Blossoming Strokes, who has the highest Potential value, is quite a bigshot web author with a completed six million-word of relatively high quality.

"Her Potential Value is as high as 48, and she should be 49 now. Compared to the player above who claims to have maxed out Potential value after logging in, Blossoming Strokes should be the player we know closest to leveling up.

"By the way, I'm just an average straight-A student from a second-tier college. My initial Potential was 45, and after playing in the morning, it's now at 46."