Shepherding Humanity

Xu Zhi had only been playing around when he started this little trial run, but who knew that there were so many talented people on the internet? There was even a “master game designer” with an amazing imagination.

“It’s such a waste that you didn’t become a designer in a game company with that kind of talent.”

After thinking for a moment, Xu Zhi decided to proceed according to Learning Medicine’s plans. After all, the workload was quite small, and he would only have to do two things:

One, create a way for people to login.

He had to create a game character capable of letting hundreds of people log in one after another.

Any programmer would be able to solve this simple problem, let alone the Hive Mind’s advanced AI, whose original functions were computation and programming.

Two, adjust the sandbox’s excessively fast time flow.

It was fine for a small number of people to experience a hundred years in a day, but that was too much for the general public. Who knew what kind of problem would crop up down the line?

“Perhaps, I should reduce it by a hundred times, from a hundred years to a day to a year to a day.”

Xu Zhi readjusted the time flow. “A minute outside will be equivalent to 6 hours inside the game… But 6 hours of gaming each day is still too much.”

Then, he’ll have to limit each person’s daily login time to 30 seconds, the equivalent of 3 hours in-game.

“It’s still a miraculous level of technology. This should be enough.” Xu Zhi thought.

Countless people will take turns logging in for 30 seconds. This should be enough to maintain a 24hrs/day online presence.

“As for how they’ll login, I’ll leave it as a “quickdraw battle” like before. Whoever's faster will get to login for 30 seconds, then logout to make room for the next player…”

There’ll be 500 characters, and if they can’t get one, then they’ll just have to try for another.

“But this will cause problems with immersion.” Xu Zhi frowned. “If people can only randomly login as random characters, then…”

Although he hadn’t played many MMOs, he still understood that net addicts wouldn’t truly get engaged and put in their 110% to level up a character they did not own.

Xu Zhi pondered this for a while, and came up with a solution. Then, after some careful examination, he started drafting an Update Announcement, cross-checked it, then posted it on the net.

“[Spore Evolution’s Official Update 0.4 is now Online.]

Thank you for your continued support of this game!

With this update, “The Magic Community” is now open to all players as a place for gaming and socialization.

We will be moving from small-scale internal tests to the official Open Beta.”

***

As always, the moment they received this news, the entire forum was stirred into frenzy. After 3 internal tests, the Beta was finally open to the general public.

“I’m weeping with joy. I’ve been following its development all this time, and now, the Beta is finally open to all players."

“Unlike previous tests with very few slots, you won’t have to write harcore research papers to join.”

“To the above poster, this affiliated area is only a community for people to cultivate their body and mind. If you want to enter the official game map, and enter the multiverse after starting from a spore… you’ll still have to write a research paper. (😈)”

Everyone was eagerly discussing what kind of major impact this update would cause in the future. Some even said that this was all part of the Developers’ plan.

“Spore Evolution” was where people lost hair as they toiled away in their studies, a place where people gained power from learning.

And “The Magic Community” was where they went to relax. There were meditation rooms, and you could regain your lost hair through fun games and socialization.

This flexible setup allowed for both rest and study. It was a match made in heaven.

***

As they discussed, the content of the update was also posted.

Spore Evolution’s 0.4 Update was as follows:

1. Based on player feedback, the development team had held a meeting, and decided to change “The Magic Sim’s” name to “The Magic Community”.

2. Gaming should be done moderately in order to maintain your health.

This game will limit each person’s daily login time to 30 seconds, the equivalent of 3 hours in the game.

3. This game will be a “Quickdraw Battle” where players compete to login as one of 500 characters.

4. This game will have a monthly VIP subscription of 45 dollars.

Ordinary non-VIP players are visitors who must compete to login randomly as 1 of 500 characters.

VIP Players will be able to choose the “Set Login Mode” and become a “tenant player” of 1 of 500 characters. 30 seconds will be reserved for you daily, and you won’t have to compete to login.

5. Each character can only have 1000 “tenants”.

The “VIP Reservation” function is now available for those who want to become a “tenant” of their favorite character.

(This game has a high degree of freedom, and the players are free to explore and find better ways to enjoy themselves, but the developers will have the final say in everything.)

***

There was a website link at the end of the update log. After clicking on it, you could reserve a VIP slot for one of 500 characters.

Behind each of the 500 characters was the following line: Current number of players for this character: 0/1000.

“Hurry and grab a slot! It’s time to show-off our hand-speed again!”

“Sh*t! Uchiha Itachi is mine! Don’t you dare take him!”

“WTF! How are you bastards so fast? Sakura was gone in an instant, do I have no choice but to select Hinata?”

“Hurry up! Before even Hinata is gone! If we can only become visitors, we’ll have to compete to login everyday!”

***

Everyone was in a frenzy. After all, a 45 dollars monthly subscription fee was nothing to them! The developers were too kind! For rich people, 45 dollars was far too cheap considering that they’d get an extra 3 hours to live each day. They’d gladly pay more.

At this moment, Learning Medicine was weeping before his computer screen. “Could it be, that I won’t be able to get the character I’ve worked so hard to train? I spent 8 months on him!”

He felt like slamming his head on a wall and killing himself.

But unexpectedly, when he clicked on the request button, this line appeared:

[As a Beta Tester who’ve trained for longer than 3 days, you will be prioritized when selecting a character for VIP privileges. Do you want to buy one now?]

Learning Medicine was thrilled. It was as if the dawn had come after his darkest hour. “The Beta Test had this kind of hidden bonus?”

Xu Zhi smirked at this scene.

This was his reward for all the players who had worked hard, and mediated longer than ordinary people. He’d reward them if they lasted longer than 3 days since he needed players like them, the more the better.

“I finally have some money.”

Xu Zhi looked at his account, which was protected by the Hive Mind. These P2W players’ spending ability couldn't be underestimated; in only a few minutes, he had gained over 90.000 dollars, and the amount was still rapidly increasing…

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