A Jaded Life Chapter 287

After a mont of contemplation and looking up, at the dark sky, Dargira’s voice broke the silence, shaking out of my mories.

“Honestly, it was more than just Amarantine. Sure, they are a part of it but it feels like half the popular strears are now playing Road to Purgatory. Even quite a few pros have admitted that they are looking into it and will be part of the beta at so point.” she said and I felt as if a lightbulb went off in my head.

“That might not be a coincidence.” I mumbled, mostly speaking to myself, “Think about it, what makes a ga great? Sure, the ga itself needs to et certain standards but so many gas that seed to tick all those boxes were dead on arrival. No, the ga needs its player-base, obviously and to get that, it needs marketing. Where does many, many gars learn about gas? So get information from organised gaming-dia but I’d wager that a whole lot more get their information from various video-sites, who sift through streams and such.” I mused, spinning a ntal-thread.

“Quite a few strears have their ga that they play, like mine was Craft of War, but suddenly, there’s a major shift, to a new one? Coincidence?” I continued, before stopping for a mont.

“I think not. Almost all of the famous strears started out as simple gars and I’d wager so of them still think that way, dangle a shiny, new toy, say, a never-before, fully imrsive gaming-system, in front of them, tell them, ‘You can have that, if you stream our ga’ and a lot of them would be off to the races.” I finished, looking at a slightly confused looking Dargira.

“You an Pantheon deliberately gave their beta-slots out to strears and such?” she asked.

“I would call it a strong possibility. They wouldn’t need all that many, maybe ten, twenty percent of each wave and they’d get a ton of content-creators into their ga while taking away the sa amount from other gas. And quite a lot of audiences would make the switch with them, especially as Road to Purgatory is sothing new and, to be honest, sothing aweso.” I pointed out.

“Yeah, I could see that. What do you think will happen with older gas, once Road to Purgatory launches?” she asked, after a mont of contemplation on her own.

“Oh, at first, there will be a run on capsules and people will want to play like crazy, but in the long run? We’ll have to see. The biggest problem I see is that, to get into the higher levels of play here, you need a huge ti-investnt. Let’s take people like Tobiuno, who are lord of their respective domains and all that jazz, if you want to do justice to such a job, it is just that, a job.” I said after thinking for a mont.

“Similarly, the pain-factor might be a problem. Sure, it’s only ever temporary and there seems to be no lingering sensation but, at the end of the day, only dedicated people will be willing to repeatedly get hurt like that. Well, dedicated people and masochists. The normal, casual gar, coming ho from a nine-to-five won’t necessarily go into a ga like this, but who knows, there might be an economic niche now that I think about it.” I paused, trying to put my thoughts into words.

“In a way, if soone created the necessary inga-architecture, Road to Purgatory could beco a substitute for short-ti vacations. It would require so sort of fast-travel or portal-system or sothing, which might beco possible to set up, once you get to a higher level of spellcasting and Pantheon would have to implent so sort of real-money transfer, which I’m not sure I’d like, but it might work.” I explained.

“How’d that work?” she asked, looking a little confused.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from . Please report it.

“No idea, I’m just thinking here. But look at it this way: If you could log in with a brand-new character, step through a portal, maintained by a player-led organisation, to get to so exotic beach or to so sort of ski-resort, or really, whatever ludicrous thing you always wanted to try but didn’t because of the dangers involved? Everything from hang-gliding, deep-sea diving, playing golf during a lighting-storm, doesn’t matter, the worst that can happen is a mont of pain and you get send to respawn. I could see that as a draw, the only question is, how do the players setting it all up and maintain it get involved in the profit-sharing.” I expanded on my idea, deciding to write sothing up and send it to Pantheon, just in case they had missed such an idea.

“There’s also the youth-market. I doubt that Pantheon will even try to make Road to Purgatory into anything but rated for adults. They’d have to cut, censor and break far too much about this world to be viable. That part of gaming will remain but I think even there will be a shift.” Dargira said, her voice similarly contemplative.

We continued to talk for a little longer, switching stories about Craft of War and even a few about our respective experience in Road to Purgatory. Not that I told her anything truly interesting, just a few casual tidbits that I found interesting, but it felt good to speak with soone who had a similar experience as I had. Sure, I posted on the forum but there I always tried to keep a mysterious persona, knowing that it would be useful to have an established character.

I had done sothing similar in Craft of War, when I had refused to stream content with a face-cam, instead I had used a chibi-version of my character, sothing that the later managent of Amarantine had turned into a plush-doll and sold.

“Greetings, Morgana.” Helmaic greeted as he stepped nearby, interrupting our conversation. Gwynlyn, the cleric, was with him, holding so sort of stone-bowl, looking at with obvious curiosity. Both dwarves gave a short, almost curt, acknowledgent to Dargira, their voices sounding different to and I realised they had spoken so sort of dwarven language that I only understood thanks to Lenore.

“Good Evening, Helmaic. And greetings to you, Gwynlyn.” I returned the greeting, standing to be polite.

“Greetings, Morgana. I hoped we could talk to you, about the swamp and your plans regarding it.” Gwynlyn replied.

“Certainly. Have a seat.” I said, waving my hand and, using instantly projected runes to show off, created two more chairs, equal to the one I had made for Dargira. Seeing the bowl in her hand, I even added a small, round table to stand in the middle. It reminded of my last lesson with the Grandmother and I found it regretful that I was unable to copy the causal ease with which the Grandmother had created the incredible magic tea she had offered . Or, really, I would be content with the ability to create it, even without it being casual or easy.

“Thank you.” both native dwarves replied but I was able to spot a bit of awe on Helmaic’s face, while Gwynlyn kept a friendly, curious but controlled mask.

“Now, you asked about our plans, so I’m assuming that you have sothing in mind. Currently, my group is interested in the swamp but, depending on circumstances, we might simply move on. It is not as if there is sothing binding us to this area, or even the problems caused by the power of death tainting the land, and, maybe even more importantly, seeping into the water and spreading far and wide.” I stated, starting what I felt would be a negotiation, with the dwarves wanting sothing from us, while I had my own ideas on paynt. Sure, part of the paynt would be the experience gained from clearing the swamp, which would be massively increased with an appropriate quest that stopped the penalty for repeatedly killing the sa creature, but that wasn’t sothing we’d directly get from the dwarves. So, I was planning to milk them for what they were willing to give.

“As you might have seen, the swamp is a problem. We could clear it, but it would cost us.” Helmaic admitted and I thought I noticed a wince on Gwynlyn’s face.

“Indeed. I think the best way would be to contact the Thane, the leader of our hold, and ask him for his input.” she quickly interjected, almost as if she was keen to stop Helmaic from talking.

“If you think that, go ahead. I’m sure you have your ways, I’m quite curious how dwarves work their magic, I only saw a little earlier. It is fascinating, seeing the power of the Gods invoked directly.” I replied, smiling at the process of comparing her thod of distant-communication with my own scrying-spells.