In a quiet room, two big boys each were holding a phone, staring intently at sothing.
After a mont, Jiang Shang put down his phone, his brows slightly furrowed, and looked at his friend:
"Akai,"
"What’s up?"
"Have you heard of a public beta test allowing one hundred thousand registrations?"
"First ti seeing it, and it’s even a lottery registration."
"..."
Jiang Shang took a deep breath, holding back from swearing, but finally couldn’t help voicing his dissatisfaction:
"Is the official team out of their minds? A hundred thousand? Is that it? Just throwing it away? How’s it different from the closed beta?!"
"Was the closed beta like this too?"
"Yeah..."
"..."
Silence.
"Then are you still signing up, Ziya? I see people on the official forum are tearing it apart, and the officials are getting slamd..."
"Of course! Why not? Look at the registration count imdiately."
"Holy crap, it’s already a hundred thousand? Hasn’t the announcent been out for just a few minutes? Damn... it’s rising so fast... is this what they call the ’true fragrance’ phenonon?"
Akai had a look of amazent.
While on the other hand, Jiang Shang sighed:
"When the ga’s quality is high, you can do whatever you want... maybe they’re limiting numbers for the sake of maintaining quality..."
"That’s just blind praise."
"No, that’s what I call self-hypnosis."
Jiang Shang chatted with his friend while registering for the fifth ti.
After registering, they continued browsing the forum’s announcent regarding the public beta.
"But speaking of which, I find this pricing model a bit mysterious, a mbership system? 20% discount in the exchange mall? And the monthly mbership isn’t cheap... It’s not mandatory, but will anyone buy it?"
Akai looked at the paynt instructions during the public beta and said curiously.
"Why wouldn’t they? Akai, if you knew how the best public equipnt and items in this ga are obtained, you wouldn’t say that."
Jiang Shang shook his head and explained.
"How are they obtained?"
Akai was very curious.
Jiang Shang pondered for a mont and said:
"In the Elf Kingdom, although so specific bosses drop extrely rare items, for most players, the equipnt used and skills learned mainly co from the mall, and you need contribution points to buy everything in the mall."
"In-ga, contribution points are the hard currency among players, an 80% discount... is already quite attractive."
Hearing Jiang Shang’s words, Akai seed to understand a little:
"So that’s how it is."
However, after thinking for a while, he still shook his head:
"But I still think the pricing is too random? With hundreds of thousands of players, can they make a profit back? And... I saw players complaining in the comnts that it seems you can grind the mall price down to 25% just by playing the ga a lot."
"That’s based on personal reputation and the Goddess’s favorability."
Jiang Shang said.
"Increasing personal reputation is very difficult and is related to NPC favorability. As far as I know... among the sixty thousand players in this ga, fewer than a hundred have their personal reputation scores above seventy points, and there are only two or three perfect scores, and they have to fawn over NPCs every day to achieve that..."
"As for the Goddess’s favorability, hehe, it’s even harder to raise. So far, even the highest is only one point, obtained through completing tasks."
"I’ve seen so statistics. It seems that currently, the highest mall discount is Li Mu’s, with his discount being almost fifty percent, but most players with decent relationships with NPCs are still around seventy to eighty percent."
"So... a further 80% discount in the mall is still very appealing to everyone."
"Of course, that’s not the most crucial part."
"See here, it ntions that so special item exchanges will offer more quotas to mbers. Take this resurrection coin, for example; ordinary players can exchange up to 10 per day, but mbers can exchange 15!"
"Akai, you don’t know, the most severe punishnt in this ga is the resurrection penalty, which requires deduction of resurrection coins."
"Moreover, as your level increases, the resurrection coin penalty increases each ti you die, and if you lack resurrection coins, you might even lose levels! If you are at the silver level, the announcent said it would double in the future, it’s quite harsh."
"All resurrection coins are hard-earned, either by grinding or spending, and must be stocked up daily for ergency use. So... just an extra 5 exchanges per day are enough to make many people flock to it..."
"I see..."
Akai nodded, seemingly half understanding.
Jiang Shang continued:
"As for profitability... I think they definitely can’t break even in the short term, but you should know this ga is just starting the public beta."
As he spoke, he adjusted his glasses:
"The mbership price isn’t low, but those who can afford a gaming pod aren’t exactly poor. Imagine if the player numbers reach tens of millions... then the inco would certainly be different."
Akai thought for a mont and nodded in agreent:
"Makes sense."
"However..."
Jiang Shang shifted the conversation:
"I really want to critique this resurrection system... although it seems that buying a mbership can reduce resurrection penalties, in my view, having 10 resurrection coins or 15 makes no difference."
"Hmm? Why do you say that?"
Akai asked curiously.
Jiang Shang sighed and said:
"Suppose, just suppose... you’re playing a ga, and each ti you resurrect, it costs you three hundred bucks, would you be cautious about preserving your life?"
"Of course! I could have a big al with that three hundred bucks!"
"Then what if the resurrection cost now is two hundred bucks?"
"Dang... even though it’s cheaper by a hundred bucks, it still hurts to think about it; I’d definitely still try to stay alive..."
"Exactly..."
Jiang Shang sighed:
"The current resurrection chanism in ’Elf Kingdom’ isn’t sothing players can’t afford, but who would want to lose so much for nothing. And even if there’s a mbership discount, it’s still within a painful category, it’s like the official intends to stop players from ssing around deliberately..."
"But... even knowing there’s not much difference, many people would certainly still buy it."
Listening to his friend, Akai raised an eyebrow:
"Then if it were you, would you purchase a mbership?"
Jiang Shang nodded and said seriously:
"Of course, I would. Even though I want to critique this pricing system and the ridiculous public beta slots, if I get selected, I would definitely support it, because... it’s such an excellent ga, we can’t let the creators lose heart. You should know how original single-player gas in Tianchao fell into decline... being a creator isn’t easy."
Akai agreed deeply.
"But..."
Jiang Shang shifted the topic again, pointing to a particular part of the announcent:
"I’m more curious about this newly introduced event, the addition of a weekly ranking board. In the second week, extra rewards will be given based on players’ weekly ranking from the previous week, and the rewards even include cash..."
As he spoke, Jiang Shang sighed slightly:
"The officials are really bold... they haven’t even made money yet, and they’re already thinking about how to reward players, even directly offering cash... that’s insanely generous. I can almost predict that ’Elf Kingdom’ is going to see another surge of hardcore grinders and professional players..."
"Again? Was it like this during the closed beta?"
"Yeah, contribution points were tradable, and during the closed beta, many people made extra money by selling their contribution points. But now with the official involvent, players are probably going to go wild."
"Then in that case, the World Tree Black Technology Company seems quite benevolent."
"Yeah... I really like this company right now."
*"Benevolent to the point of being a bit foolish."*
"..."
Jiang Shang glared at soone angrily.
And that soone whistled, diverting their gaze.
The two of them chatted casually while continuing to read the public beta announcent.
Naturally, as potential tools, they weren’t aware that this seemingly bizarre pricing and reward system was just a way for a True God to sway public opinion while recruiting players with incentives...
The announcent contained a lot of information, not only about the pricing but also other details, like the opening of new maps and previews of new storylines, accompanied by images of elves and half-beasts in battle.
These matters left Akai quite confused, but Jiang Shang was thoroughly engrossed.
"It seems... the next storyline is finally targeting the half-beasts. I wonder if I’ll have the chance to join."
His expression was full of anticipation.
"Storyline?"
"Yeah, storyline. I’ve always been following the plot of ’Elf Kingdom.’ Look at this advance-release opening animation... see it? Every elf appearing here, without exception, is actually a player! Ah... before you know it, everyone’s expanded their forces so significantly in the ga. Every ti I re-watch the opening animations of each version from the beginning, I feel nostalgic..."
"That impressive? Isn’t that like ultimate player involvent?"
"Exactly... do you think that’s why there have been so many ’World Tree players’ online since last year? It’s the ultimate player involvent that brought everyone together."
"Agreed, there’s even a trend of blackening, where other gas are disparaged."
"..."
Jiang Shang glared at soone once more.
And that soone, once again, whistled while diverting their gaze.
A day of joy quickly passed for these two mischievous friends.
Though no longer high school students, they were still packed with college courses and hadn’t yet beco lazy seniors. Weekends were for fun, but they’d still responsibly attend classes the next day...
However, when they checked the forum the following day, they found the public beta registration count had skyrocketed past five million like a rocket, and it was still climbing.
Undoubtedly, with the announcent of the public beta for ’Elf Kingdom,’ this virtual ga, hailed by many gaming enthusiasts as a revolutionary masterpiece, once again dominated trending searches and headlines.
It’s safe to say that among those who knew about virtual gas, hardly anyone was unaware of it.
Even those outside the circle had heard of its na to so extent.
Even the doujin community, which had been slightly dormant recently, saw a slight uptick in searches for a certain diligent worker because of it...
Ahem.
It’s foreseeable that with the public beta, the number of registrations this ti may definitely not be less than the previous closed beta.
This realization made Jiang Shang, who initially thought he had a better chance with a public beta of a hundred thousand spots, feel even more frustrated.
There was nothing he could do; he knew his luck had never been great.
The larger the number of registrations, the smaller his chances would be.
As a fan of ’Elf Kingdom,’ he was delighted to see the ga loved by so many, but... could he please get in first?
However, this agony didn’t last too long.
This ti, he finally got selected.
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