World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (44 page)

“I will have to
confer with Richard for permission to turn off the loop, but I think
I should be able to convince him,” Mark answers, “especially if
this would allow EDE to get the very best players from World of
Eternia to serve as our champions.”

“Indeed,” the
player consultant replies. “This is the number one request from
players, to turn off the hated biofeedback loop.”

“If it was up to me,
we wouldn’t have the biofeedback loop function in World of Eternia.
I personally don’t see the value of delivering a miniature shock to
players as a form of punishment for taking major damage to their
in-game avatars,” Mark admits. “However, Richard wants to ensure
there are consequences to players in the virtual reality setting. Now
that I think about it, it may be a tough sell to convince the boss to
turn off the loop during this match,” he vacillates.

“There is a strong
sentiment amongst the players to boycott this match if the loop
function will remain active during this event,” Wesley warns.

Mark winces at the
threat and sighs. “I’ll let Richard know how strongly the players
feel about the loop then.”

Wesley changes topic.
“Back to the issue of participants, due to bandwidth and server
concerns, you said you’re looking to limit the number of
participants for the event. What’s the worst case scenario in terms
of numbers here?” he asks.

“WoE regularly
handles twenty player raids with no problem. When the Church of
Eternia commissioned a special raid to Mount Zissley to mine Zisslean
ores, the Church sent in sixty players. However, the group was split
into three parties of twenty players each. Assuming that our company
doesn’t rent a specific server and dedicate lines to this event, I
would say maybe fifty players from each side?” Mark estimates.

“That is kind of
low,” Wesley comments.

“I agree. Richard was
originally planning to purchase new, dedicated servers to host the
Oriental Expansion, and use revenue from sales of the expansion to
fund the cost. If we’re going to slim down the inter-company event,
and not devote any extra budgetary resources to the competition, then
yes our existing servers could accommodate one hundred independent
players in one gigantic instance,” the EDE employee explains.

“You’ll let us know
as soon as you figure out the hard number of participants?” the
player asks.

“Of course, Wesley.
EDE also recognizes that players will need time to strategize how to
defend the portal,” Mark says.

“Defend the portal?
You mean we’re not doing a tower defense style of match to protect
Starter Town?” Wesley asks.

Mark slaps his
forehead. “Thanks for reminding me. The objective will be to defend
the portal located in the We Tang Kingdom, and to prevent the
Virtuous Gaming players from entering the portal. If even a single VG
player manages to use the portal to enter Eternia, we lose.”

The player consultant
shakes his head incredulously. Defending Starter Town versus
defending the portal require vastly different strategies. Keeping his
annoyance in check Wesley asks, “I have two follow up questions.
First, will Eternians be allowed to set up defensive perimeters
beforehand or after the start of the match?”

“We haven’t gotten
that far yet in our discussions,” Mark shrugs sheepishly.

The player takes a deep
breath. “Okay. Second question—will there be a time limit for the
match?”

“Again, VG and EDE
have not reached that point yet,” the project manager repeats.

“In that case, please
take my advice,” Wesley begins. “Regarding the pre-setting of
defense, you could go either way. You could allow players to set up
defenses surrounding the portal before the match begins. Or, you
could begin the match but have the attackers appear from a distance.
The time it takes the attackers to reach the portal would then become
the time allotment for defenders to set up the defense around the
perimeter. And this, in turn, will determine what kind of structure,
spells, etc. may be placed by the defenders. Theoretically, you could
have a castle built around the portal if there is enough time
provided to the defenders. Or the defense could be very rudimentary,
consisting of, for example, trenches and wire fences surrounding the
area, and pikes to prevent chargers from breaking through.”

“I will have to
discuss with Richard which scenario is preferable for the cameras,”
Mark replies.

“Of course,” the
consultant barely avoids rolling his eyes.
Eternia
Development & Entertainment, Inc. needs even more publicity than
they already received from the challenge
, he sighs
silently. “In that case, I also suggest a time limit for the
competition to maybe a handful of hours. If the match takes too long,
you’ll lose your viewers,” he cautions.

The project manager
nods. “Yes, people do tend to have short attention span.”

“The anniversary
mission that The Strangers participated in last year took over ten
hours to complete,” Wesley reminds the EDE employee. “It was a
miracle that people bothered to watch the stream until the curse was
lifted.”

“With more players
involved in this event, it could eventually turn into a war of
attrition,” Mark speculates.

Wesley shakes his head.
“You don’t want to turn this into a war of attrition. It is not
fun, and players, especially from VG side, will simply turn off their
VR equipment and drop out. You definitely don’t want that to happen
because it would mean that EDE wins by default,” he advises.

“Wouldn’t that be
an ideal outcome?” the EDE employee asks.

The player is taken
aback by the question. “I mean, sure I want Eternia Development &
Entertainment, Inc. to win, since I have been with you guys from the
launch of the World of Eternia. And I would imagine that if Virtuous
Gaming wins, my one year consultancy contract could be terminated a
bit early,” Wesley notes. “However, as a player I would not be
satisfied with winning by default, and I’m sure that a lot of
players on both sides of the tournament would feel the same way.”

“Okay. Well, you have
given me a lot to thing about for this competition. I will need to
discuss your concerns with Richard and then with my counterparts over
at VG. But I will be sure to check with you before finalizing the
parameters of the event,” Mark says.

“That’s what I’m
here for,” Wesley smiles. “I think my wife is calling me. I have
to go. Please keep me posted,” he says.

“Will do,” the
manager promises and waves goodbye before the consultant logs out.
“What do you think?” he asks aloud.

Richard removes his
Cloak of Invisibility and allows the precious garment to drop on the
floor. “I think people need a reminder of who is in charge,” he
says in a low voice as the chief executive trembles in anger at what
he just heard.
How dare they
threaten to boycott this event!
“We will grant the
players’ wish to turn off the biofeedback loop; that will be my
primary concession to them for participation in this event. But once
we win the tournament, the players will have outlived their
usefulness. I want you to find out who exactly threatened to boycott
the event; identify the traitors by name and give me a list.
Afterwards, we will quietly remove them from World of Eternia,” he
orders.

Mark can only stare at
his employer in stunned silence.

“I don’t know about
this,” Lisa Huffman shakes her head.

“What would you
suggest then?” Mark Whitney replies while trying to keep his tone
civil. The two are back at Lisa’s office at Virtuous Gaming. “I
understand you want to have as many participants as possible for this
historical event. However, it is not feasible for us to have
thousands of players at the same location fighting each other. The
lag would render game play nearly impossible for the players,” he
points out.

“If bandwidth is the
issue, then we simply need to reduce the amount of bandwidth utilized
by each player by lowering the settings somehow. And as I see it, the
biggest drain on bandwidth is the virtual reality equipment. Can’t
we simply turn it off somehow?” she asks.

Mark repeats her head
shaking gesture. “The most important aspect of World of Eternia
that distinguishes the game from others is the incorporation of a
virtual reality component. World of Eternia is the world’s first
Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game
(‘VRMMORPG’). Without the VR component, WoE will be nothing more
than another Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (‘MOBA’),” he
replies and then tosses in an ultimatum. “It is absolutely critical
that WoE uses the virtual reality equipment for this tournament. This
is a red line that my employer insists on, or else he will cancel the
event.”

The VG representative
folds her arms and leans her elbows on the desk. “I should point
out that your side would have a massive advantage if the tournament
will utilize VR equipment. The reason is that our players won’t
have experience with the VR environment or the equipment. How will
the champions of VG overcome this experience gap?”

“You are approaching
the problem too narrowly,” the EDE representative replies. “I
know I shouldn’t be suggesting this, to be honest, but if I am
looking to recruit players to represent Virtuous Gaming I would go to
other game forums to look for players. Also, what’s there to
prevent you from soliciting at WoE’s forums? Depending on what
incentives or compensation you’re offering, I’m sure you will get
a lot of applicants seeking to play mercenaries for your company,”
Mark suggests.

“Fair enough,” Lisa
concedes. She was going to broach the subject of poaching WoE players
via the EDE forums.
I guess this
means we have express permission to do so now,
she thinks
as Lisa crosses the item off her mental to-do list. “And I assume
you will make the virtual reality equipment available to us?”

“I’ve been given
permission by Richard to rent out enough VR headsets and gloves to
cover your players for the tournament, yes,” Mark confirms. “I
don’t have a price yet, but that’s something your business folks
with work out with our counterparts.”

The VG negotiator
stares at her counterpart in silence.

Mark meets her stare,
and neither party is willing to back off.

Finally, Lisa sighs.
“Okay, let’s say that Virtuous Gaming agrees to rent the VR
equipment from your company and participants use this equipment for
the event, how would we know that the rentals won’t be faulty?”
she asks.

“Oh that’s an easy
one to solve,” Mark replies with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I
was thinking of sending the equipment over to you a week before the
event takes place. This would allow your players to practice with the
virtual reality equipment and therefore narrow the experience gap a
bit. This would also provide time for your players to get
replacements for any equipment that turns out to be defective.”

“What about training
facilities?” she asks.

“If you wish, you
could have your representatives create player accounts in WoE; we
offer a free thirty days trial, so your players can practice with the
equipment and not have to pay anything out of pocket. If you want to
set your own server for your players to practice privately, I could
send over a few engineers to your office to set something up,” the
project manager offers. “If you want the private option, I would
appreciate as much advanced notice as possible so that I could
arrange for my guys to set this up quickly. It’s up to you which
option you prefer.”

Lisa Huffman decides
quickly. “I think it would be better for my VG players to simply
sign up for trial accounts in your game and practice with the real
thing,” she replies.
Besides,
the private server may have different settings from the real game
,
Lisa notes to herself.
I
wouldn’t put it past their boss to pull a dirty stunt like that.

Mark nods. “We could
automatically raise the levels of your players’ in-game avatars to
the game’s current maximum level of sixty, and let them feel their
way around the game. We will need to know exactly who will represent
Virtuous Gaming though,” he notes.

“We will let you know
when we have gathered our players. We may poach current Eternian
players for this tournament. So we’re settling for a hundred man
tournament, then?” she asks.

“I think that would
be the ideal size, yes,” the project manager agrees. “Besides,
the staff will have a field day coming up with a marketing campaign
revolving around a one hundred player tournament,” he adds.

Lisa’s mind flashes
quickly to Priscilla Lombardi, the secretary and public relations
liaison for Charles.
I wonder
what sort of publicity campaign she will come up for a hundred
players,
she ponders.

The middle-aged
cavalier surveys the mood around the table as he patiently awaits
everyone’s arrival. Most of the seats have been filled already, and
the guests are engaging in minor but polite chit chat. Each guest is
the top player member of his respective organization—Fistaklius the
Arch mage of the Magic Guild, Heimdall the Warlord of the Fighter
Guild, and Pope Lemoine of the Church of Eternia. The only invitee
missing is Counselor Berchen of the Trade Union.

“Sorry I’m late,”
the last man finally takes his seat. Berchen is the only non-max
level player in the room, and far younger than his counterparts. The
Trade Union’s focus is on economic enterprises, and the real life
attorney used his shrew negotiation skills to trade his way into the
top position of the Union. A pale young man only in his late
twenties, Berchen has top notch organizational skills and near
photographic memory.