Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 599: Chapter 567: The Strange Honorary Players

The topic of the building competition gave players something to talk about on a dull Monday morning.

After the discussion of finding existing projects ended, serious recruitment posts began to appear one after another.

In “My World,” there are actually many players who don’t like public games and are more afraid of their buildings being destroyed by strangers, so they’ve been playing the game alone.

And many introverted players who easily immerse themselves in their own world happen to have a lot of ideas and creativity.

Cloud Dream’s building competition provides them with a valuable opportunity to bring out their ideas, invite others to join with the goal of the competition, and cultivate friendships in the process of playing together and making friends.

Now, the posts that popped up on social networks, game forums, and Cloud Dream sections are the beginning of their journey out of the solitary island.

As it approached 12 o’clock, Cloud Dream released another wave of topics for players to chat about during their lunch break –

“November [Honorary Player] list released.”

This is not news from a single game, but the [Honorary Player] list of all virtual reality games.

The response, of course, is much higher than the “My World” competition announcement!

Players opened their longest playing, most concerned game’s official account to see who made the list and what they’ve done.

“Traveler of the Wind” and “Light Encounter” had no major news, mainly players with longer game time and more help to strangers getting the title.

“Paradise” was more interesting, with the discovery, conquest and exploration of Dinosaur Island, as well as the discovery of Jurassic Park, resulting in more than forty honorary players.

“Assassins’ Alliance” was outrageous, giving honorary player titles to Yi and those who had bombed the bathroom first.

Just looking at the speed at which [Bathing Girl Table Lamp] spread among players, one can imagine the significant contribution they made to game sales…

In addition, Wu Di and their self-organized [Full Armor Combat Tournament] also received more than twenty honorary player titles for their expansion of gameplay and significant online influence.

These include outstanding players in the competition as well as core organizers of the event.

However, the most numerous were the blacksmiths who crafted powerful armor for the players.

*

“Speed Chase” awarded titles to the top three finishers in four consecutive Indiscriminate Death Races.

However, due to the existence of Hank, who participated every time and never won the championship but frequently appeared in the top three, the titles could not be issued repeatedly to one person, so only seven were awarded in the end.

There were also three players who challenged the extreme, not using hot weapons during the entire main storyline, and passed the main storyline with just a knife through a hail of bullets.

This won them the title of [Honorary Player] for this period.

—These three didn’t stop there, they are currently trying to abandon hot weapons and cold weapons at the same time, and pass the main storyline bare-handed. But this challenge has just begun, and there is no hope of success for the time being.

The remaining titles were awarded to players in various fields such as competitions, exploration, and creation.

Among them, a super popular fanfiction written by players is worth mentioning.

The story is about a player who travels through time to become John Wick, saves his wife Helen Wick early, and accidentally discovers that his wife is also a top-level killer.

The couple has to fight and escape together due to misunderstandings and pursuit by mysterious forces.

As they clash and love each other, they slowly resolve their conflicts and reconcile during the process of fighting back against the mysterious forces. And finally become the strongest killer couple in Night City after eliminating the mysterious force behind them.

The pacing of the novel is very well-controlled, with thrilling battles and sweet love.

The story is not lacking, and plenty of dog food is given. In the end, they even adopted a dog.

This, of course, made up for the players’ regrets while giving them plenty of new fun.

So it’s no surprise that this fanfic is incredibly popular and has even started a craze in Europe with the help of Cloud Dream’s intelligent translation function.

The latest development is that someone has obtained the authorization from the author [Xig], and has already started organizing people to shoot the big movie “Wikey Couple” in Night City…

Lincoln is quite looking forward to this.

*

“Hunter: Call of the Wilderness”, as a recently released game, awarded [Honorary Player] titles mostly to players with the longest game time, highest hunting skills, fastest collection of pictorial books… and so on for the most dedicated players.

Of course, there were exceptions.

Ivan Ivanov also received the [Honorary Player] title, but he did not rely on hunting but building hunting huts.

Yes, with just a hunting knife, he built a wooden house for himself on the map of the Leyton Lake District.

Not only walls, floors, and roofs, but also windows, tables, chairs, stools, cabinets, and so on, he had everything, and recently even began digging fishponds.

To prevent these things from being refreshed by the system, he had to go and sit in the cabin every day.

—However, from now on, he no longer has to worry about this issue: Mavis has fixed the increasingly exquisite and livable wooden house while he received the [Honorary Player] title.

*

“My World”, as expected by players: the Ender Dragon’s first kill team members are all on the list.

Then a few players’ alliance “chiefs” who made announcements, and even the player who called for everyone to go to [World No.22] for a good fight, also successfully made the list and got the title.

The only exception was Baekje’s anchor Kim Dong-jun.

Kim Dong-jun is now angry at the list and accuses the “My World” operation team of unfair selection.

—He didn’t dare to scold Cloud Dream or Lincoln, so he could only attack the operation team.

However, it was actually Lincoln who decided not to put his name on the list.

Lincoln’s reason was: maliciously dividing players and affecting unity.

This, of course, is not in line with the concept of Cloud Dream.

*

Finally, it’s time for “Battlefield”, which has been on sale for only three days.

Qin Songyun and Fan Rui actually discussed whether to skip “Battlefield” this time and wait until December to start picking.

But their idea was rejected by Lincoln.

—Lincoln was eager to give the “Democratic Fighters” their [Honorary Player] titles!

These were the democratic fighters who fought for the people, risking their own lives to fight for better network conditions for players. If that’s not honorable, what is?

Lincoln would have preferred to create a special [Democratic Fighter] title if it weren’t for the obvious flattery.

So, 80% of the Honorary Players in “Battlefield” this issue were awarded to players with the highest level and winning rate.

The other 20 percent went to players who participated in real-life protest marches, calling on their governments to lift the “unfair restrictions” on Cloud Dream.

This list inspired players from countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and America who participated in the protest demonstrations!

At the same time, it made many Daxia players both take pleasure in others’ misfortune and feel indignant.

It’s easy to understand why they were happy about the misfortune: my internet speed is top-notch, while my opponent’s internet speed is poor, of course I would take pleasure in their misfortune.

And the righteous indignation, the general mentality is probably this: “We’re being so merciful to even sell this kind of epoch-making technology to you. You not only fail to provide convenience but impose restrictions on it? Are you taking us for granted?”

For a time, there were quite a few players who complained.

But Lincoln himself didn’t think that way.

He knew that the situation of “servers and domestic player data all being held in the hands of foreign companies” was unacceptable to many countries.

He also admitted that such behavior was somewhat excessive.

But there was no way, the virtual world’s architecture was completely different from traditional games, not only in terms of carriers, but the essence of technology was completely different.

Only when the server center is entirely in the hands of Cloud Dream can the maximum security of technology and players’ information be ensured.

It is also necessary for the servers to be completely under the control of Mavis to coordinate the fuzzy computing power of the brain and provide a better gaming experience in the virtual world.

If the server is under someone else’s control, it would mean that all of Cloud Dream’s actions are taking place under someone else’s watchful gaze.

Can these so-called “partners” really resist the temptation when that time comes?

Even if they can resist, won’t there be someone who comes along and makes them “unable to resist”?

Lincoln would never trust a foreign partner 100%, nor would he trust the bottom line of a foreign government.

All these reasons determined that Lincoln could not compromise.

Even if such behavior was somewhat domineering and would make the overseas expansion more difficult, he didn’t intend to change his decision at all.