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

“Honestly, it was more than just Amarantine. Sure, they are a part of it but it feels like half the popular streamers 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 some 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 game great? Sure, the game itself needs to meet certain standards but so many games that seemed to tick all those boxes were dead on arrival. No, the game needs its player-base, obviously and to get that, it needs marketing. Where does many, many gamers learn about games? Some get information from organised gaming-media 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 mental-thread.

“Quite a few streamers have their game 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 moment.

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

“You mean Pantheon deliberately gave their beta-slots out to streamers 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 game while taking away the same amount from other games. And quite a lot of audiences would make the switch with them, especially as Road to Purgatory is something new and, to be honest, something awesome.” I pointed out.

“Yeah, I could see that. What do you think will happen with older games, once Road to Purgatory launches?” she asked, after a moment 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 time-investment. 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 moment.

“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 gamer, coming home from a nine-to-five won’t necessarily go into a game 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 someone created the necessary ingame-architecture, Road to Purgatory could become a substitute for short-time vacations. It would require some sort of fast-travel or portal-system or something, which might become possible to set up, once you get to a higher level of spellcasting and Pantheon would have to implement some 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.

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“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 some exotic beach or to some 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 moment 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 something 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 someone 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 something 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, something that the later management of Amarantine had turned into a plush-doll and sold.

“Greetings, Morgana.” Helmaic greeted me as he stepped nearby, interrupting our conversation. Gwynlyn, the cleric, was with him, holding some sort of stone-bowl, looking at me with obvious curiosity. Both dwarves gave a short, almost curt, acknowledgement to Dargira, their voices sounding different to me and I realised they had spoken some 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 me 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 me. 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 something 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 something 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 something from us, while I had my own ideas on payment. Sure, part of the payment 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 same creature, but that wasn’t something 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 method of distant-communication with my own scrying-spells.