“Paul, we can launch ‘A New Kingdom II’ tomorrow morning on the gaming event in Munchen. There’s a lot of traction for the sequel, the forums are all over this. What should we disclose?” Jorvan asked, while he realigned a bunch of papers on Pauls desk. the papers had bothered him to the utmost degree. Paul was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
Paul readjusted in his chair and looked directly at Jorvan, his co-worker was looking at him with an inquisitive expression. “Uhhhm… I think we should say that its bigger than the first one in every way, and that the new VR experience has been enhanced with all the 5 senses. I am sure people will love that. And make the slogan: ‘A New Kingdom where you create the world!’ And are all the capsules checked? Do the governments agree with our terms and services? How far is the self-learning A.I. ? How many Beta-testers are we going to allow?” Paul, leaned back into his oversized chair, it creaked as he leaned back, he should really let somebody check on that. His question were almost standard procedure before launching a new game. Jorvan, noticing his bored expression quickly spoke up: “Well, the A.I. can run all the servers at the same time and has progressed with NPC to a Industrial revolution in the simulation. And the guys from PR said that we should probably cap the Beta-testers at 500, so we can them observe better. We are going to announce this at the event tomorrow too. And to the rest of your questions. The European Union's members states have all agreed except for Switzerland, they will agree to our demands in exchange for paying taxes over our pods. And the capsules are all checked and double checked, I have the utmost faith in those things, they will be safer than a car in a thunderstorm.”
Pauls eyebrow went back up after Jorvan mentioned Switzerland demand but they were reasonable. Paul had the utmost desire to just put his legs on his desk, lean back and pet a white kitten as he looked Jorvan in the eyes. But he hold back and just said:
“Well Jorvan, I think its all dealt with than, I can’t wait to see what our players create.”
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“Yo, Jasper, you ready to watch the live-stream?
It has already begun man, W.A. has announced their new game, it’s called: ‘The Red Gorge’, they say it’s a new VRMMORPG you know, with the classic medieval theme, you know sword, magics and monster. Only the players aren’t located at Europe but at the games world equivalent of Africa.
Georg was almost drooling over the TV screen as he watched the epic trailer for The Red Gorge, the deserts, scorpions and people all looked really life like. The trailer said something about a release date and they made a bold statement: You won’t recognize other players between the NPC. Which of course is an unrealistic statement but people got the message, a great A.I.
Jasper that’s quite an interesting concept don’t you think?” Georg said as he the trailer ended, he looked deep in thought. Jasper had only seen the end of the trailer, and said: “Yes it is, but I’m not really a fan of the MMORPG’s, I want to build a kingdom. All the way from the ground up toward a gigantic all encompassing empire. Like with A New Kingdom, that was such a great game man, they would let you rule as the village chief in the beginning and then slowly let you work towards your kingdom. They handled all the resource management in such a neat way. What about you Georg? You played it too right?”
Jasper looked very excited as he told about A New Kingdom, Georg looked a bit conflicted.
“Yeah I did it’s just… I don't think it was the game for me man. There was almost no way to go exploring and some of the choices were just ridiculous. Like: ‘Do you want to sleep on deer or bear rugs?’ What kind of question is that? How does that help your village like at all?” Georg outraged expression made Jasper just burst out in laughter. Georg had made a point in the first game there was almost no reason or ability to go exploring which was weird as a new tribe you would go exploring quite often.
“Hahaha, Goerg, I presume you answered the question with bear because they would be warmer right?” Jaspers laughter had died down a bit and as he asked Georg the question he looked at him with skepticism but nodded in the end.
“Yeah, I did what of it? Stop smiling so smugly man and tell me already.”
Jasper almost burst out in laughter again. The question Georg pointed out was one of the most debated topics on the strategy games forums. Some people thought it was just a joke, others thought it was a bit crooked , and others just raged at it.
“If you had picked deer, your village would have gone hunting the deer, eventually they would spot an albino stag. Of course your people would try to hunt it. They hunted for a week and then returned, and they would report the sight to you. The next question would be: ‘Worship the Great White Stag or organise the Great Hunt’. I chose the the hunt and my villager never found the white stag during the great hunt, but they made it a tradition and eventually it became our religion. It was the little stuff, that made A New Kingdom so epic and fun to play.”
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Georg mellowed down a bit and in the end nodded along with Jaspers comment about how epic the game was. There were some part he didn’t like but that is with every game.
He looked back at the TV.
“Yeah you're probably right. But I don’t think it’s the game fo-
Jasper! Look at the live-stream it’s a trailer for the sequel to A New Kingdom.”
As the trailer started it began with a small village which went to a sprawling city to a small state to a kingdom and then to an empire, until it finally ended with a gigantic empire in the industrial revolution. This all happened in a minute the time lapse was extremely fast. After a voice over began to speak: “...A New KIngdom is going to be a new VR experience in which you control a certain tribe, your goal is to make that tribe become the ruling kingdom. The world is large and vast and there are probably some undiscovered continents, for your tribe to discover and settle. There are five different starting tribes: The Jutes: big, strong and some say with troll blood, make excellent warriors;
The Fang: smart, intelligent and some say with the blood of the ancients, make excellent Magi;
The Dogon: excellent map making and pathfinding skills and some say these people only give birth on their boats, make excellent traders, explorers;
The Kanuri: organised, highly religious and some say they are descendants of the spirits themselves, make excellent priest, druids and great for making big cities.
The Hauda: small, dexterous, fast and some say with the blood of the wolves, make excellent hunters, crafters.
So come on people make your pick and we will see you all in the wonderfull world of Nilo. The Beta is coming in a week, order quickly there are only 500 places….” As the trailer ended Jaspers face was just pure bliss. Even Georg seemed hype for the new game.
“Yo Georg this sound f*cking amazing man. All these tribes, those Jutes are probably best at raiding and fighting, you could make something like a Viking empire with Colonies all over the place that could be so cool. But the Fang sound also so damn amazing they are probably something like the Egyptians, don’t you think? Smart and way ahead of their time. The Dogon, humm… they could be like the people of Indonesia and stuff always travelling around setting up new villages and trading post. You could make a trading empire of all smaller states, that would be so awesome. Georg, what do you think of the Kanuri? They seem so... weak.” Jasper was already thinking of which race would be the best start for his great kingdom. He was rambling on about guns, organisation, supplies and population increases.
“Jasper, hold your horses man I couldn’t understand half of what you said. But aren’t the Kanuri like the most useful. I mean they will probably hate outsiders who don’t have their religion, but it could be like having a religious victory. You know just convert as much people as you can and make some sort of holy empire or khalifaat. And because the organise so well you probably don’t have to worry about logistic to much. Which is like the killer of almost all the empires. The Hauda almost sound like some sort of mix between elves and dwarves, good hunters and good crafters. But they probably don’t have a strong population to balance it out. So which one would you choose Jasper? And can you choose the region, I mean if you choose the Dogon but you’re without water in the area, you would be screwed.”
“Well I want to enjoy the game to the utmost so I wouldn’t want to rush it to the end.
I think I would start with the Hauda, because they are just like hunters and gatherers, but with the crafting we could advance fast to a farming community, but I don’t have an idea of how to utilise their gifts the best in an medieval feudalistic society. Maybe I should just create like a native american society of hunter and crafter villages and one big trading hub which will be my capital, in which my people could sell their craft and game. I would have to have a very cohesive religion so they don’t abandon the little settlements on the outskirt if I get attacked. Don’t you think that could work Georg? So like one big city like a metropolis and with the little settlement as suburbs. So like in the jungle would be a great starting place.”
“Ha I will go with the Kanuri, I will become their god and will gift my pitiful servants the eternal bliss if the work for me and I will create a society without nobles and only servants to my religion, and I will make corruption and not vanity the biggest sin. The peasant will work overtime if they want to earn their way to the afterlife. All the non believers will become my slaves and I will build pyramids with their bones and bathe in their blood. Mwuahah *cough* *cough* hah…. sorry just let myself go a little.” Jasper could barely hold in his laughter as Georg was suffocating from his coughing. “Georg you serious? You can’t just create a religion because you want to enslave people. That always ends bad in the end.And where would you even start?” Jasper tried to ask his question serious but he just couldn't keep a straight face with Georgs radical rambling.
“Well I think I would start somewhere like in the middle-east you know like the old egyptians. And well for the end game I would just convert my slaves to my religion so the too believe they need to be slaves or something. It’s just a game after all.” Georg was saying that this all with a big smile. “You’re so full of shit man, I sometimes don’t know why I’m friends with you.” Jasper punched Georg on his shoulder and looked at his phone. “I think we should buy the Beta it sound awesome.”