(A Virtual Room in NERV HQ)
“Right, keep tracking that X’thari incursion in Consortium space. That’s more than just isolated raiders. Looks like they may be moving to ‘harvest’ Coldana Prime.”
“Sir, we have a new round of complaints coming in from some of the guilds about the dungeon on Hadarada Prime. The guilds are complaining that the difficulty level is set too high, and the spawn rate of the bioforms cycles too fast.”
“Run the numbers with the AI, see if the problem is their skill and gear levels, or if we need to retune the dungeon a little. I don’t want to make it a cake walk, though.”
“Understood.”
“Boss, we’ve got a report from the Horus system. The Chaos Brigade managed to clear the megadungeon there. The other guilds are upset, however, because they were basically camping the dungeon and not letting anyone else in for two weeks straight.”
“Forward the complaints to appropriate department so they can review for any rules infractions, and get with the AI to see if we can’t find a way to discourage campers in the future.”
“Right away.”
Morgan smiled as she materialized in the virtual control room, watching Isaac hard at work with his subordinates, trying to make sure the game was working as it was supposed to. A game like Dreams Amongst the Stars was like having a machine with a million moving parts. It didn’t take much for something to wreck the system, which is why the GMs were constantly on the watch for bugs or doing maintenance on the game and servers. And that was before you added in the players!
Isaac noticed her coming up behind him, and grinned. “Hey there, babe. Just finishing up a few things, running through the reports for the week’s events. Thankfully, things have been settling down with the latest patch.”
Morgan nodded. “Well, I expect I’m going to be fielding a lot of complaints once people start trying the new ‘advanced’ starting zone. We’ve had some people start the game as slaves or worse, but the number of people who stuck with those characters once they were able to reroll is only 35%.”
Isaac waved away her concern. “That’s why it is listed as an advanced zone with a more challenging start. By now they should know that there are always ways to overcome challenges, if you are clever and resourceful enough to find them, or make them.”
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Morgan shook her head. “I think most of the problems will be due to the fact that they’ll be waking up as his slaves. Well, his company’s slaves. But since he’s the sole owner of the company, that means nothing as a distinction, and everyone knows it.”
“Well, he’s worked for everything he has. Maybe pitch it to them as ‘this is what your game could be, if you have the skills’, and challenge them that way. After all, he spent the first couple weeks in game setting up his eventual escape, starting with pretending to be a blithering idiot so that they would underestimate him. Hell, we were watching him, and didn’t realize what he was playing at until after the fact.”
“So, what? Make it a challenge?”
“Sure, you know the more hard-core gamers will just eat it up. ‘If he can do it, I can too’. They’re in it for the challenge. It is only the wannabes that scream about it being unfair. They want to get the high-end rewards, but aren’t willing to put in the work to do it. You can’t be an elite raider if you’re not going to put in the work to actually become an elite.”
Morgan nodded slowly. “Yeah, that could work. Spin it as a challenge, seeing what others can build. There’s still the people complaining about him basically hoarding information since the index of gate addresses he has is not public domain, though.”
“Bah! He wouldn’t have gotten those addresses if he hadn’t found a way to sneak through the quarantine, and then rob a high security vault, before getting out of dodge. You just have to hint that there are plenty of secrets that have not yet been discovered, if one is willing to look for them.”
“But what about the ‘Enrichment Center’ that he found? Don’t tell me for a second that wasn’t your doing. I know how much you loved that old Doorway game with gun that opened Doorways between two points.”
Isaac laughed. “Guilty as charged. But that is just one of the ‘secrets’ hidden around the galaxy. It was actually on that planet from the start of the game, and the logs will back that up, so no unfair advantage there. And it isn’t like he’ll be able to use any of the technology there.”
“Why not?”
“It is the equivalent of giving a cave man a bicycle. Sure, the cave man may be able to figure out how it works, but making a new one, or fixing the one he has when it breaks? Not possible.”
“So, no risk of those devices going everywhere in the galaxy?”
“Not right away, anyway. To get the information they need to learn the science to reproduce the tech, they need to either cure a homicidal alien AI of its insanity, reprogram it (and make sure they get all the backup copies), or spend a long time researching and reverse-engineering. Having prototypes to study makes it easier, but it should still take over a decade of research in game for anything workable to be produced. The game AI confirms that, unless they find a secondary source that has better information, it will be a long time before Black Star starts sporting doorway guns.”
“All right, that’s fine, I guess. How are the trials with the experimental game mode going?”
“Ah, the ‘AI character’ trials for autistics? So far, it is working fairly well. The first few have just entered the game, of course, so it will take time to see long-term effects, but so far things look promising. A couple have really started being more social, at least while they are communicating as an AI. We’ll need time to see if this helps them become higher functioning or less severe cases in the real world, but even if it just works in the game because of the ‘other-ness’, the scientists are impressed. And I know more than one parent has already signed up to get pods of their own, so they can join their kid in the game and interact with them in a way they can’t do in the real world.”
Morgan nodded. “All right, but you know there are… less than kind elements out there in the player base. What happens if…?”
“We’re keeping a closer eye on their accounts with the excuse that it is part of the medical tests, with the AI’s help. If there looks to be harassment, in game or out, we can swoop in quickly and deal with it. Legal already approved the surveillance in a limited way, as part of the testing procedure.”
“Good. The last thing we want is a narrative about us allowing abuse of autistic kids. Anything else going on?”
“Nope. Want to go grab dinner?”
“Thought you’d never ask!”