45. Aftermath
I awoke from the most intense bout of dreaming I’d experienced yet, and I reflected on what I had learned in the first give battlegrounds. I didn’t like Healing PVP, but that wasn’t too much of a surprise since I only marginally enjoyed healing PVE as well. I enjoyed fighting against Travelers as my three Damage classes. Surprisingly, if I were to rank them, [Archer] would be on top, followed by [Duelist].
And then there was [Lord].
It wasn’t that I was disliking [Lord]. It had been enjoyable directing the strategy of the battleground at large in the final battle. While the first battleground had been a wash, once I had figured out how to use my quest issuing abilities together with the built in leadership controls of the battleground itself to manage the Travelers on my side, my team had simply dominated. I was, after all, able to identify my strongest allies at a glance and form them into strike teams to send after the objectives I knew needed completing, or to bolster them even further with my auras.
However, while my strategy had been effective, something just wasn’t sitting right, and I wasn’t sure how to quantify it.
After I had been awake for about ten minutes, a chime sounded, followed by Thomas’s voice. “Hail? May I come in?”
I looked around, confused for a moment. “Nothing has ever stopped you in the past.”
“We’re taking your request for privacy very seriously, Hail. I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t know your rest period ended a few moments ago, but the doorbell feature will quite literally bar me from entering your instance of the lobby without your permission,” he informed me.
“You can come in,” I confirmed, after taking a moment to make certain I was dressed and to wipe a bit of drool off my lip. Thomas appeared by way of blue motes of light. He smiled at me, but I could tell from his expression that he wasn’t here for social reasons.
“What is it?” I asked.
He sighed. “Your sponsors want to talk to you immediately, Hail. They’ve been pestering us the entire time you were asleep, basically. After the last battleground, your abilities have hit the forums and caused quite a bit of a stir. We sort of saw this coming. Arc did, at least. But we decided to simply let it happen and help you deal with the fallout.”
I sighed. “I guess I’m not surprised. Whichever side I end up on has an unfair advantage. I was trying to keep things fair by selecting the mercenary option, but--”
“Hail, you don’t have to justify yourself to me. But you will have to speak with the sponsors of this event. There’s a meeting going on to address the issue, but there’s only so much that they can accomplish without your presence. I’m sending you the contact information to connect. I’m going to let you get ready, and I’ll see you there.”
“Right,” I said, as Thomas vanished the way he had come.
I spent a few minutes getting dressed in one of my Earth suits. Then, before I left, I decided that Hagi should have a representative as well, so I divided myself and won the game of rock-paper-siscors that we played to determine who was who. My doppleganger switched into my blond Hagi self, and we both connected to the meeting in progress.
There were perhaps two dozen people present in the confirence room when I arrived, as well as a chair at the head of the table that was obviously reserved for me. They hadn’t been expecting Hagi to show up, but once I declared his presence someone adjusted the settings and another chair appeared next to mine for him. I took a seat and looked down the table with a serious expression. Hagi kicked his heels up and took a bite out of an apple.
“So I’m guessing there’s an agenda that I haven’t seen?” I suggested.
“Not exactly, just a bullet points of things that need to be addressed,” Lucile Becker said, taking point for the companies who had purchased the battlegrounds from me. “Before I list them, I’d like to clarify that nobody is claiming that you are in breach of contract, nor are we asking for any return of the funds we have given you. We are simply asking for an adjustment to the agreement based on the initial outcome of the first five battlegrounds, according to the process which was itself laid out in the contract you signed.”
I nodded, and Hagi shrugged. “I guess I can’t say that I’m surprised. You’ve changed your mind about allowing me to participate in my own battlegrounds, haven’t you?” I said.
“Unfortunately, your presence on the battlefield is simply too potent of a force multiplyer,” Liam, my australian PR strategist, said. He was also one of the major driving forces in gathering the backers for this event. “While the players who get assigned to your team are thrilled to have you on their side, this was billed as an event where the two sides were ultimately equally balanced. Unfortunately, your presence alone is enough to disrupt that.”
“So is the presence of a particularly powerful premade group,” I argued, but I raised a hand before anyone could take up the argument further. “I know. Honestly, this issue was troubling me already. I decided before I came to this meeting that I will not be participating in further Red vs Blue battlegrounds as [Lord] Hail. I might particpate as [Spellblade] Hail in the future, once I have re-unlocked that ability, but that’s unlikely to occur before the end of the events which I have set up according to our agreements.”
The humans in the room all took a collective sigh of relief. “That resolves the majority of the items on out list of concerns,” a man whom I didn’t recognize admitted. “We’re thankful for your consideration on this matter.”
“What other concerns are left?” I inquired.
“Well, we were wondering if there was a way to compensate the players who fought against you for the unfair conditions they faced,” the man admitted. “We’ve already determined that this isn’t a situation in which our agreement was breached, as you explicitly stated your intention to take part in the battleground and as such it was written into the contract. However--”
“Give me a moment, I’m going to speak with the system for a little while,” I said, interrupting the man.
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After a bit of demurring, the representatives of my sponsors all agreed that it would be, so I interfaced with the system to set it up. It was also decided that I would make the official announcement, which I did through a post on the forums.
Subject
Compensation for unfair conditions in the Battlegrounds
Original Poster: Hail Jeoran
Hail
As some of you are well aware, it turns out that my mere presence as a [Lord] on the battlegrounds turns the tide against my enemies. While I do not regret participating in the first five of the Red vs. Blue battlegrounds, I have decided that I will be sitting out of the remaining twenty-five to ensure that my abilities do not impact the outcome.
After speaking with the sponsors of this event, I have also convinced the system to reward additional contribution points to the Travelers who faced off against me. This is a one-time bonus of up to three hundred percent of your initial reward. The exact formula is a little complex, but it does scale downward for those players who faired well despite the handicap they faced in order to keep them in line with the maximum theoretical contribution.
For those of you who already cashed in on your contribution rewards after battleground five, you should find that you have more points to spend or save as you wish. Unfortunately there’s no way to put the cat back in the bag for you, so I’m hoping that if you did spend your points early, you’re not regretting the decision now.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who participated both with and against me during the first five battles. While I don’t mean to undermine the validity or importance of the battles of Red vs. Blue, and the entire reason I will be abstaining from them in the immediate future is to maintain their fairness, I’m glad that I had a chance to experiment with my new class in an environment where the outcome had less at stake than the fate of my lands or the future of my kingdom.
Anyway, I’m not going to be following this thread, whether it blows up or not, so don’t think that I’ve read anything beyond this post.
Also, Hagi is going to continue to participate, as his presence doesn’t disrupt the battle to the same degree that mine does. You probably won’t even notice he’s there, but if you do, say hi.
I closed out the forums, and after arguing for a few minutes with the others about the verbage I had used, we ended the meeting several minutes later. Hagi, who hadn’t contributed much to the entire discussion, vanished to get ready for the next wave of battlegrounds, which was scheduled to start soon. I stuck around in the meeting room a few minutes longer, listening in to the representatives as they discussed matters not related to me. Nobody seemed to mind my presence as they discussed things like Return on Investment, Conversion Rates, Impressions and other metrics that I didn’t really understand or care about.
I was a little surprised at how cordial the meeting was, considering that it was split almost evenly between the representatives of Team Red and Team Blue. In fact, as I contemplated the numbers, I realized that everyone who had purchased a battleground charge from me had about the same number of people present.
Before long, however, I got bored. I bid my farewells after asking if I was required for anything else, and everyone agreed that while I was welcome to stay, my presence wasn’t required. So I returned to my castle in the Lobby, where Hagi was busy trolling the forums.
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“Bowing out of the rest of the fights didn’t make everyone magically happy,” he informed me. “It did calm down a lot of the people who were upset about getting steamrolled, but now everyone who didn’t have a chance to fight in the same battleground as [Lord] is complaining about the lack of opportunity.”
“We can’t make everyone happy,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, I know,” he agreed. “So, what’s the plan now? We each split into two and tackle the rest like that?”
I shook my head, having come to a decision already. “I’m not going to split. I’m going to roll [Rogue] with our sixth slot, then do some solo questing. You can split into four and have the battlegrounds.”
Hagi shrugged his indifference. “We have been thinking about experimenting with [Rogue]. I suppose when we’re locked out of [Lord] is as good a time as any.”
“Right,” I said, and I pulled up my [Placeholder] Menu to create the new class.
Name
Hagi
Level
1
Guild
Nethersong Mavericks
Strength
12
Health
142/142
Dexterity
16
Energy
13
Vitality
14
Skill
100/100
Endurance
13
Experience
0/100
Intelligence
14
Age
15
Wisdom
13
Race
Human (blood of the travelers)
Charisma
38
Class
Rogue
Armor
4
Titles
Dungeon Master I
Attack Power
54
Serpentbane
Critical Damage
5.16
Veteran of The Battle for North Shire
Weapon Damage Rating
Mainhand/Offhand
F/F