“We have a stats screen. I just didn’t enable it for your play. The stats are going to be based on our magic system roles,” she said. She didn’t speak for a few more moments, and then a coy smile spread across her full lips.
“That sounds kind of interesting. Can you tell me more?” I asked Zarra. The pretty woman’s purple eyes flashed past me to look at Jennifer, and then she fixed on my face again.
“Sure. A little more, because you are so charming. Do you remember the magic system?”
“Uhhh. Body, Mind, Light, and Shadow? Artus only spoke briefly about it.”
“Good. I’m glad you remembered. So Body will have ‘Brawn’ and ‘Quickness’ beneath it. Mind will have ‘Intelligence’ and ‘Willpower’. Light will have ‘Perception’ and ‘Charisma,' and Shadow will have ‘Comeliness’ and ‘Luck,'” she explained, and I couldn’t help but think that the woman must have been investing all of her real life stat points in Shadow and Light.
“And you get stat points when you level?” I asked.
“Well… yes and no,” she frowned. “We were thinking about doing away with levels, but you and my father keep talking about game progress. So we think we need to have it. We have been talking about a kind of progress reward system outside of levels.”
“Players really like levels. It puts a clear label on the results of their effort,” I said.
“Yes. I understand. It is good to hear this from you in addition to my father. You are both telling me the same thing.” She let out a quick laugh. “We might do something for when people have spent a hundred progress points on stats then they get a level. My dad likes my idea because character development will happen in smaller and quicker batches.”
“So you’ll be giving them the drug more often. It is a good idea,” I said with a nod and a smile.
“Players will pick where to put their stat points, and it will cost more to increase them as they get higher. That will help keep people from ‘min/maxing’ stats. Magic usage will be given a bonus depending on what the base stats total under each of the four types,” she explained.
“So if I spend a lot of my points in Brawn and Quickness, my Body magic will be stronger?” I asked.
“Yes, or it will be stronger than someone who doesn’t spend points in those stats with the same spell casting ability. There will still be opportunities for players to focus on magic instead of physical combat. Attacking and casting spells will all be considered skills, which will get more powerful through usage in-game.”
“Hmmm. Players might not like that either. That creates an environment where casual players won’t feel that the game is fair to them. Some people will only be able to play a few hours a day, and they won’t like that gamers with a lot of free time will acquire skills quicker,” I explained.
“That is going to happen in any game. Players that have more time are going to gain levels faster, get more loot, and whatever. The only way we can ensure that casual players have a good time, is by creating a bunch of wonderful content for them to experience at all stages of the game. The AI has already done that. The patients you met only play for an hour or so a day, and they can’t wait to login. There are so many tasks to help within the game world. There is plenty for each player to do, and a bunch of unique items for them to acquire. A lot of games make the high-end content the only place where powerful items can be found, but we wanted to ensure that new players would be able to find epic loot and wonderful quests in their own sphere of adventures.” Zarra gestured dramatically with her hands when she spoke, and I could tell that the beautiful woman was really passionate about this subject.
At the end of the day, that single quality tended to be what made these types of games successful. If the owners of the development company felt passionate about the players and game, it was probably going to do well. Zarra’s desire to have her game perform were obvious to me, and I guessed that her baby was going to be able to kick Astafar Unlimited off its podium, even without my help.
“Haha. Okay, I believe you.” I held up my palms in surrender. “To your earlier point, casting spells, or fighting, or whatever skills get better the more I use them?”
“Yes. Just like in real life, however, we made the progression a bit faster, and there are some magical items you can use to increase their skill. One of the aspects that we do have to work on is the base experience of the player. This is part of the reason you are here testing it now.”
“Oh?”
“Yes,” her lips curved into a sultry smile, and I felt my pulse quicken. “Leo ‘The Lion’ Lennox. Some say you are not just the best gamer to have ever lived, but also the best athlete, martial artist, and strategist.”
“That is totally overblown. I’m just a gamer. Games aren’t a contact sport. I know some of my fans want to put me on a pedestal next to the world’s best athletes, but they are wrong. I’ve never taken a real punch in the ring. Well I have, but it was just for training. I’ve never run a touchdown, or taken elbows on the basketball court during a playoff. I’ve never ridden hundreds of miles on a bicycle every day for a month. I’ve never broken my foot against another dude’s shin and then had to kick a soccer ball, so I could pay rent. The people that played those sports are real athletes.”
“Are they? Most people don't even play football, or box, or ride bikes anymore. I don’t want to argue the semantics of your title, but we can look at what you have achieved so far in your career. There is no doubt in my mind that you will have the highest real life base stats of anyone that will ever log into Ohlavar Quest. The AI bases its logic off of those inherent stats, and it will tweak your ingame stats to reflect that.”
“Are you saying that because I’m strong in real life, I’m strong in the game?” I asked with surprise.
“Kind of. The thing is, we don’t want to go the other way. We want this to feel real for players, and then we want them to feel heroic. If you could deadlift five hundred pounds in real life, but only fifty in the game; would you want to play that game?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Hell no,” I admitted.
“But if you could deadlift a thousand pounds in the game? Would you want to play more?”
“Okay, you got me. I understand,” I chuckled at her. “But I still feel like I was a bit too strong in the game, at least for starting out. I don’t know how much those crates weighed, but I lifted them really easily. When I kicked that guard in the head, he just died, and I hardly put any effort into the attack. Maybe if I actually had a lot of levels above the NPCs that would have made sense.”
“How do you know you didn’t have a lot of levels? We didn’t show you your stats.” She winked at me.
“Okay, fair enough.” I laughed. “One last thing I really didn’t like about the game. Well, it is still bugging me honestly,” I said with a sigh. “The quest with Artus and Kimmel. I feel frustrated that I wasn’t able to get out of that escort quest without fighting. I didn’t see a clear dialogue tree where I could have gotten him to leave the fenia alone. So I did what I thought was best, but now Artus is probably going to die. I dunno. I’m just frustrated by the outcome. I can see you losing players over it.”
“I understand. A lot of our quests are just sandbox events randomly created by the AI. It will learn from you as well. It wants to make the quests challenging, but not frustrating.”
“It needs to keep me addicted. I get it. I just wish I could restart the quest and pick different outcomes,” I admitted with a sigh.
“This is good!” she laughed. “You were really attached to Artus, huh?”
“Yeah. I liked him a bunch.”
“We are doing a good job then, but it is just a game. None of it is real. You probably liked him a bunch because you always played the cat race in Astafar Unlimited.”
“That could be.” I laughed. “You’ve done a great job. The world and the NPCs do seem real. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about a game NPC. It is a bit frustrating,” I laughed and felt my
stomach growl again. Ky would probably be back in a few minutes with my food.
“So let us talk about that for a bit, but first, is there any other critical feedback you have?” Zarra asked.
“No. I think that is everything, and it sounds like you’ve already puzzled through a bunch of it.”
“Yes. We actually have all the changes ready. We could log you in tomorrow with them. If you didn’t have plans in Orlando.” She gave me a wicked grin, and I considered what Sal would say if I just didn’t go to Disney World tomorrow. There was no doubt that he would lose his mind and call the President to get the military to find me or something.
“Yeah. I do have to go. World Champion commitments and such,” I sighed.
“Jennifer, can you leave us alone for a few moments?” Zarra called out toward the observation room.
“Yes, Ms. Zerne,” Jennifer called back.
I turned my head and watched the pretty blonde woman adjust her glasses and then walk out from behind the glass. She gave me a shy nod and then left through the door that Ky and Dr. Dimopoulos had.
“Now that we are alone,” Zarra’s purr ticked up my spine, and I turned around to look at the beautiful woman. “Let’s talk about the future.”
“Okay.” I tried to keep my emotions in check, and I crossed my arms over my chest. What was it with this woman? Yeah, she was pretty. Okay... Beautiful. Okay… one of the sexiest women I’d ever spoken with, but she was also a bit arrogant and entitled. She should be turning me off a lot more than she was turning me on.
“I want you to work with me full time on Ohlavar Quest. Well, I should say that my parents and I want you to work full time with us.”
“It is a great game, but I have a bunch of commitments, and--”
“Quit them,” Zarra interrupted me.
“It isn’t that easy.”
“Why not? Leo, you are bored. I can tell. Why were you at that diner in your old neighborhood? You are losing yourself to your title. You aren’t challenged anymore. I have a colossal challenge for you here. Think about what we could do together,” she said with a careful smile.
“I don’t see why you need me to work with you full time. I just played for nine hours and gave you a bunch of feedback. It seemed like none of what I said was a surprise to you. The team just hadn’t implemented it yet. I don’t know how else I can help you, and I do have commitments to Astafar Unlimited.”
“I appreciate your feedback, but you are correct, it isn’t anything that we haven’t heard, and we can have those changes ready tomorrow, but I want you to work for me for a couple of other reasons. Will you allow me to explain?”
“Uhh of course,” I smiled at her.
“On top of the Alzheimer's treatment, we want the world to have an overarching quest to it. Hence the name.”
“Okay,” I said, and I started to think about my parents. I had been so caught up in the game that I’d forgotten about the treatment aspect of Zarra’s virtual world. As soon as this stuff in Orlando and the island get away Sal had planned, was over, I would spend some time investigating Zarra’s treatment methods.
“We want the players to search for relics of this ancient past. There are fifteen of them located throughout the world. There are hints about their location hidden in the lore of the world; other hints are hidden in dungeons, or other quest areas. Retrieving each relic will be an epic quest in itself, but once all the relics are brought together, we will declare those players involved the winners. We’ll give them a bunch of money for ‘beating’ the game, and then we will reset the servers and start again. Ohlavar will randomize the world and events, and the players will have an entirely new experience to play. This will keep the game fresh for a long time. We think we have a business model that will return us revenue for forty or more years.”
“Hmmm. That could work, but a lot of players will be mad if you reset the server and they lose their progress.”
“Maybe. Or maybe they will look forward to a new experience. We’ve also thought about bridging their stats and gear over to their next characters. It is something we still have to figure out. The main goal is this quest to find the fifteen relics. That is what I want you to do,” she uncrossed her legs and then re-crossed them with the other thigh now on top, and I struggled to keep my eyes on hers. Damn she was hot.
I was going to take a cold shower after this conversation.
“What do you mean?”
“We are worried that the game might be too hard. We think that we want players to be able to beat it in three or four years. If it takes too long, people will get bored with it. So that is the real reason you are here. We want you to play the game, and gather all of the fifteen relics.”
“You want me to just play test the game full time? Why? You don’t need--”
“We’ve got a little over two years until we will be ready to launch. We need to finish some of the medical stuff we are working on, submit to lab testing, and then do a bunch of infrastructure upgrades before we can have everyone in the world accessing the system. To be honest, I’m extremely frustrated about how slow this entire process is going. The AI that my father and his team have developed is amazing, and they have run a thousand and one simulations to guesstimate when human players will be able to finish the game, but I don’t like the idea of a live launch where the game company doesn’t even know how the players are going to fare. If you can work with us, play the game full time, and get the relics, we would be able to mine all that data. We could tweak the quests, encounters, NPCs, etc. The game would launch with so much more polish, and we would have a much better timetable.”
“What if I can’t find these relics by the time of launch?” I grinned at her.
“That is also useful data. If Leo Lennox can’t do it, we’ll know we need to rebalance stuff with the AI. Or not. It will at least give us some true data points from the best video game player the world has ever known.”
“You flatter me.” I chuckled. “Zarra, listen, I really liked your game. No, I love your game, and I want to login right now, especially when you told me about the persistent world and that Artus is probably going to get executed. But even if I want to work with you, making this transition into retirement would take me six months. My manager has my life planned for the next twenty seasons,” I laughed.
“There are always solutions to problems, Leo. Oh, I didn’t even talk money.”
“I don’t think the money really matters. I just can’t do it,” I said.
“How much do you make a year now? Fifty, maybe sixty million?” She asked.
“Yes,” I said hesitantly.
“We are offering you a ten percent ownership in Arnacript and a seat on the company’s board. We can send you the financials on our company, but we are conservatively estimating more than three hundred billion a year in revenue. The spot on the board will also have an aggressive salary that you’ll find similar to what you make now.
“Wow. Ummm, really? That seems pretty substantial for just a playtester,” I said as I tried to wrap my mind around the money she just presented to me.
“And, if you are willing, we can begin treatment of your parents. I’d say it would be free of charge, but you would own a piece of the company, so you would just be using your own treatment and doctors,” she said as her beautiful face took on a sympathetic emotion.
I thought again about my parents. In reality, there wasn’t a day that went by when I didn’t think about them. I didn’t know if I trusted Zarra’s treatment yet, but her offer was very appealing. Hell, she probably could have gotten me to play test the game with my every free moment if she had offered to treat my parents.
But something wasn’t quite right.
I couldn’t put my finger on it. Maybe it was the way my hairs had stood on end when I’d read the strange note in the bathroom. Maybe it was the way she seemed to know everything about me. Maybe it was the security doors, or the armed men here, or that she was throwing a stupid amount of money at me. Som
ething just seemed wrong. Even the game was too perfect to be real. What was that saying about something too good to be true?
The game was amazing, though, and the thought of escaping from the grind of Astafar Unlimited sounded more than a little enticing. Could she really heal my parents? Would I be able to get those fifteen relics?
“I’ll need some time to think,” I said. It was always the safe answer.
“Oh, of course, I have--”
“I’ve got dinner for the champ!” Ky shouted as he entered through the lab door wheeling a dinner cart.
Zarra’s smile dropped from her face, and her eyes seemed to glow with anger. It was just a quick flash of emotion, and I almost thought I’d imagined it because her smile was back on as soon as I blinked.
“I got you all of God’s creatures to eat. Beef, fish, fowl, and vegetable.”
“Thanks, Ky, I’m actually starting to get really hungry.”
“Let’s set Leo up in his room. Was Jennifer outside?” Zarra asked.
“Ummm no, Ms. Zerne. I didn’t see her.”
“Okay. Leo, I’m going to leave you for the night. Thank you so much for the feedback. Breakfast will be at seven so we can have a few hours to talk with my parents. Should I have the operator give you a wakeup call?” She fluttered her eyelids at me, and I began to think I imagined her getting angry when Ky interrupted her.
“I’m used to getting up at the crack of dawn to start training, but yeah. Have them call me to make sure I’m awake.”
“Fantastic. I’m really looking forward to introducing you to them. Enjoy your dinner, and sweet dreams.”
“Thanks, Zarra. I’m glad I came,” I said, and the beautiful woman blessed me with another perfect smile before she left through the lab door.
“Okay, Champ. Let me push this cart into your room. Can you get the door?” Ky asked.
“Yeah. Thanks.” I opened the heavy steel door on the side of the lab by the VRIU and held it so that the man could push my food into my room.
“I just brought you a ton of stuff, and the bottom is a cooler with a bunch of different drinks, mostly water.”
Lion's Quest: Undefeated: A LitRPG Saga Page 12