“Hey Lucious! When are you joining the Fire Faction?” a voice calls out as the spell caster levitates to the second floor.
“Nah! He’s more of a Water specialist?” another voice interjects.
Lucious smiles at the two recruiters and offers a friendly wave as he continues to levitate to a higher level.
Finally, he reaches the Unaffiliated Faction and jumps onto the floor.
A young mage dressed in white greets Lucious. “Welcome, good sir. Please sign next to your name in the roll book,” he requests. Apprentices in the unaffiliated faction are required to serve various duties under the eyes of Fistaklius, the guild master.
Lucious smiles at the apprentice, remembering the time when Lucious himself served for a month as an apprentice. He walks up to the desk, where several books are stacked neatly. He pulls out the book containing the letter “L,” and proceeds to sign his name.
The attendant stamps his magical ring, worn on his left pinky finger, to confirm the signature. A date and time automatically appear next to the seal. “You may enter, Member Lucious.” The guild master had implemented a system to keep track of members entering and leaving the premises. Failure to sign in and out could result in the suspension of the member from the guild, and repeated violations will result in expulsion.
Lucious nods and walks down the hallway. The hallway is curved and forms a complete circle around the floor. There are doors providing entry to various offices. He nods in polite greetings to mages in the hallway. Finally, he reaches a door marked simply, “Enchantments,” and enters the room.
A wizened looking face pops over a stack of books on a bench. Seeing Lucious, the old man walks over to greet the newcomer. “Well met, Lucious,” the shopkeeper says.
“Well met, Vergil,” Lucious replies. He opens his Bag of Holding, and pulls out a small glass vial of fine dust. “This belonged to a lich,” he says nonchalantly.
“Where did you get it?” the shopkeeper asks as he takes the vial. He invokes the enchantment in a ring on his finger to cast an Identify spell to confirm the content. A small white aura surrounds the vial for a moment and the identification of the content appears on the player’s screen: “Dust of Lich.” He nods to confirm the vial’s content to Lucious.
The younger player remains silent. He had accompanied an adventuring party as a personal favor to Heimdall, the guild master of the Fighter’s Guild, and he remembered to scoop up the remains of the lich once the difficult fight had ended. However, there’s no need to inform Vergil of his personal contacts with another guild. After all, Lucious does not want to make a habit of accompanying groups other than The Strangers, and be bombarded with requests from players to accompany them.
“Fine,” Vergil grins. He knows the younger player is very tight lipped about his adventures, and it is one of the great mysteries surround the infamous Lucious the Elementalist of The Strangers. The player’s apparent ties to the game developer have given rise to conspiracy theories such as the notion that Lucious is an employee game tester, or he has administrative access to the game server to adjust his player account to buff his avatar’s magical abilities beyond those of a normal player of World of Eternia. Of course, Vergil thinks these rumors are groundless, and that Lucious is simply a guy who had spent a lot of time in the game, if his frequent visit to Vergil’s shop is any indication. “So how much do you want for it?” he asks.
Lucious shakes his head. “I’d rather barter for your services.”
Vergil smiles at the response. He is among the greatest Enchanters in the game, and he often receives requests to create special magic items. The lion guardians standing outside the entrance are among his most notable creations. Alas, his services are only available to members of the Unaffiliated Faction by decree of the guild master, and consequently there is a black market to pass his goods to the elemental factions, at a premium of course. “What do you want me to make?” the enchanter asks in eager anticipation. Lucious has an interesting perspective on magic and how it interacts with the world of Eternia, and his insights have provided guidance in the creation of new and popular magic items that sell quickly.
“I need something that would allow Divine Spells to be cast in another dimension,” the mage replies. Seeing the eyebrows rising, he continues, “I recently journeyed with my party to a new realm where the Gods of Eternia have no power, and therefore spells from the divine sphere cannot be cast in that realm.”
Vergil strokes his long white beard as he considers the problem. “It is an interesting challenge, and I could understand why you would want a magic item to bypass this serious limitation. I could see two magic theories to get around it. We could have a device that stores divine energy to power divine spells, or the spells themselves could be stored directly into the device. The device would have a set charge based on the amount of mana stored within the device. That’s the easiest solution, but a rather limited one. The other method is to create an artificial conduit to deliver the divine energy to this realm. The device would serve as a permanent beacon, in other words. But this is much harder to establish, and the beacon would need to be protected at all times in the foreign realm to prevent the device from destruction by hostile forces. Are the inhabitants of this realm hostile?” he asks.
Lucious nods once.
Vergil takes off his small glasses and rubs his eyes. “Is the King planning an invasion of this realm?”
“Possibly,” the younger mage answers succinctly.
“In that case, I will need to consult other mages and even the clergy on this matter,” the enchanter replies. This is probably a precursor to the much rumored, but still unannounced expansion to the game. If Vergil can come up with a device to bypass the limitation on divine spells in this new realm, then the device would be highly sought after by parties seeking to enter the new realm. He could feel the sack of gold in his hand already!
Lucious could see the dollar signs in Vergil's eyes, as the shopkeeper enjoys the opportunity to make gold pieces, almost to a fault. Lucious suspects that Vergil chose to create a player run shop precisely for this reason. “The King has not publicized his plans yet. And there is a slight possibility that we won’t invade the realm. I’m just planning for that possibility and you would have to emphasize this in your discussions with your counterparts,” Luciuous cautions.
“Aye. Miracles and politics go hand in hand. I think my counterparts understand this quite well,” Vergil chuckles. “Worry not, my young friend. We will keep this discussion private and off the public forums.”
"Yes, please keep this private for now," the Stranger agrees.
Chapter 18 – Casual Gaming
"Let's get this meeting started," the Chief Executive Officer of Virtuous Gaming Co. says. Charles Winter is sitting at the head of the oval shaped table, located in the company’s headquarters in a suburban area near Seattle, Washington. "The time is now 9 AM," he announces.
The secretary is sitting to his left, and typing on her laptop computer at the conference table as he speaks. Priscilla Lombardi uses shorthand to record the meeting contemporaneously. She will submit a finalized report to the CEO, who will then pass the minutes of the meeting to other interested parties including shareholders and investors in this private company.
The Chief Financial Officer nods and starts his presentation. "As you know, the mission of Virtuous Gaming is to provide entertainment content to the leading platforms as well as social media. For the quarter which ended in June, sales revenues have decreased by two percent compared over the previous quarter, and by five percent when compared to the same quarter in the previous year," explains Martin Pembrose while making eye contact with attendees around the small conference room.
Lewis Richard Whitney, Chairman of the board, interrupts. "What's the reason for this down trend in the company’s revenues? Are kids simply no longer playing our games?" the blustery but elderly man asks with a booming voice that reverberates around the room. He slams a fist on the table for
emphasis. What are these morons doing in this company?
Lisa Huffman, Vice President of Product Development, speaks up. "Please allow me to explain the reason, Mister Chairman,” she says politely. “Our services are utilized by both the adult consumer and the non-adult consumer. The breakdown is roughly half-half between the two client bases. But to answer your question, there have been a decrease in revenue from both segments. Our online trading card game product line is tailored to the adolescent population, and the revenue stream usually sees a dip during the second quarter because kids spend more time on studying for exams and therefore have less free time available to play games."
Seeing an encouraging nod from the chairman, she continues. “On the other hand, our match three puzzle games have wider appeal to the young working professionals, who play these games during breaks at work or during commute to and from work. However, they tend to spend less time on our games during the evening hours.”
“So what’s the reason for the downtrend in the match three product line?” the chairman presses.
“The reason is a little harder to pin down. During the holidays, for example, we tend to see a decrease in use of this product line because our clients are busy with family events during the holidays. Our customer surveys and analysis of the playing times reflect that the games are usually played in relation to work. During the after hours, we assume our adult gamers engage in other activities such shopping, exercising, watching television, etc. The decrease in product usage may actually be related to the labor market, which has seen a rise in retail and restaurant jobs. If people are losing their desk jobs and getting blue collar work instead, that would naturally lead to a decrease in the player base for our match three product line and therefore a decrease in revenue,” Lisa explains.
“How do you plan to reverse this unwelcome trend?” Lewis asks while looking around the room to invite other attendees to speak up. “Anyone got suggestions?”
The CEO accepts the invitation. “I think there are a number of ways. We run tournament events pitting players against one another, and usage spikes significantly during these events. We continue to have new expansions and features in development, and they help draw interest to our entertainment services. Finally, the company may look into the possibility of entering new markets over the long term,” Charles says while looking directly into Lewis’ eyes.
The chairman nods in satisfaction. Interim results are heavily subject to seasonality and short term factors that are out of the management’s control. His main objective in probing the company’s senior management is to see how they respond in the short term while pushing for long term growth of the young company. The most important thing is to guard against complacency, and to prevent a defeatist mentality from taking hold and permeate from the top down to the bottom of the organization. Sometimes the best thing to do is stay active and try new solutions even if the result is not successful as far as the bottom line is concerned.
“Let’s move on to the next item on today’s agenda,” Charles says.
Chapter 19 – Off the Record
"Okay that's the last item on today's agenda. The time is now 10.45 AM. And this concludes our meeting," the CEO says. He turns to his head and nods at the secretary. He waits for her to finish up her typing and shut down her computer. Once he sees that she has done so a minute later, he turns back to address the room. "Now we begin Part B of the meeting. May I remind the room that the conversation from this point forward is confidential and strictly off the record. Those found to violate confidentiality will be subject to severe disciplinary action including termination. If you cannot comply you may leave the room now."
Charles waits for a minute to allow any person in the room to leave. None take up his offer. “Very well, then. Let’s start the unofficial meeting. What’s the situation with the ‘Digital Bandit?’ Have our outside consultants made any progress in either capturing this hacker or removing his ability to disrupt our services?” he asks.
Victoria McCluskey raises her hand. Seeing a nod from the CEO, the Chief Technology Officer answers his question. “The consultants believe that the hacker or hacker group is based in Russia. Since the United States do not have an extradition treaty with Russia, it would be very difficult for us to obtain the cooperation of the Russian law enforcement against their citizenry. My engineers have been busy patching up holes, and disruption to our company’s services had been minimal last quarter.”
Charles nods in satisfaction. VG’s servers were knocked off line by the Digital Bandit for a few days last year. The hacker even had the nerve to demand a ransom payment via bitcoins. The CEO chose not to pay, and instead hired a contractor to stop the Distributed Denial of Service (“DDoS”) attack. However, a small portion of the subscribers decided to quit playing VG’s games due to concerns over their personal data, and this resulted in a five percent drop in revenue for the quarter. The CEO pushes the history out of his mind, and focuses on the next topic on the agenda. “What’s the status of our ongoing efforts to spy on Eternia Development & Entertainment, Inc. and its new product developments?” he asks.
Peter Raymond Hutchinson raises his hand. With a nod from the CEO, the security officer speaks up. "Our newest plant, Deana Naples, has been compromised," he says.
"Has she spilled?" Charles inquires with a frown. He is surprised and disappointed that the new employee in EDE’s product development division couldn’t last a week. The slow hiring process at EDE makes it difficult to keep spies in the company in order to keep tabs on his rival, Richard T. Gibson.
"She was recruited through a shell company. I made sure that she doesn't know the true client for her services," Peter grins.
The CEO frowns at the small, bookish looking man with those annoyingly tiny glasses framing his tinier looking face. The guy was poached from an online security provider, and he was promised a free hand to engage in cloak and dagger operations. Unfortunately, the man resembles a weasel in terms of appearance and mannerism, and he is thoroughly uncharismatic.
"I'm not sure this is the wisest use of scarce company resources," the CFO remarks. Martin has already expressed his reservation privately to both Charles and Lewis. Charles was almost outright dismissive of the CFO’s concern. While the chairman was more receptive, Lewis is willing to let the company founder take the gamble. The response is frustrating to Martin because the chairman is a major investor in the company with heavy influence over Charles, but it appears Lewis is unwilling to use it in this case.
"Actually, I have a contrarian view on this, Martin. If we manage to cut down our research and development time, then we would be able to gain a foothold into the virtual reality market. It's the ultimate irony that our company name is Virtuous Gaming, and people are disappointed when they find out that we don't offer any virtual reality entertainment products. And I fully intend to rectify that oversight, one way or the other." The CEO stares at Martin Pembrose with sharp eyes. Why does the fool insist on playing a broken record?
The CFO looks uncomfortably at the Chairman for a moment, and then stares at the conference table in front of his seat. At this rate, I might need to find another job before I hit retirement, he sighs.
“I have to give the CEO of EDE some credit,” Peter continues. “Whoever is advising him to look for industrial spies is giving the company executive his money’s worth.”
“Knowing Richard, I would say that he’s sniffing out spies in his company on his own, without hiring an outside company to advise him,” Charles replies.
“You know him better than me,” the spook grins.
“For better or worse,” the CEO grins back.
“Gentlemen, we are wasting precious time. Please leave the casual banter for later,” the chairman reminds them.
"Has Deana obtained anything useful?" Charles asks.
"Possibly," the security man replies. "I looked at her data briefly, and there were some time tables for various ongoing projects at EDE. The code names, though, don't
provide enough insight into the actual projects themselves, which is apparently kept in a heavily encrypted file we haven't been able to crack yet."
"Let me know if you crack those files," the CEO replies and receives a nod from the spook. He’s not surprised that the hacker is having difficulty getting access to those files. Hopefully this means the encrypted stuff is important, he thinks. "Let's move on to the next topic." He looks over at the VP of Product Development.
“We have started player testing out our own MMORPG game through a secret subsidiary of Virtuous Gaming,” Lisa says. “We have dedicated a separate server to this product line. But it is still in development and undergoing player testing.”
“How long do you think it would take for the game to be ready for release to the public?” the chairman asks.
“Unless you’re willing to double the research & development budget, at the current rate of progress I would say maybe at least a year would be needed,” the Product Development head replies.
Lewis nods. “I will talk to some venture capitalists to assess interest in funding the MMORPG division separately. If there is, then you might be able to get a major boost in your R & D budget.”
“Should I go with you?” Charles asks.
The chairman shakes his head. “This is going to be very preliminary contact, mainly phone conversations or during a round of golf,” he smiles.
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