God's imitator

Chapter 235 Commonalities of Design

After careful consideration, Zheng Jie said, "So he must have cut off his forearm, right? Especially the area above the wrist, where the subcutaneous tissue is quite thin, only about 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters. If he cut off that area, it definitely wouldn't be enough."

"It's fine to cut your own biceps or deltoids."

Cai Zhiyuan touched his two muscles: "But he was probably afraid of causing disability, so he didn't dare to cut those two spots."

"When the games in the arcade are more targeted, the ratings will generally be raised accordingly."

"This game is still very targeted at gamblers."

"The safest way to leave this game is to grit your teeth and chop off your little finger with an axe."

"However, gamblers often have a strong sense of luck. After seeing two 'no damage' sides on the dice, they will subconsciously think that there is a one-third probability of rolling a no damage side, so they are more inclined to roll the dice to try their luck."

"After failing to achieve 'no injury' the first time, he was forced to cut himself, which increased his sunk costs and made him even less willing to cut off his little finger."

"Moreover, the rules clearly state that the more times the dice are rolled, the higher the probability of 'no damage'."

"These factors will all motivate him to keep rolling the dice, at least three times."

"Although players can avoid fatal attacks if they go all out, the game's rating has been raised for these reasons."

Wei Yinzhang added, "One more thing, I feel that the initial batch of single-player test games generally received higher scores."

"After all, all the imitators at the time were designing a game for the first time. They hadn't seen any other excellent designs, had little experience to refer to, and had very little time to design the game."

"It's still a single-player game, so it's relatively difficult to design too many interactions and tricks."

"So when the game gallery rated this batch of games, it must have relaxed the standards a little, which is why the overall score is a little higher."

Wang Yongxin said thoughtfully, "In other words, copycats who design games cannot actually control all the details in the game, and unexpected situations will often occur."

Wei Yinzhang nodded: "Of course!"

"Anyway, I often make mistakes in my own games, as long as they're not too fatal."

"It's too difficult to plug all the loopholes in the rules. It's like no matter how good a programmer is, it's impossible for a game to be completely bug-free. It's just a matter of how many."

She took a sip of water and continued, "Then I left the game area and wandered around aimlessly for a while until I reached Community 6."

"Of course I chose to hide my identity as a copycat, because the arcade had specifically warned me that revealing my identity could put me in danger."

"After entering the community, I will receive a game invitation from the game arcade on my personal computer in my room."

"I don't know exactly how many invitations the gallery will send out, but I can only receive one."

"I suspect that the arcade sends out different invitations each time, and each invitation is sent to several different copycats. These copycats each make their own designs, and the arcade reviews them and selects one to be chosen."

"I'm not sure about the specifics of how to divide and select them."

"As for the timing, if there is about a week between the two games, then you will receive a new invitation one or two days after the previous game ends, and submit the game plan and complete the review one day before the next game officially starts."

"The time in between is the time used for design."

"However, these times are not absolute. Sometimes they are earlier and sometimes later, and the design time and requirements for each invitation are also different."

Fu Chen asked with some curiosity, "What exactly is the invitation to design games for the arcade?" Wei Yinzhang explained, "It's actually a standard format proposal, which includes the props that can be used in the next game, additional rules or themes, and files of the criminals to be tried, etc."

"The copycat writer would write down the specific rules of the game on the page, and then write 'Design Complete' in the bottom right corner of the last page, and it would be automatically submitted for review."

"However, whether it has been approved or not, or whether it has been adopted after approval, is generally not notified separately. You can only find out when the game is launched again."

Wang Yongxin grasped a key point: "Wait, aren't the available items different each time we play the game?"

Wei Yinzhang nodded: "Of course they're different!"
"The arcade will restrict the items that can be used. For example, the game where you first get the identity of a copycat has clear restrictions: any gambling equipment, any melee weapon, any firearm, etc."

"Didn't you notice that in the very first batch of games, there were a lot of dice, board games, and roulette?"
"Of course, you don't have to use all of these props; you can choose them yourself. For example, in the 'Capped Dice' game, I only chose an axe from the melee weapons and didn't choose any firearms."

"But copycats are generally not allowed to design other props outside of the prop list."

"Unless the item list includes other large items that can be freely designed, and there are enough of them."

Lee In-sook nodded in realization: "I see, we really didn't notice that before."

Cai Zhiyuan lowered his head and pondered for a long time before saying, "Indeed, now that I think about it, the design of the first batch of games actually had some commonalities."

"For example, the games you designed, 'Capped Dice' and 'Redemption Roulette,' are both related to probability."

"At first I thought it was because these copycats all had a penchant for probability, but now I think it was probably because the plan included props like 'gambling equipment,' which had a certain enticing effect on the copycats."

Wang Yongxin asked, "So, is the arcade actually controlling every game? The copycats create games simply to implement the arcade's will?"

This question stumped Wei Yinzhang.

She thought for a moment and said, "I can't say for sure."

"There must be some kind of will behind the arcade, because sometimes a sentence is included when a design invitation is sent out."

"For example, what impressed me most was that after completing 'Packed Dice,' I received my first game invitation in the 6th community. The arcade said that 'Packed Dice' was well-designed, but it still had flaws and we should keep working on it."

“In a previous game invitation, the game hall also said, ‘Just as players slowly change the community, copycats will slowly change the game hall.’”

Everyone was somewhat surprised and pondered the statement seriously.

Lee In-sook considered for a moment: "We did make such a speculation before: copycats might change the form of the arcade, and the player's improvement of the community form is actually 'betting' between copycats with different ideas."

"Now we can confirm the existence of this rule."

"As long as enough copycats consistently exert influence on the arcade, its censorship standards and biases may change."

Qin Yao suddenly realized something and looked at Wei Yinzhang: "So that's why you played this 'April Fool's Game'?"

Others didn't know the specifics of the game, so they couldn't immediately connect the statement with the characteristics of an "April Fool's Game".

Qin Yao was a firsthand witness, so she realized this.

The group then brought up the rules of the "April Fool's Game".

(End of this chapter)