God's imitator

Chapter 273 Destroying Mutual Trust
Everyone lowered their heads and fell into deep thought.

What Wei Yinzhang said is actually not difficult to understand.

While players will hate copycats whenever there is a death in the game, the degree of hatred will vary depending on the specific circumstances.

If a copycat directly restricts the order of land opening and file release at the game rule level, it is tantamount to him trying to predetermine the outcome of the game.

All the hatred that arises from this will naturally be directed at the copycat who designed the "Shelter Game".

Even if the hatred for this one copycat spreads, it will only extend to other copycats.

However, since the decisions are made by hidden players, a large portion of the aggro is absorbed by them.

And this hatred, once it spreads, will extend to other communities.

Copycat offenders use this method to shift their focus away from their own problems.

Yang Yuting thought for a moment: "But these things aren't absolute, are they?"

"The copycats set an extremely cruel rule of mutual harm, where players kill each other within the rules. No matter how you look at it, the greatest responsibility still lies with the copycats."

"Most communities should be able to figure this out when they do a post-mortem analysis, right?"

Wei Yinzhang shook his head: "Not necessarily."

There is still a question of 'degree' involved.

"In other words, depending on the specific game mechanics, the level of hatred players have for 'copycats' or 'other players' will vary."

"The more brutal the rules of the game, the higher the level of hatred towards copycats; conversely, the more lenient the rules of the game, the lower the level of hatred towards copycats."

"But this change is not from one extreme to another, but rather it will change and adjust dynamically."

You can think of it this way:

"If the copycat leaves no way out in the game, then players will definitely only hate the copycat and not the other players;
"But what if the copycat leaves a 10% chance of survival, and the other players cut off that chance?"
"Similarly, what about leaving 20%, 30%, or 40% of copycat offenders a way out?"

"Although the probability is still not high, it still exists objectively. At this point, players will naturally transfer some of their hatred from copycats to other players."

Xu Tong thought for a moment: "But 'Shelter Game' should be the kind of game where there's very little chance of survival, right?"

After considering for a moment, Wei Yinzhang shook his head slightly: "Actually, if I had to say, although this game has many rules about death and is very dangerous, if players cooperate, the mortality rate is not necessarily very high."

"If hidden players are willing to give up some of the benefits and not to favor certain communities when bidding for land and publishing the criminal files, so that all players in the inner circle can share the risk of death as evenly as possible, the survival rate of all players will increase."

"It's just that you get less gold coins from the land auction."

"In this way, players inside the game will not choose to fight to the death with them, and the risk of death for hidden players can also be reduced."

"Similarly, players in the inner circle can also choose not to squeeze the audience's coins in the most extreme way. If they sell normal shelters for around 15 coins, the audience will accept it perfectly."

"Think about it carefully, the mutual harm between hidden players, insiders, and spectators, including the mutual harm between core players and peripheral players within the community, is certainly due to the game mechanics, but a large part of the reason lies in the players' own greed."

"Suppose we want to collaborate with players from another community, and we know that:"
"The players in this community will only cooperate when the game mechanics fully support cooperation; they will not cooperate if any game mechanics offer any incentive to betray them. In this situation, would we still cooperate with the players in this community?"
"When faced with the same coercion, inducement, and death threats, some communities give up immediately, while others may persist for a long time before giving up."

"Although the outcome was the same—giving up—the length of the struggle speaks volumes."

"The copycat of 'Shelter Game' wants to tell all players one thing: communities cannot cooperate or trust each other. As soon as the game rules are tightened slightly, or as long as some insignificant benefits are offered as a lure, other communities will immediately betray you."

"To prove that copycats are wrong, one must firmly uphold one's values ​​and resolutely resist the rules even under tightened regulations."

"Unfortunately, judging from the situation in the 'Shelter Game,' only our community has achieved this."

"The behavior of players in this game will affect the judgment of those who experience it regarding the current ecosystem of the entire arcade."

"The scale of this game is unprecedented, with 5 communities playing inside players, 1 community playing hidden players, and 30 spectators."

"In other words, this game encompasses at least 10 communities."

"I think that Officer Cao's actions, while increasing the game's mortality rate, also to some extent countered the copycat's 'psychological attack'."

He told all the players that no matter how the rules of the game change, at least our Community 17 will still strive to maintain fairness and justice.

"If our 17th community chooses to cooperate with the 12th and 15th communities to share the viewers' gold coins, then even if the number of players who die in the normal game decreases, the surviving players will not feel fortunate."

"Because the mutual trust between communities will be completely destroyed and cannot be repaired."

Wei Yinzhang continued, "Not only that, this game is also undermining mutual trust within the community."

The "gold coin" system reshuffles the remaining visa time for all players, giving the gold coins of the weak and the gold coins of the strong the same value.

"Therefore, for the leader of a weak community, it is just as profitable to scheme against the players in their own community, and it is much easier."

"Like Community 12 and Community 15."

"Their core players all survived and brought back all the gold they had earned in the game, a very lucrative haul."

"However, Wang Weidong and Chen Guangming, whether intentionally or unintentionally, made other marginal players take on greater risks in the game, which led to their deaths."

"So, once they return to the community, or enter the next game, will the players from the same community still trust them?"
"This will have a huge impact on the community's ecology."

“When trust breaks down, many core players in a community may choose to use high pressure and coercive commands to control the behavior of members.”

Wei Yinzhang paused slightly before concluding, "So, this game is not just about killing people, but also about destroying their spirits."

"What happened in the game cannot be simply covered up by saying 'the mistake was made by a copycat.'"

"From this point on, each community will most likely begin to investigate copycats within their community, and the conflict between players and copycats will inevitably intensify significantly."

"But conflicts between communities, and within communities, will also intensify significantly."

"The outcome of this game may completely change some people's beliefs, causing them to move from 'cooperation' to 'confrontation,' and from 'trust' to 'suspect.'"

(End of this chapter)