"Hello, it's me, Mr. Donut."
"Wow! I never expected it to actually be a real player!"
The person on the other end of the phone was stunned for a moment before exclaiming in surprise.
Meanwhile, his pixel remained in place, clearly indicating that the account owner was busy answering a phone call.
Benjamin held the receiver to his shoulder and casually matched the other party's game ID with their phone number.
" Mr. Donut, what's next—?"
"Let's rest first, I'm a bit exhausted too. Let's do something big tomorrow when everyone's online."
At this point in time, even their large team has only a few members left online.
"Cool!"
By this time, even Benjamin, who often plays games until the wee hours, was starting to feel the strain.
After a quick wash, he collapsed onto the bed and passed out.
But to my surprise, this sleep was much shorter than I had imagined.
7:30 AM.
Benjamin, feeling dizzy and disoriented, was jolted awake by a phone call.
" Mr. Donut, wake up! Pixel War has been updated!"
"Update?"
Benjamin rubbed his head and got up, somewhat puzzled by the unfamiliar term.
Based on how the other person addressed him, it's clear that the other person is one of his friends from the Pixel War ".
The literal meaning of this term is software or data upgrade, which means keeping information up-to-date.
What does "update" mean in video games?
In the gaming industry, if a game has serious issues like bugs after its release, the developer will usually release a patch (P).
It exists in the form of "atch"
"Yes, that's what the official announcement said. Team mode and competitive gameplay are coming!"
"Ah?"
Benjamin then dragged his heavy body to his feet and quickly turned on the power to the computer.
The screen lit up, but instead of launching into the game, a text box appeared with a scrolling progress bar below it.
[Update Announcement]
[1. This update adds a team-based gameplay mode]
[ID prefix displays team name]
[2. The battle for control has officially begun]
"A new territory will be generated on the canvas every hour."
Players can freely graffiti within the designated area.
[The event is conducted hourly, with teams taking turns to receive a random buff that lasts for one hour.]
The winning team will be announced across the entire map.
[Gain Example]:
[Speed Up]: Reduces the entire team's cooldown by 1 second.
[Maintenance countdown: 00:18:43]
"Ah???"
It's a simple little feature, but it completely changes the feel of the game.
The official message is clear: they don't intend for them to each establish their own independent territories and develop peacefully.
The clear target of the struggle was the carrot hanging in front of the donkey.
Not rob? Why shouldn't you rob?
Even if this effect isn't used, it's still a morale-boosting activity.
Benjamin could no longer contain himself and pulled out his phone book, dialing each number one by one.
However, the change in the nature of the guild will naturally provoke resentment from some people.
This team was only brought together by chance, not by actually selling themselves to Benjamin.
Once this team starts to become pragmatic and loses its purity.
Players who originally just intended to draw something casually and socialize with others will lose their enthusiasm for this team.
This inevitably leads to the formation of cracks.
Just one hour after the server opened, a serious conflict broke out within the team.
The cause was that the hawks, led by Benjamin, decided to take the initiative and mobilize most of their members to seize the so-called occupied territory, C.
Meanwhile, a group of doves, led by Player 00002333, did not approve of the action.
No matter how many arrows Benjamin and his group drew to indicate their intention to leave, they showed no sign of going out.
They just wanted to draw their own things at home.
The conflict escalated, ultimately leading to the departure of nearly half of the members, who then formed a new team with 00002333 and moved to the eastern region.
The dramatic change in the Donut Team was immediately reported to the leader of the Los Angeles Team via an outside phone call by a spy hidden within the team.
So the Los Angeles Team immediately partnered with the San Francisco Team, and within minutes the two merged into a new, massive force, marching in a grand procession toward the occupied territory where Benjamin and his group were located.
A major battle is about to begin, and many more newcomers who joined the game today are logging in one after another, still feeling lost.
A simple, small update completely transformed the game.
However, this also exhausted Sam.
He had to lead the charge in causing trouble within the Donut Team, act as a spy to leak information everywhere, and stir up trouble in all directions.
The results were surprisingly good.
Thanks to the interference of this shill, Pixel War is now living up to its name, with war raging everywhere.
"You're so mean----"
Even Lin Lixin was speechless at his actions.
His original intention was simply to have Sam draw some controversial things in the game, so as to provoke others.
I didn't expect this guy to just let himself go.
This troublemaker was so powerful that even Lin Lixin felt a little sorry for him.
What a great network environment! It didn't even last a day.
Fortunately, he didn't dare to set up an online chat room due to bandwidth limitations, otherwise it might be quite a collection of obscure slang terms now.
"Alright, alright, let's just treat this as a test. We can come up with some better tricks with this kind of gameplay later when the hardware and bandwidth are up to par."
Although PiePlace is simple, its core gameplay has actually been used by various online games.
Perhaps the most famous of these is the Rise of Kingdoms-like game, which was created based on Game of War and Romance of the Three Kingdoms Conquest.
Ordinary people can form alliances and conquer the world with the main force and enjoy the fun, while bosses can also pour money into their own enjoyment.
Manufacturers can also make a fortune and become extremely wealthy by relying on big spenders.
Group game decision-making involving tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people: a perfect combination of social engineering and the ninth art.
Some players even went so far as to study military strategy and design tactics for their allies.
Although they are considered new-era pay-to-win mobile games, if you examine their gameplay closely, they are actually quite enjoyable.
As hardware barriers are continuously broken down with the development of the times, game genres that were originally developed to their limits in the old era will naturally experience a second spring.
While constantly stitching together gameplay elements is a new creative mode that saves brainpower, as long as it's done well, it's a good work.
However, at this stage—that would be pure fantasy.
To achieve the level of " Pixel War," they've already squeezed every last drop of bandwidth out of the game.
Keep in mind that this only covers a small portion of players in California.
As more and more players join, it will be completely impossible with the current data transmission capabilities.
They can only try to distribute players as much as possible by dividing the servers into regions.
"Let it ferment for a while longer. Once the Sims is released, we'll have a basic network environment."
Lin Lixin was fairly satisfied with this.
While scientific research needs are crucial, they are ultimately refined "needs" that are far removed from the general public.
If the goal is truly to rapidly promote and popularize commercialization, then their entertainment-oriented approach and productivity tools like email are the most powerful driving forces.