JoshuaCole374
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Chapter 50: Ripples
🕑 Added 2023-10-20 12:05:00 +0000 UTCNugsFan15: I can’t be certain yet, but from the number of reports we’re seeing, I suspect the percentage of players dropped each day is based on the initial backer totals, not the current players, or even the number who signed in when the beta started.
ShakeProtocol: So if the beta lasts for one hundred days, we’re all out.
NugsFan15: It’s just a guess. The numbers wouldn’t be that different so far, and it isn’t as though they’re comprehensive. All I can do is extrapolate from the data we have.
NugsFan15: But yes.
NugsFan15: If things continue as I suspect, and if the beta lasts for more than three months, everyone will lose access.
Not exactly the conversation I wanted to wake up to. Nonetheless, it was what I saw on Discord when I booted my computer up the next morning. I stared at the words for a few minutes, then retired to the kitchen to see if I could find anything vaguely appropriate for breakfast.
Lena yawned and stretched her way out of the bedroom around the time I finished scrambling our last two eggs, our last slice of cheddar cheese, and the last of our milk.
She looked me up and down. “Don’t you look chipper.”
“Check Discord.”
I heard her do so in the background while I scraped breakfast onto a couple of plastic plates.
I carried a plate and fork over to Lena’s computer and set it on her desk.
“Mm, thanks!” She started shoveling eggs into her mouth.
I retrieved mine and ate standing up as I read over her shoulder. I’d only seen the beginning of the conversation. From what appeared as Lena scrolled down, it didn’t look like it was going to get more encouraging.
LikeItsNinetyNine: Maybe it’s for the best.
NugsFan15: How can you say that?
LikeItsNinetyNine posted a link.
Lena clicked it and wrinkled her nose. “Who reads their local news?”
“People who can afford a subscription, or are willing to turn off their Adblock, apparently.” The box insisting that Lena do one or the other had popped up to block the screen.
“Not a chance.” She refreshed the page and selected everything without scrolling. A quick paste into Notepad++ and we had a text file of the article, plus a garbled mess of other headlines.
The one we wanted to read opened with “Gamer Rage Implicated In Arrest.” It didn’t get better from there.
I didn’t think the author understood the difference between an AR game and Fortnite. Nor how easily a person could flow from losing a Third Eye fight into starting a fistfight. Which was probably for the best, because, as far as I could tell, that’s exactly what had happened. One of the players ended up in the hospital – that made at least two, if you counted Miguel – and the other got booked for assault.
NugsFan15: This is exactly what I was worried about.
LikeItsNinetyNine: Playing around with Third Eye at home is all kinds of fun. I love talking to you all, and I hope I get to work on another video.
LikeItsNinetyNine: I think I’m gonna stop turning the app on when I leave the house, though.
NugsFan15: You know you probably won’t be able to stay in the beta very long if you do that, right? Materials and XP seem to be two of the metrics they’re using to judge who gets dropped.
LikeItsNinetyNine: I know I don’t want any trouble when I’m with my kids.
NugsFan15: You’re right. Of course.
ShakeProtocol: I’m not going to quit. We should start arranging groups to go on scouting expeditions together, though. That will have two benefits.
ShakeProtocol: A large group should deter invaders. And, it will increase the total XP generated, since people will get both what they collect and a small amount for what they see. Over time, the people who group up for defense will simply outscale invaders, so they should start falling out of the beta.
LikeItsNinetyNine: It also sounds fun! I could get behind that. Have to find some local folks to run around with.
Lena and I had been scouting together the whole time. The first day I tried to go it alone, I got invaded by Matt. Shake’s theory about deterrence checked out.
Still, I frowned.
Lena glanced up at me. “Sup?”
“He’s wrong about the XP.”
She nodded. “Each object will provide more total XP if people share the chance to focus on it, but one player scouting alone gets all hundred for themselves every time. Less total XP in the system, but more for that player. Until he runs out of objects, anyway.”
“And the people who go solo end up with a lot more Materials,” I said. “That hasn’t really mattered yet for me.”
As I’d expected, I couldn’t recover MP while it remained overhealed by Albie’s potion. Between the Air I’d used for the video and a few experiments with Water, I was down to 9,974, and none of it came back overnight.
If anything, I’d become even more reluctant to use my MP than I had been when I only had ten a day. Meanwhile, my Material stockpile kept growing.
“But,” I continued, “if you get your Reactant today, if you really want to you can spend a hundred MP and burn through, what, a quarter of your supplies?”
“Literally burn through, if I get the right thing,” Lena said. “I might actually do it, too, to experiment. I just know there’s more to Fire than what the wiki team has figured out so far. They’re biased ‘cause it’s ‘destructive.’”
She did finger quotes in the air.
I grinned, but it got me thinking. “Fire doesn’t really suit Erin’s whole community-building persona, does it? I wonder why that was her first.”
Lena raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like the game knows who it’s giving the stuff to. We find what we find.”
“Right.” I ambled back to my computer and fired it up.
She was right. Wasn’t she? So why did I have Air and Water, when the first time I saw my avatar, I thought my outfit evoked seas and skies? Why, when I saw Matt’s avatar, had I thought someone dressed like him would use Earth – and why had I been right?
Could Third Eye Productions have seeded objects in such a way as to encourage specific players to get them? Maybe they planted a source of Air right near my apartment because they’d assigned that as one of my elements. Even the Water in the tunnel was probably geographically closer to me and Lena than any other players.
But there was the rub. Me and Lena. If they’d seeded our neighborhood, where was her Fire?
It was a lot more likely that I’d gotten lucky, both in grabbing the Water I wanted so much and in guessing what Reactants Matt would try to use against me. Not that the latter had done me any good.
Even if I was willing to entertain a supernatural, or at least sufficiently advanced, component to Third Eye, I didn’t see how they could guarantee specific players getting specific resources. At the end of the day, we still had to scout, and we still had to choose to collect the stuff.
“Shake is wrong about something else,” Lena said.
“Hm?”
“Didn’t you say that dude took ten percent of your XP when he kicked your ass?”
I puffed my chest out. “When I was defeated in a hotly contested battle – in which, yes, technically, I never actually got an attack off – and also in which, technically, he literally kicked me in the ass with some Stone –”
Lena snickered.
I cleared my throat. “– he did get ten percent of my XP, yeah.”
“So if XP is what keeps you in the game,” Lena said, “the fastest way to get more is going to be to win a lot. If PVP wins count directly, it’ll be even more extreme.”
“And the best way to ensure you win,” I said, “is to ambush a player who doesn’t expect you.”
“Almost like they designed it that way.”
I pinched my nose. I thought about posting our discussion on the Discord. Probably should’ve. At least, I should’ve DMed it to Erin.
But I had a feeling she already knew. She’d mentioned “a few other data points” leading her to fear that Third Eye was built to encourage invasion.
Quietly, I said, “Do you really think you’d enjoy it, Lena?”
“Invasion? Who cares? If people keep doing it, a journo with at least a quarter of a clue is going to hear about it and the whole game will get shut down. Just like Erin said.”
I looked over my shoulder. “That’s not what I asked.”
She slouched in her chair. “Yeah.”
Crazy, I thought. But even I’d felt a rush after I dueled Matt, and that from a loss. I understood how she felt even if I didn’t feel the same. “Hey, maybe it’ll be like we talked about in the video. We can get PVP restricted to specific areas, but make them big enough that people can still opt in to invasion.”
“Loving the optimism.”
“We’ve just got to keep pushing for it. Speaking of, how are the stats on the video?”
“Oh shit, I haven’t checked yet today! This is your fault for distracting me.”
I’m sure she pulled them up. She didn’t say anything, though.
I checked on my own computer.
70,000 views.
My chest felt tight. My hands, sweaty. I was sure plenty of those views came from bots, but if even half were real, an appreciable portion of the Third Eye playerbase had watched The Magnificent Ashbird and her lovely assistant, OldCampaigner. “That... might actually pay for a pizza.”
Lena didn’t say anything. I heard her chair creak as she nodded, though.
“We’ve got to get another one up,” I said.
“Right,” she said. “I mean, who else is going to tell people how they’re supposed to play?”
“Exactly. We’re doing this for the community.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “I do think we need to keep that in mind. We need to stay authentic with it, even to ourselves.”
“What the hell, Cameron?”
I spun around, eyes wide. “What?”
“How dare you suggest the act I put on was authentic!” Lena stuck her tongue out.
I laughed. Mostly because if I told her the truth – that I suspected her “act” had been a chance for her to live out some long-held fantasies – she might get pissed for real.
“Go get dressed,” I said. “I’m going to hit up the wiki team and see if anybody has tips for using Water. For something I’m supposed to show off, I haven’t actually tried it much.”
Partly because every MP I spent was one I wasn’t getting back, but mostly because I didn’t want to show off Water around Lena.
She didn’t seem bothered by it this morning, though.
“The Magnificent Ashbird will return!” She hopped off her chair and scurried to the bedroom.
I shook my head, then returned to the Discord.
OldCampaigner: Lena and I want to get the next video up. We can talk about grouping up if you want.
NugsFan15: That’s wonderful! Do you have time to film it today?
OldCampaigner: Sure. What I haven’t had time to do is learn much about using Water.
I was hoping LikeItsNinetyNine would still be around, but her name had slid into the Offline category.
NugsFan15: If you’re going to film in the park again, you and I can practice.
OldCampaigner: You got Water, too?
NugsFan15: Just found some yesterday! Now all I need is Air.
OldCampaigner: Congrats!
I meant the word, but I had to force the exclamation point.
If Lena had just told Erin the truth, maybe Erin would have saved that Water for her.
Would she? For all that Erin talked about wanting to become friends, we’d still only known each other for about a week. I’d give up a third Reactant so Lena could get her first. But for an acquaintance?
A DM from Erin distracted me from having to answer honestly.
NugsFan15: I didn’t want to share it with the rest of the group, but I have some info for the two of you.
My eyes widened.
OldCampaigner: About Albie?
NugsFan15: Yes.
NugsFan15: But I’m afraid you’re not going to like it.
Comments
Pete
Btw I would try whether touching some wood to her avatar long enough would make it burn. If it does that probably won't give fire but at least it would be interesting to know.
Pete
Honestly I would consider % of total good news, on a normal game at least. If the beta ends in 3 months either publication isn't far out or there will be a new beta.
