As a Game Designer Who Truly Understands Human Nature

"Eat." Inside Shelter 404, in the room adjacent to the resident hall, Chu Guang handed a bowl and spoon to Xia Yan, who was sitting against the wall. Looking at the venison and bracken leaves floating on top of the green wheat porridge, Xia Yan couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva. Disregarding whether it might be poisoned, she buried her face in the bowl and began wolfing it down in great gulps. The fact that she could eat like this meant she had mostly recovered. Watching the mercenary devour her meal, Chu Guang glanced briefly at her right leg. Although severed limbs couldn't regenerate, the wound had basically closed, and the scabs were even beginning to peel away to reveal fresh pink flesh. It seemed the healing hypo really was something. If only he could draw another syringe from the machine. When Xia Yan had finished most of it, Chu Guang spoke up. "How's the memorization coming along?" Xia Yan set down her bowl and nodded nervously. Truth be told, she wasn't very confident. However, she was terrified that saying no would get her sold to the neighboring farm as an indentured serf. This ruthless man had torn a Crawler apart with his bare hands and hadn't even blinked when gunning down his own men. Who knew what even more sadistic things he might be capable of? "Very good," Chu Guang nodded, watching her as he continued. "You can rest for one more day tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, you officially start work." Xia Yan asked nervously, "Speaking of which... what exactly does the weapon shop proprietress do?" Chu Guang looked at her. "That's your character profile. You've memorized all your lines—how can you still not understand?" Xia Yan wore a blank look, clearly having no clue what this job actually entailed. Chu Guang sighed. "Never mind. It doesn't matter if you don't understand. My assistant, Xiao Qi, will provide your on-the-job training. You just need to follow instructions and do exactly as I say." "Also, I don't care how you address me in private, but in front of others, you must refer to me as the Manager. Understand?" Xia Yan nodded. "Understood..." "Say it now," Chu Guang said. "Lord Manager," Xia Yan said submissively, keeping her head lowered. *Heh.* *She learns fast.* Pleased with her attitude, Chu Guang nodded and handed her a chocolate lollipop. "Very good." "Here's your post-meal dessert. Take it." Xia Yan took the lollipop from his hand in a daze, staring blankly at it, her mind wandering who-knew-where. Chu Guang had no desire to indulge her wild imagination, nor was he curious about what she was thinking. Without lingering in the room, he shut the door and returned to the surface. He first carried Xiao Qi down from the second floor, then, like an old farmer herding free-range livestock, drove the players back into the shelter and settled them into their incubation pods. He locked login permissions to prevent anyone from sneaking back in during the night. Apart from Scavenger, who was out hunting in the wilderness, all twenty-eight players had safely returned to the nest. Returning to the resident hall, Chu Guang sat down in front of the computer and opened the forum. Just as he expected, the first thing the young players did upon taking off their helmets wasn't washing their faces or brushing their teeth, but universally grabbing their phones or computers to log onto the official Wasteland OL website. Right after the players logged off was the busiest time of day for the official forum. Especially since, just three hours earlier, the Wasteland OL official site had dropped such a bombshell! Less than three days after Alpha 0.2 went live, version 0.3 had dropped. And looking at the update's contents, it wasn't any lighter than the previous patch! It didn't even need to be pinned. The post Chu Guang made under his developer identity had unquestionably supplanted Ample Time Ahead's analysis thread to become the hottest topic on the entire forum! Fleeting White Horse: [??? Most hardworking dev team in history! A major patch every three days, a minor patch every day—I'm in love!] Spare the Life Under the Blade: [Tears of gratitude streaming down my face! We finally get paid for doing quests! T.T] Ye Shi: [Watch your mouth! What do you mean we didn't get paid before? Aren't contribution points and affection points wages? (funny)] Fang Chang: [Wait a minute, I have a question! Does this mean daily quests won't give contribution points anymore?] Gale Force 8: [Holy shit!] Spare the Life Under the Blade: [Holy shit holy shit!] Ye Shi: [No way, bro! You can't do this to us! (panic)] Kakarot from the Future: [Actually, there's another small detail: 2,000 contribution points can upgrade you to a citizen. Could it be that some quests can only be taken by citizens and not residents?] Mole Escaping the Canyon: [Sob sob sob, I want to build a house! Don't stop me from building a house! By the way, what happens if you build a house without buying land?] Elaina: [It probably counts as an illegal structure. (funny)] Makka Pakka: [What's the point of building a house? I want to farm! Damn it, what can you even grow on 5 square meters! (angry)] These players always focused on the weirdest things. Chu Guang had clearly just meant that going forward, they would be paid real money for quests and labor. Yet what the players fixated on was that contribution points would be harder to obtain! Moreover, they seemed to have misunderstood several aspects of the new identity and private land systems. Then again, it was partly his own fault for not explaining those parts clearly enough. Guang: "Hold your horses, everyone! Your humble game designer just finished working overtime, and before I could even close my eyes, the forum moderators told me that everyone has a ton of questions about the new version! So let me explain in detail right here what this private land thing is all about!" "First off, the players who already have closed beta access have probably noticed that Wasteland OL features an open-world map. The actual game world is vast—virtually limitless. However, in contrast, the safe zone that the shelter's surface outpost can provide is limited!" "This five square meters of private land can be understood as private space inside the walls provided by the outpost. Players can build houses on their own land, as long as the height does not exceed the sanatorium ruins at the center of the base!" "If you want to expand your private plot, besides grinding contribution points to upgrade your citizenship status, you can also cooperate with friends to develop and share land together!" "Of course, some players will inevitably ask: if I don't own land but still want to build a house, can I build outside the outpost's walls?" "The answer is yes! As we promised, players are free to unleash their creativity and reshape this world, and the server will preserve these changes—that is one of this game's core mechanics!" "However, please note that freeform building is merely a feature supported by the server! Players may exercise this feature, but they must also obey the rules established by in-game NPCs. After all, lore-wise, you are residents of Shelter 404." "The outpost's territory encompasses not just the perimeter wall, but also the defensive buffer zones outside, agricultural zones, and so forth. As long as you do not encroach on these areas or pose a threat to the outpost's public safety and facilities, you are free to build creatively." "Do keep in mind, however, that structures built outside outpost territory will not receive shelter protection." "Additionally, because the outpost's footprint will continually expand as development progresses, adjacent land may be incorporated into new outpost territory at any time. Therefore, for the sake of your gaming experience, if you must flex your creative muscles, it's best to choose a spot a bit farther away from the outpost." "If your building happens to get swallowed up by outpost territory, don't worry too much. The benevolent Lord Manager will not immediately demolish unauthorized structures within his domain; instead, he will grant the owner a thirty-day grace period." "During this thirty-day window, you will have the right of first refusal to purchase the land. Whether by upgrading your citizen status or pooling resources with other players, as long as you convert the ground beneath the structure into your private land, the unauthorized building can be kept. Truly user-friendly!" "Naturally, if the player fails to exercise their right of first refusal within thirty days, the Manager will have no choice but to reclaim the land in accordance with shelter regulations, confiscate the unauthorized structure, and initiate asset disposition procedures." "During asset disposition, the Manager will decide whether to demolish it, designate it as a public facility, or auction it off, based on its purpose and quality. Depending on how the structure is handled, the Manager will offer appropriate compensation to the displaced player at his discretion." "Also, I should mention offhand: the current currency is merely an interim currency for the closed alpha and closed beta phases! This point must be highlighted!" "Toward the end of testing, we will consider adopting digital currency and electronic ledgers, integrating the economy system directly with your stat panels. It will be presented in a visual interface right before your eyes, just like the traditional PC games you're used to! Stats and assets will be viewable at any time!" "However, implementing this feature is no easy task. It involves many complex technical hurdles, so please be patient and give our dev team some time!" "By the way, this update adds twenty new closed beta slots. The lucky winners should have already received system notifications in their inboxes, so make sure to check them promptly!" "After working overtime all night, I need to get some shut-eye. If you have any more questions, feel free to leave a comment below this thread, and I'll do a consolidated Q&A once I wake up!" Chu Guang was obviously not going to sleep. Over on the wasteland, dusk had only just fallen—it wasn't even 6:30 PM yet. If he went to bed this early, what was he going to do when he woke up in the middle of the night? He didn't have a gaming helmet to put him under. Lurking on the forums and watching these goofballs chat was a much better use of his time. As Chu Guang expected, less than two minutes after his post was published, the comment section blew up all over again. Battlefield Hype Squad: [Awesome! The dev actually came out to reply!] Chef Outline Misser: [Brother Guang!!! It's you!] Sweat Drops onto the Soil: [Begging on my knees for beta access, sob sob sob! Please, just give me a chance!] Proud Grandpa What Can You Do: [Keep spinning your bullshit, I still don't buy it. I'll say it again: there is no such thing as a fully immersive virtual reality game in this world! All the accounts above are bots! Real living people on this forum, whatever you do, don't get scammed by those dog mods in the beast of burden group! They're up to no good!] Elaina: [There are actual living people on this forum? Aren't you all just my alt accounts? (funny)] Quitting Smoking: [Holy crap? All twenty invites have been sent out already?! Why didn't I get anything in my inbox?!] Indebted Big Eyes: [Hahahahaha, I got one!] A Touch of Longing: [+1, haha!] Huh? The handle "Proud Grandpa What Can You Do" looked a bit familiar. Seemed like someone from the beast of burden group! However, what surprised Chu Guang was that little Proud Grandpa had actually tracked him all the way to the forums. Hadn't this guy kept insisting the official website was a virus-ridden phishing scam? Why was he bowing to reality now? Chu Guang clicked open the profile and was even more amused. *Well, well.* The guy was a pre-registered player, and he had even finished all ten questions after Chu Guang raised the registration threshold! Chu Guang chuckled inwardly, not taking the guy's goofy trolling to heart. He wasn't the only one on the forums who doubted the game's existence. All Chu Guang needed to do was screen another twenty reliable players from the three-hundred-plus "reserves." His methods included, but were not limited to, profiling users through their forum post histories, quiz scores, activity levels, and peak online hours. Having worked in sales, he was practically a master at this. Those argumentative nitpickers who whined that nothing made sense and only they knew best could stay far away. There was so much rebar on construction sites left uncarried, yet they insisted on acting like know-it-alls in a video game—how inappropriate was that? Can't pre-register? Throwing a temper tantrum? Haha. He couldn't care less. As a crafty dev who truly understood human nature, all Chu Guang needed to consider was how to use the bare minimum lines of dialogue to make players willingly haul bricks for him all day long.