Chapter 114 - 103: Super Cool DLC_2

"Living Under Someone’s Roof..."

Having not paid attention to this game for a while, Chen Ba frowned and said, "Did I ever say that? Why can’t I remember?"

It seems like something like this did happen.

If I remember correctly, it should have been shortly after the release of the renovation DLC when the development of ’Divine Grace Continent’ had just begun.

Back then, the renovation DLC sold really well, and the studio made quite a bit of money. In his excitement, saying something like that was within reason.

"You did say it..."

Lu said helplessly, "And you said it on the community forum. The post is still there, so there’s no denying it."

If it was just something said offhand, it would be easy to handle. After all, Ba’s nonsense isn’t a first-time thing; when there’s no evidence, he can try to weasel his way out of it.

But this was something he said on the Tianba Community using an account with GameBugs permission. With screenshots and witnesses, many people saw it, so retracting it wouldn’t look good.

"Alright then."

Since it was something he actually said and there’s evidence of it, Chen Ba felt embarrassed to not admit to it.

It’s just a DLC, right? How could that stump him?

What a joke!

All he needed was to use his little brain a bit, and coming up with a mere DLC wasn’t hard for him.

It only took him half an hour to come up with a decent DLC idea.

"What’s the idea?"

As soon as Ba had an idea, everyone gathered around, looking at him with curiosity.

The issue of the new DLC for ’Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator’ had already been discussed internally in the studio once, but no results came from it.

They were eager to know what brilliant insight Ba had on the matter. Surely it’s not another idea like the college DLC or the marriage DLC?

"It’s not those..."

Waving his hand to stop everyone from guessing wildly, Chen Ba finally spoke, "I need to ask you all a question and you must answer me seriously."

"What’s the question?"

"After buying a house and finishing renovations, what do you usually do?"

"Oh, this..."

No one seemed to expect Ba to ask such an odd and tricky question.

Does this have anything to do with the topic they were discussing, which is the new DLC for ’Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator’?

"It is related, and very much so! You don’t need to think about those things; just tell me what you would do in this situation."

"In this situation..."

Recently recovered Zhong Shengwei was the first to speak, "You’d probably invite relatives and friends over for a gathering, so they can recognize the way and not lose the address of your new home, right?"

"Makes sense!"

"Ba’s house back home got built, and not long ago they finished renovations and officially moved in. Didn’t your uncle host a banquet?"

"In the countryside, you do need to host a banquet, inviting the neighbors and family and friends. After all, moving into a new house is quite a big deal..."

With this topic, everyone started discussing enthusiastically.

As expected, with Zhong Shengwei leading the way, everyone generally believed that after buying and renovating a house, you’d probably invite relatives and friends over for a gathering, possibly even host a banquet.

It’s a huge life event to have a new house, move into a new place, and it doesn’t make sense not to celebrate.

And like with city folks, when you move into a new community, if you don’t inform your relatives and friends, how would people know where you’ve moved to?

If you want to keep it low-key or don’t have many friends or relatives, you might just cook at home or reserve two tables at a restaurant for a simple treat.

If you want to be grand, in rural areas or when you have many friends and relatives, you really need to host a banquet and have a lively celebration.

"That’s right."

Chen Ba nodded and said, "You all probably know I had built a self-constructed house for my father back in my hometown, and renovations just finished not long ago."

"My dad thinks this is a big deal and should be something to show off to relatives and friends and people in the village, so he organized a banquet himself and collected over forty thousand in gift money..."

Everyone nodded in unison.

Ba’s mentioned this before, and they had all sent gifts at the time, so it definitely happened.

"So here’s the problem!"

After talking about his own affairs, Chen Ba pivoted, "In reality, after buying and renovating a house, you host a banquet for friends and family. But what about in the game?"

Everyone: "..."

Ha! That’s Ba for you!

This train of thought is truly unprecedented and opens up new frontiers in gaming, exporting Hua Country’s unique cultural aspects to the world.

"My idea is..."

Seeing everyone too stunned to speak, Chen Ba added somewhat helplessly, "We can create a DLC where the main content is hosting a banquet."

"After purchasing the DLC, players can choose to host a banquet every time they buy and decorate a house."

"The banquet has costs, and the friends and family who come to attend are NPCs the player knows in the game as well as relatives from the backstory."

"If a player has good connections and has made many friends in the game, hosting a banquet might even net enough gift money to cover the down payment for their next house."

"If connections are poor, hosting a banquet might even lose money!"

How could it lose money?

Lu scratched his head and asked, "Why would it lose money? If there are few guests, just host fewer tables..."

"Is there a possibility where not only are there few people, but they also give less money in gifts? If they give you a dollar and eat a table’s worth, do you think it’s worth it?"

Chen Ba rolled his eyes, "And with gift-giving, there’s the principle of reciprocity to consider. You host a banquet and receive their gift money, but when they host one, will you send a gift back?"

In his conception,

Besides letting players host banquets, the DLC also lets NPCs the players know host banquets periodically, with a ’Send Gift’ interface appearing.

You can choose to send gifts or not.

If you send a gift, you can set the amount yourself. Be stingy and send less, be generous and send more, it’s completely up to you.

In any case, the principle of reciprocity stands: when players buy a new house and host a banquet next time, whether the NPCs come to eat is entirely dependent on how they’ve managed their relationships.

"Wow... This is so unique!"

Yang Dong said speechlessly, "A game play mechanic so full of Hua Country’s characteristics, are you sure you want to make it a DLC?"

"Why? Is there a problem?"

"No problem!"

Yang Dong sighed and said, "I’m just wondering if foreign players buy this DLC, will they think..."

"It’s called cultural export!"

Chen Ba smirked and said, "Let foreigners also experience our social customs; isn’t that a good thing?"

Great, it’s just fantastic!

Ba calls it cultural export, so it’s cultural export. Since he said so, although others felt it might not be appropriate, they couldn’t find a reason to argue.

"Then it’s decided."

"Back in my hometown, the typical minimum for gift money at a banquet is 20 bucks, but since we’re not that familiar with each other, let’s just make it 10 bucks..."

After Chen Ba finished speaking, just as he was about to ask for everyone’s opinion on this pricing, everyone looked at him as if he were an alien.

"What?"

"Ba, you can’t..."

Lu hesitated for a long time, then didn’t dare to finish the rest of his sentence.

He actually wanted to ask how DLC pricing was related to the traditional minimum gift standards at his hometown, but then he thought of Ba’s newly built self-constructed house and his uncle hosting a banquet...

It kind of made sense.

No wonder Ba wanted to create a banquet DLC, no wonder the pricing was set according to his hometown’s gift standards—it turns out it’s a clever reason to collect gifts from players!

Hosting a cyber banquet and gifting real money, right?

No matter whether Ba had ulterior motives or if players would overthink things, at least there was now a plan for the DLC, and the pricing was settled.

The next step was to fill the DLC with content centered around the banquet...

For example, how many dishes per table?

If there are 18 dishes, how many are meat and how many are vegetables? What’s the estimated cost per table? If NPCs send a gift, how much will they probably give?

And another thing...

In ’Living Under Someone’s Roof Simulator,’ the player lives with their aunt.

So will the aunt and uncle come to the banquet? If they do, should they also send a gift, and how much would be appropriate to give?