Chen Ba explained, "But there really is a small group of players who act recklessly, resorting to any means necessary for power, tarnishing the reputation of âCultivation Fantasyâ everywhere..."
Recalling the phone call he received this morning, Chen Ba couldnât help but laugh.
The call was from a competitor.
The head of that competitor told Chen Ba over the phone that their Moba game suddenly had many players going AFK, being verbally abusive, and harassing teammates.
"What does this have to do with me?"
Initially, Chen Ba was puzzled. Your game has a problem, what does it have to do with him? He doesnât even play that game, so it couldnât possibly be him giving instructions, right?
"It really is your fault!"
"Do you know where these players came from? Theyâre all players from your âCultivation Fantasyâ. Canât you do something about them?"
Chen Ba: "..."
With evidence brought to him, even if Chen Ba had the thick skin of a city wall, he felt embarrassed and awkward.
The Evil Cultivators, indeed, they deserve to die!
These Evil Cultivators wreak havoc in the Immortal Spirit Realm, and for the sake of Karmic Force, they even wreak havoc in other games, making Chen Ba lose face in front of his peers, which is truly unforgivable.
Because of this, Chen Ba specially called a meeting to discuss whether to remove the special "Karmic Force" mechanic.
"The existence of the Karmic Force mechanic does indeed have a negative impact on âCultivation Fantasyâ, but I think this mechanic should not be removed."
Yang Dong voiced his opinion.
He said that how players play the game is their freedom. As game developers, the most they can do is watch from the sidelines; issues in the game should be solved within the game.
If Karmic Force is removed, the game will only have the path of merit, which would be a torment for many players who dislike restraints and crave freedom.
Moreover, this isnât good for the game environment.
Half of the credit for the current harmonious atmosphere and high-quality player interactions in âCultivation Fantasyâ should be attributed to these Evil Cultivators.
As they say, red flowers need green leaves."
Without these Evil Cultivator players as a contrast, how could the quality and sophistication of the merit path players stand out?
"I think so too."
Lu expressed his agreement, sharing Dongâs opinion that Karmic Force should not be removed, but rather patched to limit some players.
How many Karmic Force players are there, really?
Compared to the vast number of merit path players, the impact of these Karmic Force players is very limited, and overall, the pros outweigh the cons, so thereâs no need to remove it.
Most importantly...
These Karmic Force players, to farm Karmic Force and enhance their power, do bad things everywhere.
Their behavior sounds extremely vile, enough to be punished severely, even executed.
But what does this have to do with âCultivation Fantasyâ? What does this have to do with Tianba Studio?
As long as they donât farm Karmic Force at the expense of Tianba Studioâs games, they can just turn a blind eye and pretend they didnât see anything.
Complaints from competitors are their concern; ban the offending players if necessary. Tianba Studio isnât obligated to solve their problems for them.
"Makes sense!"
Chen Ba thought about it and felt Lu was right; as long as these Karmic Force players donât act recklessly in Tianbaâs games, thereâs no need to manage them.
Going so far as to cheat to farm Karmic Force?
How terrible! But what does that have to do with Tianba? If someone cheats in a game, just ban them in that game.
Itâs not like if Player A cheats in âXX Assaultâ, Tianba Studio would ban their âCultivation Fantasyâ account, right?
That just doesnât make sense.
As for trash-talking, going AFK, and not playing properly, Tianba Studio canât control that either.
The only thing they could do is send a bunch of "merit" players to purge these few Evil Cultivator Karmic Force practitioners.
"Huh?"
Lu and Yang Dong widened their eyes in surprise and asked, "Send merit players to purge these Karmic Force players?"
"Yes, you heard it right."
"In the game, arenât there daily bounty quests? We can modify it to add some new bounty quests."
Chen Ba explained, "For example, if a particularly evil Karmic Force Evil Cultivator is wanted, players can accept the quest, then go into other games to capture and punish them."
"Upon completing the quest, they can receive a bounty of merit rewards! With such merit, Iâm sure players would be very willing to take on these bounty quests..."
Ultimately, all evil will be brought to justice!
The idea that Chen Ba came up with is actually fighting poison with poison, getting merit-seeking players to chase and capture the unruly Karmic Force players while playing other games.
Whether punishing them directly in the game or reporting them for a ban, theyâll get plenty of merit rewards.
Driven by merit rewards, thereâs no fear those players wonât be tempted. As long as someone is tempted, the Karmic Force players will have a hard time.
"Itâs a pretty good idea. But I have a question..."
After a moment of hesitation, Lu said, "The bounties youâre talking about should be cross-game, right? But if theyâre cross-game bounties, how do the merit players find the Evil Cultivators?"
If Zhang San accepts a bounty for Karmic Force player Li Si, how would Zhang San know what game Li Si is playing or even what name Li Si is using in other games?
"The Heavenly Dao Program!"
Chen Ba knew what Lu was worrying about and explained, "Donât get me wrong, Iâm not suggesting we directly leak player privacy, just add a notification feature."
If Zhang San has âCultivation Fantasyâ running in the background and goes to play League of Legends, and Li Si also has âCultivation Fantasyâ running while playing League of Legends.
If both of them have the game running in the background, then when they are matched into the same game, the Heavenly Dao Program will notify them, telling Zhang San and Li Si: "Youâve encountered a merit/Karmic Force player!"
Thereâs no need to know who the other person is.
As long as you defeat the other side, even if you havenât accepted a bounty quest in advance, youâll automatically complete the bounty and receive the corresponding reward.
Of course!
The prerequisite for achieving this is having âCultivation Fantasyâ along with the Heavenly Dao task process running in the background, with the "Alert Notification" feature enabled.
If you exit âCultivation Fantasyâ, preventing the Heavenly Dao program from real-time monitoring, or if the alert notification is not enabled, it wonât work.
"Good, good, good!"
Lu was quite speechless and couldnât help but complain, "Has âCultivation Fantasyâ really turned into an idle game, where players just log in and idle to play other games?"
"As much as I hate to admit it, thatâs exactly it..."
Chen Ba was also embarrassed.
Since the cross-game merit farming bug was exposed, âCultivation Fantasyâ, as an MMO, had quickly become an idle game.
Wow, with hundreds of thousands of players online at the same time, this game should be very popular, right?
Ah yes, itâs really popular!
But when you log in, youâll find that those hundreds of thousands of players online are 90% idling in safe zones, characters motionless.
Where have they gone?
Not to the restroom, not just playing on their phones, theyâre all running âCultivation Fantasyâ in the background and playing other games.
Some are sniping in FPS games, some are laughing while jungling in Moba games, some are overloading brains in Teamfight Tactics, some are in fighting games throwing uppercuts and lowercuts...
Theyâre playing all kinds of games, except for âCultivation Fantasyâ!
Thatâs why, even though âCultivation Fantasyâ got popular, there hasnât been a loss of players in other games, like nothing changed in the PC market.
No kidding!
These hundreds of thousands of players, what games they played before, they still play the same now; âCultivation Fantasyâ just runs in the background, whereâs the player loss for other games?
Online, you often hear people say that the configuration demand for âCultivation Fantasyâ is quite high, needing at least 16G of memory to play.
But the official recommended configuration is only 8G memory; why is there such a big discrepancy?
Thatâs because, with only 16G of memory, can you run âCultivation Fantasyâ in the background while switching screens to play other games!