Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 420 This game is so cheap!

As early as when he was writing the plan for "Ark", Fang Jie had already determined his "buying life" charging model.

This is also the reason why the more difficult the game is to survive, the happier he is, because the more he earns.

Under normal circumstances, it is impossible for anyone to play a game of this difficulty, but when this matter is raised to a level that concerns "modern human dignity" and "contribution to human future technological development", the nature is different.

The positioning of "Ark" is not an entertainment game, but a social game. It is the prototype of the future real virtual world. It is normal for most people to not understand it at the beginning, and it is acceptable for not many people to play it.

Moreover, the "Ark" game was originally only one of the sections of the Ark Project. It is only a platform for this plan. In reality, the supporting technology, ecology, and industrial layout must also keep up. The professional certification system is one of the ecology. There are many things to do, and there is a long way to go.

Fang Jie knows that this is not a one-day achievement, so his expectations are actually very low, and his attitude is very positive.

However, the fee should be charged as soon as possible, because there are too many places to spend money, and his own funds are simply a drop in the bucket. The purpose of starting this project at the beginning was to raise funds, but now it is just the right time to start.

The fifth closed beta of "Ark" is not limited to the number of people, which also makes the number of players applying for the closed beta around the world before the closed test explosively reach more than 320 million!
In fact, this is no different from the public beta.

However, more than 300 million people are not too many. After all, the base of all players in the world is already large, and there are enough gimmicks in the early stage. Compared with the current "World of Warcraft", everyone is only half a catty.

At present, the international IDC data center is still under construction. Although some servers have been opened for use, it is obviously not enough to accommodate so many people.

Therefore, the method Fang Jie adopted was to distribute 3 password USB flash drives every day from the day of the test, that is, 3 accounts, and a rate of about 100 million people entered Ark World every month.

This of course aroused the dissatisfaction of players who were eager to enter the challenge of Ark World, saying that he was engaged in hunger marketing.

What the hell, if he wanted to engage in hunger marketing, wouldn't he only post 3 accounts a week?
The server can't keep up, there's no way!
"Ark" is different from other games. Other game servers are independent. Each server can hold 5 to 6000 people and can run independently. However, the server of "Ark" is shared by everyone, with millions of people. Even in the future when billions of people are online at the same time, it is not as simple as adding as many servers as there are players, which involves many technical issues.

For example, at least one problem must be solved: game map data exchange.

It is impossible to install the super-large-capacity detailed game map produced by 1.5 million in the client, otherwise several T will not be able to play, how can home users have such a large hard drive?
Secondly, the game map contains a lot of game resource data. If it is placed in the client program, it is easy for players to modify it to cheat. For example, some resource origins can generate unlimited resources, which is obviously not acceptable.

However, if you put all the game maps on the server side and allow such a large map data to be provided to the players at any time, it is not realistic. The data transmission rate is not so high. big.

So this aspect uses a set of server blockchain technologies jointly developed by Boiling Internet, Huawei, Huaguo Telecom, the Institute of Computer Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Central Bank, such as distributed data storage, point-to-point transmission, consensus mechanism, encryption algorithm, etc.

Don't think that digital currency and blockchain technology were invented many years later. In fact, they have been around for a long time. They were first used in the banking system, but they are called differently.

Of course, the technology in this area is definitely more mature and advanced than that of the same period because of Fang Jie's random entry and Boiling Internet's participation in it.

In addition, in terms of the algorithm for game map data retrieval, a combination of "pseudo-random function" and "function perturbation" is also used.

It is necessary to know that computers perform deterministic operations, and there is no true randomness, which means that it is theoretically impossible to ask computers to "independently" generate true random numbers.

Many programming applications that want random effects use "pseudo-random functions", which use some very complex algorithms to generate a series of seemingly unrelated but evenly distributed numbers.

For example, each map of 1 square kilometer in the Ark World corresponds to such a random number. When the player enters the Ark World and chooses the place of birth, if he chooses random, the random number of this map will be called, and he will be randomly born on the original earth. on a map.

However, the ecological environment in the Ark World is constantly changing. For example, plant growth and man-made damage will bring changes to the world, and this change will continue. For computing evolution, the amount of data must be huge, and the speed must be very slow, and it cannot be completed instantaneously.

Therefore, "function disturbance" is added to the "pseudo-random function". The two most influential function variables are natural time lapse and human activities. When players enter a certain map, the system will call These two main functions calculate the random change of the map after the variable occurs.

It may be difficult to understand that.

To put it simply, each map can be regarded as an independent copy. These copies will not generate data, but once the player enters this copy, the system will randomly generate corresponding species in the copy according to the "function disturbance" , resources and other ecology, and countless such copies form a relatively unchanged world map.

In this way, the entire world map remains unchanged, and the server does not need to perform a large number of data calculations. Even if the player enters a certain dungeon, only that dungeon has changed, and the server only needs to calculate the data of that dungeon separately.

In this way, the pressure on the server is greatly reduced. Even if millions of players come in, the server only needs to calculate the millions of independent copies, or even only calculate hundreds of thousands of copies of the map, because many players will live together in one map. .

Moreover, this kind of calculation can be used for a long time at a time, without the need to refresh all the data of hundreds of millions of maps every moment, so it can achieve the goal of players all over the world on the same server.

However, the amount of calculation is relatively large.

And the data exchange of the game map alone involves so many unconventional technologies, let alone other systems, so setting up a set of Ark servers is not as simple as everyone imagines, and the construction cost is much higher than the average The server group of the game.

Therefore, the opening of servers in batches is not only a matter of the progress of the IDC data center construction, but also to ensure the stability of the servers. Secondly, it also has the purpose of returning funds. Only after cutting a batch of leeks and earning money can we buy more fields and plant more Cut the leeks.

Frenchman Slein is one of this batch of leeks.

As Fang Jie's fanatical fan and a loyal believer in the Ark Project, when Fangzhou International was being established last year, he wanted to join it and become a member of Fangzhou International.

However, Fangzhou International did not have a suitable position for him.

After all, Fangzhou International doesn’t even have an office location, and all work is done online. The first batch of talents recruited are either positions related to games and Internet technology, or administrative positions. What can you do as an architectural designer? ?
Do game architectural modeling?

Sorry, the first version of "Ark" is just a 2D circle game, no modeling is required.

Are you doing game scene planning?

I'm also sorry, it's the primitive earth for the time being, and there is no need for urban planning...

You said that you are a super high-level player and can do game planning?
Oh, you don't know the heights of the sky and the earth, don't you dare to take the job of our boss?
At that time, Slein was very depressed. For the first time in his life, he regretted that he chose to major in architecture. If he had known this, he should have majored in computer science.

However, he is a loyal believer, and he has indeed achieved some achievements in the high-end game industry. In order to appease him, Fang Zhou International gave him a non-staff staff--Ark Special Invited Tester.

Slein didn't choose anything, and gladly took the job. After all, this kind of specially invited tester also has the "Ark Key", and he can still pretend to be aggressive in front of the players, especially this job is free. It is good to receive a small amount of bonus every month.

So Slein participated in all the previous four rounds of testing.

Because of this, he experienced four "human extinction events" and was scorned and ridiculed by netizens.

Since he is a fan of Fang Jie, of course he will not be overwhelmed by these remarks, and he will not abandon the game just because it is extremely difficult to survive in the game.

He also watched Bei Ye's challenge program, and he sneered at Bei Ye's unreasonable troubles in the show.

Who says games can't embody survival skills?

Isn't it a survival skill to survive in such a super difficult game?Is it a skill to dare to eat those disgusting things like you?
Moreover, people like Mr. Pei who rarely or never play games do not understand the fun and essence of games. There are many interesting settings in the game, but he does not show them in the show at all.

For example, at dawn, you see three wolves around, how stupid would you choose to run away and jump off a cliff?

If Mr. Pei had used the game's settings to pick up stones and smash them in place, the three wolves might not have dared to step forward. At most, they would have followed the player to find an opportunity to attack. In fact, I am afraid of them. Since they are easy to bully, of course I have to pursue them.

Then when Mr. Pei picked up the stone, he would actually find that the skill option of "hands-on transformation" will appear in the stone in his hand. You can smash two stones at each other, and there is a certain chance to transform a stone blade as a weapon.

With weapons, even though they are not of the same quality, they are not helpless against wild wolves, right?The chances of survival are much higher than jumping off a cliff, right?
In short, Slein, who has participated in four internal tests and has a lot of game experience, doesn't think this game is as unreasonable as Mr. Pei said. It's just that he doesn't understand the game and has substituted subjective ideas.

But having said that, some of the content of Mr. Pei's program was very inspiring to Slein.

At least in terms of the choice of birthplace, he realized that there is a lot of knowledge in it.

He used random maps before. Although he was not as unlucky as Mr. Pei when he landed, he didn’t land directly into a box, but it didn’t take too long. Those near the birthplace either lacked resources and couldn’t find water, or couldn’t move an inch, or the climate was extremely bad. , It's not a place for people to stay at all.

In this test, he learned cleverly, searched for some information, and chose the oceanic temperate climate area.

It just so happened that his own country, France in Western Europe, had a maritime temperate climate.

Most of France is a plateau, but it just so happens that the capital Paris he is familiar with is located in the Paris Basin.

Plateau + basin, and Pei Ye's choice of highland + river valley, it is almost the same!
It goes without saying that the Paris Basin has of course become his best choice.

However, he also learned the lesson of Master Pei, and did not dare to reincarnate directly in the Paris Basin. Instead, he chose the intersection of the basin and the plateau, and it is also close to the Seine River. If there is no accident, the water source problem will be solved.

Simply perfect!
After confirming the coordinates, Slein entered the game according to the established plan.

But not long into the game, less than 5 minutes, he died.

Committed suicide.

Because he found that his landing site was still 2 or 3 kilometers away from the ideal site, and it was far away from a nearby tributary of the Seine River.

It was far from perfect, so he chose to commit suicide and start over.

Most high-level players have obsessive-compulsive disorder, especially after a preliminary understanding of the game, they will habitually choose a perfect start, and will not allow any flaws, such as Slein.

Anyway, there are three chances of free resurrection, and you can buy it when you run out. It only costs 0.1 US dollars to resurrect one time, which is cheap. Even if you use it 100 times and spend 10 US dollars, he is willing and thinks it is very worthwhile.

The second reincarnation, this precise reincarnation, indeed entered the best position he had preset.

However, when the local map is zoomed out, there are many wild animals scattered within a radius of [-] meters. Some are just herbivores and not aggressive, but some are extremely threatening.

Not too good, I'm afraid it will be difficult to move an inch at the beginning!
Suicide resurrection again, fine-tuning.

the third time.

Everything is... no, it's still not perfect.

Although there is a small stream within [-] meters, and there are only two or three wild animals, the forest is so dense that it is almost impossible to settle down.

He needs an open space as a foothold to build a camp, as long as a small piece is enough.

Suicide and resurrection.

The fourth time... Wait for a while, the free times are used up, so recharge first.

Recharging is very convenient. Fangzhou International opened its own online recharging system IWB (I want to buy) last month, and transfers can also be made through PALPEL.

Just charge 1 euro, which is equivalent to about 1.1 US dollars, and you have 11 resurrection opportunities.

Tsk tsk... this game is really cheap!
Half an hour later, Slein finally reached a "treasure land", but the number of resurrections was only 1 at the moment.

Just in case, he recharged again in advance, and directly recharged 10 euros. Anyway, even if it can't be used up, it's no pity to throw away such a small amount of money.

At this moment, it wasn't just Slein, but the other high-level players who were eligible to participate in the fifth round of internal testing were basically the same.

The game is so cheap that even if you spend $10, you don't feel like you spent money.

But in fact, as long as you make a horizontal comparison, you will know that the monthly card of "EVE" is 10 US dollars. Usually, everyone will hesitate a little when recharging the monthly card. As a result, it takes less than half an hour to enter the game, and it costs the same money but there is no money at all. Feel.

But if high-level players hear this, they will definitely refute: I am not stupid, how can I not feel it after spending money?
It's just that the money is worth it!

In exchange for 100 resurrections!

Is there anything I have earned!
Based on our game skills, these 100 resurrections are simply not enough, okay, just like playing arcade machines before, we can play for at least half an hour for at least one dollar of game machine coins until we pass the level!

Slein has such a mentality now, which also makes him not care about whether it is easy to die in the game. In the game, he doesn't care about death except map selection, and he doesn't care about other activities.

This is not only because the cost of resurrection is low, the key is that even if you die every time, the benefits you get are cumulative.

This income refers to the skill proficiency income, that is, after the player dies, the skill level and proficiency can be inherited.

This makes death worthwhile, a cumulative process.

For example, the most basic "hands-on modification" skill.

Players have this skill from birth. They can knock the stones they pick up to transform them into stone blades, and they can also transform the dead branches they pick up into wooden sticks to make various tools.

But this skill has a level and proficiency. The level determines the transformation efficiency, that is, the material production efficiency, and also determines the probability of injury. The higher the level, the faster the transformation speed, and the lower the probability of palm injury.

If the player's death penalty is very heavy, such as skills cannot be inherited, and the number of resurrections is expensive, then everyone may use this skill with caution, and will not continue to carry out production activities, and will give a certain amount of rest and recovery time.

But now, everyone doesn't care too much. In order to brush up the level proficiency of this skill, it doesn't matter if you get injured or even die because of it. Anyway, you won't lose the level after resurrection.

This is actually exchanging the number of resurrections for skill proficiency, which will bring players a strong accumulation of pleasure in the process.

Especially for those high-level perfectionists, what better solution to their obsessive-compulsive disorder than brushing up their skills quickly to gain a higher survivability and give them a sense of accomplishment?

And the skill level is high, and it also has a significant bonus effect on the speed of technology points, which can climb the technology tree faster!
In this regard, the high-level players have plausible words: We are called sharpening knives and chopping firewood by mistake!
But they may have overlooked one point: the whetstone used to sharpen the knife is the number of resurrections, which is real money.

Because in essence, the number of resurrections is actually a paid item, an item that can increase the character's skill level relatively quickly.

In fact, it’s not neglect, it’s just that when everyone thinks of a resurrection of US$0.1, it is equivalent to a few cents in RMB.

But the players don't care, Fang Jie does.

If you do the math, if 100 million players do this, even if they die only once a day, Ark will bring in $300 million in revenue a month, and you can buy hundreds of servers.

With these hundreds of servers, more players can come in to operate, and then the rest is snowballing, and finally everything is available with milk and bread.

As for the skill level brushing too fast will destroy the balance of the game... it doesn't exist.

Human society cannot be formed by one person. No matter how powerful a certain skill is, he can at most become an expert in a certain field, such as Mr. Pei, but it is absolutely impossible to have a major impact on the entire human society. This requires mutual exchange. , requires a socialized and systematic division of labor.

What's more, what if the bare-handed modification skill is at full level?
It is estimated that it will not be long before human civilization progresses. If people casually manufacture some production tools, their production efficiency and product quality will be much higher than bare-handed transformation.

What's more, there is no upper limit to the skill level in the game. As long as the player is willing, they can continue to upgrade, so this is not a balance issue, but a cost-effective issue.

As long as the player feels that it is worthwhile to spend the chance of resurrection and acquire a certain proficiency skill, then this matter will continue. When human civilization develops to a certain level, the "hands-on transformation" skill loses its existence value, and players will automatically choose it. other skills.

The same is true for "other skills". For example, in a certain period of human civilization, everyone may have practiced "riding" skills very well, in order to facilitate riding and fighting in all directions. But when the internal combustion engine comes out, everyone can drive a car. Even if you have top-notch "riding skills", I'm afraid you can only perform in the Olympics, and you can never become Genghis Khan.

Of course, on the other hand, in the early days of Arkworld, the skill of "hands-on transformation" is still very important, and it can even be said to be the most practical skill. Of course, the higher the proficiency level, the better, there is nothing wrong with it.

Slein just stayed where he was, spent more than 100 resurrection chances, and forcibly trained "Unarmed Transformation" to level 50. Basically, he can succeed as long as he picks up two stones and hits them once or twice. After transforming a stone blade, the survivability has been greatly improved.

But the next important basic skill "drilling wood to make fire", he hesitated.

Because he now realizes that he spent 11 euros without knowing it.

And the skill "drilling wood to make fire"... the price/performance ratio is not very high. If you light up technologies such as "flint to make fire" and "matches" in the future, this skill will be useless, and you can get 10 for 50 euros level, is it necessary?

This problem is not a problem for Mr. Bei who is doing live broadcast on the show.

Because he has obtained the "Explorer" qualification certificate, and he is even a certification officer himself, so once he entered the game, his basic survival skills such as "retrofitting with bare hands" and "drilling wood to make fire" were all at level 100.

But Master Pei also has his troubles, and life is not easy.

(End of this chapter)