The process of creating a virtual reality game is complex.
Since the advent of full-dive capsules, it has been impossible to even replicate similar designs without massive capital investment.
What has particularly heightened the entry barriers for game companies is the existence of “royalties.”
Unless the executives are confident in the commercial viability of a game, such as through “Open World royalties” and “ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) royalties,” they have not been permitted to arbitrarily touch these matters without approval from shareholders.
Open world developers transfer observed singularities from the real world to a database center, repeatedly expanding and regenerating the space.
As a result, an open world reflecting the same physical laws is created, and the open world developers grant seeds to the game production companies for sale.
The larger the area of the open world, the more the royalties to be paid skyrocket. Thus, it can be said that Wearsoft, who created the game “World of Arseria,” made a decisive move to rescue their failing company.
The royalties for ASI were comparatively lower than for open worlds, but the labor costs necessary to handle it were not negligible.
Even if the character modeling or design is carried out by existing departments, the narrative, behavioral principles, criteria for judgment, and potential of a character could not be created simply by placing numbers in blank spaces; it wasn’t that simple.
When Wearsoft stated they would add a difficulty level called “Nightmare” to alleviate user fatigue from the story after a successful commercial run, it was natural for anxious gazes to be directed at them.
After the development project ended, many ASI experts switched to other companies. The question remained whether they could shorten the ending without a story conflict with just the remaining personnel.
However, Wearsoft appeared to succeed against the odds, even complementing the often-criticized background story by adding a bold storyline that had once been praised.
Of course, the reason World of Arseria could be greatly commercially successful was not due to the story mode but rather to the introduction of 6vs6 battles and the boom of esports, yet one could not deny that the outstanding backgrounds and characters also played a part.
Particularly, VIP user “Njangsterol” was one of those who was deeply captivated by Adella’s charm, who did not appear at all in the main storyline.
He attended the 5th anniversary event of World of Arseria and posed this question.
“Was there a reason why Adella had to die in Act 1?”
Njangsterol was infatuated with Adella’s appearance and personality. He didn’t understand why she was eliminated so early in the story when it could have been possible to have her accompany players to the final boss like Giselle or Luna.
While others were raising their ranks, he desperately sought all hidden gimmicks at the Nightmare 1/1/1 difficulty.
He discovered that the Observatory boss was actually skippable, and after the boss battle, returning to the Academy allowed players to farm essential equipment.
However, no matter what method he employed, rescuing Adella was impossible.
So he might have secretly hoped that there was a hidden route to save Adella that he did not yet know about.
“Ah… there are some complex circumstances regarding that…”
One of the developers grabbed the microphone.
“In fact, if you had played Nightmare yourself, what I’m about to say might not sound credible. But let me tell you that Adella was designed as a kind of tutorial NPC for users encountering this difficulty level.”
The room buzzed.
Adella was not just an NPC who provided help; rather, she often engaged in various troll-like actions that increased the game’s difficulty.
“Actually, if you received Adella’s assistance until the Observatory boss, you would have been able to clear it without too much difficulty. If she died easily from the beginning, the space for adapting to Nightmare would diminish, so we needed to alleviate early entry barriers to Nightmare in this manner.”
This explanation was reasonable.
Many players were able to learn the true “combat” system, which they could not experience in the main story, by watching Adella defeat the Observatory boss.
“I need to revisit the question I answered earlier this morning. For those who may not have heard, let me briefly explain the reason behind the mandatory introduction of ‘penalty’ elements only in Nightmare. While our company’s lack of capability undoubtedly played a role, due to the technical characteristics of the open world, we cannot contain a large number of ASIs.”
Unlike other games, World of Arseria had a considerable number of ASIs present in the world. Given that it was set against the backdrop of an academy, he added that there were over a hundred ASIs capable of superintelligent thinking.
“As we forced to increase the number, problems arose. In the Nightmare difficulty, when the world reset repeatedly, slight modifications occurred in the modules controlling AI’s freedom.”
“So the difficulty gradually increases, making it feel that way…?”
“Yes, it is likely due to the enhancement of freedom. We haven’t precisely pinpointed whether it is due to a mistake by our in-house developers or compatibility issues inherent in the open world, but nonetheless, cases arose where boss monsters became excessively strong compared to the originally set difficulty. To prevent this, we took the cumbersome step of introducing penalty elements.”
Players were compelled to revert back before entering Nightmare, adjusting the module to allow them to start the story anew.
“Then why not plan it that way from the beginning?”
“Ah, shall we make it a roguelike game with no save points? We have indeed considered that aspect… but it would diverge too much from our fundamental principles at Wearsoft, and since fighting against Mephisto is already difficult with only one chance, it would likely be even more challenging for players if it were the case, haha.”
Thus, they aimed to encourage clearing in one attempt while allowing one or two chances.
“But I’m still unclear. What does this have to do with Adella?”
“Adella was particularly affected by the freedom control module.”
“Yes?”
The diligent respondent paused, and the woman next to him gestured for him to pass the microphone to her.
Confirming that translation magic was working properly, she opened her tightly closed mouth.
“I’ll add a clarification. Adella’s initial stats were so low that she would often be eliminated in Act 1, so we didn’t pay much attention. However, simulation results indicated that if she survived to Act 2, she would exhibit excessively superior combat abilities, disrupting the overall game balance, which was a problem.”
“Then, couldn’t you just adjust the potential values of the ASI as you say? Rather than changing the story?”
“I apologize for bringing this up in such a setting, but we had limitations on the ASIs we contracted.”
“Limitations?”
“In a nutshell…”
The woman briefly closed her mouth. After pondering, she brought the microphone back to her lips.
“To create Adella, who had to master all weapons, we had no choice but to use the ASI applied to the final boss, Mephisto, which had the highest potential value.”
*
[Video Share – ‘Njangsterol’ has shared for 100,000!]
“So Adella’s AI is identical to Mephistopheles’ AI.”
-Wow, plot twist!
-So in the end, this guy was the dark mastermind?
-Creepy!
-This wasn’t even in the tree wiki, what is this?
-How can you be resurrected if you die in Act 1?
-Chills!
-Legend!
-I thought it was Rock Lee, but he turned out to be Naruto!
-Seriously, it was a Sixth Sense-level twist!
-True legend!
“ASI instead of AI? I’m not too clear on ASIs as mentioned in that video, but ultimately, the development department fell apart, so they couldn’t create new ASIs and had to recycle the existing ones. Did I get that right?”
[‘Njangsterol’ donated 5,000!]
-Yes, that’s right!
The production company that couldn’t keep Adella alive had the setting that a physical body was needed for the devil’s descent. So, since they shared the same ASI and wouldn’t require great changes, they decided to eliminate her in the story by introducing her as a sacrifice to Mephisto.
-Amid all this, why does Njangsterol look so handsome?
-His proportions are model-worthy!
-There’s no way! He’s probably just another couch potato like us!
-Is this the average World Gallery user?
-He’s handsome!
-So good-looking!
-What a waste of a face, if he’s gonna waste his life like this!
-Let’s rethink who’s actually wasting their life here.
-(Manager 3) Users mentioning regular people are subject to blocking.
He could only look at Adella, who was deeply asleep on her bed, with pity.
-But what now? Isn’t his account getting banned?
-Why would it get banned?
-They said she’s a character that has to die!
-Save Adella!
-Save her!
-Must save her!
She even seems to occasionally lick her lips as if she’s dreaming, perhaps even eating some treats in her dreams?
It was too real for him to dismiss her merely as a fictional character.
Even if all the memories she retained were false, the memories they had built together were all genuine.
Many questions remained unanswered.
Even after hearing about Wearsoft’s development behind the scenes from the viewers, the sudden return of memories from all episodes could not be explained.
Was it merely a bug, or was this also somehow the developers’ intention?
As information flooded in, he felt that the events were gradually flowing deeper into a labyrinth.
Gurgle—
After thinking hard for the first time in a while, hunger struck.
He bit into a carrot that had been kept in the item shop, but as expected, since it was virtual reality, his cravings were not satisfied.
[Broadcast Time – 7:39:18]
[Viewer Count – 21,907]
“Have I really been doing this for that long?”
When stepping out of the capsule, it was already starting to get dark outside.
He felt he should take a short break from the game to have a quick meal. This way, he’d have less trouble if he chugged down potions all at once.
“Mmm… Nyang… I hate carrots…”
-LOL
-So cute!
-Njangsterol, I think I’ve finally understood your feelings…
-Bring more carrots! No, bring them all!
-I’ve got no regrets even if I die!
-You finally achieved redemption!
-Why do you look prettier even without makeup…?
-Because that’s love.
Meanwhile, forgetting to deactivate the synchronized taste, Adella’s face twisted in distaste as she pouted.
“They’re delicious, the carrots.”
