Dinner was significantly more lavish than lunch, and the players gathered together in a lively atmosphere, chatting and laughing as they discussed their gaming experiences.
When Chris's two best friends saw that their friend had become withdrawn, they promptly ran to another table...
Hearing other players talking about the game, the two of them were practically drooling with envy!
Even if you can't play the game, it's still good to know more about it before others!
Chris sat alone, tears welling up with every bite of his meal.
He felt he could update his ID; from now on, he'd call himself "Kerry the Sandbag Stone." He'd been getting beaten up all day, losing every single round miserably, so being the punching bag felt perfectly natural...
The more I thought about it, the worse it seemed; I was so heartbroken I almost cried.
Just then, someone asked, "Is anyone here?"
Chris replied, "No."
The man then sat down opposite Christon, opened his rice bowl, and began to eat heartily.
Chris noticed that the man was wearing a Blue Star employee badge, so he seemed to be one of the staff members.
After thinking for a while, Christon finally couldn't help but ask, "How exactly did you pass that challenge quest? I don't believe anyone could beat such a strong NPC."
The staff member opposite looked up at Christon and asked with a friendly smile, "You haven't finished the game?"
Chris, being a top-tier player himself, had never fallen behind in progress. Upon hearing this question, he blushed and nodded hesitantly.
The staff member said, "You probably didn't play the tutorial level properly. There are a lot of information hints in the tutorial level, and the NPC Odin also has his own lines."
Chris asked, "Does he have mind-reading abilities? How can we fight him?"
The staff member made a gesture and laughed, "Remove the neural ring and use the handle to shoot."
Chris: "??"
A few seconds later.
Thunderclap on a calm spring day! A sudden and profound awakening!
Chris exclaimed, "Is that so?!"
The staff member chuckled and explained, "This NPC is actually an AI we trained by reading multiple Odin match records to mimic his fighting style. Of course, this method only allows them to learn about 30-40% of Odin's techniques. To compensate for this gap, we gave the AI a little cheat—when the player operates through the neural loop, the AI can anticipate the player's actions and then take countermeasures. And the way to counter this cheat is very simple: just use the controller, preventing the AI from anticipating your next move."
That's some crazy stunt; this is definitely another crazy stunt in game design.
But thinking about it carefully, there isn't a big problem. It just really feels like the fourth wall has been broken—a boss in a game requires players to change their gaming equipment to fight?!
Chris found it more and more amazing, and couldn't help but want to curse, but then he wanted to applaud the designer.
It took him a while to calm down.
Looking at the staff member sitting opposite him, Chris said, "Hello, I'm Chris, here for the test."
The staff member said, "My name is Maynard, a tester from Blue Star. Hey, actually, we're quite destined to meet."
Chris: "Huh?"
Maynard scratched the back of his head and said, "Once upon a time, I was a proud and stubborn kid, until later, I played a game on Earth..."
Chapter 150 Let Strength Speak
"Once upon a time, I was a proud and stubborn kid, until later, I played a game set on Earth..."
Maynard said sadly, "Alas, brother, have you ever heard of 'The Wandering Swordsman'?"
Chris said, "Game of the Year, who doesn't know that? And after winning the award, the league even changed the points."
These days, it's quite common for men and women to remarry, but it's rare for a game to make the league change its score for them.
With a league as prestigious as League A, changing the score is tantamount to taking back what they said... Everyone who plays the game has heard about this.
"..." Maynard was silent for a moment, "I was the evaluator who changed the score."
Chris's mouth opened into an "O" shape.
The two former stubborn kids ended up sitting at the same table by chance, chatting and eating dinner.
Maynard shared his experience, and Chris echoed his sentiments, saying, "Some things are indeed... only when you look back do you realize how wonderful they are."
Maynard took out a cigarette and said with a sense of melancholy, "Sometimes, after working as a reviewer and player for a long time, you develop a kind of arrogance, feeling like you're above the producers, able to criticize arbitrarily, even dictate the game's direction, like an outsider directing an expert in game development. But you often forget your original motivation for doing this job. I started out just because I liked playing games... Treating this hobby as a job, over time, your thinking gets messed up."
Chris looked thoughtful.
Maynard added, "I did the same thing. I only played for a few minutes before making an arbitrary and condescending judgment on a game. That's really unfair and disrespectful to the development team. It's like going to a restaurant for steak, taking a bite of the bread served before the meal, and then rashly giving the chef a one-star rating, saying that his steak doesn't taste like meat..."
Chris hung his head, dejectedly ate a couple of mouthfuls of rice, and said listlessly, "You're right."
By 8 p.m., all the test feedback had been compiled, and the players left the Blue Star Building after dinner.
The production team gradually returned from the team-building event outside. Most of them had a great time eating, drinking, and having fun, and then went home after picking up their belongings.
Mingyan and a group of others did not want to go back for the time being, so they stayed to check the test feedback.
This was the last test before the official launch of "Assassin's Way". A total of 200 players were invited to participate in three rounds of testing: online-cooperative, online-competitive, and challenge missions.
Based on player feedback, this is considered a very good S-level score.
The combat design for the NPC Odin, in particular, was highly praised by all players who eventually thought of removing the neural ring, and left a very deep impression on them.