The Server had been closed for one hour before Feng Bujue turned on his computer. And, apparently, many things had happened afterward. The forum now had its Post-Restriction function activated. Each member could only post one new entry after every five minutes, however, the website was still updated every 10 seconds.
Since 8:00 AM this morning, the system had closed the queuing function, and it didn’t generate new scenarios either. The system also notified players who were still playing and completely not aware of this to log out. By 10:20 AM, all players had completed their current quests and left their scenarios. During these two hours, the notification that asked players to log out had been displayed at the screen of all login space. Until 10:30 AM, some players who were still in the login space were forced to quit. Then, the Server was closed.
After that, players started to flood in the game’s forum.
Having seen the eye-catching announcement on the homepage, everyone had their own opinions. However, no conclusion was made.
The majority of players showed that they were dissatisfied with the differences between their levels, even though their levels weren’t low, as some of them had already approached level 20. However, they all felt that the Close Beta had been completed too quickly. For them, those who had bought the game cabin or somehow got the account by other means, it wasn’t fair at all. Because, other players, who didn’t have an account from Close Beta Version, could play Thriller Paradise within the next three or five days.
In fact, the biggest grudge of those players was that they didn’t have any ‘big advantages’ from almost 50 hours of playing the Close Beta Version as they had imagined.
Right then, Dream Inc. released a post which clearly explained that the players had agreed with the terms and conditions provided to them when they bought the cabin. The maximum level in Close Beta Version was 20, and after 10% of the players have reached this level, Close Beta was done.
Thus, those players were speechless—who would have been bored enough to read those terms and conditions? These circumstances led to a part of the players who didn't have any good reasons to debate and purposely start trouble. Their statements included ‘high levels players are all professional gamers with a studio behind them’. 'Dream Inc. ignored the feelings of the vast crowd of the normal players!’; also, ‘the sinister game producers and the professional gamers worked together to blow up the cabin’s price’, etc.
There were many people which were like that. In fact, they didn’t know the relationship between the company and the professional gamers, or the basic knowledge of this industry. And, they knew nothing about the pricing of the game cabin. However, they were still brave enough to express their ignorance and criticize others without looking back to their own responsibilities. They just wanted to use these statements to express their dissatisfaction.
Ridiculously, the posts from those people always dragged the attention of those who didn’t know a thing or were bored enough to think before speaking. There were some sensible players who had answered their questions or rejected their point of view. They also gave some meaningful news to them. Quite the contrary, they all got bullied and were accused of being Dream Inc.’s henchmen. This was because the other players were too embarrassed. They felt angry because the weak points of their view were shaken.
There are always people like that in this world. They are just like a group of nagging women, and debating with them would be nonsense at all. Your knowledge and ability would be soon dragged down to their levels, then they would use a dictionary of their own, which includes some familiar and favorite words, such as ‘ha ha’, ‘what are you getting stirred up for?’, ‘mind your manners’, or something like that.
Those words, together
with their rude manners, would draw others’ IQ to their level, and then they would fight against you with their rich experience. When you have a fight with someone like that, it would be like you have the ‘principle’, the ‘true story’, and your ‘manners’, together with your ‘polite words’, ‘respect’ and ‘confidence’, while your opponent is holding ‘sophistry’, ‘ignorance’ and ‘shouting’ in their hands. This would surely make you want to cry.
Of course, there were many accounts which remained idle on the forum as they were watching everything in silence. Some of them even dared to take the risk of being attacked as they publicly expressed their supportive thoughts to Dream Inc. for their decision of releasing the Open Beta. However, they weren’t Dream Inc.’s staff; they were the managers of the top studios, and they all supported the Open Beta from the bottom of their hearts. In their point of view, after their workers had reached level 20, it was just a waste of resources if they couldn’t level up anymore.
Also, there were some people who were neutral. They posted some simple entries to say that they were requesting ‘Dream Inc. to respect the benefits of normal players—adjust the ‘10% of players’ to ‘10% of players who are not professional gamers’, and open the Close Beta again’. In fact, there were no exception but ‘the normal players’. They didn’t want ‘fair’, but instead they just wanted their own benefits. However, they didn’t want to be on the side of those who had purposely caused trouble. Thus, they used more flexible words to express their wish.
The homepage of the forum was a big mess. This pushed the threads that asked for guidance or introduction, which were actually helpful, to 10 pages behind, just like a rock sinking into the deep sea. The forum used to be exciting, but now, even ‘hot’ couldn’t describe the boisterous atmosphere. It was like they were sinking in the attack of a malicious software which was to test the bearing capacity of the server.
Nevertheless, no matter how crazy their opponents were dancing in front of them, Dream Inc., facing this situation, had stayed still and ignored everything.
"Since we have posted the announcement and the Server has been closed, we will just upgrade our server. If you don’t like it, then don’t play our game when we release the Open Beta!"
To the group of players who asked for ‘everybody to return the game cabin and see what they will say’, or ‘daddy will not play your games anymore; garbage game, black-hearted company!’, Dream Inc.’s staff didn’t even care as they all knew that none of them would do what they had stated. They didn’t need to delete these sorts of threads, as just one week later, they would be the proof for those who wanted to humiliate themselves.
It could be said that Dream Inc., as a new rising tide in the industry, had the manners and reactions of a big company or the leaders of the industry. One, never admit your mistakes, and two, never change your decisions. The customers’ choices could would be to accept the company’s decision or stop playing anymore. This is the same with the rising price of gasoline—no negotiation.
Currently, there were many companies that let the ‘Close Beta’ work until they had closed their companies too. They would leave the Close Beta Version as long as possible. This was a trick to earn more money from selling items. With the word ‘Beta’, they could excuse themselves for the many BUGs in their games.
Dream Inc. didn’t follow the trend anyway. They made a big move: the Close Beta had been released for only two days. This did not harm the reputation of the game; quite the contrary, it made the game more attractive with the same trend of propaganda.
Within this Sunday morning, Dream Inc. had announced what equipment was needed to enter the Open Beta. Besides the special cabin of Thriller Paradise, if players wanted to use other types of cabins or game helmets, they needed to buy a unique login device released by Dream Inc.
This news cooled down the angry heat of the players who had participated in Close Beta Version. At least, the Open Beta still had some limits. It was like players in Close Beta had the PS2 with 50 hours playing in real time, and the players in Open Beta needed to buy the game controller in order to enter Open Beta.
After they had released the news, at 11:00 AM, Dream Inc. opened the registration for Open Beta accounts. Their website also introduced the methods to purchase their goods online. The deliveries would arrive the day after.
Just after one hour, the orders had exceeded 200,000 and continued to increase. Many players, after they got their Open Beta account, immediately flooded in the forum with their new entries and cooled down the other hot topics. And, the fight between two sides was heating up again. None of them knew each other; in the virtual world of the Internet, people had no bound saying whatever they wanted. Within half an hour, thousands of accounts had been deleted. This showed how much hatred they had created.
In short, Feng Bujue’s sleep this morning was like a sleep that lasted for a month. With the bowl of noodles, he was sitting in front of his computer and observing such dramatic changes.
Things on the Internet are that interesting. Perhaps those people who were involved in it would feel like they had participated in an event that would be written down in history forever. In fact, in the eyes of the outsiders, it was just an ordinary morning.
To Feng Bujue, there was no difference whether the Open Beta was released sooner or later. He didn’t want to become one of the top players, and, he didn’t think that lengthening the Close Beta would bring big benefits. Strong warriors would still be strong warriors. Even if you have trained one more month, if your levels are not much different, he will soon reach you. And, when you guys have the same level, he will still be stronger than you.
However, if the Open Beta were about to start, no doubt it would be good news to Feng Bujue. In Close Beta, there were many things that the game hadn’t opened yet, including money, public area, the mall, and other stuff that he hadn’t thought about yet.
Only 48 hours were left before the whole picture of Thriller Paradise would appear in front of his eyes.