World Keeper

Chapter 1043: Social Experiments

I sat at my desk, going over the reports that Sun delivered to me. These weren’t any major emergencies, but rather a summary of recent news that were deemed important for me to know. For instance, the discovery of a new floor of Fyor and its circumstances.

This wasn’t the first floor to have an arctic theme, but it was the first one that had to be entirely dug out from one gate to the other.

Even worse, Petra had no idea where the crystal spire was to use her tracking spell, because the entire thing was covered in ice. Thus, there was no room for a shadow to form when she scouted the terrain.

Thankfully, there weren’t any other influences in the atmosphere that would prevent tracking. Although Petra couldn’t do it, there were a large number of gods that possessed domains relating to tracking. Once they brought one of those in, it would probably not take too long to locate the gate… though getting to it was still another matter.

Reading through the report, a copy of the message Lifre had uncovered was also included. Apparently, that civilization had access to the special mana stones of the twenty-eighth floor, though I didn’t see any of them when I scanned through the area. Most likely, they had been dissolved thanks to the mist.

Moving to Codex Chaotic, Cici had helped to prepare a summary of basic statistics. Now that the game had been out for a couple of weeks, and the ranking system had been launched, people were starting to play the game more… I won’t say logically, since it involved the void, but more carefully.

There were still those that overestimated their own abilities and died due to having too strong of a void beast. At the same time, there were those that put themselves in a grand position of power, only to be assassinated before ever seeing a trace of the void beast.

However, most people had begun to take the game as it was meant to be taken, as a training experience. They gave themselves settings that they genuinely wanted to live out, while keeping it within a range that they could handle for the void beast.

Something that I didn’t expect was another report that Sun sent me, related to the release of Codex Chaotic. Ever since the game was released, there had been a noticeable decline in the use of recreational facilities throughout many worlds. From an analysis conducted not only by the artificial intelligences, but also several behavioral experts in the world, people saw less need to socialize in the real world.

It wasn’t like I didn’t understand this. You could create your dream lover in Codex Chaotic. You could make a world where even an introvert could be surrounded by friends. It was easy for someone to get all of their social needs through this game.

The problem was that if this continued, and social activities continued to decline, the nearly utopian society that had been built in many lands would turn into a dystopia instead. How do I stop that from happening?

There were a few options, such as limiting the amount of time people were allowed to play Codex Chaotic in a single day. This would force people to take more time to themselves and connect with the real world. However, if I made the time allotted too short, people would easily forget the details that they needed to remember when hunting down the void beast, thus removing the point of the game in the first place.

I leaned back in my seat as I thought about that, another thought coming to mind. “Hermes, can you please call Cici? I would like to speak with her for a moment.”

“Sure thing, boss!” The voice of the messenger rang out before disappearing. After a few more moments, another voice appeared in its place, this one softer.

“Is there something that I can help you with, sir?”

“There might be,” I nodded, crossing my arms. “Thanks to the ranking, we have taken a step in solving the issue of people not taking the game seriously. Now, however… are you aware of the negative impact from people playing too much?”

Cici spoke in a confident tone. “Indeed, this was something that was considered during the creation of the game. However, the specific method of resolving this problem was ultimately left to the Keepers who would purchase the game for themselves. There are too many cultural variations for a plan to cover every circumstance.”

“When making a foolproof plan, never underestimate the ingenuity of fools?” I asked with a chuckle, nodding my head. “I have one idea that I would like to propose, and you can give any input on it that you need.”

“Please go ahead.” Her response was swift, so I was sure that she had already considered what I was about to say.

“My proposal is that we require people to pay a certain amount of money to maintain the simulation. This is true for both before and after its completion. I can imagine this having a number of varied effects, based on the consumer. For those with money to burn, it will be little more than a minor annoyance, and their play habits won’t change much.”

“However, for those that would feel the pinch from this charge, they will have to consider whether it is worth the money to get their social experience from the game that they have to pay for, as opposed to meeting their friends in the real world. The main purpose of the game is to train against void beasts, after all, with therapy merely as an added bonus.”

There was a brief pause as Cici considered my words. “I understand. Should I implement a flat rate to cover all forms of simulations, or should simulations be ranked based on their difficulty level or other factors?”

“That’s… not an easy question to answer. The main issue at the moment is the lack of real world socializing. Those using Codex Chaotic to replace their social life would be doing so through low to medium difficulty simulations, rather than high power ones.”

“Tell me what you think about this. Everyone has to make an initial payment when first creating their simulation. This initial payment will then cover the first seventy-two hours of playtime within the simulation. After that, they are billed weekly based on their hours played, and can choose to prepay as well. However, the price should be the same no matter what difficulty level the player requests.”

If I made the subscription monthly, or based on real time, it might have the opposite effect of what I wanted. It would go from being a bother to pay, to instead a case of ‘I’ve already paid for this month, so I might as well get the most of it’.

“I see…” Cici thought about it for a few moments before replying. “I believe that there will be substantial negative feedback to this change, but that would apply to any change that would incentivize players to only play in moderation. Additionally, unlike Fragments of Acidia, Vision Expanse, or World Seed, there are no direct ways for people to make money in Codex Chaotic, as it is designed for single player use.”

“That’s right. Though…” I thought about it again when she mentioned that. “We could potentially change that, for people that truly want to become experts on targeting void incursions.”

“...May I ask what you mean by that, sir?”

“It’s simple. For players that exceed their three day limit, they will be charged to continue the simulation. However, if someone completes their simulation within the three day limit, they can instead be rewarded. You can base their rewards off of their final score, but the minimum reward should be a full refund of the initial simulation cost.”

“Of course, this only applies to people taking simulations suitable for their ranking. We don’t want experts repeatedly creating low-level simulations that they can immediately solve just to rake in the reward money.”

After I finished my explanation, Cici briefly went silent. “If I am to understand your desires, sir, you wish for casual players to be incentivized to play more casually while maintaining their real world social life. Meanwhile, hardcore players will be incentivized to play more seriously in the hopes of being paid for their efforts?”

“That’s right.” I nodded my head in confirmation. “The purpose of the game from the start was to train experts that could identify and confront void monsters. If I squash that goal just for the sake of getting the casual players to socialize more, it would make the entire game lose its value. Thus, for those truly serious players that can resolve high-level void threats within seventy-two hours of play, I want to make sure that they are rewarded as any expert in a major field.”

“I believe I understand your intentions, sir.” Cici spoke up respectfully. “Is there anything else that I should be aware of, before I implement these changes?”

I hesitated for a moment, before nodding. “There are a few people that I would like to exclude from the payment requirements. First, the incarnations of the Greater Pantheon and others who have access to the Admin Room. I’m sure you know who they all are. These people would typically only play the game for proper training of one sort or another, anyways.”

“Additionally, there is one other person that I believe should be excluded. It’s a girl that came to my world from an invasion in the past, but decided to stay with me at the cost of betraying her original allegiance. I don’t know exactly what simulation she has created, but I can guess. She lost everything she had the moment that she decided to join me, so I don’t want to charge her for her happiness.”

“You are referring to the girl named Mara, correct?” Cici asked, to which I nodded my head. “I understand. Are there any other VIP exceptions that you would like to register?”

I thought about that, shaking my head. “Not at the moment. I may think of others to add in the future, but that should be enough for now.”

Mara had a bright smile on her face as she returned from town, having grabbed herself some much needed groceries. Well… she was a goddess, so her groceries were in the form of energy supplements. She could technically survive by extracting the divinity within divine currency, but proper divine supplements had been created that were far more efficient.

Once she was done putting everything away, she ran up to her room to grab her gaming helmet. “Log in to Codex Chaotic!” She shouted happily, ready to return to the family that she had created within the game. Now that they had fully understood what was happening, and had accepted her, Mara was happy to spend as much time as she reasonably could within the game, only stopping when she needed to urgently do something in the real world.

However, instead of being thrust into the body of her avatar Maya, Mara instead found herself in Cici’s office, the silver-skinned girl sitting behind her desk with a small smile. Mara’s eyes widened, dozens of panicked thoughts flashing before her. “D-did the simulation expire or something? Why didn’t I log straight in?”

Cici held up a hand gently. “The simulation is just fine. I pulled you here because I am preparing to make a major announcement. However, before that, there is something that you specifically need to know.”

Mara gulped, nodding her head. When Cici began to explain about the upcoming change to Codex Chaotic, and the need to regularly pay to maintain a simulation, Mara’s face lost its color. Cici maintained her smile, however, repeatedly insisting that Mara hold off any questions until she was done talking.

Mara knew that she had a rather generous allowance from the Keeper to help with her daily expenses, but she wasn’t sure if that would be enough to cover the continued usage of the simulation as well as all of her other needs.

Thankfully, Cici ended it with one last sentence. “The Keeper has also specifically instructed that you will not be required to pay for your simulations.” She said, catching Mara off guard. Cici snapped her fingers, and a holographic screen appeared over her desk, showing the scene of the Keeper describing Mara so Cici could identify her, and the reason why he gave her this exception.

Mara blinked briefly, her cheeks reddening. “W-Why didn’t you just lead with that?” She asked, feeling as if she had been taken for a roller coaster.

Cici, meanwhile, simply blinked. “If I told you that you were exempted without letting you know what you were exempted from, you wouldn’t have properly understood the situation. That is why I asked you to reserve any comments until I was done.”

Mara sighed reluctantly, nodding her head. “Then… thanks. And, can you make sure to thank the Keeper for me, as well?”

Cici smiled at that. “I will pass your message along. Now, I do not believe that there is anything else you need to concern yourself with, so I will let you log in normally, and wish you a happy experience.”