At six in the morning, Henry awoke anxious for his first day at Heaven's Gates. Last month, he attended orientation and met his Project Manager, but today was his first day meeting the whole team.
Hoping to start with a good first impression, he woke up earlier than usual and dragged his tired body to the shower. After a 10-minute shower, he basked in the warm steam like at a sauna. The warm steam relaxed his muscles and settled his nerves. After the bathroom temperature returned to normal, he lathered his face and shaved the stubble, and brushed his teeth.
When he stepped out of the bathroom, he khaki pants, a vintage video game shirt, and a dress jacket. While the company did not have a dress code, he wanted to look professional. He checked out his ensemble in the mirror, each time feeling more confident with his outfit selection.
"Nice," Dustin complimented when Henry walked out of his bedroom.
"Thanks," Henry replied grabbing a blueberry muffin and his water bottle.
Looking around, he noticed the apartment was already lit up with sunlight. Outside, clouds resembling soft blankets floated lazily in the sky. Sitting at the kitchen counter for a quick bit, Henry saw Dustin scrolling through the Heaven's Gates Forum.
"Tell me about last night's auction. I heard it was epic. It seems like the Mythical Guild dominated the auction, winning 8 out of 10 auction items. What was it like seeing Zodiac in person, I love watching his live stream channel," Dustin asked excitedly.
Henry didn't hold back; he described the auction in detail. He could tell Dustin hung on every word he said. Dustin's interest was piqued when Henry described the conversations between Zodiac and Odin. Dustin was also when Henry described his VIP suite and the items he won.
"My goal is to make the auction," Dustin said prayerfully, pumping his fist.
"Why don't you come to Woodhaerst before the next auction, and you can just stay in my booth?" Henry suggested.
"Oh, thank god, man. I had no chance of making it myself. Forget gold, silver is too hard to come by," Dustin complained reading the forum.
"All right, I'm off to work," Henry said sliding his brown leather messenger bag strap over his shoulder and walking his new bicycle to the elevator and out of his apartment building.
Twenty minutes later, Thaddeus chained the bike outside his building. The building was a towering skyscraper, with glass walls and modern architecture. Heaven's Gate occupied two floors sandwiched on either side by law firms. Taking out his ID, he slid it through the metal entrance access gate, and the two glass barriers separated allowing him through to the elevator lobby.
With eight elevators he didn't need to wait long. Inside, he pressed the 22-floor button to H.G. and Associates. The pseudonym was used to prevent the building or office from being overrun with fans. Blending in with the rest of the law firms, gave the game employees anonymity to do their jobs without disruptions.
Henry showed his ID to the receptionist and walked to his desk. His desk was in a partitioned cubicle with six others against a back wall. Only Dr. McElvaney, H.R., and the lead designer, artist, and programmer had offices. Everyone else worked in cubicles. Dr. McElvaney believed walls inhibited creativity and collaboration.
Henry hung his messenger bag on the back of his chair and looked out the large window as he waited for his computer to boot up. While he waited, he looked around the spacious room. The walls had elaborate murals of major game characters. During his orientation tour, the H.R. specialist told him the room was divided by occupations. Since he was a business analyst, he'd be seated with the rest of them.
When he met another business analyst earlier, they all seemed a bit ragged and exhausted. Since he was new to the position, they promised to mentor him when they got a chance. However, they each explained they were busy with their team, and that it would be better to just email them questions.
After moving to Austin, Henry emailed them frequently with every question he could think of. From what he learned, he would be responsible for analyzing his development team's business processes and identifying opportunities to implement change. Which opportunities for improvement, he didn't know. What he did know, is that he'd be responsible for gathering data and analyzing market trends. Again, he didn't know how to gather game data or how analyze market trends. He was still waiting for his senior colleagues to show him how. The only thing he did know, was that he was on the City Building team.
As soon as his computer screen appear, the first thing Henry did was check his email. He was pleasantly surprised to see a welcome message from Dr. McElvaney, welcoming him to the company. There was also an email from his Program Manager introducing herself. The team lead's email was friendly and informative, making Henry feel at ease. He quickly replied, thanking her for the warm welcome and expressing his excitement about working at the company.
Looking at his calendar, there was an hour left before his first project team meeting in the small conference room. The meeting was scheduled as a brainstorming session with Dr. McElvaney. He was looking at the rest who were invited. He noticed there were people from the design, art, and program department scheduled to attend. From their company bios, he could tell he was the only new hirer.
Before the meeting, Henry's familiarized himself with the company's development process. He spent the hour reading through the company's manuals and training materials, learning about the different departments and the projects they were working on.
An hour later, Henry made his way to the small conference. The small conference room was adjacent to the tester and breakroom. The breakroom was larger than most apartments and was filled with arcade games, table tennis, and foosball table.
When he arrived, he saw a woman placing packets on the table with pads and pens. As he entered the room, the woman face turned around to check him out.
"You must be the noob, right? I like your shirt," she said in a British accent.
"Yes, I'm Henry. Where should I sit?" he asked eliciting a chuckle from her.
"Sit anywhere. There are no assigned seats. Welcome to the team, I'm Candice, your Program Coordinator," she smiled and continued to lay out the packets.
Soon, the room began to fill as new faces arrived and found their seats one by one. Henry listened as they spoke about different facets of the game. Overall, most of the conversation focused on yesterday's auction. Like Dustin, they talked about the players and items, but also how well the code performed. They even shared ideas about how the next auction may look.
They continued to speak until Dr. McElvaney arrived. Seeing his hero in person, Henry felt a brief sense of shock. He was used to seeing his image, but now he was sitting less than four three feet from him.
"Good everyone is here!" he smiled. "I created this taskforce to improve the game for settlement players. We have a growing number of player settlements. Since the beast wave, settlement lords haven't faced any challenges. We need to up the entertainment factor. So, let's brainstorm! But, before we get started let's introduce ourselves to each other," he suggested.
Listening closely, he learned Candice was newly promoted to the program coordinator. The rest of the team was filled with one person from each department. Each person spoke about their previous work at Heaven's Gate. When it came time to introduce himself, Henry explained he was a recent college graduate, played as a settlement lord, and this was his first job. Except for McElvaney and Candice, everyone was surprised to learn Henry was brand new to the company.
"Now that we've all introduced ourselves, let's think of ways we can improve the game. Let's start by identifying what makes a good city-building game, Candice?" asked. Dr. McElvaney.
"The best city-building games typically have engaging gameplay, deep and complex systems, attractive graphics and art styles, variety and replayability, well-designed user interfaces, challenging and rewarding goals, and good AI. These elements help to create an enjoyable and immersive gaming experience for players," she explained.
"Excellent explanation, anyone else?" Dr. McElvaney asked.
When no one spoke, he continued, "That means we need to make settlement playing easy to learn but challenging to master. Players should manage their cities with ease, but there are no obstacles as they progress, what obstacles should we create?
We already provide players with AI companions able to handle city planning and economic simulations, is that a crutch, should we scrap that instead of getting NPCs to serve as advisers?
While we let players choose a starting culture tree, should we add a fourth culture tree, if so, what is it?
Finally, should we change the rewards players earn from leveling and assign settlement lords, missions, quests, and objectives to progress as we do for players playing as adventurers and crafters?"
When he finished, the room was quiet with contemplation. Reading the room, Henry did his best to fake like he was also in contemplation. The whole time secretly hoped he wasn't the first one to be asked to give an opinion.
"Henry, you play as a settlement lord, what's your opinion?" Dr. McElvaney said curiously.
"Eh, um, I think we should give each settlement a tourism rating. Unlike settlers that move to our territory, tourists can visit. And if lords, tourism is high enough a portion of those tourists may decide to stay and move there," Henry said uncertainly. After touring Austin, he wondered by tourism didn't exist in the game.
"Excellent idea, this was just the type of new idea I was looking for. I knew I was right to hire you!" Dr. McElvaney said cheerfully.
Hearing his complimentary tone, everyone began freely contributing improvement ideas. People throughout ideas such as stopping the trees from regeneration, making natural resources scarcer, giving players more access to data to make better strategic decisions, and creating all types of natural disasters. Eventually, the conversation steered to monetization and agriculture corporations.
Henry was surprised the first person to broach the conversation was Candice. Part of his contract with Cargill and John Deere required he argues for their inclusion into the game. Even stranger, as soon as Candice made her suggestion, the rest of the committee agreed. Candice suggested allowing Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus permission to enter the game after paying a hefty fee. That money in turn could then be used to fund the design, art, and programmatic upgrades to the settlement building.
Everyone agreed so fast that Henry was still trying to understand how it happened so fast. That's when he realized, surely, he wasn't the only one offered a big payday to endorse big agricultures entry to the game.
"Henry?" Candice called out.
"Yes," Henry said coming out of his thoughts.
"What's your opinion? Dr. McElvaney already said he won't go for the changes unless it is unanimous. So, what's your opinion?" she asked.
Everyone turned to face him. The new colleagues he just met looked at him expectantly. Like them, he was in for a big out if these companies were allowed to operate in-game. Henry knew the funds Candice mentioned earlier were a double entendre for the funds they'd earn from their contracts. However, once these agriculture conglomerates were allowed access, they'd seek to monopolize the food securities market.
In the real world, the ABCD already controlled 75% to 90% of the global grain trade. He could only imagine the percentages in-game. It was a nightmare. Ethically, these corporations will provide players with a unique gaming experience, allowing them to build and manage virtual businesses and compete with other players in a virtual marketplace. On the other hand, there are concerns that the presence of big agriculture will create an imbalanced power dynamic and lead to unethical behavior.
Allowing these companies access would add depth and complexity to the game and allows players to develop their strategic and economic skills. However, he was also concerned that these corporations might dominate the virtual marketplace, making it more difficult for new and less experienced players to compete.
"Henry, what's your opinion?" the asked the software engineer.
"I'm opposed," Henry said. Knowing if that got back to his sponsors he'd be sued for a breach of contract.