The game
So, the game only had free trial period to hook them up to the game. Playing game should atleast become habit if not a occasional pass time. The first impression was great.
The gaming site also hyped few things. First day it was talents of gaming characters. Lots of players had benefited and they got better talents. Then the hype about the village popularity. They merely hinted something awesome would happen based on the response given by players. See, this is called pulling the customer in. You show them that their voice matters, their thoughts are taken into consideration and their input is crucial for the deal to go through and move on.
Another way to pull customers was through social media. The status page settings was pretty basic. But it still allowed the players to capture images, make videos. Why? These can be used in social network platforms to show off. This is just a simple, pretty village with limited NPCs and few low leveled maps. What will happen in future when the game progresses to city levels or beyond that. What spectacular visions could be seen, felt or shown? You were strong. You persevered. So you could come to such high level place, so you could fight that high level monsters, so you created such a magnificent weapon. So you wore such high level equipment. Why wouldn't you show off? Daily life is so mundane and how many times can you show off living just like that. Come, play, progress and show off.
For this plan to work, the collaborations with Social network platforms were essential. Right now, the game was paying the sites as a part of marketing strategy. Now, slowly the situation was changing. The platforms wanted to own this chunk of perpetual news maker and money generator.
The gaming forum with its free and paid posts was one of the best content and credit generator. Thankfully, the game had full control over it and it was highly efficient too, thanks to decades of experience in handling such matters.
Other platforms, well it's just matter of percentage and cuts. Both sides had people to input the numbers, generate graphs and start negotiating.
Another way to generate income inside the game was with collaboration with real life companies selling items within game or to make game items outside the game ( not the merchandise, that's entirely different thing ). These things needed more time because these deals made more money and reputation would be at stake everytime. As the game had just started, it was doubtful that such collaborations has started or even if tentative plans are made.
It made interesting read to Atharva but he was not making money from the game that way, so it was just a interesting read, that's all. Billions to trillions of credits at stake, millions to billions of workers work at stake, thousands of companies and sub-contractors at stake, but none of which affected Atharva directly. Ah, the bliss of Ivory tower! To be even more precise, it was bliss of a sleeping beauty. Atharva was clueless even before he entered Saint Augustine.
The number crunchers were working overtime to give projections. The HR was running around to get better players. The investors were searching for better prospects. The social media were full of trending topics related to the game. Atharva turned into homebody instead of busybody and just became a silent spectator.
Soon, the fourth day in the game started.
Artha started the day with clean up. Was it an illusion or the garbage around the inn was really less. Mayhap the revelry in evening times was coming down. Or the players were feeling the pinch, and hesitating to spend coins just to relax and enjoy the evening sun.
Artha didn't know that he had hit bull's eye with his speculations. The NPCs had already noticed the change in trend and had emergency meeting at night. It was glorious. The great Village chief was used as whipping boy but he could just hand his head and cry bitterly. Who asked him to grow old, become powerless and yet have deep attachment to the village? Those who knew some of the background stuff egged others to hit the village chief. If not now, then when? So what if they knew that the path taken was the best for the village, the chief still had to appease the villagers.
The end result of last night meeting was to allow more coins to heaven blessed, directly or indirectly. The task rewards turned more generous. There were more tasks and they even opened up more maps. And it was decided to have more apprentices. No more tough love while selecting them.
Poor Artha. If he had talked about apprenticeship to other NPCs, they might have altered the quest portion. The NPCs had that power in this game, to alter the task or quest and adjust the rewards. However, he hadn't collected even half the items, so he talked a ton about other details. He even sold few of the training staff he had to NPC apprentice blacksmith to make some space in the room.
The players using sleeping bags and those who used inn rooms, were already in better maps as they were fit and ready to grind in such maps. The pitiful players who hadn't purchased sleeping bags, could only do some miscellaneous things in village centre or grind in lower level maps till the debuff was removed.
Artha decided to follow the blueprint of previous day. He spent some time with Indies like stone head galore. Well, well, what do you know. If you really want to listen and follow the experts, you also will turn up better. The thread ascended the heaven along the flower.
Even Sela was astonished at the speed of Artha decimating the monsters. Then it turned into silent untold contest.
Guess the winner? Unfortunately, it was still not Artha.
However, he clinched few deals with Indies though. He managed to purchase few equipments. Having some is better than having none, right?