3 Game News

"Ye Yan, look at this!" Qian Zhong yelled, calling Ye Yan that was still asleep.

"What the hell! You know what time is it now?" Ye Yang yelled back, throwing a pillow at him from the other side of the bedroom. Qian Zhong has been using his desktop computer lately because he destroyed his own in a fury attack when he lost a game match and the winner started to make fun of him. For this reason, Ye Yan started to sleep with headphones in an attempt to drown out the noise and sleep without interruptions. It worked well, at least, until someone wants to wake him up.

Qian Zhong is short and a little on the fat side with a heart-shaped face and an undercut hairstyle. Because of his appearance and happy-go-lucky personality, he always looks cute but imagines himself as a virile man.

"CyberTech released new information about Second Life! Come to see this!" Qian Zhong was trying to finish his last program on time, so he used Ye Yan's computer to work because he didn't have the time to wait for it to be fixed. He works from home as a programmer and always left things to do at the last minute.

Ye Yan and his three friends decided to join Second Life together as professional players and create a guild. Qian Zhong is the most anxious of the four friends. He spends all day long looking for new information about the game and some nights too instead of finish the program that he was designated to create. He normally is very carefree but since he decided to become a professional player with them, he turned a little obsessed with the game. They didn't have access to virtual reality helmets before, so now, he is almost going crazy wanting to try it.

The quartet has already purchased the game helmets and is only waiting for the game to be released. The helmet isn't exactly cheap and not everyone can afford it, but with the incentives that the government is giving to the people, more citizens are buying it, and after the announcement that the game will be free, the number increase even more. But nothing is free in this world, probably there are many ways for CyberTech to make money through the game, so they exchange the money they would gain in selling the game for the increase of Second Life's population which will bring them even more money in return.

"What's it says? Ye Yan gave up the idea of continuing sleeping because his friend wouldn't let him. The last time that he tried to ignore him and keep sleeping, his friend almost slapped his face to him wake up. Obviously, he rewarded Qian Zhong with a kick for his efforts.

"First, it's some information about how long we can stay logged in the game. It says that we can't play more them twelve hours a day. If someone stays logged in for eighteen hours straight, the game system would disconnect and punish him, making the person only stay connected 8 hours a day maximum for the next 5 days. And if someone stays logged in for more than twelve hours a day for three days, he will receive the same penalty." A sedentary lifestyle is very harmful to the body, so if players stayed still for long periods, it would create very serious health problems and the company might even be processed for harming the population and even have the game Interdicted.

"It's not good for health anyway. And it would make things fair for those that work many hours a day and play way less than others." Ye Yan thought of something else and said. "Imagine what would happen to someone like Tang Yunfan. He sometimes forgot to eat while playing console games, what would happen if nothing is stopping him to play? Maybe one day, we could find him half dead in his bed, without the energy to even get up[1]."

"And some people are even worse than him, playing longer and don't have anyone to go and see if they are dead or alive. Thinking better now, this restriction is a good thing." Qian Zhong looked afraid when he thought of the implications that a VR game could have on some players.

"What's more it says? They mention something about the classes?" Ye Yan wants to know about classes and skills so he can make his character build and prepare for the game early. The faster you progress into the game, the better will be the rewards and the advantages compared to other players, and planning is essential to have a fast start.

"It says we will begin with level 0 and…"

"I never imagined that!" Ye Yan said sarcastically. Be awake at 3 a.m. already put him in a bad mood, but if the reason for him having to wake up before dawn was to hear some useless information that he could very well wait a few more hours to know, all hell would break loose.

"Hey! Let me finish first!" Qian Zhong yelled, starting to lose his patience with his sulky friend.

"Go ahead." Ye Yan said hitting his head on his pillow.

"It says that everyone will begin as a novice and can job change at level 5. It will be a basic class and we can choose a specialized class at level 20." In some games, the player can choose the class they will play at the character creation but in others, you can experience the game a little first and after it, do a quest to become a specific class, being able to change again later or not, depending on the game.

"Probably, in the beginning, we will only be familiarizing with the game and the real start will be only after level 5, like in some other games. And if we can change classes again later, it means that the game will get more diversified later on with more classes and build options." Ye Yan analyzed.

"It makes sense." They had played various kinds of games before, and each one of them has its specificity and characteristics.

"Anything else? It says which classes we can choose from?" Ye Yan is more interested in information that could help him create his character build.

"There are seven basic classes: fighter, swordsman, thief, mage, archer, doctor, and merchant. There's nothing about the specialized, classes but it mentions hidden and unique ones. Hum, I think I will be an archer. What about you?"

"A fighter will suit me well." He has lots of fighting experiences in real life and as this is a VR game, he could use it to his advantage. "Anything else?"

"There will be two factions in the game: the Righteous and the Dark. Some races are exclusive to each faction. And that's all. It looks like we don't will be getting more news until the game release in two months."

"I think it is enough to not let people feel lost about the game."

"Yeah. And about the factions? I prefer to play as a righteous man. After all, I've always been a righteous person" Qian Zhong said, which made him earn a raised brown from Ye Yan.

"I will choose the righteous faction too because I had enough of the dark side already." Ye Yan started laughing remembering their wild days in high school[2].

"Too bad. Everyone always thought of you like the devil himself". Ye Yan was often challenged by people from other schools that heard of his fighting prowess, and even if he didn't want to fight, others always go to him to make trouble, resulting in him beating the crap out of them. He always leaves his opponents black and blue, plus his serious and confident face, he became known as Jun Xie[3] in the neighborhood. But even before he got this title, he already had another nickname, The Devil, that was affectionately given to him by his nanny when he was only 7 years old because he made her life hell.

"Hey! At least, my scores were good in High School." He never neglected his studies. His mother would never accept a score less than perfect and the only time that it happened was when he was 10 years old, and his ass becomes redder than blood as a result. She was the only person that had made him feel fear in his entire life.

"Now that we know the classes, we can choose which one to play, it will be better for us to start thinking of our party composition too." Qian Zhong started to become excited again. "I hope that Little Ling will choose the doctor class. Yunfan isn't gonna be one, I'm sure. And we will need a healer for our party. Or maybe we can invite some girl to beautify the team too."

"We will need to count on Little Ling then. He is the one popular with the girls." Ye Yan sighed.

...

[1] Someone I know played Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, on Nintendo Wii, a long time ago for 18 hours straight, only having a 5 minutes interval for lunch. And I often forget to eat too...

[2] They are just remembering their rebellious days. There is no BL (boy love) here. My sister's dirty mind thought more about it, so I thought that it's better to clarify.

[3] Jun Xie - Jun meaning monarch, lord, and ruler; and Xie representing evil, demonic and nefarious.