Chapter 132: Hybrid Meta

In the past, if someone was doing business and wanted to become an adventurer again, switching immediately was difficult. They had to wait until the merchant character they were using reached the end of their lifespan, then do it with the next descendant. After all, the skills they had learned and the companions they had were specialized toward commerce.

But recently, that had changed slightly.

It was because team play had become more active. In this game, trying to conquer high-difficulty dungeons or monsters with only one’s own party took far too long.

This remained true even after the Graveyard System was added. Being able to save characters reduced uncertainty, but this kind of random system made players easily set the high points they wanted, and set them high, while forcing them to spend a long time trying to achieve them.

To put it simply, it was like a slot machine.

Even a fool could easily understand that 7, 7, 7 meant a jackpot, so they kept pulling the lever. But in reality, matching even one of those numbers out of several possibilities was not easy, and matching all of them to 7 had an extremely low probability. Achieving it through repeated attempts required an enormous number of tries.

In systems like this, gamers initially ran toward that goal, but eventually realized it could not be reached easily and compromised. That was how they came to enjoy the game with a moderate level of setup and growth.

TLF Online was the same. The goal was to perfectly assemble one’s party so they could sweep everything alone, but after playing for more than a month and realizing it was still nowhere near possible, and that other gamers were in the same situation, most players understood that achieving that goal would be difficult.

However, even if making every character powerful was difficult, drawing a few good characters among a full party of nine had relatively higher odds.

And it was not a difficult calculation to realize that if players gathered only those good ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠characters and formed parties together, they could create powerful parties much faster and use them to conquer difficult dungeons or monsters.

In truth, players had already realized this much early in the game. And after continuing to use only some characters like that, it was natural for them to wonder whether there was any need to invest in a full party at all, when party play was almost essential for upper-tier dungeons and they only used two or three characters anyway.

This became even stronger as it aligned with the situation of players working in non-combat occupations, including merchants.

Even among people doing merchant work or transport work, there were quite a few who, like Jamie, sometimes wanted to hunt and go on adventures.

And since combat characters were not completely unable to carry luggage, there was not much loss in raising about two of them that way.

Among such players, Jamie leaned more toward adventure. That did not mean he had a higher proportion of combat characters, but rather that he invested more attention and resources into them.

From the money he earned through this transaction, he set aside only the funds needed to buy salt again and poured all remaining profits into his combat characters.

After all, reaching the max level of 50 could be done in a day if one pushed hard. Of course, that had been impossible at the beginning of open service, but now he had money, experience, and knowledge.

After that, even if he adventured and killed monsters, it was not as if he gained more experience points, so whether he farmed or gathered money and bought things, the result was the same. Of course, the gamer himself would gain experience and fight a bit better, separate from the character.

‘Where should I invest?’

The easiest way to become strong was “Great Magic.” Each offensive magic spell was a finishing move, and he could probably use something like transformation magic to strengthen his character. But this was far too expensive.

Some spells were difficult to use even if a fourth-playthrough character gathered materials until the end of their lifespan. And that was based on Great Magic spells that were at least used relatively often. There were also spells like “Meteor” that still had no user reviews.

In ordinary games, Meteor usually fell in a flashy way, dealt damage, and ended there. But this was not like that. It was a real “Meteor” that dropped an actual meteorite, annihilated everything in the area, and could even erase villages or cities.

Great Magic included spells with truly transcendent power like that, but their costs were also enormous, so many were impossible to even dream of at the current stage. Once the game progressed further and raid gamers appeared, someone would probably try them.

If not Great Magic, he could also learn skills. The advantage of this side was that once learned, they cost little to use afterward. In truth, Great Magic cost so much that it could only be used a few times, so these ordinary skills could be considered the character’s real abilities.

But because this game did not allow players to keep carrying the same character forward forever, the investment with the least loss and the best long-term value was ultimately equipment.

Of course, equipment also decayed through the Decay System. But fundamentally, equipment was made of materials like metal or wood that did not decay easily, so even if one simply waited for it to rot, it took three months. Even after decaying, it did not disappear; it turned rusty or broken, so it could be restored if money was spent.

However, the cost was considerable, so unless it was fairly high-tier or expensive equipment, people usually discarded it and bought something new.

‘But equipment has limits, after all.’

Jamie’s worries deepened.

Insu had put a great deal of thought into designing TLF Online.

Early American MMORPGs included works with high game quality like Ultima Online, and America had strong economic power, internet penetration, and computer penetration. Even so, their results had not been very high.

Of course, comparing them to Korea was not entirely appropriate. Korea achieved great success in the early MMORPG market, but that was also due to special conditions.

Ironically, Korea’s astonishing success was heavily influenced by the IMF crisis.

As unemployment rose and people had less money to spend on leisure, the gaming population suddenly increased. Meanwhile, the government, which had been severely hit during the IMF crisis, invested heavily in internet infrastructure with the idea of overcoming the crisis and bringing in future growth engines. As a result, an environment where MMORPGs could be played was established.

At the time, MMORPGs were not the only thing that succeeded. PC bangs also appeared in huge numbers, and following that, many games, including StarCraft, Rainbow Six, and Diablo soon afterward, achieved strangely repeated success.

(Translator’s Note: PC bang — Korean internet café or gaming café. PC bangs became especially prominent in South Korea during the late 1990s and played a major role in online game culture.)

So comparing America to Korea was not completely fair. Still, it was true that America’s MMORPG population was small compared to its potential.

That was why Insu designed the game to fit the American market. Or rather, instead of simply fitting it to American gamers, he improved the inherent problems of MMORPGs as much as possible.

A fast ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠max level was not exactly Insu’s original idea. MMORPGs in the original history also moved away from tiresome infinite leveling and leaned toward letting players reach max level relatively quickly, then enjoy other content.

However, although he referred to other games to some extent for the fast life-cycle and Descendant System, a great deal of Insu’s own interpretation went into them.

To some extent, this was tailored to American tastes that preferred quick rewards and a sense of completion. But at the same time, it was meant to partly alleviate one of MMORPGs’ fatal weaknesses: the endless accumulation of differences between existing users and new users.

Of course, he did feel some anxiety. Some people might grow bored of unchanging characters, but there would certainly also be people who disliked having the character they worked hard to raise die and disappear every week.

That was why he observed reactions through the packaged game series while also making gamers grow used to it.

Fundamentally, games began from rules agreed upon between developers and users.

And even if those rules seemed unreasonable or unpleasant when first presented, once that moment passed and consistency was maintained, at some point they simply became “how things originally are.”

Moreover, while TLF Online was not the very first MMORPG, it was an extremely early work and the first one to become a major hit. It was not in a position of following rules someone else had made, but of creating the rules.

Because of that, even if gamers felt dissatisfied about their characters disappearing, there was no clear example they could point to, so that dissatisfaction did not amplify too greatly.

On top of that, Insu added the Graveyard System, which offset that dissatisfaction to some extent.

But in truth, this Graveyard System had already been prepared during TLF Online’s planning stage.

‘I hadn’t specified exactly what form it would take, but I did think there needed to be a system that allowed gamers to save characters they liked.’

Adding it later was not because he forgot or anything like that. It was because he judged that proper timing was necessary.

“If we include it from the beginning, the dissatisfaction gamers feel will stay the same.”

During development, Insu explained it that way to team members who questioned him.

The Graveyard System did not solve the problem entirely. It only eased it. So if it had been released from the beginning, dissatisfaction ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠might have accumulated more slowly, but it would still have continued building up in the end.

But by releasing it later like this, it could become a bucket of water poured over rising dissatisfaction. It could also give the impression that they were listening to gamers’ complaints and sincerely responding to feedback.

Some might see this as morning-three-evening-four, but in the first place, morning-three-evening-four oversimplified complex reality. That was especially true when it came to psychological issues.

Even with similar issues involving food, one only needed to look at rationing water and food during a crisis or controlling how much one ate. The total amount consumed might be the same in the end, but survival time changed depending on how it was divided.

In this way, problems and dissatisfaction were controlled with a certain delicacy. Fundamentally, TLF Online had been designed by Insu, who possessed knowledge of the future, so even if the graphics could not be helped, the system itself was highly advanced and appropriately adjusted for the standards of this era.

On top of that, through its own servers, they did their best to keep gamers from feeling too frustrated within the limits of poor internet infrastructure, and they spared no support for communities outside the game through WET and PC communication services.

Perhaps thanks to that, TLF Online received a fairly strong response from the start of service, and its growth trend was not bad either.

In truth, during the early launch period, the rate at which subscribers increased felt significantly slower than packaged games, so the development team members were all slightly flustered.

But that was only natural. MMORPGs were a minor genre to begin with. This was true even during the golden age of MMORPGs. On top of that, it was currently an unfamiliar genre, and the conditions required to enjoy it were demanding.

There was also an illusion created by the difference in sales methods. With packaged games, a single purchase counted as one sale, but this required continuous payments for someone to be seen as a user.

If counted by the number ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of people who had made even one paid payment, as with packaged games, the sales numbers would have looked better.

In any case, as time passed, the development team members realized these special characteristics and adapted to the pace of MMORPGs.

And then came the third month after launch.

“Concurrent users are at ninety thousand!”

The team members cheered at that.

It was a number nearing one hundred thousand, and even by packaged game standards, it was by no means small.

Insu, in particular, was deeply moved.

His final goal was simply so high that this did not seem like the end, but realistically speaking, it had already reached the standard of success. By the standards of the early MMORPG market, it was unrivaled, and even by the standards of the mature American market in 2025, one hundred thousand concurrent users could be considered a considerable hit.

If it had been made by simply copying an existing successful work, he would not have been this happy.