Chapter 591: Call of Duty(3)
Chapter 591: Call of Duty(3)
The card game Call of Duty, launched at Musk's suggestion, was a massive hit, just as expected.
To be honest, even "massive hit" felt like an understatement; it saw an overwhelming surge in sales the moment it was released.
It was to the point where people said it felt like the peak of The Xenon Chronicle's popularity. Every shipment that arrived was sold out instantly.
[Call of Duty will be born as a new culture! A pastime enjoyed by children and adults alike.]
[It doesn't matter if you don't like games. It has more than enough value as a collectible.]
[Call of Duty features cards from both Blood and Iron and The Xenon Chronicle. All of Xenon's works gathered in one place.]
The reviews were bound to be good. A card pack cost only 50 copper—about 500 won in my previous life's currency.
It was cheap enough for children to buy with their pocket money, and due to the nature of cards, rare ones could be sold for much higher prices.
In particular, the Xenon Chronicle cards were divided into grades. They ranged from the common white cards to the golden ones that could only be pulled with an extremely slim probability.
There was even a grade higher than the golden cards. Pulling one of those was essentially the same as winning the "lotto" in my past life.
Those cards weren't just "colored" gold; they were actually "gold-plated." Whoever pulled one would have their life changed forever.
'But if we release them indiscriminately, their value will drop.'
This was where Musk's marketing—or rather, his sales tactics—kicked in. Since the gold-plated cards, the "lotto cards," relied entirely on rarity, he announced that only three would be released per month.
It was a method straight out of that chocolate factory movie from my previous life. Furthermore, The Xenon Chronicle held even greater cultural value than a chocolate factory.
The current gold-plated card was "Jin: Diabolus"—Jin after he had consumed Diabolus's soul.
Neither I nor even Musk knew where it would turn up.
[Breaking News! A gold-plated card has appeared in the Kingdom of Hardican!]
[A young child pulls the Jin: Diabolus card. A massive crowd has gathered in front of the child's house...]
Then, about two days later, the Jin: Diabolus card appeared in the Kingdom of Hardican.
It didn't appear in the Minerva Empire, famous for its vast territory, but in a tiny, remote kingdom.
Naturally, the world went into a frenzy. It was a gold-plated card that might have vanished without a trace if luck hadn't been on someone's side.
But since a kid blessed with the gods' own luck had suddenly pulled it, people were bound to lose their minds. Just in case, I issued a stern warning bordering on a threat.
[I do not care what kind of culture you create using these cards. However, if any harm comes to those who pull them, I will immediately halt all card sales.]
Thanks to this warning, no harm came to the child or his parents.
Honestly, the Kingdom of Hardican must have been terrified. The Xenon Chronicle isn't just that country's culture; it's a global phenomenon.
There were people all over the world foaming at the mouth just for a single card. A tiny, peripheral kingdom wouldn't be able to handle that kind of pressure.
While such incidents occurred, it wasn't as if everyone was focused solely on The Xenon Chronicle just because of the gold-plated cards.
Call of Duty, modeled after the card games of my previous life, was also slowly finding its place.
[At first glance, it seems like a simple game. However, you can build a deck with a clear concept, or conversely, fight with a chaotic mix.]
[You can see the United States fielding Nazi German tanks. Conversely, Japan can utilize Soviet soldiers.]
[The degree of freedom is very high, and the game seems simple, but the deeper you dig, the more diverse strategies and tactics are expected to emerge.]
Call of Duty was inspired by the trading card games of my past life. Until now, most games had been gambling-oriented, like poker, but Call of Duty was different.
It was a trading card game and a form of entertainment where you built your own deck to battle opponents. Of course, I had mostly stepped back from its development.
While my word carried immense weight, I left the general rules and balancing to Musk. I heard he even hired scholars for it.
[The unique charm of Blood and Iron shines through here as well. Not only do hidden effects trigger when certain conditions are met, but the 'Oil' card is crucial.]
[Will you use Oil to further boost the power of steel weapons, or will you primarily operate infantry?]
[Additionally, you can use Commanders to set which branch's stats to increase.]
[The same goes for the 'Battlefield' cards that serve as the background. Sea-related battlefields buff the Navy's stats and debuff the Army's. The reverse is also true. On the other hand, the Air Force maintains its stats anywhere...]
It included rules that were surprisingly simple yet complex. The fact that it was so intricately designed proved he really had hired scholars.
However, for now, the Nazi Germany-related packs were Tier 1. Given the current progression of the story, it was unavoidable.
The only silver lining was that the "Tiger tank" wasn't shining yet. The Tiger was currently being evaluated as a white elephant.
Call of Duty intended to change stats according to the serialization of Blood and Iron, and the early-model Tiger tank card appeared with lackluster stats.
Considering that from late 1942, the Tiger tank would become "terror" personified to the Allies, it was a rather amusing phenomenon.
[Japan can sweep everything away with a powerful Navy if they manage their resources well. Thanks to Militarism, they are less affected by the battlefield. However...]
[While other countries have cooperation stats, Japan does not. It seems to reflect the conflict between the Japanese Army and Navy.]
[The unique trait of the United States is Democracy. However, there is a penalty where they cannot mobilize early on, but they grow stronger the more they fight...]
Each country had its own unique traits. Nazi Germany had traits that provided strength in the early game, while the Soviet Union had traits that kicked in from the mid-game.
The United States was characterized by getting stronger the more they fought—a trait that allowed for a late-game comeback with incredible staying power.
There were many others, but I'll skip them. I wasn't planning on playing the card game myself, nor did I intend to delve too deeply into it.
Above all, Blood and Iron also had sufficient value as a collectible. For example...
[Leader and politician cards all have the same stats. However, they are divided into grades.]
[Hitler in his Bohemian Corporal days versus Führer Hitler. Stalin as Lenin's successor versus Grand Marshal of Steel Stalin. Which will you choose?]
After the Xenon Chronicle cards, there were the Leader cards that satisfied the desire to collect.
The Blood and Iron Leader cards were similar to the Xenon Chronicle cards. The higher the grade, the different the color.
Musk informed me that while not as rare as the gold-plated cards, "Führer Hitler" was pulled with an abysmal probability.
Instead, for the sake of balance, the Leader stats were identical. He said if they weren't, the balance would ascend to the heavens.
As I mentioned, I was just watching from the sidelines, so I simply nodded. As long as the balance was well-maintained, it would be a great game.
However, as one might expect from an initial launch, the problems I had feared began to erupt. Call of Duty was cheap enough for kids to buy.
But what if someone had a lot of money?
[Some wealthy individuals or nobles are buying up every Call of Duty pack as soon as they arrive...]
[Circumstances have also been captured where they contact merchant groups to purchase the entire stock coming from the factories.]
[The brazen response is: 'What's the problem if I bought it with my own money?' A card game intended for children is being corrupted into a dirty fight among adults.]
In less than a week, the wealthy began buying up cards indiscriminately.
The merchant groups profited by making connections with nobles, and the nobles profited by more easily collecting the cards they liked.
The moment a gold-plated card appeared, even a wealthy noble could lay their hands on even more immense wealth.
This mass purchasing by those who monopolized wealth was a problem, but it was something I had somewhat anticipated.
However, I couldn't exactly stop mass purchasing because the advent of "factories" made it possible to print more than enough.
So, just as I was thinking of only blocking the lobbying between merchant groups and nobles, a problem erupted from a completely unexpected place.
[People aiming for a life-changing reversal. If they pull the right card, they can earn more than their daily wage.]
[The playground for gamblers is not the gambling den, but the card pack. The excessively low price is actually inciting a gambling spirit.]
[Scholars are conducting research on the psychological expectation that a good card will be pulled next...]
A card game I thought of as simple entertainment. However, it showed signs of degenerating into the infamous "gacha system" of my previous life.
People were investing their entire daily earnings to pull a good card, hoping for a jackpot.
There were even gambling games where people would pick card packs and the one who pulled the higher grade won.
Gambling is an act that the religious community has strictly suppressed throughout history.
They went as far as to call those addicted to gambling "souls seduced by demons," which said it all.
This was a situation even Musk hadn't anticipated, so he had no choice but to discuss it seriously with me.
"Should we set a limit on how many packs can be bought per day?"
"If we do that, sales will drop significantly. And people might end up buying them with 'adult money' instead of 'pocket money.'"
"This isn't easy."
If nothing else, gambling was an issue that had to be handled with gravity. I had zero intention of breeding gambling addicts.
Moreover, wasn't it an act strictly suppressed by the religious community? I had heard it was banned on Earth as well.
Despite that, gambling addicts were constantly being produced. It meant it was a form of entertainment so addictive that even the gods would shake their heads.
Of course, it wasn't as if formal gambling dens like "casinos" didn't exist. What the religious community cracked down on were illegal gambling dens where hundreds of gold coins changed hands.
This was flowing in a similar pattern to my previous life, but the problem was the card packs themselves.
"The issue is whether to view the act of opening a card pack as gambling or as a normal purchase, right?"
"Exactly. It's only because they're mindful of you, Sir Isaac, but if it were anyone else, they would have been foaming at the mouth and demanding regulations."
"Hah, really now..."
I crossed my arms, looking troubled. To emphasize again, the problem had erupted from a place I truly hadn't considered.
I had only thought of adding a fun form of entertainment. Furthermore, I had taken a step back from Call of Duty.
I had planned to just steadily serialize Blood and Iron and check what updates were made, but things were already going off track.
'To prevent card pulling from being regulated as gambling...'
Stopping mass purchases was too harsh a measure. As I said, thanks to the factories, even if they sold out, they could be restocked quickly.
"Hmm..."
"..."
While I was agonizing, Musk sat with his hands clasped, looking anxious. It had been a while since I'd seen that expression on him.
After pondering for a long time, a brilliant idea suddenly struck me.
An idea that might increase the gods' faith while simultaneously distancing the game from gambling.
"First, it would be better to disclose the probabilities."
"The probabilities?"
"Yes. The probability of pulling each grade. That alone should be enough."
First, I planned to crush the psychological expectation itself.
Instead of a "Next time for sure!" mentality, I wanted them to get annoyed and say, "Ugh, damn it. This card game is just trash luck. Ptooey."
And I planned to go one step further. After telling Musk to spread the word about the probabilities to the press, I headed to the temple.
Soon, I entered a private chapel and quietly asked Luminous.
'Priests generally have good luck, right? Depending on their faith.'
A formula that exists in almost any medium.
[That is true, but... luck itself is something even we find difficult to predict...]
'So it does have some influence.'
[I suppose so...?]
I planned to utilize the Faith = Luck formula.