Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Ownership (2)
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There are times when I suddenly realize just how ambiguous the standard for 'fun' is.
The subjectivity involved is too strong to define the mechanism of human pleasure, and even if I could explain it, I lack the evidence to support my claims.
After all, I'm a game developer, not a neuroscientist.
It was inevitable that my mind would be filled with thoughts after receiving such an unexpected response.
'Life skills systems...'
To explain, Identity features numerous crafting contents beyond just life skills and gathering.
This was because I tried to realize the proposition of 'letting users build their own characters' in a broad sense, including things like mining, animal husbandry, and even processing the materials obtained through tailoring or blacksmithing.
Of course, I didn't delve too deeply into it.
I always considered Identity to be a linear progression game driven by narrative devices, and in actual development, the main focus was on the protagonist's abilities and narrative direction.
That's why this result was so surprising.
'They probably didn't feel much like they were growing plants. At this stage, the cultivation system is only implemented as a single polygon stretching longer.'
In other words, the QA department staff were having fun watching what amounted to a stick of sorghum growing longer against a white background.
Phrased like that, it sounds quite bizarre, but conversely, it means it's 'content that's fun even with just this much.'
It was a reaction I couldn't just ignore.
I knew from experience.
When my intentions as a developer differ from the user's experience, nine times out of ten, the judgment based on the user's instinct leads to a more positive outcome.
In that case, there was only one thing to consider.
'Why?'
Why is this reaction happening?
Do the QA team members like farming?
'...No.'
I judged that they didn't like it just because it was farming.
To say they enjoyed growing simple polygonal data sounds more plausible if we say they were interested in the 'gathering and cultivation' system itself.
In fact, games of this type do exist.
On the contrary, there were games that caused an unbelievable ripple effect and shook up the industry.
I can think of two right off the bat.
Weren't there games like 'the one where you become a farmer under a kind grandfather and get married' or 'the farming game where you start as a debtor'?
The potential of life skill content cannot be ignored.
So, how far should I expand this?
No, how much of a stake will this have in determining the game's direction?
I flipped through the documents several times.
And I felt the need for a bit more data.
"Mr. Kang."
"Yes?"
"Please get the gameplay footage from the QA department. Oh, and call Myeong-gyu for me. I have a few simple things to test."
"Ah, yes!"
So I called Myeong-gyu over, and we watched the QA department's gameplay footage together.
"What do you think?"
I asked, and Myeong-gyu replied.
"It's interesting. Especially how they stop progressing in the game and just start farming in the middle of a road."
Myeong-gyu was right.
One of the QA staff members, the moment the cultivation content was unlocked, stopped everything they were doing and started farming, creating a field in the middle of a path.
And for seven hours, the entire workday, they did nothing but farm on that plot of land.
Without a moment's rest.
I said to him.
"The life skill content is getting a better response than I thought. So I need some data to verify it."
"Verify what, exactly?"
"Whether this positive response is limited to just farming."
If it was the latter, I had a direction in mind.
"Starting today, please halt all other work and implement all the life skill content first. The planning team will also cancel the level design schedule. Let's work together on this."
"Hmm, got it!"
My head grew hot from the outpouring of ideas.
A kind of anticipation. Also, a sense of urgency began to well up.
***
Rewind's QA department was rather isolated from the other departments in the company.
It was unavoidable due to the nature of their work.
Fundamentally, testing work doesn't involve interacting with other departments except for reporting results and giving feedback. Plus, their office was inside a soundproof booth, so if they didn't leave, they wouldn't even see anyone else's face.
Thus, the QA department sometimes became the source of various ghost stories within the company.
For example.
-Did you hear? They say the QA department rubs their bodies against every wall in the game until they find a bug.
-You know Park Seong-cheol, the QA team leader? I heard he rubs against walls in real life too.
-Maybe... he went crazy from overwork...
-Yeah, our president...
-He really works us hard...
Of course, these were just rumors.
The reason the QA department rubbed characters against walls was because bugs arising from object collision were rampant in-game, and the reason the QA Team Leader, Seong-cheol, rubbed against walls in real life was due to a hangover from drinking too much the night before.
Anyway, the point is that the QA department was that isolated from other departments, and such a department had one particular characteristic.
The atmosphere within the department was much tighter-knit than in other departments.
It was quite unusual.
This was especially true considering that QA is a field with a high turnover rate, meaning employees have less time to get to know each other compared to other departments.
Nevertheless, there was one reason it could be this way: Rewind's turnover rate was very low.
A high salary generally tends to increase employee loyalty.
Anyway,
"Everyone! I've got the new version."
"Ooh! What's been added?"
"Mining and animal husbandry! Tailoring, blacksmithing... they even added a butchering skill."
The staff cheered at QA Team Leader Seong-cheol's words.
Unlike other teams that were dying during the development period, the atmosphere here was quite friendly.
Fundamentally, their job was to play games, and the employees themselves were hardcore gamers crazy about playing, so it was only natural.
Above all, there was one major advantage that the QA department members themselves pointed out.
"I hope it sucks."
"Me too. I love it when I can just write 'not fun' in the feedback."
QA is the one and only department in the company where you're allowed to curse out the president!
Moreover, since Yeon-ho actively accepted such raw feedback, the QA department's stress levels were even lower.
Seong-cheol watched his brightly smiling team members and nodded with satisfaction.
'They're so reliable!'
Their devilish determination to find and criticize others' flaws!
One could only say they were talents born for QA!
Watching his team, Seong-cheol renewed his motivation.
'I'll work a little harder on the bug feedback!'
A major in software engineering, with extensive experience in coding and programming.
Seong-cheol was chosen as the team leader because he had an exceptional amount of practical experience, even within the QA department.
There was one reason he chose QA over programming.
He had realized, upon self-assessment, that he was more talented at refining existing things than creating something new.
That's why he had pride in his work.
The reason he tried to work harder was also due to the sense of accomplishment that came from such pride.
It was no exaggeration to call him the company's hidden workaholic.
"Alright, everyone! Let's get to work!"
*Clap, clap!*
As he clapped, the staff began downloading and playing the new version.
The first thing they dove into was the newly added life skill content.
The employees, their faces now devoid of spirit, tapped away at their pads.
It was their way of expressing enjoyment.
It had been like this lately.
For some reason, Yeon-ho had stopped all other content development and started frantically digging into life skill content, and the resulting polygonal content was tested by QA until it was sucked dry.
"Jin-seong, you need to turn on the recording equipment."
"Ah, yes."
Gameplay recording was an element they had started paying more attention to recently.
This was because all these recordings were sent directly to Yeon-ho.
Along with these videos, the QA team members were leaving timestamps whenever the gameplay changed—that is, whenever they unlocked or achieved something.
It was during one such session.
"Wow, six hours have already passed."
One employee's comment prompted replies from the others.
"What, I've been mining all day?"
"I've just been gathering fiber all day too."
"I collected 2,000 iron."
The QA staff looked quite proud as they stated their achievements with grinning faces.
Despite it being repetitive, simple work, and even though the items they obtained didn't even have proper images implemented, they felt it was fun.
They themselves didn't think about why.
Determining *why* something was fun was the job of the planning team, not QA.
However, one thing they could say for sure was that the sense of accomplishment from repetitive labor was linked to the feeling of fulfillment from seeing a storage box that had gradually filled up.
"I can't write 'not fun' for this."
"Yeah, but there's still not enough content. I wish they'd add a little more."
"Still, I found two bugs. The animation glitches if you rub against an ore vein while pickaxing it, and the game crashes if you mine a vein in a donut shape."
"But why a donut shape?"
"How should I know? Oh, did you know if you plant wheat on the ground while butchering, the calf's corpse launches into the air? I thought it was a rocket."
As the staff were chatting like this.
Seong-cheol stood up from his seat.
"This game's trash. Nothing to do."
After saying that and leaving for the restroom, a screen was left visible on his monitor.
A storage box filled with two thousand each of iron ore and fiber, and 500 leather.
"Ooooh...!"
"That's our team leader for you! Even his grinding is on another level...!"
In that moment, they were like elementary school kids in a PC bang, staring at the max-level, fully-equipped status window left open by a hardcore player.
***
The QA reports and videos arrived.
I spent about a day reviewing all the footage and came to a conclusion.
'Just as I thought...'
It was just as I'd thought.
'It wasn't that they found it fun because it was farming.'
The reason the QA staff were drawn to the life skill content wasn't because it was farming.
The very sense of 'owning' something was the reason for their interest.
The overall gameplay pattern was like this.
When given a few pieces of content, the staff would skim the surface of each before picking one to focus on.
At first, they'd take breaks due to the slow pace of the work, but as they finished gathering materials and the number of items they could craft increased, their concentration grew.
In the short term, it was purpose-driven.
The premise of gathering materials to craft higher-tier gathering tools was the foundation. After that was completed, they set the goal of simply filling their storage and continued to gather endlessly.
The reason they performed these meaningless, repetitive actions, no matter how you look at it, was an obsession with 'ownership'.
How could I ignore a desire that lies at the base of human psychology?
This is a very meaningful result.
However, beyond just discovering the mechanism behind their interest, this result allowed me to finalize an idea that could shake the very core of the game.
'Gathering is fun. But exploring to find things to gather is tedious.'
Using ore veins as an example, the moment of discovery was exciting, but the process of finding them was boring.
Also, once a vein was depleted, there was a visible sense of burden about the next exploration.
'Crafting items with gathered materials is definitively fun. But the lack of item variety is consistently pointed out as a problem.'
If one feels fun in a game, it's clearly a catharsis that comes from achieving something.
Whether it's combat, life skills, or adventure, each action must be presented with a fitting reward.
How can this be resolved?
Above all, how can I melt that element into the game called Identity?
I pondered, and there was a task that needed to be resolved first.
It was about the inevitable disconnect that would arise from trying to expand life skill content in the existing game.
'If you focus on life skill content, you can't progress the game's story.'
E-40 is, by setting, a wanderer.
The story is about traveling to many places, meeting countless people, and helping them rediscover their lost smiles.
But if you're doing life skill content, that becomes impossible.
I don't need to look far for an example.
Just look at the QA results—the moment the staff focus on life skills, they stop progressing the main story, don't they?
Then there's only one solution.
'Build a town.'
In other words, a home base.
A base you can teleport to from anywhere, anytime.
'That way, you can progress the story and the life skill content simultaneously. And I can also weave in narrative devices.'
In my past life, when I made the indie game Identity, I didn't shed light on what happened to the people who regained their smiles.
Even though smiling was treated as a major crime throughout the narrative.
I passed it off as a game mechanic, but it's definitely something that would raise questions.
This time, I'll resolve that.
For instance, starting with the farmer.
'Create a town that's like a hideout and send the farmer there. Make the farmer an NPC in charge of the town's gardening and agriculture.'
Let's add dialogue like this.
-Thank you! Thanks to you, I can now do what I've always wanted to do! As a reward, I'll help you! If you ever need help with farming, come find me anytime!
Being able to continually see the happy future of the person I saved provides a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in itself.
Furthermore, if I complete it not just as an object but as something that helps me, the process of meeting and helping a new NPC in a chapter will be perceived as 'finding a worker for my town,' which can increase focus on the narrative.
The organic connection is strengthened.
That wasn't all.
'What if new crafting recipes, crafting route unlocks, and the acquisition of gathering seeds are made possible through the story?'
I can control the gameplay pattern of getting buried in gathering and crafting.
To craft something above a certain level, you need to progress the main story to get the recipe, which strengthens the purpose of progressing the game itself.
In conclusion, it's like this.
'If the point is finding fun in ownership...'
Then make everything lead to ownership.
Story progression is ownership, NPCs are ownership, gathered items are ownership, crafted items are ownership, and the 'my' town that's created from all of them is also ownership.
The 'me' who plays the game can become anything I want within the town.
Now, let's give this a name.
'A town for those who have regained their lost smiles but have nowhere to go. A town where everyone smiles while doing their work.'
And the result of the achievements made by the 'me' in the game.
In other words, a trophy hall.
Then there can be only one name.
'Smile Town.'
The happiest place in the world that I have created.
'If there's something they want, I'll just let them have it all.'
If that's fun, it's the director's job to make it happen in the game.
After finishing this conceptualization, the result was completely different from my past life.
But, far from making me anxious, it gave me a refreshing feeling that pierced through my mind.
'It's changing.'
It's evolving a little more.
I just need to accept with a happy heart that I have changed.
If the game in my past life contained my personal stubbornness, this time, it's just about containing something bigger.
Identity.
True to its name, whether you're a farmer, a miner, a blacksmith, an adventurer, or maintain your stance as a wanderer.
I will make a game where everyone who plays can become the 'me' they want to be.
Because we were all born for that.
I immediately spoke to the planning team.
"Mr. Kang, Mr. Park."
"Yes."
"You called?"
"We're starting a planning meeting. Everyone, please come to the conference room."
Now it's time to flesh out the idea.
In other words, it was time for the power of collective intelligence.
Ownership (2)