Chapter 165 - Tierra Blocks

Chapter 165: Tierra Blocks

While his believers enjoyed the entertainment of gaming and earnestly cherished them, Xi Wei would gain divine energy as the God of Games.
In fact, the former God of Games was born through such divine energy before Xi Wei had transmigrated, staying alive until the fall of Tierra.
That was why Xi Wei immediately directed his attention here when he thought of how he should secure new sources of divine energy.
His rewards were merely motivation for the Players to play those Steam games, but what they really enjoyed was the game itself.
That being said, the most well-received game was not the most divine power consuming Thunder or the card game Xi Wei himself held in high-esteem, but Tierra Blocks, the least conspicuous of those three.
Naturally, that was a copy of Tetris that Xi Wei had made.
***
Back on Earth, Tetris had a demonic attraction to it and spread itself across countless platforms since its birth in 1984, even winning Guinness World Records in its own categories.
It was simple to understand, easy to play and possess a devilish charm that would have everyone continue playing.
Almost all who had any link to electronic gaming would have heard of it, and it continues to create new heights in the present age.
Moreover, as the eldest amongst match 3 games, Tetris has all the strong points the others possess: easy access, minimal effort and excellent feedback, delivering a strong sense of pride and accomplishment when each row was removed.
In contrast to the hardcore Thunder which could be time consuming, Players could simply start a session of Tetris when they had free time since it was a casual game. It would at once vent the stress after a daily quest, placate post-slaughter impulses and perfectly utilize the Players’ vacant time.
Moreover, each Tetris session came only at the cost of 1 game coin. It was therefore not unusual that it was more well-received by the Players.
Now, the first exchange Players would share had gone from ‘Did you farm the dungeon today?’ to ‘What’s your Tetris high-score now?’, and heaven knows what it would be like later on…
On the other hand, Thunder also did rise to critical acclaim amongst the Players, with some actually believing that it was a trial that the God of Games had bestowed upon them and that they could change class to the Riders if they had passed. However, the claim was refuted by other Players who pointed out that Players of every class could play the game anyway.
Moreover, clearing each level would take too long, and aside from the people awaiting their revival in the little black hut, the Players could only have one or two sessions at night, enjoying the exhilaration of being a Griffin Rider.
Additionally, the Great Revolt which Xi Wei had placed his hopes on was almost dead-upon-introduction. While it was not as if no one was trying it, there just wasn’t that many who would play it.
But that only made sense upon closer examination. Xi Wei’s original intention in coming up with this card game was to secure a wild craze like Fight the Landlord did back on Earth, but he did not consider the circumstances of this world.
For one, this world had its own gambling entertainments, and if the players did not find card games to be a fresh breath of air, it certainly wouldn’t be as popular as the other two games. Secondly, unlike Thunder and Tierra Blocks which could be directly played by inserting coins, the Great Revolt requires at least four players to start a session.
Besides, Players weren’t exactly idling at home the whole day and free to play games, nor could they stay too often on the Steam platform. With the total number of Players being just over two hundred at present, it was quite difficult to get four-people in a game.
Those were the exact reasons which left card games in its miserable state.
Still, Xi Wei was not too disappointed. When the number of Players increased, a social PVP game like this would become very popular.
On the other hand, one might actually presume that Xi Wei was introducing games to cripple his own Players, but that was not true: even throughout the society Xi Wei had transmigrated from, it was not hard to notice that it was a few minor students who had become addicted to games. Adults—especially those with proper jobs almost never fall to the state of gaming addicts, and would at most play a few rounds of League of Legends after work, games that had a quick rhythm.
The reason for that was simple, too: students face no pressures in life or an objective to strive for, and should their self-control be lacking they would become addicted. In contrast, adults would often work long, dizzying hours every day due to economic pressure. Would they have the time to get addicted? Even those who loved playing games at a younger age would have their gaming consoles and triple A games put in a corner gathering dust after buying them all…
Naturally, the inability for certain useless parents to properly educate their children was why there would always be people accusing video games as the root of all evil. Even so, since their pride was too strong to allow them to see that they were the very cause, they would exert every possible effort to find any excuse, and video games were certainly the best scapegoat and was often used as such targets.
On that note, one should mention that anime and digital literature were the other two elements alongside video games given the moniker of the three scapegoats in children’s education.
Meanwhile, the Players in this world were all essentially Xi Wei’s believers. Their life had barely reached sufficiency, although almost all of them understand that this didn’t come easy: the God of Games could not spread its gospel out in the open to other cities yet, and if they did not diligently improve themselves, they could face disaster on the scale of Tierra’s fall.
Couple that with daily quests and dungeon farming which basically feeds back to Players similar to a game, that was the reason they wouldn’t get too addicted, and merely keep those games as a pastime.
That’s right. Xi Wei can say for sure that his Players would never obsess themselves with gaming without regard for day or night!
***
“Why can’t I get in the top thirty?! Or should I say how did those other guys survive the entire screen filled with spells?! Are the top thirty players in Thunder all monster?!”
Marni, who was feeling weirdly exhausted in spirit turned off the game for a while to head to the forums for some complaining.
He felt his vision blur, and he had already materialized beside a Lifestone in the next split second.
He gaped at the familiar sights before him, mumbling in surprise. “Did I already play for three days?! No way… I have to earn some EXP to make up for lost time… but before that, some R&R with Tierra Blocks. Steam, start!”
Xi Wei: …
Hmmm. Probably not.