Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 490: 473: Can You Please Control Your Boss?

“Olfactory Control?” Samuel turned the phrase over in his head a few times, “Turning off the player’s sense of smell?”

“No way!” Lincoln quickly denied, “The complex and subtle smells of the grass, trees, and soil in the lakeland during late autumn – wouldn’t it be a waste if we turned off their sense of smell?”

Lincoln and Mavis had put a lot of effort into the winds in the Wilderness World.

This was not only for the players’ experience but also for Mavis’s experience.

The richer the sensory database, the more delicate and nuanced Mavis’s perceptions would be.

Creating a world as realistic and even more beautiful than the real world would be Lincoln’s lifelong career, which was even more significant than gaming.

“So what do you suggest? Temporarily turn off the player’s sense of smell when they come close to the animal feces?” Samuel was a bit puzzled, “Isn’t that the same as deleting the smell altogether? Isn’t this redundant?”

“But it’s democratic this way.” Lincoln laughed right away.

“Democracy my ass! You can’t just give the choice to everyone; there will definitely be problems! We’ve had two incidents already, don’t you believe it?” Samuel couldn’t hold back any longer and swore in front of his boss.

Lincoln wasn’t upset; instead, he couldn’t help but laugh, “Haha, I know, but they don’t!”

Samuel said irritably, “But isn’t this… recklessness?”

“Alright alright, just kidding.” Lincoln changed the subject, “Actually, I plan to add an [Olfactory Control] option to the character panel for all players who participated in the voting. As long as they tick this option, the smell of prey feces will be adjusted to the level they voted for. As for new players who haven’t voted, they will be given a one-time choice of five.”

“Huh?” Samuel was stunned for a moment before finally realizing, “Wouldn’t that mean…”

That would mean the fun-loving players who joked around were doomed, right?

The game’s default setting is [Four Times Stinky], and their selectable option is also [Four Times Stinky], which means there is no choice at all!

“Wanna reconsider?” Samuel couldn’t help but plead for those players, “Why not change the smell transmission mechanism so that when players hold their breath, the olfactory signal is temporarily interrupted?”

The olfactory mechanism in the virtual world is different from reality. It doesn’t rely on olfactory membranes in the nasal cavity to detect odor molecules in the air-that would require a terrifying amount of computing power that Mirage couldn’t handle.

Any microdynamic at the cellular level would require a terrifying amount of computing power, and the virtual world couldn’t simulate that astronomical level of microdynamics.

The actual mechanism involves sending sensory signals to the player’s brain when they’re near the target, making the player feel as if they “smelled” the odor.

Therefore, holding one’s breath has no inherent connection to “smelling or not smelling the odor”; it depends on whether the game mechanism allows it or not.

In the current game, even if players try to sniff while holding their breath, they can’t stop the smell, at most it only slightly reduces the stench. Everyone thought it was because the smell was too pungent…

This reveals Lincoln’s attitude.

But he did this solely for the sake of realism!

Although he was harsh in his words, in reality, the original version of animal feces smelled much weaker in the game compared to what he had experienced in real life.

He had genuinely taken the players’ gaming experience into consideration!

To blame him for being ruthless at this point is unfair…

So

“Isn’t that less fun? Let’s just go with this for now.” Lincoln glanced at the time, “it’s quitting time. Let’s get off work as soon as we can.”

With that, he was about to leave.

Samuel was speechless; she didn’t have as big a heart as Lincoln!

Lincoln had just teamed up with players to pull off this prank; she had to keep an eye on the in-game situation, or she wouldn’t feel at ease!

She was also planning to recruit several people from the development team to add more “non-hunting gameplay” to the game and diversify the player base.

It would be best to make use of the plant and landscape resources, not just as a backdrop for hunting.

For example, hiking races, plant field guide collections, all-terrain vehicle contests, etc.

For more ideas, a brainstorming session would be necessary; as a typical “casual player,” Samuel couldn’t stand the large-scale waste of resources…

Yelang logged into the game.

“Hunter: Call of the Wilderness” wasn’t just a simple release; it also opened up two new areas simultaneously: Following the North American Leyton Lake District, the Rocky Mountain area Silver Collar Peak and South Africa Uerhoga were opened.

As for the areas to be opened later on, that would depend on the operation team!

Yelang logged into the Uerhoga region in South Africa.

This place had a typical African savannah landscape with vast plains, low and scattered trees. The prey ranged from the lowest level bush rabbits to the highest level lions and Cape buffalo; the overall span was enormous.

However, Yelang didn’t rush to explore the surroundings; instead, he started spending his resources right on the spot without a word.

All the money spent during the closed beta was returned to his account, and he spent it without hesitation now.

Moreover, he was pleasantly surprised to find that two more items were added to the list of things available for purchase: a Luxury Tent with a self-supporting shop and a ranging telescope.

Buy, buy, buy!

These items were too convenient, especially the ranging telescope – a must-have for new players!

He skipped the beginner’s guide and started looking for prey with the telescope.

Without a doubt, the game spawned an easy prey for new players – a big horn sheep not far away.

Yelang fired a shot randomly, deliberately missing the fatal hit, and then chased after the prey while driving arrogantly.

His goal was not the spoils, but the animal droppings.

He needed to make sure whether Lincoln and Cloud Dream were really that ruthless and meant what they said!

This was also the first thing many players checked after entering the game.

If it were just Lincoln, they’d believe he could do it, but with Cloud Dream involved, there was some uncertainty.

Cloud Dream was getting bigger and bigger, feeding hundreds or thousands of people. Would they really let Lincoln mess around like this?

Isn’t there anyone to stop him?

“Tut tut tut tut tut” ATVs were small, basically a four-wheel motorbike, but they were rather loud.

Riding through the forest, let alone the targeted prey, the game within 200 meters fled hastily.

Yelang took a few laps and easily found a pile of animal feces.

With strange excitement, he jumped off the vehicle and approached the feces.

But even before he got close, his grin froze on his face

“Wait! The prey I saw just now was a goat, right?”

“I may not have recognized what kind of goat it was due to my limited knowledge, but… there’s no way this pile of feces could belong to a goat! I can at least recognize the shape of goat droppings!”

“So, what kind of animal left this shit?!”

Yelang suddenly panicked.

He realized that he overlooked an important point: after a week of hunting, he could indeed identify prey species and dropping age by the shape of their feces.

However!

This only applied to the preys found in the lake region!

Rabbits, wolves, deer, and bears, the different types of deers are almost the same.

But the sudden appearance of a pile of unknown animal feces harshly reminded him: Cloud Dream would add more completely different prey while updating hunting maps!

And completely different prey meant completely different and unrecognizable feces!

Like these unknown droppings now, he has no idea where they came from! He could only judge that they weren’t dried yet and belonged to the most recent pile.

In other words, his experience was rendered useless!

If Cloud Dream fulfilled their promise of increasing the stench, he had to smell it obediently!

At most, he’d have to smell a few less than new players…

“Oh my God!” Yelang was shocked, did he screw himself over?

His strange excitement completely vanished, turning into anxiety.

He carefully lowered his body and slowly approached the pile of feces.

As a result, the system prompt popped up, however, before he had a chance to read it, a strong stench rushed towards him, causing Yelang to lean back immediately!

“Holy shit!” He swore involuntarily.

“How can anyone play this?!”

“No way, this game is unplayable!”

Yelang quickly stood up and backed away a few meters away before opening the panel to find the feedback window. Panicking, he sent a message to Cloud Dream:

‘Can someone please keep your boss in check?!’