Emperor of solo play

Chapter 8 : Dancing with the Skeletons (1).

Virtual reality was able to become the forefront of the modern era because anything was possible inside a VR world. In the VR space, anyone could become the Hulk, Iron Man, or even Marilyn Monroe. One could blaze through the streets on a race car faster than an airplane, or jump down a cliff without a parachute.

Anything was possible.

But that didn’t mean one could be good at anything.

In fact, it was hard.

Although one could do anything one wanted in the VR world, but it was hard to do it well. Jumping off a cliff? One wouldn’t feel any pain, but most people weren’t able to do it. If they could, there wouldn’t be people crying and shaking in fear as they get trained at boot camps.

This was the biggest hurdle one had to overcome when playing virtual reality games, especially RPGs.

Virtual reality games gave players the power to beat a bear to death with just their fists, but even so, it was only possible for two or three out of every ten. The other seven or eight failed.

There were two reasons.

First, they couldn’t utilize their powers. Given a car with an upper limit of 600 km per hour, most people wouldn’t be able to go over 200 km per hour. Not only were they scared, but they also lacked the driving talent and experience needed to freely move around curves without crashing.

The second was their distaste for killing living creatures. To them, the virtual creatures looked no different than real, living creatures.

The first problem was something the players had to solve for themselves, but it was up to the content creators to solve the second problem. VR games creators found the need to design their games so that players could more easily focus on the game.

If blood exploded out whenever one swung his sword, or if one pierced a creature with a spear and could feel its dying heartbeats, or if the creature’s organs started spilling out through a cut on their belly, or if one crushed a monster’s head and its brain exploded everywhere, then the game creator would be wearing handcuffs.

As a result, the beginning of VRMMORPG games was childish to say the least. Monsters were shaped like jellies or polygons to make the game seem less violent. Some games even had candies spill out of monsters’ bodies like piñatas.

But Warlord was different.

Warlord’s main content involved fighting monsters, and the game creators believed polishing this aspect to the utmost was the path to success.

Thus, they made game battles as realistic as possible.

By realistic, it meant cruel. Blood spurted, and that was it. No organs spilled out from cuts, no brains exploded out, but blood spurted out realistically. Players could always turn this option off, but the fact this option existed was game-changing.

Furthermore, when monsters got injured, they wouldn’t just sit still but roar angrily. They moved to cover their injuries, and they charged at whoever gave them the injury.

This was why Warlord became the game to watch. Warlord’s battle was the cruelest and most breathtaking of any other game.

Conversely, to those playing VR games for the first time, it was a challenge. There were many who couldn’t adjust to the game even after paying the large sum of money to play it.

Warlord’s solution to this problem was simple.

They made a very thorough tutorial. The tutorial designer is said to have said the following.