This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature

Chapter 496 - 301: Questioning Abab, Understanding Abab, Becoming Abab! (Part 2)

Winning awards can definitely boost one’s status, like a certain famous game producer who won multiple TGA yearly awards and is quite the sensation in the gaming industry.

But so what?

Are people making games to "show off"? Is showing off more important than game sales? In other words, does fame really bring tangible cash benefits?

On one side, there’s the TGA annual award, and on the other, a "non-3A" game with million-level sales. Any rational game producer would likely choose the latter.

Game Detective interacts with most game companies, but without exception, most of them use the resources of the Game Detective website to promote their games.

But Tianba Game from Jiangning set a precedent: they approached Game Detective not for advertising, but just for votes!

What the fuck?

Not saying, man, what are you thinking? It’s not that we look down on the TGA award’s value; this award is hailed as the "Oscars of the gaming world," so it’s very prestigious indeed.

But no matter what, that trophy can’t be eaten! You spent so much on developing a game comparable to a 3A masterpiece, and you’re really not concerned about sales and return on investment?

Are you doing charity here or something?

"You’re right, from what I know, this developer seems to actually be doing charity. They even call this game a charity game!"

Editor Smith shrugged and said, "They claim that after the release of this game, half of the proceeds will be donated to help people with disabilities..."

Why only donate half of the proceeds?

Peter wasn’t naive enough to ask this question because he quickly realized that donating half is because the developers would only end up with about half of the profits.

As for where the other 50% goes?

Taxes are one part, and then there are channel fees and other expenses from various platforms. For example, on the Steam Platform, the toll takes away 30%.

Precisely because of this, the developer announced that they would donate 50% of the proceeds from "Abab’s True Story" to help more people like the protagonist Abab, which actually means they don’t make a penny, and all profits are donated.

Peter was deeply impressed.

Initially, he was already shocked by the game "Abab’s True Story," and after learning about the developer’s actions and decisions, he was shocked once more.

Oh my, why does this developer shine with such a holy light? Is it really an angel descending to earth?

"Such a fantastic game, it can’t be buried!"

Upon learning that the developer decided to donate all the profits, Peter also found an excuse for their decision to "skip advertising."

This noble-minded developer surely spent all their money on game development, leaving no fortune for advertising.

That’s right, that must be it!

As for their voting appeal on Game Detective, Peter found it reasonable too.

They made such an amazing game, not earning a penny, just wanting recognition on the TGA stage. What’s wrong with that?

"Yes, I agree,"

the editor nodded as well, saying, "We’ve seen charity games before, but a charity game with such scale, comparable to a 3A title, is definitely a first in history!"

"Go ahead, Peter, unleash your talents and write a feature on this game!"

"But..."

Peter raised an eyebrow and said, "Didn’t you just say that they didn’t pay for a front-page advertisement?"

"Yes, they didn’t purchase ad space, nor did they ask us to write a promotional article for the game."

The editor nodded first, then said, "But I can decide to give them an ad space, which is entirely within the guidelines."

"That’s great!"

Peter eagerly left the editor’s office, already planning to include this conversation with the editor in his upcoming article.

Oh, this is so cool!

"Abab’s True Story" is such a fantastic game, and being a charity game, it’s totally worth it.

This free advertisement, not only will Game Detective’s users not call them stupid, but they’ll even commend them for doing great and being socially responsible!

Coincidentally, the editor felt the same way.

What’s wrong with giving an ad spot to "Abab’s True Story"? Such a large-scale charity game with such a unique theme is rare in the world.

Utilizing an ad spot to catch some attention is definitely beneficial and harmless.

The key is that the "reputation" sounds good!

If "Abab’s True Story" was an ordinary game, the editor’s action would be pointless, except for gaining the developer’s goodwill.

But this is a charity game with the theme of "caring for people with disabilities."

Given this premise, the website helping promote the game for free could definitely gain an advantage in public opinion, and anyone who hears about it would give them a thumbs-up.

...

What happened in Los Santos, Chen Ba didn’t know.

Because at the TGA ceremony, there were plenty of media professionals and game developers with nomination and voting rights, and Game Detective was just one of them. He didn’t have to pay much attention.

As long as he got one nomination!

With "Abab’s True Story’s" themes, if it’s nominated for Game of the Year, it would practically mean a 100% win, with no suspense.

More than that, he was concerned about a game bug discovered by Zhong Shengwei during the testing phase.

Indeed!

"Abab’s True Story" was about to be released, and the time left for testing was running out.

Just as Chen Ba thought "Abab’s True Story" would be like Tianba Studio’s other games, where no problems are found during testing, but a serious bug appears once released, a bug did show up.

Zhong Shengwei, while testing the stability of "Abab’s True Story’s" multiplayer mode, unexpectedly discovered that during certain tasks in multiplayer mode, there’s a probability of triggering a "blink" bug.

What is "blink"?

The name comes from its principle resembling a summoner skill in a MOBA game — blink, where the character instantaneously moves from point A to point B!

Actually, "teleportation" might be more appropriate, but that’s not the point; the main issue is that this bug severely disrupts game balance.

Because in "Abab’s True Story," if players could teleport, many tasks would become incredibly easy, reducing their difficulty to practically zero.

In the online mode, when players carry out team tasks, they usually take on specific roles or professions.

For example, a courier!

The requirement is to deliver ten packages to each customer within a "limited time," and up to five players can join to complete the task.

Doesn’t seem hard?

That might be the case for normal people, but for Blind Abab, Lame Abab, Deaf-mute Abab, Down’s Syndrome Abab, and others, that task becomes quite a challenge.

However, the "blink" bug clearly ruins the game experience because once the bug is exploited, players can teleport across the map, making the task trivial.

After some diagnosis, the cause of this bug was quite simple.

"This speed value, because every unit is Abab, in certain circumstances, it’ll stack up."

Yang Dong explained, "The single-player mode is unaffected since there’s only one Abab throughout. But in online mode, there might be two identical Ababs, and both teaming up for the same task..."

These two Ababs, though having different nicknames and facial features, are essentially the same, using the "Abab" code from the single-player mode.

Simply put, in online multiplayer mode, despite players’ freedom to customize their characters and names, all characters use the same template.

Then in team mode, if two Ababs with "default faces" and similar symptoms team up, it triggers this bug.

For instance, two "default face" blind Ababs team up for a task, this triggers the bug causing one character’s value to stack on the other.

The value doubling might seem like just times two, but with the "game value" having a limit, surpassing this limit results in teleportation.

The game speed limit is 100 points; stack two 55 points and it visually results in teleportation, as speeds over 100 points can’t be processed.