World of Eternia: The Complete Collection (59 page)

"Yes, and
hopefully both players will stick around for the festivities
afterwards here in the Town Square," Evan continues. "Since
the Hundred Man Tournament has ended, World of Eternia is again open
for non-participants to log in. I hope you will join us."

"Right. And you
viewers at home who have watched the match, please stick around for
the celebrations," Antoinette urges with a dazzling smile.

As the two chief
executives shake hands, players and NPCs alike begin entering the
space formerly vacated for the duel.

Clap-clap-clap-clap-clap!
People standing in the Town Square start clapping and cheering. "What
a blast this event was!" someone yells out.

"Thank you both
for making this happen," another player yells at the two.

Richard quickly
releases his rival's hand, and waves with a bright smile at the
public gathering. "Thank you for your support!" he says.

"I hope you will
still be involved in the company," another player tells Charles.

The loser glances over
at Richard and points a finger. "He's now the boss and it's up
to him what my role in the new company will be," Charles answers
politely.

Richard puts a hand on
Charles' shoulder. "We will sit down soon and discuss what role
he would be interested in playing in the combined company," the
winner replies.

“Strangers!
Strangers! Strangers!”

The duo turns as the
five members of The Strangers enter the Town Square. Players start
gathering around the group and offer hearty slaps on the back.

Laura raises her
skeletal hand focus item as a warning, and players instantly shrink
back and avoid touching her.

Standing besides her,
Conrad soaks in the adulation from the crowd. "Thank you!"
he says as people slap his broad back, and the man fist bumps
everyone in his vicinity.

Wesley stands in the
middle of the group, and waves to the crowd with a smile on his face.
He would rather go offline and hit the showers at EDE’s
headquarters right now, but Wesley understands this is another
obligation of his as a player consultant. In fact, he was the one who
insisted on The Strangers coming to the Town Square afterwards;
otherwise, only Conrad would bother to show up.

To Wesley's immediate
right, Lucious pointedly ignores the cheers. He'll play a good
trooper and hang out for a few minutes for his leader's sake. But
that doesn't mean Lucious has to enjoy it.

Diana stands on the end
and smiles politely at the well-wishers as she waves her hands to the
crowd.

Richard walks over and
offers a man hug to Wesley. "Where is Heimdall?" the CEO
asks in a low voice.

Wesley shakes Richard's
hand and replies. "Heimdall bailed out immediately afterwards.
He said something about needing a long shower." The knight
shrugs.

"Smart man,"
Lucious mutters under his breath, and earns an elbow to the ribs from
his girlfriend.

The two men look
outward for the camera as they continue shaking hands.

Finally, Richaurd holds
up his hands to quiet the crowd. "What a magnificent match!"
he begins. "The match was extremely well organized, planned, and
executed by our players. These five standing before us are not just
players; they are our heroes and champions. Thus, it would be proper
to bestow new title to them, and to all participants. Yes, all one
hundred players in the Hundred Man Tournament will now have a special
title: 'Hero of Eternia.'"

The crowd claps hard at
the news. Titles often come with special benefits in the game.

Richard holds up his
hand and continues. "Second, all participants will receive one
year subscription time to World of Eternia and a free copy of the
Oriental Expansion. Third, their characters will receive one thousand
pieces of gold each in their inventory, along with five potions of
healing and mana."

The crowd cheers wildly
at the obscene amount of gold the CEO is handing out. One thousand
gold pieces is enough to buy permanent player housing.

Richard continues after
the cheers die down. "Fourth, all experience loss from the death
penalty will be restored, and one million experience points will be
added to each participating avatar."

The crowd cheers again.
It could easily take a month of hardcore dungeoneering to accumulate
that kind of experience.

"Finally, all
participants in this event will be considered for beta testing in
future expansions to World of Eternia," Richard announces.

The crowd erupts at the
suggestion of more expansions on the horizon for the game. The
Oriental Expansion took a year and a half to be released after the
launch of World of Eternia.

Richard smiles once
more for the camera. He nods at Charles, who takes the cue to log off
the server. "Now, please enjoy the rest of this event. We have
special missions and quests available for players to attempt for
today only. Thank you again for your support!" He waves at the
crowd again, and logs off the server.

Once Charles logs out
of his player account, he immediately contacts Digital Bandit via a
special chat room. The executive types: “What happened to the speed
hack? And why weren’t my players able to do any damage?”

A moment later, the
hacker replies: “Your friend is a very cunning man. His staff
divided the mountain area into two instances, with the first being
the ground level and the second being the mountain top area. My hack
was apparently only effective for the ground level, and I didn’t
have enough time to put in a hack for the other area.”

Charles replies
succinctly: “I didn’t get what I paid for.”

Digital Bandit punts
the blame back: “It was a rather unfortunate development that your
staff, which had access to the game code, neglected to inform me of
this important fact. Also, if the speed hack extended to your avatar,
EDE would have rock solid proof of tampering as Richard himself would
have first person encounter with it in your personal duel with him.”

Charles allows the
counter point to stand unchallenged. “What about my players'
inability to do damage while in the ground instance?”

Digital Bandit fully
expected this to come up. “Apparent, your friend also cheated to
ensure that his players will win the match. Perhaps you could bring
this up in mediation?”

“You had nothing to
do with it?” the executive types.

“LOL. You think I’m
a double agent? That is rich,” the hacker responds smoothly. “Think
what you will. There are plenty of hackers available to assist
Richard. It could also be the work of a WoE player taking the
initiative on his own to ensure that the game servers will remain
online. After all, there was intense speculation online that you will
shut down WoE completely if your company wins the tournament. I’m
sure the game has some very hardcore fans and they were frightened by
that prospect. We have no way to tell who put in the damage hack.
Anyway, I wish you the best of luck in your next endeavor.” With
that, the Digital Bandit leaves the chat room.

Charles exits the room
as well, and leans back in his chair as he thinks about the hacker’s
responses. The World of Eternia’s server takes a professional to
hack in. There aren’t many players who would have the skills, and
be willing to risk losing their accounts to pull this off. Moreover,
the way the damage hack totally negated the player advantage from the
speed hack points to someone aware of the presence of the speed hack.
The only persons knowing about the speed hack are himself and Digital
Bandit. Unfortunately, the hacker has his bitcoins now and Charles
won’t be able to get a refund.

SLAM! Charles pounds a
fist on the table at his helplessness.

The two company chief
executives stare at one another across the long, conference table.
Each man is accompanied by members of the respective company’s
Board of Directors, legal counsel, and other senior executives.

The mediator is seated
at the head of the table. He turns on the old fashioned tape recorder
and begins the session. “Good morning. My name is Alfred Godfried
and I am the mediator between Virtuous Gaming Co. and Eternia
Development & Entertainment, Inc., regarding their pending
merger. The main focus of this session is to gather facts to
determine who ultimately will retain controlling interest over the
combined companies. So let’s start with a player event and its role
in this determination. Who would like to start discussing this
event?” he asks.

Richard T. Gibson
immediately raises his hand, in order to take control over the
session. “Please allow me. My old friend and college roommate,
Charles Winter, had contacted me on a number of occasions expressing
interest in buying my company. However, I had reservations on a
number of issues and declined to entertain this notion. Finally,
Charles launched a very public challenge via a player event, with our
ownership interest in our respective companies as the prize. I
belatedly agreed and thus, we recently held a ‘Hundred Man
Tournament,’ which my players eventually won. Therefore, it is
clear that I am entitled to Charles’s private shares in his company
per the terms of the gentleman’s challenge.”

The mediator nods. “Is
there anything you would like to add or correct, sir?” he asks
Charles.

“Yes sir. I am in
agreement with Richard up to the point where the Hundred Man
Tournament event was held. However, there were incidents that arose
during the event that calls into question whether the event should
determine whose shares should be forfeit,” Charles Winter explains.

“How so?” the
mediator asks.

“During the final
hour of the match, a glitch appeared that severely reduced damage
produced by my players down to one point per attack. However, the
glitch did not seem to affect the opposing players, and therefore it
raises a question of fairness as the opposing side had a distinct
advantage. In addition, this glitch arose at a critical juncture when
a wall was magically raised to surround a portal that my players
needed to enter in order to win the event, Charles explains.”

“The wall, called
into existence and placed strategically by an Eternian player, can be
broken down; however the damage glitch prevented my players from
being able to do so. Thus, if you look at the totality of the
circumstances, the glitch was a critical incidence that denied my
players the ability to break down the wall and pass through the
portal. Consequently, this so-called win by the Eternian
representatives should be vacated,” Charles argues. “If
necessary, I can contact the players and ask them to confirm with you
the glitch and how it prevented them from passing through the
portal.”

“How do you respond
to these allegations?” the mediator asks Richard.

“Without affirming or
denying the occurrence of this so-called damage glitch, we believe
that even in its absence the wall in question would not have been
broken. The Wall of Bones has certain characteristics that reduce
damage from sharp edge weapons, like the swords that the Virtuan
players used in trying to break down the wall. Realistically, in
order to make the wall disappear the owner of the wall has to be
killed. And Charles has not suggested that the owner of the wall was
in fact defeated, while the wall remained standing. Moreover, there
was no way for his players to reach the spell caster, because she was
located on a mountain top high above ground,” Richard replies.

“Furthermore, the
mediator should take note of the fact that no allegation of a damage
glitch has been brought forth against the players on the mountain
top, and all damages were produced as normal. The Virtuan players
were simply unable to reach the owner of the wall and knock her out
of the game to force the wall to come down,” he adds. “Thus, the
issue isn’t one of damage production, but rather the competency of
Charles’ representatives in defeating my players on a level playing
field.”

“Sir, I ask that you
refrain from issuing insulting remarks at the gentleman and his
players,” the mediator scolds.

“My apologies,”
Richard quips condescendingly.

“It is our position
that the Hundred Man Tournament should be replayed and the results of
the previous match be tossed out,” Charles demands. “That is how
you make a proper apology.”

“Sorry, we are not
interested in replaying the event,” Richard rejects the demand out
of hand. “First of all, it would be absurd and unfair to ask the
participants to come back for a second match. Many players had to
take the day off from work and other normal, family activities in
order to participate in this event. It would be absolutely
unconscionable to ask them to do a re-run. Second, it had cost quite
a bit of money to rent gaming hubs and centers around the country to
ensure the players could participate and stay online without
interruption. In particular, some of your chosen representatives
didn’t have reliable internet connection and actually flew in to
use the hubs. Third, the prizes we gave out to players had cost a
substantial amount of money, and EDE simply cannot afford to give out
a similar set of prizes for a rematch. If we offer anything inferior
for a proposed rematch, players might bark and even boycott the event
altogether. Finally, VG has not put forth enough allegations of
incidents arising during the match to change its outcome,” he
explains his reasoning in great length.

“How do you respond,
Charles?” the mediator asks.

“My understanding was
that the two companies are splitting the costs of running the event,
including prize awards and rentals of internet cafes. My accountants
are working with yours, even as we speak, to tally up the proper
split. So cost by itself isn’t a real deterrent to replaying the
tournament,” Charles replies. “Second, even if the original
participants cannot engage in a rematch, there is no shortage of WoE
players willing to step up. It would be a bit of a challenge for my
side to field fifty players for the tournament, but that isn’t your
concern and would probably work to your advantage anyway.”