If that game was real, most people wouldn't play it for the RPG side of it, but for the alternate reality. The only problem here is the tie between your character and your own body. This is a story devise in this case, in reality, I'm sure that would never happened in that kind of game. The appeal of being someone else in virtual reality would be to great for a majority of person to dismiss it.
- Thread starter Caribdis
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- Feb 1, 2021
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I dunno; for me the body tie would actually make it a bit more attractive, but I have....odd.....hobbies & past-times. I don't just mean adult VN's either
It might also be the motivation I, and so many others, needed to get off our lazy asses and exercise once in a while
What would be the appeal to you? It's the "honesty" of the physical appearance of people you interact with?I dunno; for me the body tie would actually make it a bit more attractive, but I have....odd.....hobbies & past-times. I don't just mean adult VN's either
It might also be the motivation I, and so many others, needed to get off our lazy asses and exercise once in a while
- Feb 1, 2021
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Hmmm....sometimes that, but not really (unless sexy little elves & succubi start playing anyway
) .I meant more for myself. I already study both martial arts and weapons in rl (complete amateur level, mainly for fun), so it would give me the chance to improve without causing (or taking) serious/life-threatening injuries.
It also would motivate me to be more strict with my exercise routines. I hate to exercise, so I tend to put it off until I am out of literally ANYTHING else to do.
Having it be the only way to improve my in-game stats, would be some serious motivation.
- May 21, 2017
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Okay, then how about the argument that despite the progression, levels, roguelite mechanics, stuff that you would associate with a hardcore MMO for hardcore players, the game also works as an alternate reality sim (which is pretty much an Isekai lover's wet dream minus the painful process of getting hit by a truck)? A VRMMO that provides full sensory experience to anyone who plays it, provides a gateway to just about any type of world one could dream of, and allows anyone to live out experiences they wouldn't normally experience in real life (like, in the case of Orion, getting laid...ha)...
...I mean the sensory experience alone is more than likely going to attract a loooot of people, permadeath or no.
(Not to mention the conveniences the game technically brings. Want to physically meet your SO real quick but he/she's on the other side of the world? Meet up in one of Eternum's servers and go handholding like crazy while you watch flying whales in the sky or something. Short on cash and have bills to pay? Grind some low level mobs and sell the loot for IRL money (like, the exchange rate is literally 1 eternal = 1 dollar. Rates like that, and you bet your ass people are going to say goodbye to their current jobs and just grind in Eternum like an underpaid Chinese Gold Farmer camping in Un'Goro crater))
- Apr 7, 2020
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Honestly i think Eternum in real life, on the game side, would be a mess.
The "lose everything" upon death is way to harsh for a game in which grinding is a big deal and very demanding. We have seen how easely that high level douchebag got killed by a wandering monster. If you can get killed in blink, completely losing months or years of gametime is just insane. At least there should be check points below which you can fall.
And the idea that your real life fisical prowness is the same in the game is totally unacceptable on many levels. As Tavi13 correctly points it would be a great motivation to train, in a Wii Fit style, but what you would get out of it would be that the IRL bullies would be the in game bullies and the IRL victims would be the in game victims. And the most attracted to the gaming world, statistically, would be the latter.
I had to deal a lot with this kind of considerations when, in my younger years, i used to organize LARPing events and develope LARPing rulesets to keep everyone in game, no matter how phisically inept.
While, we also has to say, most of those who would want to play would like the character be, very often, a better version of themselves. So real life look = game look would likely be a downside.
All this given, this is just lazy chatting, Eternum is a fictional game. It has to be beliveable but it, first, has to serve the purpouses of the story.
The "lose everything" upon death is way to harsh for a game in which grinding is a big deal and very demanding. We have seen how easely that high level douchebag got killed by a wandering monster. If you can get killed in blink, completely losing months or years of gametime is just insane. At least there should be check points below which you can fall.
And the idea that your real life fisical prowness is the same in the game is totally unacceptable on many levels. As Tavi13 correctly points it would be a great motivation to train, in a Wii Fit style, but what you would get out of it would be that the IRL bullies would be the in game bullies and the IRL victims would be the in game victims. And the most attracted to the gaming world, statistically, would be the latter.
I had to deal a lot with this kind of considerations when, in my younger years, i used to organize LARPing events and develope LARPing rulesets to keep everyone in game, no matter how phisically inept.
While, we also has to say, most of those who would want to play would like the character be, very often, a better version of themselves. So real life look = game look would likely be a downside.
All this given, this is just lazy chatting, Eternum is a fictional game. It has to be beliveable but it, first, has to serve the purpouses of the story.
- Jul 25, 2020
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Well it's not a bad point, I hope we see in future versions of the game that MOST of the servers are perfectly safe and that's where the "normies" live. It would make sense for people like the MC's friends to play on more hardcore servers since they're pretty hardcore gamers but it makes no sense for your average soccer mom to play on a server like we've seen so far where even if you stay in town being a merchant or whatever some random bag of dicks could come by and just kill you to take all your stuff. The vast majority of people would ragequit the game the first time they lost months of progress due to someone else being an asshole. If there are a lot of servers where that isn't a problem that would go a long way towards fixing the believability of the situation, so hopefully the dev will put something in showing that that is the case.
- Nov 28, 2017
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Think about it from the economy point of view.
Those servers are incredibly expansive. Normal online games only needs to track very few data (position, direction, some additional info like equipment, etc.) and their servers still lag when slightly overloaded. Eternum's servers needs to track basically all the informations sent to the players brain plus all the data about the enviroment and still reproduce them in real time. They would be out of this world expansive.
And where does their money come from? A 2.5k suitcase that needs to be bought once per player? There's not even any kind of subscription. No, the company must sell items within the game (classic FTP/PTW strategy). But considering the players can trade and sell items between them the demand of brand new items will naturally diminish until simply it's no more. How many brand new lvl1 swords are really needed if a player can reach lvl10 in a week before selling it?
So they created a sinkhole. When a player dies he loses all his money and items. That keeps the demand steady and the in-game inflation under control. It's also easily centrally controllable: lower the monster level (fewer deaths) and the inflation goes up, increase it (more deaths) and it decreases.
They can get away with it simply because they're that better than any semblance of competitors.
Those servers are incredibly expansive. Normal online games only needs to track very few data (position, direction, some additional info like equipment, etc.) and their servers still lag when slightly overloaded. Eternum's servers needs to track basically all the informations sent to the players brain plus all the data about the enviroment and still reproduce them in real time. They would be out of this world expansive.
And where does their money come from? A 2.5k suitcase that needs to be bought once per player? There's not even any kind of subscription. No, the company must sell items within the game (classic FTP/PTW strategy). But considering the players can trade and sell items between them the demand of brand new items will naturally diminish until simply it's no more. How many brand new lvl1 swords are really needed if a player can reach lvl10 in a week before selling it?
So they created a sinkhole. When a player dies he loses all his money and items. That keeps the demand steady and the in-game inflation under control. It's also easily centrally controllable: lower the monster level (fewer deaths) and the inflation goes up, increase it (more deaths) and it decreases.
They can get away with it simply because they're that better than any semblance of competitors.
- Apr 25, 2020
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Maybe there are animal-crossing like servers for casuals
- Feb 1, 2021
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Given the way the in-game security forces handle infractions, I think bullying might be less of an issue in Eternium than it would be in any type of rl equivalent. Could have used mods like that back when I was learning how to survive in open PvP worlds
Exactly. I still think it will be pretty cool if/when it does come to be a real thing, but that tech is a long way off. For now it is just some fun speculation while we wait (im)patiently for the next release.
- Aug 3, 2021
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From what we have seen so far there haven't been much in-game advertising. But the collected personal data must be worth a lot (Facebook and Google's wet dream). I can imagine there are corporate worlds as well, for virtual conferences, training worlds for military and so on. So lots of avenues for earning money.
The battle and adventuring part of the game seems to be only one of the many aspects of the economy in Eternum, there are many people that make a living by manning stores in-game (including prostitution and probably other somewhat shady stuff). Remember that the areas around the Nexus are safe zones and the Praetorians seems to patrol those quite frequently, and I wouldn't be surprised that there were dedicated banks or storages where you could stash some money/equipment if you know you are going to a dangerous area (for a fee of course). Dahlia begs you to take her equipment at one point so she wouldn't lose it so we know it doesn't just disappear if the owner dies, meaning that simply being in a party already gives you a chance to recover your stuff in case of death.
Personally-speaking, I have no problem with sex-work if it's voluntary, so no issues there.
Regarding how that attempted rape was handled narratively, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it's not just LIs that the story cares about - I don't want that kind of thing happening to anyone, not just the LIs, and was happy to see that the MC was prepared to step in and prevent it (and the options were written in a way that we as players could choose to and would actually be able to stop it, like what happened with Axel earlier on).
Plus, that the guy got what he deserved was satisfying, and there was even consideration of what the victim would need in terms of counselling - really well written, and treating characters like actual people.
- Apr 7, 2020
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I'm positive she meant for MC to take her equipment and run before she got killed, not after, implying that once she gets killed the stuff is gone. They don't loot the high level douchebag when the ogre kills him, even just to return his belongings, and he must have had some pretty juicy stuff on.
- May 21, 2017
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On the flipside, having everyone look the same as their real-life look is IMO a lot more tolerable compared to having full character customization and then bumping into someone who looks like this:
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