Azimuth: The Elden Throne (New Version)

Peace!

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With extreme focus, Dale continued his reading session, going through the thick walls of text compiled by the players…

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*... After hundreds of tests and confirmations from many players all around the world, we came to a preliminary conclusion of what a Hardcore player is capable of.*

*But it's important to mention once again that Azimuth is still in its early stages and as such, more characteristics and peculiarities about each gaming style may be clarified or discovered over time.*

*And we'll be here to discuss them!*

*So without further ado, let's start with the first Style, Standard…*

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"Bla bla bla… Enough of this..." Dale said in an uninterested tone as he scrolled down

'I don't have all night.'

...

Dale quickly glossed over the entirety of the text, finding a lot to ponder about…

"There are many key points I have to pay attention to..." Dale mumbled as he scratched his chin

"First, this one..."

*...Standard mode players' actions outside of quests are usually ignored by most of the NPCs, as if they were non-existent unless the player was talking directly to them.*

*However, in some scenarios, they will pay attention to the player and draw conclusions based on how they act and what words they use…*

*So a player of this style is advised to seek caution and not break common sense and public morality on the streets by let's say… For example:*

*Defaming the king, even in a very private conversation.*

*Such a topic has become infamous as it has made several players spend their first few hours of the game behind the cold bars of the jail or getting beaten half to death by angry mobs of NPCs, while some were unlucky enough to be straight out executed, losing precious Levels and items…*

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"Hum..."

"This is pretty interesting, I noticed this while I was observing Rodi, but some of the villagers seem to completely disregard his communication with the viewers of his stream."

"After all, if you were to see a man talking to the air many times as if there was something there, you wouldn't exactly find that person normal..."

"So this was the answer."

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*...Another thing and this will be seen later when we go over Hardcore mode.*

*And that is the fact that the relationship between a Standard player and an NPC is very hard to raise… Much more than a Hardcore player.*

*...A Hardcore player can easily raise his standing with someone by doing them a favor as we would do in real life...*

*Be it by saying the right thing at the right time, or simply looking handsome and clean... Someone's opinion and impression of you could change 180 degrees really fast and easily.*

*But for the Standard type of player, such a thing is extremely hard to pull off, since, as we said before, most NPCs tend to ignore any of their actions and also due to the fact that they are heavily limited by things such as their quests and the game System...*

*You won't be able to raise your reputation with an NPC by looking good, while a Hardcore player may.*

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"These paragraphs simply say that the interactions between a player like me and the NPCs are as real as they can get, so I should be very careful with how I act."

'This may explain why David was so aware of his surroundings, and why he thought Rodi had no soul.'

'Because a Standard player is an NPC while a HardCore player seems to be treated like one for the most part.'

'If we assume there is something that makes a HardCore player different from the Standard mode player, then most Villagers cannot see past this... Let's call it a Veil.'

'This "Veil" impeds the NPCs from becoming aware of things around them, but for some reason, David is not affected by it.'

'As for what this Veil is, you could simply say it the lines of code of the System that compose Azimuth, however, I do wonder what is the variable that allows David to act in an independent way...'

'As for the real-life explanation, this form of coding can be done to allow for maximum immersion as if you were to give too much intelligence and freedom to the Virtual intelligence of your game, it could lead to a very explosive result if they do realize the scope of their reality.'

'Thus, I raise the question, how would David react if he were to understand what I am, thus leading to him questioning his own existence?'

'There are real-world laws to stop this from happening as machine learning is a problem, though in this case, I am a bit reluctant to admit it's just that.'

'This "game" has more weight in reality than it may appear... Regardless of it all, the way I interact with the Villagers won't change.'

With deep thoughts, he continued reading.

"Next..."

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*Item acquisition is also similar yet different from Harcore players.*

*When a monster dies, it leaves behind its corpse for 30 seconds before it disappears, allowing the players to loot it, resulting in the body disappearing for good and the precious loot being dropped.*

*During this process, many special skills can be used to increase the loot gain and even diversify it, although what may happen differs from Skill to Skill like let's say, skinning down a boar for a guaranteed chance of it dropping its leather and so on.*

*However, for Hardcore players, this isn't really the case as the loot dropped by monsters works in a different way…*

*Their bodies never disappear, and hence, can be completely processed for as long as the player sees fit or for as long as the body lasts, yet, this also means that the loot pool can become rather limited and some items may be harder to acquire.*

*If possible at all.*

*An example of this would be the classic low-Level missions of hunting 10 bunnies and getting their pelts.*

*For a Standard player, such a task is simple, 20-30 bunnies would do for even the most unlucky of players.*

*But for a hardcore player, he would have to hunt and skin them on the spot, and as we discussed previously, material quality can affect the total reward given at the end of the day.*

*Lucky players could get 10 perfect pelts, but a HardCore player would have to be not only skillfully at hunting, but also at skinning, something most are incapable off...*

*This also extends into our research about maximizing rewards as a Standard player, since we have conclusive data that the way you hunt your opponent does matter in the post-loot rewards.*

*A good position arrow during a hunt will wield better rewards as opposed to merely hunting it down using a sword...*

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As he finished the wall of text, Dale smiled and said:

"So much information in so little time..."

"And this is just the start."

"But just with this, I can already understand the Theme of each gameplay style."

"The idea is that, for the Standard players, everything is systematized."

'You could argue that this is the point of a game, to stray from reality.'

'But some may say that having a real-life experience in a fantasy setting is also something worth experiencing...'

"From combat to how they interact with the world, everything is done by numbers and calculations of the AIs that rule Azimuth."

"Not only that, they have access to a series of tools to help them with their gaming, making the entire experience more of a game than something real."

"Like for example, access to the 'Disposition' system, a system that allows a player to know vaguely, what an NPC thinks of them."

"Green, Gray, Yellow, and Red, a player can determine if the NPC is friendly, or hostile… In most cases as an NPC can fake friendliness."

"But that is already good enough for 95% of the time."

'The Disposition system also seems to affect HardCore players, but in a unilateral way...'

'But I have to be careful, depending on how I feel, I could end up just messing up whatever plans I have in mind.'

'And although some complained about this being a possible infringement of private privacy, since in order to see someone else's disposition, the game is effectively reading the player's mind, it is possible to turn off this feature for good.'

'Although it would be clear that something is wrong with you and chances are, the players would find out that you are indeed a player and not an NPC.'

'There is also the roleplay...'

'Roleplaying as an NPC can take its toll on people...'

"In the first place, if you were to turn that feature off, you don't really care about hiding."

'But this raises a few questions, such as what did Rodi actually see?'

'Was I hostile to him? Wary? Friendly? Neutral?...'

"Depending on the outcome, some things may change… Regards, I'll find out when I check his stream."

"... Meanwhile, the experience of playing as a Hardcore mode player is very… Lifelike."

"Because there is close to 0 system help apart from things like prompts and tips every once in a while."

"Of course, a player can still access their Game menu to see things like their stats, open the Map, and all of that, but you got the drift."

"And this is where things start to get interesting…"

"Because from the perspective of a Standard player, a Hardcore player is no different from an NPC and almost indistinguishable from one."

"If you think about it, the Hardcore player is just an upgraded NPC… They can even hand in quests!"

'I learned about this not so long ago, but when conditions are met, Hardcore players can give each other quests, although the specifications vary greatly.'

Dale took a look back at the screen and stretched his arms.

"There is a lot to review and I am sure this page will be edited daily from now on if not hourly, so I will keep an eye on it every once in a while and see what else changes…"

'There are a few interesting pieces of trivia though, and that is in regards to… Decency.'

'Of course, normal players don't need to take care of their necessities unless they get a debuff like 'bad smell', but Hardcore players need to go to the bathroom to eat and shit periodically to maintain their basic needs…'

"Speaking of which… I worked very hard for 2 days and I didn't take a bath… I see why there was a bucket and a towel in my room, and I thought it was for me to wash my face…"

Dale's expression turned dark.

'Before I get in an awkward situation where someone points out I smell, I better take a bath, although, in such a village, people aren't really that mindful of bad smell as water is relatively scarce, though not enough for them to be unable to bathe once a day I think.'

"Though it isn't your regular shower bath, you have to be conservative about it..."

'They may be Medieval-style villagers but they are aware of some of the dangers that may come with not bathing consistently.'

'They also take care of their hygiene by brushing their teeth and cleaning their hands, which is way more than I could ask for considering their current situation.'

'Such things are likely within their least priorities…'

'I should be thankful that the village is clean enough and that there are bathrooms with a sewer at the very least, although I don't know where they lead to.'

'Probably a vestige from the past, but still, it isn't a very pleasant bathroom...'

"At least they don't throw their shit on the floor or let animals wander around the streets..."

"But going back to the problem with decency… It's true that Hardcore players can easily remove their clothes, but that is not something Standard players can do at a whim."

'That is because these sorts of virtual reality games tend to bring out the worst in people…'

'It may be true that there are laws that work in the virtual world, but they aren't as strong as the ones in real life, although someone will still go to Jail immediately if they try to violate another player in-game…'

"Of course, there are many levels of 'violation', someone won't be thrown at jail for playing a slightly dirty prank on someone else, despite what many 'Karens' would want."

Dale's expression twisted.

"I won't stay on this topic for long... People have been discussing such things for decades, there is simply no conclusive answer that can satisfy anyone, because one that satisfies a group may look simply incomprehensible for another."

'Humans are just like that, a group will always suffer for the sake of another... Perhaps saying Humans is wrong, this is just how society is structured, people have different opinions about everything.'

'There is also the question of AI identity and rights…'

'I mean, I do think it's very very wrong for a normal person to go into a village in the game and Violate an NPC if you want such a thing go play some R-18 games or something.'

'Of course, such a thing is not possible in Azimuth due to the programming of the game, but even if people could, I don't think it's okay for them to go unpunished just because 'it's a game'…'

'This makes me remember those people that like to complain about this matter on social media… Although I never had an account.'

"It's very bothersome... Anyway..."

"For normal players, they are completely prohibited from removing their clothes past a certain point and it's very easy to just impede someone from removing yours."

'Harassment is also very very easy to report, like… Trying to harass someone in-game is almost a death sentence, but there isn't much the game company can do if the one being harassed doesn't file a complaint, because of the privacy rules…'

'Sometimes things may extend to beyond just the game and people may just use Virtual reality to hide their crimes, after all, there is no long-lasting evidence on one's body inside a Virtual place.'

"In a society where information is already heavily controlled, imagine being inside a pod connected to the servers of a company? They are literally reading your very thoughts…"

'And it could easily lead to many problems depending on how things are handled.'

"To me, I'm fine with how things are doing, I am not childish enough to be bothered by the fact that I can or can't see my own dick nor am I bothered by the need to take a bath and a shit from time to time."

'And being honest, I don't really think I'll be getting a virtual girlfriend anytime soon, nor will I ever risk my manhood by trying such a daring endeavor.'

Dale looked at the time and realized he had but a few minutes before it was 6 Am in the game.

"Enough of this disturbing shit, I'll rest a little and wait, it's a good time to seek out some videos and streams to see how other players are doing."

'Though it seems I'll have to wait a little to ask what Ermin got on his Beta Tester box... I'll send him a message, he'll reply eventually.'

Putting his hands on his keyboard, Dale went back to typing…

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Notes

A bit of a darker insight at the end, I wanted to try and imagine how things would be in the future, I mean, AI and Virtual rights don't seem that far-fetched of a thing.

At least not rights, but something more akin to behavior laws to abide by when in the universe of virtual reality.

Anyway, next chapter soon. Thank you for reading!

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