Chapter 42: The Birth of a Fighting Game (5) Fin
“Author Wei has unleashed a fighting game upon the kingdom!”
For some inexplicable reason, that one shouted sentence radiated the kind of pressure that made you feel as though you had to pass a pronunciation test by saying, “I’m a true citizen of the kingdom! Fifteen gold fifty silver! Fifteen gold fifty silver!”
It did not, in fact, lead to some massive incident where people who couldn’t pronounce it properly were rounded up.
Instead, it showed quite plainly just how much influence the fighting game [Races Fighter], which I and the magic engineers had worked so hard to develop, currently possessed.
“Good heavens! All of this is happening because of the fighting game [Races Fighter] we made?”
“Even when I developed papermaking magic and printing magic, I don’t think the excitement was ever this intense...
As expected, Author Wei, did you foresee all of this when you developed the fighting game?”
“Uh. To be honest, I didn’t expect the results to be this drastic either...?”
Because, quite literally, the entirety of the Kingdom of Justia was showing a flow of drastic change due to the appearance of [Races Fighter], on a scale far beyond our expectations.
“Line up, line up! If you wait, you’ll all be able to get in, so form a proper line!
If you don’t line up properly, it’ll only take longer!”
“If anyone gets caught cutting in line, they’ll be banned from the arcade immediately!”
“Damn it! We tripled the number of machines and people still have to line up.”
Naturally, the place where that change began the most, and the earliest, was the arcade where the machines had been installed.
After [Races Fighter] was released, the arcade began bursting at the seams with even more people than in the days when it had only board games.
“Graaah! Customers aren’t coming again!”
“There’s no helping it. We’ll have to lower the prices and reduce the amount of water we mix into the liquor.
That should bring them back, right?”
Because of that, tavern owners looked even more miserable and began lowering prices or raising quality in order to compete with the arcades.
It even led to a basic capitalist chain reaction.
It proved that games had enough influence not only to change people’s lifestyles and ways of spending leisure time, but even to transform an entire industrial structure.
And it did not stop there. It even created an entirely new kind of profession.
“Whoa! That guy is already on his tenth consecutive win! That’s our arcade’s highest record!
I heard he even beat an arcade employee in a single round!”
“There it is! Mr. Mond’s secret weapon, the beastman fighter’s Cross Split Attack!
No one in our arcade has survived after taking that move!”
“Khaaa! That bastard who only used cheap ranged attacks finally met a real expert and lost!
Hey! Thanks for avenging me! As thanks, I’ll treat you, so order whatever you want!
I’ll pay your arcade fees too!”
People began to enjoy not only playing games themselves, but also watching other people play.
Thanks to that, those who were good at games gained great fame and popularity, and some spectators who enjoyed the show even began sponsoring them.
“This is basically a game streamer, isn’t it?”
To my eyes, it was nothing less than the birth of a primitive game streamer.
From the perspective of this world, should I call them gladiators of the colosseum known as the arcade?
That was absolutely not flattery or exaggeration.
In reality, whenever experts like that appeared at the arcade, the number of spectators multiplied severalfold.
And as the number of spectators increased, naturally, selling snacks and drinks to those spectators began to bring in quite a tidy profit.
“My friend. If you come to our arcade regularly to play games from now on, not only will we make your arcade fees free, we’ll also pay you an allowance. What do you think?”
Arcades even went so far as to offer rewards and hire such experts as partners in order to attract spectators.
At this point, it would not be an exaggeration to say that fighting games had created a new profession.
“Selling the button combinations for the elf archer’s skills!”
“A complete strategy guide on how to fight thieves as a warrior!
For just 1 gold, anyone can beat those annoying thief users!”
On top of that, as though they were writing secret manuals from a martial arts novel,
researchers appeared who discovered new techniques, studied things like combos and matchup strategies for each character, and taught them for money.
Apparently, there were even people who specialized entirely in proxy matches and avenged others’ defeats on their behalf.
“No, what meaning is there in winning like that?
Isn’t that just ugly?”
“What are you talking about? Why would sending a proxy to a duel be ugly?”
“When taking revenge against an opponent you can’t handle yourself, appointing a proxy is only ‘common sense,’ you know?”
Unlike me, who had a negative perception of proxy gaming because of the memories of my previous life, it seemed that people of this era considered it only natural.
Well, this was a world where things like duels still openly existed.
Just like proxy duelists, it made sense that proxy fighting-game players might actually exist.
And if they really do exist, what can I do about it?
Anyway.
These drastic changes occurred extremely quickly, and were still occurring in real time even now.
So among the public, the dominant assessment was that, just like when comics and arcades first appeared, fighting games would once again become a cultural phenomenon powerful enough to change the world.
There were two major points behind why people had fallen for the fighting game [Races Fighter].
“The first is, of course, the beautiful characters with their overwhelming vividness.”
“Mm. There’s no doubt about that.”
“Fighting games are fun too, but if the characters hadn’t moved so realistically, they wouldn’t have been able to make people so immersed.”
It was the beautiful characters who moved vividly and flashily.
“Hey, hey! Hurry up and do the rising kick! That’s how you can see the underwear!”
“Damn. You can’t see it well from this angle.
Would it show if they fell a little to the side?”
“Kyaaa! I managed to get the beastman oppa’s shirt off!
Because of this, even when I lose, I don’t feel all that bad.”
Their unrealistically good looks drew the eyes of users regardless of gender, and their motions, with subtle sex appeal hidden in the way they seemed to reveal something without quite showing it,
were enough to make people start the game solely to see the characters.
They also greatly reduced the stress users felt when they lost.
Thanks to those detailed and smooth motions, complex combos and mind games became possible, adding depth to the game as well.
“And the second reason is naturally the desire to win.”
If the characters made people start the game,
then what made them continue was their competitive spirit.
In a fighting game, the user’s controls were directly reflected in the result.
Because of that, compared to board games, which were closer to indirect control, the immersion was far greater, and the desire to improve one’s skill could only become stronger.
And this world was a medieval era where a far more macho sensibility remained compared to the modern world of my previous life, and where the honor and authority of the victor were still very much alive.
Thus, the honor of victory and the shame of defeat were not dismissed as just one round of a game, but possessed far greater value.
So everyone trained their skills, sought revenge, and aimed for victory.
To the point that, as I said earlier, they did not hesitate to arrange proxy matches.
“And so game skill has ended up being treated almost like one’s level in magic or swordsmanship.
I truly never expected this kind of result at all.”
To think this would become a world where “what’s your tier, then?” actually worked.
The perception of games had exceeded my expectations so much that it created a sense of disconnect from the memories of my previous life.
It felt like watching some absurd short comedy called, “What if game skill became power?” playing out in real time.
Moreover, unlike in my previous life, where games were dismissed as stupid, in this world, games had become an important topic of discussion even in academia.
More precisely, magicians were showering us with admiration, shock, and praise, asking how we had developed magic like this.
‘Well, Logic and Grok were worked pretty hard developing the game machines and fighting game.’
They had to develop it so that the necessary magic would activate in response to specific buttons.
They had to minimize the mana cost needed to play the game.
They had to optimize it so there was no unnecessary waste.
They also had to check and fix bugs... or rather, things like interference between mana circuits.
It sounded simple when put into words, but to me, who lacked specialist knowledge, it must have been a scene of engineering labor beyond imagination.
‘Thanks to that, such an amazing game was born. I can’t thank them enough.’
Of course, I had no intention of ending it with mere words.
Through royalties related to the fighting game and game machines, I gave them financial compensation, and by including their names among the creators, I also made sure they received honor as compensation.
‘If I’m going to keep working them in the future, I can’t be stingy with rewards.’
Excellent slaves like these had to be kept around, after all.
Well... it wasn’t as though there were absolutely no disappointments with this [Races Fighter].
There were features we ultimately couldn’t include due to technological limitations, such as character voices, slow motion, and special move cutscenes.
Still, those things could be added later.
Even as it was, [Races Fighter] was a game I could proudly say was extremely excellent, to the point that no one would believe it had been made from scratch for the first time.
Maybe because magic was involved, the vividness of the characters was even better than fighting games from my previous life.
Even I was currently playing it so enjoyably that I lost track of time.
“No, Oppa! Seriously, don’t play the game like goblin shit!”
“What? I can’t hear you over the words of a game scrub.”
Rena, who had been chosen as my opponent and had suffered through all sorts of cheap tricks, pokes, ranged attacks of the “if you don’t know, you deserve to get hit” variety, turtling, and everything else,
was a little pissed after being subjected to every tactic I could draw from my previous life’s memories.
But this is all a trial I bestow upon my little sister.
Come back stronger!
And if she really gets stronger?
Then, of course, I’ll stop playing against her.
‘Yep, I don’t play with scrubs.’
Wouldn’t that just make her go absolutely wild with joy?
As I entertained that pleasant thought,
this time, just as I was deliberately pretending to be pushed all the way to the edge of the stage, about to flip Rena’s character with a throw and make her fall to her death,
“Author. News has arrived that you may like.”
“News I may like? What is it?”
“Miss Melissa has sent over a new novel and asked for your evaluation.
Its theme is board games.”
“Oh!”
A new gift that would delight me once again had arrived.