This is not a BUG, this is a game feature

Under Tianba Studio, there is a very special game.

How special is it?

What’s special about this game is that, as an online game, it doesn’t have its own dedicated operation and planning team. Instead, the planning team of “Star Emperor” next door came to work part-time!

In addition to daily downtime to maintain the server and refresh the sense of presence, the entire project team does nothing except drinking tea, chatting, shitting and playing with mobile phones...

certainly!

Anyway, there are only a few people in the project team, and it is estimated that they will be dismissed by Brother Ba after a while, so it is normal to fish and swim.

And this magical game is "Don't Leave After School: Pinball Storm", which is well-known in the gaming circle and has an explosive reputation. It is simply a reverse example of "Three Kingdoms"!

"Pinball Storm" is an online game with multiple servers.

So far, the total number of servers in the game has exceeded 10, and the average number of online players has stabilized at around 1.5 million.

Let’s not talk about overseas.

Domestically, "Pinball Storm" is already one of the "Big Three" of online games alongside popular games such as "League of Legends", "Cross Fire", "Dungeon Fighter" and "Everlasting".

What?

Why are there five of the Big Three?

This is an old joke in the gaming circle. There were really only three big three in the beginning, CF, LOL and DNF were unbeatable.

However, games such as PUBG, Eternal Calamity, and Pinball Fengyun that emerged later will always be very popular for a period of time. It is always unfair to not include them, so the number of the Big Three becomes an "unknown number."

It could be three, it could be four, it could be five...

The specific number of the three giants of online games depends on the fact that in addition to CF, LOL and DNF, there were several other games that were comparable in popularity to them.

"Don't Leave After School: Pinball Storm" is definitely one of them. After all, the number of people online and the popularity of word-of-mouth may not be as good as LOL, but it is more than enough to compare with CF and DNF.

But for such a popular online game that ranks among the top in China, the operation team only has two or three big cats and kittens. Can you believe this?

It’s outrageous, but it’s true!

As a game developer, Tianba Studio's support for the game "Pinball Storm" is limited to providing a server. As for the remaining work?

Excuse me!

Don't bother me. If you have any questions or needs, I suggest you contact the "game partner" of this server directly.

In the game, each area has one or more game partners. They are the real "operation planning" and "activity planning" of the game "Pinball Storm".

These game partners had the reputation of "server emperors" in the feudal era of the past two years. For this reason, each server has set off rounds of dynasty changes.

However, with the development of the times and the advancement of players' ideas, the Turkish emperors were gradually overthrown. Players spontaneously organized and established "Player Autonomous Committees" for each district server, referred to as the Game Committee.

The establishment of the Game Committee marks that the operating environment of the game "Pinball Storm" has entered a new stage, which is also called the "co-governance era" by community historians.

What is co-governance?

The co-governance here has two meanings. On the one hand, it refers to the governance of each district server. It is no longer dictated by the local emperor, but every player can make suggestions and participate in the governance and maintenance of this server.

On the other hand, the so-called era of co-governance is also known as "players and tyrants share the world"!

This is quite heartbreaking...

But even Brother Ba himself has never denied this in public. He even said in the community that half of the current "Pinball Storm" belongs to the players.

The organization of the play committee was originally a grass-roots team, a bit like the "owners' committee" created by some communities.

It seems useful, but in fact it’s almost like “playing house”!

But that was only a temporary embarrassment. Soon the play committee developed and expanded, with a formal structure and activity charter. The staff was also supplemented, and the division of responsibilities of each department was clear.

This is not surprising at all.

After all, the popular district server in the "Pinball Storm" game has one or two hundred thousand active players in one district, which is almost as many as the number of people in some small counties.

In other words, with the number of people in a small remote county, it is not difficult to put together the framework that a play committee should have.

During this process, some talents within the system and in legal and administrative management also emerged one after another to provide assistance in the establishment of the play committee...

It's interesting to say that more than 70% of the players of "Pinball Storm" are office workers, mainly men over 30 years old.

There are several civil servants, lawyers, general managers, CEOs, etc. popping up here. It’s not surprising at all!

all in all.

The play committee is full of talents, and it quickly put together a proper framework and team, and elected the so-called "bead bearer", that is, the leader of the play committee in the district.

The leader then appointed a special mediator for player disputes, as well as candidates for positions such as event planners and advertising specialists. Combined with the members of the game committee, a management team was formed.

The birth of this management team has greatly eased the operational pressure of Tianba Studio.

After all, from now on, Tianba Studio can just let it go and only need to perform routine maintenance on the server.

Everything in the game is handled by the game committee and the management team led by the bead holder.

This is the era of shared governance!

I have to say that "Don't Leave After School: Pinball Storm" really made many players experience the feeling of "turning over and taking charge" for the first time.

When playing other games, the planner or designer has the final say. Players can only play whatever the planner comes up with, and there is no choice at all.

But this is not the case in "Pinball Storm". The operation and management rights are in the hands of the game committee, and the game committee is elected by the players and represents the common will of the players. Players can finally choose what to play.

Human ambition is endless...

After experiencing the feeling of being in charge of the games they play, players are not satisfied with this and begin to seek a higher degree of autonomy and freedom.

The era of shared governance?

No no no!

Players don't want to share the world with Brother Ba. The players feel uncomfortable when they think of having Brother Ba above their heads who can activate "Heavenly Punishment" at any time.

Now that we have come this far, why do we still have to endure the existence of the Supreme Emperor "Brother Ba"? We have already overthrown the local emperor of the district service, can we still not overthrow the local emperor of Brother Ba?

Chen Ba realized what the players were thinking very early on.

He is also thinking seriously.

How do you say that?

He can use strong methods to stop the players, or at worst, stop the server. Anyway, the final decision is in his hands.

But isn’t everything that is happening now the result of what he has single-handedly contributed to?

In other words, he had foreseen this scene from the very beginning when it was revealed that game bugs would lead to players usurping the rights of the game administrator.

He didn't stop it at that time, and he certainly won't stop it now!

"I can make the players shut up, and with one big silencing spell, the whole area and the server will be speechless."

Chen Ba asked Luo Ji, "But what's the use? Can I stop the players' ideological progress? Why should I stop it?"

"Think about it from another angle, have we lost anything? No! The game still belongs to Tianba Studio from a legal perspective, but it is just entrusted to the game committee to operate it on our behalf..."

There is no loss.

After all, even if the game is handed over to the game committee, the server will be maintained by the other party, so whether the game income belongs to Brother Ba or Brother Ba, no one can take it away.

On the contrary, after handing over the server to the players, although they lose direct jurisdiction over the game, they also save the cost of maintaining the server and daily operations.

All in all the pros outweigh the cons!

Regarding this matter, Chen Ba's only worry is that it is okay to hand over the server to the Game Committee, but does the Game Committee really have the ability to do daily maintenance?

Routine maintenance on the server side is not that simple, and it requires at least a certain amount of manpower to complete.

In addition, the data security issue of the server is also worthy of a question mark!

Tianba's games, especially online online games, often encounter various hacker attacks and intrusions, as well as various cheating software such as plug-in scripts.

These problems, with the current technical strength of Tianba Studio, are naturally a piece of cake to solve. Even the world's top hackers, with the help of Tianba Studio's "tool spirit", are all in vain!

But after the server is handed over to the Play Committee, how can the Play Committee, which lacks the corresponding technical strength, ensure data security?

…

Faced with the two questions raised by Tianba Studio, representatives from each district server play committee gave a clear answer after discussion.

The first issue is the daily maintenance of the server. They will allocate special funds to hire 3-5 server-side development engineers to ensure that there are no problems.

As for where the dedicated funds come from?

There's no need to worry about it. There isn't much else in "Stay After School: Pinball Storm", except that there's never a shortage of advertising sponsorships. A little bit of advertising money will be enough to cover the expenses.

The second problem is the data security of the server. They really don't have a good solution. They can only "store" the server in Tianba's computer room and protect it together with Tianba Studio.

"Then let's do this..."

"Anyway, you don't plan to move the server. You should keep it in the computer room of our studio. Then the maintenance staff should just remain the same people. What do you think?"

Chen Ba suggested: "It means that although the server has been handed over to you, the existing maintenance and data security protection model has not changed. Even the servers are still maintained by people from Tianba Studio."

It would be less troublesome.

It means that nothing has changed, only those few employees have changed. Their salary source has been paid by the "Play Committee" instead of Brother Ba.

But they are still Tianba employees, they just don’t have wages...

"Then how to calculate the daily maintenance and operation costs of the server?"

"We calculate electricity bills, bandwidth fees and other miscellaneous expenses here, and submit bills to you once a month. You just need to settle the bills on time."

Chen Ba made arrangements.

The server is left in the Tianba computer room, which makes it easier to protect the game data and prevent it from being watched and invaded by boring hackers.

But the expenses on the server side have to be allocated accordingly. At least the electricity bills and labor wages can no longer be borne by Chen Ba, and he has no obligation to bear them. After all, the servers have been sold to the play committee.

"Okay, then it's settled!"

The play committee was also very satisfied and sent this preliminary agreement to the Tianba community to inform all the players of "Don't Leave After School: Pinball Storm".

Players are excited.

Have all the servers been taken down?

Hold the grass! This is simply a miracle in the history of online games. There has never been an online game like "Pinball Storm" that dares to allow players to control the life and death of the game!

However, they were happy, and soon the players were faced with a slightly embarrassing problem, which was to collect money to buy a server.

That's right!

Although Tianba Studio promised to transfer the ownership of the server, including the game data in the server, etc., this is not free...

Giving it to players for free, then Chen Ba is not Shabi, how could he do such a thing?

You must spend money to buy it!

The amount is not excessive, it is almost the cost price plus a small premium.

"Pinball Storm" has a total of 10 regional servers so far. Each regional server needs to collect money separately, and then pay it to Tianba Studio to take ownership of the server in the name of the game committee.

Where does the money come from?

Some district servers choose to "fundraise", that is, each player gives a little bit of charity. Anyway, there are 200,000 players in a district, and each person can quickly collect it if they give a few dollars.

There are also some regional servers that have chosen to raise funds by "temporarily deducting advertising fees."

That is to say, in this area, if ten advertisements are placed, then the advertising fees of only eight advertisements out of these ten advertisements will be distributed to the players. As for the income from the other two advertisements, they will be used to buy servers.

Regardless of whether it is the former or the latter, all ten districts have pooled their funds and bought the ownership of their own servers.

At this moment, community players desperately posted and celebrated this historic moment crazily. Various media also reported on it, calling it "the freest group of players in the history of the game"!

This also attracted heated discussions among other netizens.

[Newbie Meng doesn’t quite understand. Could it be that the players themselves have the final say on how to change and operate the game in the future? 】

【Not only that! From this moment on, the game completely belongs to the players, Brother Ba? It’s just a rubber stamp, you know the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Yu, right? 】

[Don’t be embarrassed, the server is still in Tianba’s computer room. Brother Ba can still manipulate players, but it’s not good for him. 】

[Who said there is no benefit? Do you believe it or not? Tomorrow Brother Ba will make an announcement saying that the electricity bill has increased? 】

【You know Brother Ba so well hhh】

[Now that I have the ownership of the game, should I change the name of the game? I proposed to call it "Pinball Bobo Man", brothers gave me a thumbs up! 】

[It feels not as good as "Rebirth: I am the Pinball King"...]

Looking at the posts from players in the community, Chen Ba couldn't help but complain: "How did they guess that I was going to find an excuse to raise the electricity bill?"

Damn it, I was predicted!

This move cannot be used, otherwise it will be too obvious. How about putting it another way, the server has been hacked too many times, and the "protection fee" increase next month is not excessive, right?