Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 150 - 150: 148: Do Adults Also Need to Guard Against Addiction?

Translator: 549690339

Sunday, 07:30, bedroom.

Lincoln is still in his dreams.

The mobile phone on the bedside table lights up suddenly as message after message comes in.

But the phone doesn’t make a sound, and no one seems to be operating it; the messages just turn into “read” and slide past.

However, new messages continue to pour in, and the screen lights up time and time again. Lincoln’s eyelids tremble in his sleep, as if he is no longer sleeping peacefully.

The next moment, the message receiving app on the mobile phone is forcibly closed its notification function.

The phone finally quiets down, and Lincoln falls back into a peaceful sleep.

Contrary to the tranquility of this bedroom, the Internet has already become lively early on, and the topic of Dream Cloud’s new game has quietly climbed up the list of hot topics.

This surge of interest is created by heavy-duty players who get up early.

Under normal circumstances, unless they are participating in special events in the game, there wouldn’t be many of these players waking up early on their days off.

Today, they didn’t really choose to do so; they were forced to wake up early.

These people get up early against their usual habits, not to play games, but to keep posting and promote Dream Cloud to the list of hot topics for one simple reason—their access to the game is denied!

Ning Cang is one of these people, and they are the most hardcore gamers. Even among these heavy-duty players, Ning Cang is a heavyweight figure— [Game ID: Warehouse Bird, a well-known civilian genius.]

Just like many other tough people, Warehouse Bird has been grinding “Assassins’ Alliance” from 8 a.m. to almost 1 a.m. the next day since its release.

Just as he’s about to play through the night, a prompt pops up in front of him: “You have been online for 16 hours today. For your health, please take a short break before continuing.”

Players are used to seeing such prompts, and he was about to ignore them when everything went black. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back in reality.

Yes, after a straight 16 hours of play, the system showed no mercy and kicked him out of the virtual world.

Gamers who are addicted to gaming don’t care about being kicked out for their health; all they want to do is play games! Especially those who want to sprint to be the first to clear the main storyline!

Warehouse Bird’s desire to be the first is especially strong, but knowing the time, he realized it was already dawn.

Attacking Dream Cloud at this moment wouldn’t do any good.

According to an online rumor, Lincoln, the boss of Dream Cloud Studio, leads a carefree life, often late, leaving early, and not working properly.

As a result, their staff are also really disorganized.

Even though the entire network thinks they should be bustling about, working hard at the office every day.

But someone finds out that these staff people start showing up in various strange places as early as 6:oo: some on ski slopes, some fishing, some in painting studios… even some at matchmaking events!

So at this point, it’s highly doubtful if Dream Cloud staff has anyone on duty to watch public opinions, let alone being asleep and resting!

Helplessly, he sets his alarm for 6 a.m., trying to soothe his excited nerves and quickly fall asleep.

However, having been on high alert all day, he finds it difficult to sleep. Furthermore, in his half-asleep state, he thinks about fragmented scenes of the game world, making his sleep extremely uneasy.

The next day, before the alarm even rings, Warehouse Bird is already awake.

By this time, most of the heavy-duty players who were kicked offline last night have also woken up.

They have been waiting for 6 a.m. in anticipation, eager to put on the headband and start the game. But the game won’t start.

Then their phones receive feedback messages from Mirage: “You have not yet rested for 8 hours. For your health, please wait before starting the game.”

Warehouse Bird can’t hold back any longer and starts posting on the Internet, urging Dream Cloud to lift the anti-addiction measures.

As a renowned civilian player takes the initiative to sound the horn, countless resentful heavy-duty players immediately find their leader and join in, shouting slogans.

However, this doesn’t include Lance and most professional gamers,

Professional gamers need to be healthy and positive role models. Isn’t it their professional ethics to go to bed early and get up early?

Even if Lance wants to stay up late to play games, the club’s health planner won’t allow it.

If he stubbornly refuses to listen, the planner would even directly call his parents to come and teach him a lesson.

When it comes to minors, the club is ruthless and strict.

The situation is different for non-professional heavy-duty players; they feel that they can do a 24-hour marathon!

Even if that won’t work, they can grind for 20 hours, then log off for a 4-hour sleep, and come back refreshed!

So when they find out they have to rest for a full 8 hours before they can enter the game world again, they start rebelling.

They have a good reason—”The game is rated 16+, I’m already 25, what does an anti-addiction measure even mean for me?”

“Kicking people offline after 16 hours? What gives?!”

“I tolerated the 16-hour kick, but the 8-hour waiting period—what’s up with that? I’m 80 years old this year and can’t sleep that long! Four more hours and I really won’t be able to sleep. If you don’t believe me, ask your elders in your family! Please, show some respect for the elderly and care for the youngsters!”

“I’ve never seen a company like Dream Cloud! Can’t buy consoles, no way to top up money, and now, if I play a little longer, you guys kick me offline. Do you guys even want to make money?!”

“National law does not restrict adults from playing games! Why do you meddle so much?!”

“Yes! Can you just restrict those under 18? Leave us adults alone, huh? Our registrations have already been verified with real names, do you still need a photo of me holding an ID card? I’ll give it to you! Can you just let me in?!”

Strictly speaking, these people make up a small minority among all players, and even with the help of fans, the outcry is not that big.

After all, at this time, most of the fans are still asleep!

It’s just that at this moment, Spiritual Rhinoceros is at its lowest point in terms of traffic. Moreover, as time passes, keywords like “Assassins’ Alliance” and “adults suffering from anti-addiction measures” attract more and more players’ attention.

Finally, this topic is pushed to the top of the list.

For the first time since the release of “Assassins’ Alliance,” it appears on the public opinion stage with a vaguely negative tone, which greatly worries Dream Cloud’s staff.

Worried, they send messages to the group asking if the boss wants to respond.

But these messages are read by Mavis, who finds them trivial and not as important as Lincoln’s sleep, so she intercepts them all.

Seeing no reaction from Lincoln, the staff are powerless.

They have only participated in the design of the game; all designs related to the Mirage console, whether hardware or software, were solved by Lincoln alone—none of them believed they could participate in any way. So when faced with such a situation, they can only worry.

And Lincoln is still fast asleep..