Chapter 476: Chapter 291: Players and Tianba Rule the World Together! (Part 2)

This is the era of co-governance!

It has to be said, "Don’t Go Home: Marbles Storm" truly gave many players their first taste of "turning over to be the boss."

Playing other games, it’s all up to what the planners or designers decide, whatever they come up with, players can only play that, there’s no real choice.

But "Marble Storm" is different. The operational rights and management rights are in the hands of the Play Committee, which is elected by the players and represents their collective will. Players can finally choose what to play themselves.

Human ambition is endless...

After experiencing the taste of making decisions in the game they play themselves, players were not satisfied with this, and began to seek more autonomy and freedom.

Co-governance era?

No, no, no!

Players don’t want to share the world with Ba, just thinking about having someone above them who can trigger "divine punishment" at any time makes them feel uneasy.

Since they’ve come this far, why should they still tolerate the existence of Ba, this supreme emperor? They’ve already overthrown the tyrants of the servers, so why not overthrow Ba, this tyrant? 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Chen Ba realized the players’ thoughts very early on.

He has been thinking seriously.

What was that phrase again?

He could use strong means to stop the players, at worst, just shut down the servers, after all, the final decision is in his hands.

But isn’t everything that’s happening now the result of his own doing?

In other words, ever since the bug in the game was exposed that allowed players to seize game administrator rights, he foresaw today’s scene.

He didn’t stop it back then, and naturally, he won’t stop it now!

"I can make the players shut up, with one move of the Great Silence Technique, none in the whole server could speak."

Chen Ba retorted to Luo Ji, "But what’s the use of that? Can I stop players’ thoughts from progressing? Why should I stop it?"

"From another perspective, have we lost anything? No! The game still legally belongs to Tianba Studio, it’s just entrusted to the Play Committee for operation..."

There’s no loss.

After all, even if the game is handed over to the Play Committee, the servers are maintained by them too, so the game revenue still belongs to Ba, no one can take it away.

On the contrary, handing over the servers to the players, although losing direct control over the game, also saves costs on maintaining the servers and daily operations.

In short, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages!

For this matter, Chen Ba’s only concern is that it’s fine to hand the servers to the Play Committee, but does the Play Committee really have the capability for routine maintenance?

Routine maintenance of the server side is not such a simple task, at least it requires a certain number of personnel to complete.

Besides that, the cybersecurity issue of the server is also a question mark!

Games under Tianba, especially online games, often face various hacker attacks and intrusions, along with cheating software like plug-in scripts.

These problems, with Tianba Studio’s current technical strength, are naturally easy to solve. No matter what world-class hackers come, with the assistance of Tianba Studio’s Artifact Spirit, they’re all useless!

But after the server is handed over to the Play Committee, how can they ensure data security without the corresponding technical strength?

...

Faced with the two concerns raised by Tianba Studio, the representatives sent out by the Play Committees of various servers discussed and gave a clearer answer.

The first issue, which is the daily maintenance of the server, they will allocate dedicated funds to hire 3-5 server-side development engineers to ensure no problems occur.

Can they ensure no issues will arise?

No need to worry, "Don’t Go Home: Marbles Storm," if anything, never lacked advertisement sponsors, squeezing a bit of ad money would be enough to cover the expenses.

The second issue, concerning the data security of the server, they really have no better solution but to "store" the server in Tianba’s machine room, with Tianba Studio jointly protecting it.

"How about this then..."

"Anyway, since you guys don’t plan to move the servers, keeping them in our studio’s machine room, why not let the current personnel handle it, what do you think?"

Chen Ba suggested, "It basically means that although the servers have been handed over to you, the existing maintenance and data security protection mode hasn’t changed, even the servers are still maintained by people from Tianba Studio."

This way it’s not as troublesome.

Basically, nothing has changed, what’s changed is only the source of the salaries for those employees, they will now be paid by the Play Committee instead of Ba.

But they are still Tianba employees, just without the salary...

"So how do we calculate the expenses for the daily operation and maintenance of the server?"

"We’ll calculate every miscellaneous fee like electricity, bandwidth, etc., and submit a bill to you every month, you just have to settle it on time."

Chen Ba arranged it this way.

Keeping the server in the Tianba machine room also makes it easier to protect the game data from boring hackers peeking and intruding.

But as for the server-side expenses, they must be accounted for separately, at least the electricity bill and labor costs cannot be borne by Chen Ba anymore. He has no obligation to bear it, after all, the servers have been transferred to the Play Committee.

"Okay, then it’s settled!"

The Play Committee was also very satisfied, and immediately shared this preliminary agreement on the Tianba Community, informing all "Don’t Go Home: Marbles Storm" players.

The players were all excited.

They got the servers?

"Whoa! This is simply a miracle in online game history; no other online game like "Marble Storm" has dared to let players have control over the game’s fate!"

But amidst the excitement, players soon faced a slightly embarrassing problem: how to gather the funds to purchase the servers.

That’s right!

Although Tianba Studio agreed to transfer the server ownership, including the game data within it, it certainly wasn’t going to be free...

Ba isn’t a fool who’s going to give it away for free, no way, it must be purchased!

The price isn’t unreasonable; it’s roughly cost price plus a little premium.

Up until now, "Marble Storm" has had a total of 10 servers, each requiring separate funds to be gathered, then paid to Tianba Studio to acquire server ownership under the name of the Play Committee.

Where will the money come from?

Some servers chose to "fundraise," where each player contributes a little, and with twenty thousand players per server, a few bucks each quickly adds up.

Other servers chose to use "temporarily withheld ad revenue" to collect funds.

In this way, in a server with ten ads, only the revenue from eight is divided among players, while the revenue from the other two is diverted to purchase the servers.

Whether it’s the former or the latter, in any case, all ten servers raised enough funds to purchase their server ownership.

At this moment, community players flooded the forum with posts, frantically celebrating this historically significant moment, while various media outlets reported on it, calling them "the freest group of players in gaming history!"

This also sparked heated discussions among other netizens.

[Newbie here doesn’t quite understand, does it mean in the future the game’s changes and operations are all up to the players?]

[Not only that! From this moment on, the game fully belongs to the players. Ba? Just a rubber stamp, you know the Ying Country royal family, right?]

[Don’t bash, the servers are still at Tianba’s machine room, Ba can still manipulate players; it’s just not beneficial to him.]

[Who says it’s not beneficial? Do you believe Ba will announce tomorrow that the electricity bill has increased?]

[You understand Ba too well, hahaha]

[Since we now have the game ownership, shouldn’t we give the game a new name? I suggest calling it "Marble Pop Pop Man," like my post to push me up!]

[Feels like "Rebirth: I Am the Marble King" might be better...]

Looking at the posts in the community, Chen Ba couldn’t help but comment, "How did they guess that I wanted to find an excuse to increase the electricity bill?"

Damn, they anticipated it!

This tactic can’t be used, otherwise, it’s too obvious. How about a different explanation, like the servers have been attacked by hackers too many times, so a "protection fee" increase next month wouldn’t be unjustified, right?