Chapter 173: Player Freedom

No one could have imagined that this chip was actually meant for this. 

Looking at the almost troll-like description on it, Frank and the other two exchanged glances before decisively entering the Single Player interface. 

In the civilization selection section, as expected, there really was a leader named "Ethan." And the civilization corresponding to him was naturally the [GAMENOVA Empire]. 

"Uh, could this thing really work?" 

Looking at the genuinely ridiculous stick-figure portrait beside it, Frank really could not bring himself to believe that this thing was actually viable. 

"Give it a try." 

Mike and Allen, who were just there to see what would happen, certainly did not mind making things worse, egging him on with all their might. 

"Fine, let's start a game!" 

This thing called a Mod directly added an entire brand-new civilization to the game in every sense of the word. Everything was there, from unique effects to new units. 

[Ethan] 

[Leader Trait]: [Cultural Warfare] 

[Replaces all Great Work slots with "Game" slots] 

[Each "Game" can exert 10 points of Loyalty Pressure on other non-friendly cities within 10 tiles] 

[While at war, this Loyalty Pressure is doubled] 

[If a non-friendly city rebels due to this Loyalty Pressure, it skips the Free City stage and directly becomes GAMENOVA territory] 

[Upon creating the first "Game," gain 10 random Eurekas] 

[GAMENOVA] 

[(Unit) Sam]: 

[Replaces the Scout. One is gifted when a Settler establishes its first city] 

[Movement 12, Combat Strength 5, Sight 3] 

[(Unique District) R&D Center]: 

[A unique GAMENOVA district that replaces the Campus, with a lower Production cost] 

[Upon completion, unlocks the special city project "Game Development"] 

[(Unique Building) Electronics Factory]: 

[A facility for raising Pikachus, capable of providing a large amount of Power to friendly cities within a range of 10 tiles] 

Compared with the heavy historical atmosphere and strong sense of immersion of Civilization itself, this thing seemed like nothing more than an absolute joke.  

And somehow, it worked. Frank could only stare at the unit labeled "Sam" on the screen, momentarily at a loss for words. 

Not to mention that its Movement of 12 was actually real. What kind of concept was such an outrageous value? This thing was faster than three Light Cavalry combined, and that was only the beginning. 

After Frank used the new district, the [R&D Center], to produce two games, the entire direction of the game immediately underwent a subtle change. 

The neighboring nation which had already developed rapidly through district bonuses and accelerated construction of Holy Sites and Encampments. Its district planning was extremely good. But its bad luck came from being right next to GAMENOVA. 

Two games meant 20 points of Loyalty Pressure, and together with the population pressure from the capital, [USC], they actually caused the capital to start losing Loyalty. 

One had to know that a capital was not like an ordinary city. It naturally came with a high amount of Loyalty, making it impossible to sway easily. But no matter how high that bonus was, it could not possibly exceed such an absurdly overpowered value. 

The Classical Era was not even halfway over when, just as the fourth game was nearing completion, the nation's capital suddenly rose in rebellion. In an instant, its colors shifted, signaling its transformation into a GAMENOVA city. And the units that had originally been within its territory were naturally expelled immediately. 

The three of them looked at each other. Not even a single soldier had been killed. This completely insane strategy was somewhat similar to the way Iroquois operated, except even more outrageous. 

This was absolutely the fastest game the three of them had played since getting hooked on Civilization, aside from deliberately tanking and restarting. They had only just entered the Renaissance Era when cities all over the world began defecting one after another and joining GAMENOVA. 

They had never encountered a situation like this before. There were simply too many cities to manage, along with a growing number of units scattered across the map. 

By the latter half of the game, even Frank had more or less given up on micromanaging everything. Units that were no longer needed were deleted, while cities that had become too difficult to manage were razed. 

Yet the most ridiculous part was that GAMENOVA didn't even need to control a large empire. As long as it maintained a single foothold where a "Game" could be placed, the resulting Loyalty Pressure could continue spreading to nearby cities. One by one, those cities could lose their Loyalty, rebel, and fall under GAMENOVA's control. 1

In other words, a single surviving city could potentially set off a chain reaction capable of bringing down an entire civilization. It was simply absurd. 

[Domination Victory] 

"Hmm…" 

From beginning to end, aside from fighting barbarians, there had not been a single genuine battle. 

"To be fair, it's actually pretty fun." 1

Although the design of this civilization had completely overturned the style that Civilization was supposed to have, there was no denying the entertainment value it brought. 

"So, this is a little Easter egg the developers left for players? Then why was it inside the NovaXeno box instead of the Civilization box?" 

"No, that definitely isn't an Easter egg. Do you remember the text description? The developers literally call this thing a Mod!" 

Mike quickly shook off his momentary confusion and lit up with excitement. As a bunch of game-obsessed geeks, they had spent plenty of time tinkering with PC games over the years. 

And once you started poking around under the hood, things like reverse engineering and modifying game assets, resource files, textures, and the like were practically inevitable. 

It was just that there had never been a clear definition for this behavior within the community. People simply referred to it all as reverse engineering. But this description of "Modification" gave Mike a strange feeling. 

Suddenly, as though remembering something, he hurriedly grabbed the NovaXeno packaging box and reached into the compartment where he had found the EPROM. 

He then pulled out a small booklet. He had thought this thing was just an instruction manual earlier, so he had not paid much attention to it. Now that he thought about it, there might be something else inside. 

[Brief Tutorial on Mod Development Based on the Nova Language] 

[V1.13r — Ethan Hayes] 

[Using Civilization as an example, according to...] 

This was a tutorial book. More precisely, it was a tutorial teaching people how to develop additional content for Civilization. 1

The very idea was simply unbelievable. Ever since GAMENOVA had used the expansion-content mechanic in The King of Fighters, the concept had long ceased to be anything new among players. 

Even right up until this very moment, countless players were still sending letters to the developers, requesting that they update their old games with additional content. They were even willing to pay extra for it! 

Yes, expansion content was nothing new anymore. But why the hell were they letting the players develop it themselves?! 2

How were they supposed to make money from this?! That wasn't how expansion packs were supposed to work. 1

You were supposed to create genuinely exciting new content, build up players' anticipation, tease them with the occasional trailer, interact with the community through special events or holiday promotions, and finally release it officially, leaving the players more than willing to spend their money. 

But why did you just hand the development rights over to the players? 

The three of them exchanged glances. In the end, Mike moved first, directly pulling out the EPROM and taking it over to his PC. 

Being deeply into technology, he had practically every piece of equipment imaginable at his disposal. Naturally, that included a ROM burner. 

"I'll give it a shot. I'll follow the tutorial and try creating my own civilization first. What do you guys think? Got any good ideas?" 

"Silicon & Synapse!" 

"Blizzard!"