Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 618: Chapter 586: Is This Module Serious?

Before officially launching the Mod Sharing Platform, Lincoln did a small thing first—

He liked Jason’s post and followed his Spiritual Rhinoceros account.

Jason’s Spiritual Rhinoceros account had only 64 followers in total, and suddenly getting another one naturally caught his attention.

He temporarily put aside the work at hand, opened the fan list, and found that the new follower, ranked first, was—Lincoln.

“???”

“What’s the deal? A high imitation? Or an impersonation?”

Jason couldn’t believe it as he clicked on the account and then saw the page, which really jumped to a familiar interface—Lincoln’s Spiritual Rhinoceros homepage!

“What happened?” Jason’s first reaction was not joy but anxiety.

“Did Lincoln make a mistake? Or did I do something wrong?”

—The troll posts on the Vortex Forum had been thrown into the darkest corners of his memory.

It wasn’t until ten minutes later that Cloud Dream’s latest announcement reawakened his memory:

[Announcement of the launch of “My World” Mod Sharing Platform and the first official game mod “Terraria” Survival Challenge!]

Today at 14:00, the “My World” Mod Sharing Platform will be officially launched!

All mod makers can publish their mods on this platform, sharing their creativity and ideas.

Creators can choose between “Paid Release” and “Free Release” options, and for specific requirements and rules, please refer to the “Mod Creation and Release Rules” after the Mod Sharing Platform is launched.

We ask that all mod creators follow the relevant rules and work together to maintain the community order.

******

Tomorrow at 14:00.

The first official mod for “My World,” “Terraria,” will be officially released.

At the same time, the [Terraria Survival Challenge Tournament] will begin, and participants will have the chance to win generous rewards, including Cloud Dream Points, cash prizes, game peripherals, special achievements, and an ultimate mysterious grand prize!

The longer you live, the more substantial the rewards!

There are also special progress rewards waiting for you to find!

Welcome all players to participate!

Note: “Terraria” is rated [Adult Level], players under 18 cannot load the mod, and we deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Also note: “Terraria” contains horror content, players with heart disease, high blood pressure, claustrophobia, and other symptoms, please do not enter the game.

Another note: Applicants who are 18 years old, in good health, but have low courage, please play the game with parents or friends to accompany you, and do not play the game alone. (This special reminder comes from the founder of Cloud Dream—Lincoln)

——

Seeing this “Platform + Mod” double announcement, players couldn’t be more delighted.

“Great, finally a place to find mods! The past few days I’ve been wanting to find a mod to play, it’s been like trying to download porn, I have to search for [covers] on the forums, so annoying!”

“Yeah, with this kind of standardization, there shouldn’t be people selling fake goods anymore, right?”

“Don’t mention it, it just makes me mad! Yesterday I saw a mod called [Demihuman World] claiming to be ‘Crazy for Fu Rui,’ and when I spent the money to enter, it was full of weird things like human-headed pigs, human-headed cows, and human-headed sheep! Who could know the kind of mental shock I suffered at the time! I’m right outside the psychologist’s office now! 800 bucks an hour, f*ck!”

“I was also fooled by that [Demihuman World], f*ck! It was so sanity crushing! The only thing that barely made sense was the centaur, which was half-human and half-horse. I have to say, that was pretty sexy…”

“??? You guys aren’t normal!”

…

Of course, some players were worried:

“Since they’re launching the platform, will the review process become stricter? Hopefully, they won’t stop us from doing sexy mods.”

“Yeah, even though I don’t really like too many heavy, absurd, and crazy mods, it would be too bad if they were all gone!”

…

Many small teams selling chargeable mods are even more panicked than these players.

There’s an apparent problem: after the platform goes live, those who publish paid mods will have to share their earnings with the platform, which is quite obvious.

After all, they’ve used Cloud Dream’s materials, tools, servers, and even players.

But before that, they sold so many without getting Cloud Dream’s permission, and strictly speaking, Cloud Dream can hold them accountable.

So now… do they need to refund?

The [Harem Hunting Wars] production team is a very young team, with a total of 12 people, with an average age of under 22. They didn’t have this awareness before.

Their mindset hasn’t yet turned away from the “make gold, sell gold” thinking of the big metropolis and Night City, and they didn’t feel like anything was wrong.

Now that they see other creators discussing the issue, they realize there’s a problem.

This group is bold enough to directly use the [Harem Hunting Wars] account to post about it, and directly ask Lincoln—

“@Lincoln, @Cloud Dream Games, Boss Lin, we didn’t know better before and have already sold many mods, do we need to refund? Or do we submit a bill to you to see how much royalties we should pay?”

With someone taking the lead, many developers who have previously charged for mods also posted @Lincoln to ask how to deal with the situation.

Lincoln was already following the impact of the announcement, and naturally noticed these questions very quickly, and immediately posted a response—

“For previous paid mods, you can evaluate whether to refund the money yourself.

As long as you develop the mod earnestly and players are willing to pay for it, you can keep it without any worry.

This is an encouragement for your creativity and a reward for you early creators.

However, if someone didn’t follow the right path and made money through unscrupulous methods, then… this is your last chance.

Before the platform goes online at 14:00 in the afternoon, if you don’t give a refund and get a large number of complaints from players, once verified, you’ll be treated as a scammer.”

Lincoln’s reply addressed the questions of these mod developers but didn’t draw a clear line.

This made the situation interesting.

Players and teams who develop mods earnestly are naturally happy and continue to work on their mods without any guilt.

At most, they just suspend the current sale of mods and wait for the platform to go online in the afternoon, giving Lincoln some face.

However, scammers who sell under false pretenses are much more uncomfortable.

Money swallowed suddenly has to be spat out, which is much more uncomfortable than not making it in the first place!

But even if they are unwilling, most of the money-hungry mod makers still begin to offer refunds.

They have no choice – Lincoln’s threat is too terrifying.

Considering Lincoln’s style, everyone is certain he’d have the legal department gather evidence and take scammers to court.

But that’s not the scariest part.

The scariest part is that Lincoln holds the power to block access to the virtual world.

This is the [Ultimate Threat] to all virtual world users.

Not only would one be unable to play virtual reality games, browse the global network, or meet far-away friends in the virtual world…

More importantly, they would miss out on all possibilities within the virtual world.

That means missing out on an entire era.

Imagine if someone was forced to miss the entire Internet age, completely unable to access the Internet. What would their life be like?

And what if this person was a heavy Internet user before being rejected by it?

People who can play “My World” and quickly master mod making tools are undoubtedly heavy users of the virtual world.

How could they accept that one day they put on their headband, and instead of seeing their virtual real estate, they’re faced with a ban notice, never able to log into the virtual world again?

This is far more terrifying than fines or detention!

Ma Lian, who’s still in jail, can’t help but slap himself every day during yard time!

He even envies his cellmates: at least they won’t be rejected by the virtual world after being released from prison.

Of course, in addition to those who rightfully make money and those who reluctantly return it, some mod developers are caught in deep dilemmas.

Their dilemma is: does marginal content count as an unorthodox method?

[Harem Hunting Battle], [Coin-operated Oiran Personal Luxury Edition], [Amsterdam Red Light District Full-scale Reproduction], [Dead or Alive: Duel of the Beasts], [Journey of Slaughter]…

There are countless such “unorthodox” mods!

That’s right, not just adult content, but many niche, gory mods as well.

[Dead or Alive: Duel of the Beasts] is a game where players and NPCs wear revealing “battle attire” and fight each other or various beasts.

Adjusted by the developer, every injury sustained by players and NPCs results in an exaggerated bleeding effect, and the wounds are very realistic and scary.

—Because Cloud Dream did not provide such wound materials, the developers even hand-drew them using custom features!

These mods, whether adult or niche, sell a considerable number in reality.

So the question arises, do these mods meet Lincoln’s definition of “earnestly developed mods”?

Or should they be classified as “unorthodox methods”?

The creators scratch their heads and guess wildly.

But no matter how much they guess, in the end, they can only run to the post where Lincoln made his statement and ask for clarification.

But this time, Lincoln didn’t reply right away.

This made them scratch their heads even more!

In the end, it was only the true passion-driven creators and the small game studios that made mods for free who remained calm. They simply rejoiced at the platform going online.

*

So, what is Lincoln up to now?

He’s working on invitation letters with Mavis, as always: he talks, Mavis does the work.

Although the initial idea for the event was just to show Camille Victoria some colors.

However, since it’s done, it would be a pity not to invite all familiar streamers to join in the fun.

They’re all colleagues, sharing fortune and misfortune together!