Chapter 1645 A Kind of Cycle

This opening made Lu Xiaoping feel a bit impressed despite not fully understanding it.

He felt that, judging from this opening alone, it seemed that Teacher Qiao couldn't fundamentally refute the two questions he had raised. However, this high-level approach did indeed seem very impressive and profound. It could indeed highlight the professionalism of the video.

Therefore, Lu Xiaoping didn't dare to draw a conclusion just yet and could only continue watching patiently.

...

"Let's talk about the gameplay first."

"Actually, the gameplay is very simple; it's just a shooting game with some special combat abilities."

"Players will experience battle after battle, and in these battles, they only need to shoot and complete the specified mission objectives. In the process, players can constantly modify their bodies through an Ripperdoc to gain new combat abilities."

"When you first experience it, the feeling of gaining new abilities is very exciting. The first time you can climb walls, the first time you can soar in the air, the first time you use a modified large-caliber weapon to inflict devastating damage on multiple enemies..."

"These constantly unlocked special abilities, combined with intense and varied battlefields, achieve excellent combat results. It makes people feel like it's a brainless, action-packed, fun game."

"But this feeling can only be experienced in the first playthrough. The more you play multiple playthroughs and repeatedly experience this process, the more impatient you become."

"Because when you start over, you have to give up all the special abilities you previously obtained, and the entire cybernetic modification process needs to be repeated. For players who already know the ending, the whole process feels meaningless and boring, so multiple playthroughs are not very enjoyable."

"On the surface, this seems to be a failure of game design. After all, in most people's minds, the richer and more lasting the gameplay, the more brilliant the design."

"But does everyone remember the Pei Zong's design theory that I mentioned earlier?"

"In Pei Zong's design, all the settings and gameplay are designed to make the game break through its niche. By using the emotions that the gameplay gives players to break down the fourth wall, players can more deeply emotionally identify with the protagonist. This approach is much more sophisticated than simply using plot to get players to identify with the protagonist."

"So, why can this monotonous and rough gameplay, which only focuses on the first playthrough and not multiple playthroughs, break through the fourth wall? Let me build suspense first and talk about my understanding of the game's plot."

At this point, Teacher Qiao had actually raised the first question that most people have about this game, which is that the gameplay is relatively monotonous.

However, his evaluation of the game's gameplay is different from most people's.

Teacher Qiao is, after all, an experienced up-loader and knows how to create suspense to maximize viewers' attention and make them want to keep watching.

Next, he began to analyze the game's plot.

"Does everyone remember what I said earlier, that the second cornerstone of Pei Zong's games is to express a specific idea to us through various metaphors, world-building, and easily overlooked plot content?"

"And in this game, of course, it is to express a specific understanding of the cyberpunk genre."

"You can see that this game is actually echoing from beginning to end. Pei Zong actually took the final scene and put it at the very beginning, and then cut to the real beginning 10 years ago to tell the story."

"From a technique point of view, it has a bit of a magical realism feel. It makes people think of that famous line: 'Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía would remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.'"

"Sartre once said: 'The novelist's technique lies in which time he chooses as the present. From this he begins to narrate the past.'"

"For ordinary authors, traditional novels can describe the environment, describe dialogues, or simply chat with the readers. These are all very safe ways to start. But this opening stands in an uncertain present, while holding the past and the future together."

"It's not simply circling a piece of land, setting a starting time node, and finding a few characters to tell them what to do, but like a fish blending into the free ocean, where the past, the future, and everything around it are completely strange and fresh."

"In my opinion, *You Chose the Future* actually uses this kind of opening as well, because the leader of the rebels, Captain Luther, is not actually at the final time node, because we are still waiting for what will happen after the door is knocked on. At the same time, he is not standing at the past time node, because he already started his rebel activities 10 years ago."

"And the time node when Captain Luther stands on the rooftop and looks out over the entire city is a symbolic node in his life. This is not a linear time structure, but a cyclical time structure."

"Linear time can bring a sense of oppression because you can clearly see the beginning and the end, but cyclical time relaxes this sense of oppression and brings a sense of unavoidable fate. Because you have no way of knowing when this cycle and reincarnation will end, and you don't know whether what you think is the end is a brand new beginning."

"So, you can see from this opening that this game is full of metaphors. And similar metaphors will be presented repeatedly in the future plot."

"Let's turn our attention back to the ending of the game, because the whole process is paving the way for the ending. If you understand the ending, you will naturally understand the clues buried in the process."

"There are actually three parties in the ending of the game."

"The first party is the apparent victor. Captain Luther, as the leader of the rebels, played a crucial role in overthrowing Tengda Group. He is supported and admired by everyone. In the final battle, he took the lead and was the first to charge into Tengda Group's headquarters."

"But he did not achieve his goal. The reason why he rebelled against Tengda Group was because he believed that there was an embodiment of 'evil' in this world, which was the president of Tengda Group. He wanted to find this supreme war criminal and bring him to justice, and use fairness, justice, and truth to judge him, so that the whole world could be freed from the shadow of Tengda Group."

"But he came up empty. The person in charge surnamed Wu told him that Tengda Group has never had a real president. Tengda Group is a joint decision-making body formed by all the people in charge and the artificial intelligence system based on the interests of the company."

"The reason why Captain Luther was confused on the rooftop in the end was because a tangible person can be killed and judged, but how can an intangible system be killed and judged? He also gradually realized that precisely because it is an intangible system, it will definitely be resurrected in some way."

"Captain Luther is the biggest winner on the surface, but in reality, he is also the biggest loser."

"The second party is the entrepreneur who ultimately occupied Tengda Group's underground machine room and seized all the data and artificial intelligence systems controlled by Tengda Group."

"On the surface, he is the real winner, because he inherited Tengda Group's most valuable legacy. As long as he has this data and intelligent system, and recruits the original person in charge of Tengda Group, he can quickly develop and quickly replace Tengda Group as the next real monopoly giant."

"The game does not state his name or the name of the company, because in the designer's attitude, this is not important. He can be anyone or any company."

"The game even deliberately expressed a feeling that things were getting worse through the mouth of this entrepreneur. The entrepreneur said that Tengda Group did not put corporate security in the first place in this decision-making system, thus giving the rebels and other consortiums the opportunity to overthrow Tengda Group."

"And this entrepreneur said that he would not make the same mistake, seemingly giving the illusion that he would replace Tengda Group and become the eternal monopolist."

"But will the future really be as he wishes?"

"Of course, this is a relatively open ending. The designer did not give a clear answer, but I think the conclusion drawn after in-depth analysis must be negative."

"He is the biggest winner in the dark, but I don't think he can be considered a real victory."

"The third party is Tengda Group. On the surface, Tengda Group is the biggest loser. It had originally obtained a monopoly on the entire world, but because it did not put corporate security in the first place in the decision-making system, it gave the rebels and other consortia an opportunity to be overthrown jointly."

"Tengda Group's headquarters was occupied, Tengda Group's people in charge either surrendered to the enemy, ran away, or committed suicide. The entire company disintegrated, its property will be divided up, and the data and decision-making system it controls will be taken over by other companies."

"If Tengda Group were a person, then its current fate could be described as being torn apart by five horses, and cut into a thousand pieces."

"But the question is, is Tengda Group in the story really a concrete person or an ordinary company? I don't think so."

"The reason is very simple. The person in charge surnamed Wu said that Tengda Group doesn't have a president at all. All decisions are actually made jointly by all the people in charge and the intelligent system. What does it represent? Does it represent everyone's opinion? No. It represents the will of the company's development, the optimal solution for the entire company."

"So the real Tengda Group, its will is invisible. And the opinions of the people in charge and the Aeeis decision-making system, including the data and systems in the underground machine room, are just mediums in reality for this invisible will."

"Please think about it, employees are a part of the company, but if the company fires employees, will the company be affected or even cease to exist? Can this be considered a failure? Of course not."

"Similarly, whether it is the people in charge, employees, headquarters buildings, or machine room data, these are to Tengda Group like ordinary employees are to a company. Losing these does not affect the fundamental of this intangible will."

"And this intangible will has long since entered a new company along with the machine room data and the transferred person in charge, and replaced the original will of this company."

"So, the biggest loser on the surface is actually the biggest winner."

"Because in this game, what Tengda Group represents is never some people, a company, or an entity. It is an invisible will and law. It will only move from one carrier to another, constantly experiencing the process of rapid development, monopoly, and decline."

"This is what the game tells through the opening: that despairing cycle where you can't see the beginning, you can't see the end, you can only stand on one of the nodes and overlook the whole city, but the more you look, the more confused you become."

"In this cycle, that intangible will is constantly borrowing a corpse to resurrect, reborn from the ashes. And whether it is Captain Luther or other rebels, or those big consortiums who think they have won, they are just fleeting passers-by on this stage."