God's Imitator

Lu Bingjun paused briefly and continued, ”Based on the framework rules this game made explicit, and our own analysis after the fact, we can now say with some confidence what the defining characteristics of a Role-Play Game are.

”This game wass of high quality, and future Role-Play Games will very likely use it as a template.

”What follows is my own reading of things, which may not be entirely correct. Please feel free to correct or add to it.

”The core of a Role-Play Game is the ’role-play’ itself: players must strictly follow the contents of their Character Dossier and portray a specific image.

”One important note: the actual content of a ’Character Dossier’ can vary enormously. Different Role-Play Games may produce wildly different dossiers.

”In this game, the Dossier served purely as misdirection.

”But don’t let that create a fixed assumption that all future Role-Play Games will use this kind of ’freely improvised narrative’ approach to achieve the same effect.

”Once a trick like this has been analysed in a debrief, it loses its power as a first-contact surprise.

”Future Imitators will very likely turn that player misconception around in their favour, and actually write specific character profiles and story details in the dossier.

”Whatever the case, the dossier is likely to be a critical window directly tied to the game’s rules, and should always be taken seriously.”Throughout the performance, players need to maintain a precise balance.

”You cannot avoid performing altogether, because that would break the audience’s immersion, giving them grounds to cast an Oppose vote in the Curtain Call Vote, which is equivalent to failing the game’s basic objective.

”But you also cannot become fully absorbed in the role. You must remain constantly aware that you are only acting, and must keep stepping outside the story framework to consider the game strategy from a higher vantage point. Otherwise you will end up like Feng Yuguang: dead without understanding why.

”Beyond this, Role-Play Games appear to be directly linked to players’ real-world occupations and knowledge backgrounds, which is somewhat similar to Judgment Games, though the selection criteria appear less strict.

”This means players with a broader knowledge base and more cross-disciplinary awareness will have an advantage.

”This conclusion may well apply to other Role-Play Games as well.

”Our community has a reasonably well-balanced professional composition, which should give us at least some advantage in this area.

”As for the audience members in these games: the risk level is roughly comparable to Judgment Games. There is essentially no risk to your life. The worst case is losing all of your visa time.

”If a strong community player enters as an Actor, having weaker players enter as audience members can be a viable choice. Similar to distribution-type games, it can serve a ’supporting the weaker players’ and ’veteran guiding a newcomer’ function.

”Of course, if something like what happened to Tang Qing occurs, there’s nothing to be done about it.”

Everyone nodded. The analysis broadly matched their own thinking.

”Any other thoughts about this new game type?” Lu Bingjun asked.

Shen Bowen’s brow was furrowed. She had not spoken often during the debrief, but had listened with consistent attention throughout.

”I have one thought. I’m not sure whether it’s right.

”Role-Play Games seem to address the pain point of Judgment Games: that a specific player cannot be judged more than once.”

A brief silence fell over the room.

Huang Shengjie pressed his hand to his forehead, ”You’re completely right, and it’s impossible to argue against.”

Lu Bingjun’s expression was somewhat grave, ”That really is the case.”

Lu Qi didn’t quite follow, ”Wait, what do you mean?”

Shen Bowen explained, ”In previous games, ’Judgment Games’ and ’elimination-type games’ were the most dangerous, because they carried the nature of judging players for their real-world offences.

”But once a player successfully passed through a Judgment Game, they were generally safe.

”I’ve never seen a player subjected to a second judgment.

”This makes sense too. Aside from the extremely rare few who have committed multiple serious crimes, most people commit one type of offence. It’s unlikely for the same person to be repeatedly judged for multiple different crimes.

”After being judged, a player has already been penalised, however lightly or severely. That closes the chapter.

”So if an Imitator used a Judgment Game to target a specific player, intending to kill them, but the player survived, there was almost no way to target them again.

”Because no other suitable game type existed.

”Selection-type games can target a category of player but can’t guarantee targeting a single specific individual. The scope is too broad.

”Now that ’Role-Play Games’ exist, Imitators can selectively draw players with specific professional backgrounds.

”If it’s a relatively rare profession, the probability of being selected is quite high.

”After that, an Imitator can use the Role-Play Game’s rules to force that player to re-enact their own character flaws or professional misdeeds. Crimes that surface naturally during the performance can lead to death through the Curtain Call Vote.

”Overall, while Role-Play Games are less targeted and less lethal than Judgment Games, they make up for it in reusability.

”For example, if some Imitator had a grudge against me, they could design a ’mechanical engineer’ character and have me compulsorily selected.

”If they failed to kill me this time, no problem. The next Role-Play Game, they would just write a different story with a different ’mechanical engineer’ character and try again.

”It would be like subjecting me to a weakened version of a Judgment Game repeatedly, with no end in sight.

”Of course, based on what we currently know, there would be some constraints on this. Different game types are rotated in sequence, so two Role-Play Games might be separated by a month or two. And Imitators also can’t guarantee their submitted design is always selected.

”But for stronger Imitators, the emergence of this new type still gives them additional leverage.

”Would you say I have this right?”

Lu Bingjun’s expression was serious, and he gave a slow nod, ”Yes. That’s well-reasoned.

”In that sense, the Gallery has become more dangerous.”

Lin Sizhi disagreed somewhat, ”I wouldn’t put it quite that directly.

”Because game openings are spaced at roughly fixed intervals, around once a week. So when a game type with moderate safety levels appears, it actually dilutes the overall death risk.

”The original four game types were distribution-type, selection-type, Judgment, and elimination. We could roughly estimate the average death rate across all four, and compare that to the death rate in Role-Play Games.

”If Role-Play Games have a lower death rate than the average, it would be more accurate to say the Gallery has become safer.

”Or more precisely, the emergence of this new type means:

”Imitators’ design freedoms and reach have expanded further.

”Players specifically targeted by an Imitator have become more vulnerable.

”But players who are not being specifically targeted have become somewhat safer.”

Qin Cheng nodded in agreement, ”Yes, that’s right.”

Lu Bingjun looked around the table one final time, ”That brings us to the last and most important topic: the matter of S-tier games.”