Orc Wars 2 : Lazarus

Chapter 117 - Game Maintenance

Saturday morning was ruined, or it will soon be, thought Zen as he tapped on the 'end call' button.

"Hold the fort," Zen said to his assistant on duty.

The Games Master got up and made his way to the Director's room. Nadine had summoned him the minute she had settled in her office. She sounded angry and wanted to vent on someone. Zen smiled cynically at himself, take another one for the team, eh? Better him than anyone else he supposed. At least he was in the position to minimise any damage to the other departments once he grasped the situation. He rode the elevator up in silence the rest of the way, preparing his thoughts.

"Zen!" Nadine raised her voice at him when he pushed open the thick glass doors to her office.

"Nadine, good to have you back," he said as expected from a subordinate.

"Nothing good about it, I'm back only for updates. I have to return to Head Office on Monday."

"They are not done yet?" Zen asked in genuine surprise.

The inquiry hearing on allegations against Nadine was taking longer than expected. He knew her actions against Simtrixx company policies and operating procedures would been exposed by now. Many had come forward with damning evidence. He had thought she would have admitted her mistakes, apologised and suffered a warning by now. Then everything would go back to normal, they could go back to work and concentrate on the continual development and betterment of the Game without disruptive third party interferences. That was all he wanted, for the Game to be played and enjoyed by Players so that he could review and improve it.

"Apparently not. The whole issue is being blown out of proportion."

"How so?"

"Failure to adhere to company policy and direct involvement to a Player's Hero will and can affect Simtrixx's image," she recited while making the quote sigh in the air with her fingers. "Apparently, if this gets out, we may lose the trust of the public and Gamers. No one will want to play a MMORPG where they are not the ones in full control their own avatars."

"I see. The whole point of playing MMORPG is to control a virtual self. If you can't control your own Hero in a Game than there is no point in playing it," Zen summarised. "This is more serious than I thought. It may affect sales and the company's image."

"That's was what they said," Nadine glared at Zen. He was not helping.

"Update me."

"Where do you want me to start?"

"Human realm, Dungeons and Gate Keeper Trials."

Zen kept quiet for a while arranging his thoughts, then he begun. "Every day more players are signing on and downloading the Game, the numbers are still increasing but at a lower rate. I will email the stats and analytical charts to you. Dungeons have been upgraded, the bugs in Dungeon 21 and 77have been fixed."

"What was the problem?"

"Technical issues. There were spots in the dungeons where the frame freezes up once a Hero walks over it. It's been fixed."

Nadine nodded tapping her nails rhythmically on her desk. "Orb Trials."

"Nine notable groups have formed targeting the Gate Keeper Trials. They know each other but are not working together yet. These Players have realised that the Gate Keeper Trials are basically group quests. No one has soloed all the Trials and survived."

"Only two of the groups are even close to getting a chance at the Portal. The first have managed to obtain three Orbs and the other, two Orbs but they are close to cracking the Barbarian's Trial. They keep getting distracted by the Hero prisoners Kwan has and try to rescue them. That's the catch. They have yet to realise that they should just ignore or kill the Player instead before Kirana changes it up or upgrades it again soon. They should focus on Kwan."