Rise To Stardom - Chapter 210

Chapter 210: Corporate Greed
Just like Troy and Jayce had figured out by accident that [Tech Wiz] had a split screen, couch co-op mode, millions of gamers around the world soon did too.

But even the brothers, could never have expected there to be even more surprises in store for them in the form of cheat codes.

Having mistakenly stumbled upon it when both had been trying to see who could beat down more enemies in a side activity, Troy had ended up pressing a string of combos but equally messed up some crucial key mashes.

The resulting cheat code?

Everyone in the city, be they vehicles, pedestrians or even goons, became supervillains!

“Wait what?!” Troy widened his eyes in utter confusion when he noticed the enemy AI’s changing from low-level street thugs to a slew of villains from the comics that Tech Wiz had fought.

As for Jayce, his widened eyes of realization had caught unto a small yet tiny green bar of message at the very top of the screen with words; ‘Cheat Code Activated.’

Quickly, he informed his older brother who was still trying to wrap his head around what had suddenly happened, earning a curious arch of the latter’s eyebrow.

No less than a few seconds after that had happened though, the brothers soon found themselves in an almost apocalypse-like-scenario where they were constantly on the run for their lives as every supervillain NPC in sight, attacked and chased after them.

At first the sudden shift in genre from action-adventure to almost survival-like gameplay had been tense for the two brothers.

But over time, they soon found the very same situation exceedingly fun because their player-controlled Tech Wiz’s were much faster than their adversaries.

It was almost like a high-stakes game of tag!

“Can’t touch this!” Jayce smirked elatedly as he nearly avoided the grasp of one of the supervillains with a metallic fist by launching the wingsuit through a wind tunnel at the last minute.

“This is fun!” Troy on the other hand, having evaded another enemy supervillain AI with a brief chain of the grappling hook mechanic and a brief use of the mini jet-thrusters, laughed in genuine excitement.

And just like that, by the time they’d had enough fun playing high-stakes tag, they then paused the game to find out how to revert the cheat.

Upon searching the internet though, they found a slew of many, many other cheats that were just as insane as the one they had mistakenly activated, further giving the brothers more fun stuff to do.

But before they could…

“Troy. Jayce. We’re heading out!” their parents called out to them.

Swiftly, the brothers dropped whatever it was they were doing, escorted their parents out, waved them goodbye, locked the doors behind themselves and then, dashed right back to their basement!

The excitement of testing out new cheat codes in-game, never left their beings, even for a second!

Eventually, about three hours passed before they then went back to the game’s critical path, focusing more on the game’s compelling plot that equally had them hooked.

And after playing for three more hours, they were stunned to realize it was already 5:00 PM when they suddenly heard their parents’ vehicles pulling into the garage!

* * *

[A Pirate’s Odyssey] was, a great game.

A great game that unfortunately, became an annoying game to run for gamers around the world due to the many loops they had to go through, just to play it.

GameSoft Studios had already annoyed gamers by forcing them to create an account and use a designated launcher just to play the game.

But as bad as that was, their executives had made even worse decisions—ones they tried to keep under wraps until the game’s release.

Among these was the universally despised ‘always-online’ requirement, a feature that sparked immediate outrage from the gaming sphere!

Gamers purchasing a game, a single-player game at that for $69.99 at that, only to be told, that in an effort to reduce piracy of their game (how ironic), they constantly needed to be online, pissed them off to no ends.

It was then later revealed however, that most of the early review copies sent to select favorable critics were free of the controversial features included in the final version, an intentional move to mislead gamers.

This, as one would expect, led to terrible backlash from gaming fans and critics alike!

But, no.

The most anticipated, Pirate RPG of the year was just getting started.

Performance was shit, even on the higher end PC rigs, not to talk of the less powerful Virtustation 5 and ZBox Series Z and S consoles.

Lootboxes and needless cosmetics, pervaded through every nook and cranny of the game’s menus, purposely drawing in players with the allure of gambling their money away, just to progress in-game.

Patches were frequent, humongous and useless, sometimes even worsening the experience of the gamers in just the span of a day!

There were literally next to no physical copies but––get this––there were disgustingly overpriced deluxe and collector’s editions!

Still, despite everything, gamers— typically accustomed to being mistreated by the industry, even though they held all the power to sink any game, simply by refusing to buy or play it—still wanted to give the Pirate RPG a chance.

Heck, the game had already sold just over a million copies in a single day!

However, one of GameSoft Studios’ overly confident executives, oblivious to how the gaming community truly operated, unwittingly dug the company’s grave with a tone-deaf response to the massive backlash from gamers.

The statement he dropped on a now deleted TweetTalk post read;

Gamers are so insatiable these days (what with your extraordinarily high expectations?). I mean, despite our best efforts to deliver what we consider solid quality, even that no longer seems to satisfy you. Look, if you don’t like the game, then don’t buy it. It’s that simple!

Oh boy…

As if gamers weren’t already furious beyond measure at that tweet, a reputable yet infamous videogame insider that went by the name ‘SuckOnDeezNuts’, purposely leaked an audio recording of a GameSoft Executive Meeting on his page.

Captioned; ‘WELL IF BUYING ISN’T OWNING, THEN PIRATING ISN’T STEALING.’, gamers were lightning quick to listen to the audio recording of roughly ten minutes before it got taken down.

And when they heard Hector Ruffalo, GameSoft’s CEO utter the words–– ‘I guess, gamers too, will just have to get comfortable with not owning their games, just like they don’t own any other source of media.’–– that was the moment [A Pirate’s Odyssey], the most anticipated game of the past two years, became the most disliked game of the year.

This same disdain, extended over to GameSoft Studio as a company itself, with gamers, obviously turning their backs on them without mercy.

–

CrashingBandicoot: Well then, GameSoft Studio Execs better get comfortable with gamers, also not buying their games from this moment onwards. Peace.

Dissapointed Cilian: See, this is why you should always expect disappointment people, because then, you’ll never actually be disappointed. That said, I am extremely, extremely, disappointed. I won’t be purchasing any games from GameSoft for the forseeable future.

PirateNinja: Yep. This game isn’t even worth pirating anymore. It’d be a waste of my precious bandwidth.

Crit-Addict: I was already telling myself that I would do exactly what the previous exec tweeted by not buying the game if I don’t like it. I have never felt more at peace with a decision in my entire life after hearing this.

Loot Stealer: This just shows that GameSoft have always been all about the money and never about the gamers. Well fuck them! We’re gonna show them who’s truly gangsta in this industry!

GremlinInYourBackyard: I’ve said this before and I’ll keep saying it, investors flooding the gaming industry, has absolutely destroyed the concept of fun in videogames.

–

It came as no surprise that after this news was made know to the public, their originally high MetaReview scores that averaged at 87, instantly sunk to a diabolical 45!

No words needed to be said to explain why this had happened.

GameSoft Studios reputation, was tarnished beyond repair for the foreseeable future.

Gamers, in the long run, would have an exceedingly hard time, putting their eggs in their baskets, ever again.

That said, wherever there was darkness, there was light.

And for gamers, [Tech Wiz], was that light.

From an already insanely high and average MetaReview score of 90, it bumped even higher, all the way up to 95!

And happy gamers around the world, couldn’t help but show their love and support for SpawnPoint Studios the moment they posted a caption that read; ‘1.5 MILLION UNITS SOLD IN A DAY! HOW CAN WE EVER THANK YOU GUYS?!’.

–

Wiz Lord: Man, I’m so grateful you guys went private @SpawnPoint Studios! It’s a step in the right direction! Also, [Tech Wiz] is the best game I’ve played in years I tell you (and that’s not me even being a biased Tech Wiz fanboy)! And might I add, Kyle Kestis is the best CEO you guys could’ve ever asked for! Making such a banger soundtrack and a banger song, just to use for an opening sequence earns all my respect and accolades.

SpawnPoint Studios: Thank you for your kind words, @Wiz Lord. We absolutely adore and deeply value our CEO. He truly is the best thing that’s ever happened to SpawnPoint Studios!

PotatoGamer: I’d been so, so very worried that my lower-spec laptop wouldn’t even be able to run the game despite the minimum requirements, clearly showing that it could but damn, the joy on my face when I couldn’t just run it but even bump up the visuals and still maintain a constant 30fps, had me swelling with joy. Thank you guys so much!

NoScopeSniper: AAA blockbuster spectacles aside, it’s the little things in this game that makes it such a joy to experience. The split screen co-op mode, the perfectly optimized gameplay, the cheat codes… man! I’m suddenly reminded of the glory days of gaming. You guys deserve all the success you’re getting!

CandyCrushGamer: When [Tech Wiz 2]?! Please, pretty please tell me there’ll be a [Tech Wiz 2]!!!

ComicLovingGremlin: For $39.99, this game is absolutely underpriced! It delivers on what I as a long time fan of the comics, have wanted in years and it is an absolute love letter to every wizhead around the world! These are the types of games that should be sold for $69.99 people! Not that annoying Pirate game that was only focused on wringing a gamer’s pocket dry.

WaifuWithARocketLauncher: I’m so grateful, so honored and so very thankful that I was mailed an early copy of the game to review alongside a powerful, custom-made rig. And now, even after beating the game a second time, I can’t thank you guys enough. Thank you, tons, for being on the side of gamers around the world. [Tech Wiz], is a masterpiece in more ways than one and it shows in every blessed moment of the game. (PS. My rocket launcher is very pleased!).

–

As more and more positive responses flooded the Game’s Studio’s post, Oliver smiled with a blissful gaze of contentment on his features as he glanced over to his talent whom was already drafting out more ideas and plot points for a [Tech Wiz] movie script.

Sure he wasn’t planning to be the scriptwriter for the movie but, as the future executive producer, there were certain things he needed to ensure was in a live-action portrayal of the comic book hero.

“Moving on to Phase Two of your plans that fast?” Oliver inquired as Kyle, without raising his head up, replied with a light smile;

“Yep.”

Currently, both were in Kyle’s apartment, just hanging out since they didn’t have much to do till next year.

It was also something they occasionally did here and there, as it reminded both individuals of the times when they were just starting out with the young star’s budding career in Hollywood.

That said…

“Say Kyle,” Oliver quietly called out to him.

“Yeah?” the young star casually replied, his pen gently scritching against the pages of his notebook.

“You do realize that you’ll end up making a fair few enemies in Hollywood by going down the route of making an obviously, lucrative superhero movie without including their vying bigshots and investors, right?”

Hearing the seriousness in his agent’s tone, Kyle’s writing hand slowed down, his scritches coming to a gradual halt as he casually raised his gaze up.

And contrary to Oliver’s expectations of his usually relaxed ward, Kyle’s previously laid-back gaze was dead serious, his lips parting open as he spoke;

“Yeah. I know.”

“But I’ll never hand over something we’ve invested so much time and effort into bringing to the limelight, a toy for greedy corporates to play with.” he stated, his tone definitive and his gaze, fiercely determined.

To that, Oliver’s surprised gaze, soon shifted to a proud yet similarly acknowledging smile;

“Good to know. I’ll be supporting your decisions, however offending they may be, every step of the way.”

“And like you always say,” the agent added, one to which he and Kyle concluded in unified resolve;

“It’s you and me against the world!”