196 Vol. 3 pt. 66 Patch 11.0: A New Home (2/2)
”Some people are claiming that, as part of China pushing back against mass refugees to protect their cultural identity, that they are going to crack down on the type of media allowed. We're looking at censorship reminiscent to that from the beginning of the century. What does this mean for Fantasy Tales Online? Roughly twenty million of FTO's players come from Asia, predominantly China now, making it the largest source of players for the game we all love. FTO may already have systems to prevent players from seeing traumatic content, but those players still see religious symbols, symbols of death, and we all know that there is no shortage of sex and extreme acts in our game,” the first commentator explains.
The second one takes over from there and says, ”Do you see the problem yet? Jenson Clark insists on the game having a single, shared server for all playerbases. He stubbornly refuses to cater to governments and censor the game, which makes us players all love him for that, but unfortunately, the world's governments can still prevent access to the game if they want to. The Asian playerbase is split on the issue. Half of them are begging him to censor the game so that the government doesn't block access to it, and the other half is telling him to stand up for what they all believe in and would rather stick a finger up to their government's archaic, ineffective practices.”
”What does this mean for the future of FTO? Well, for one, more than a third of the game's playerbase might be gone soon. The game's most powerful factions could lose the majority of their members overnight. A poll concluded that roughly sixty percent of the Augus Empire's players are from Asian countries with forty-seven specifically coming from China. The expansionist nation may find itself on its back if its enemies push back against it.”
”FTO's competitors will grow in popularity as well. Fantasy World Ultimate, FTO's China-born competitor, is more than happy to censor the game to comply with its country's laws and I'm sure they'd hungrily take in any refugees from FTO. I've played it myself, and while it's not a bad game, there's no reason to play it when you've got FTO which is literally superior in every single way. And cheaper.”
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”Between the resurgence of sci-fi MMOs, the potential crackdown from China, other governments raising issues with the sort of content that the game allows, and complaints about FTO feeling more like a second life than a game, is the golden age for FTO already over? The game isn't even more than a year old if you don't include alpha and beta testing, yet it seems like there is already a plethora of issues threatening its longevity. No game in the history of gaming has been as controversial as FTO on a global scale, and now we're learning that there is punishment for disobeying international—”
”My hero! My father would like to talk to you,” Alice calls out.
Ryouta pauses the video and walks over to the bed. He had no idea that there was all of this new controversy surrounding Fantasy Tales Online. Sure, he knew that some countries and certain groups were upset about the game letting anything be possible within it, but he didn't expect governments to actually try stepping in to deal with it.
”Is everything alright?” Alice asks.
”Yeah, I'll tell you what's going on after this,” Ryouta answers, taking the offered phone from her hand. ”Hello?”
”Ah, Ryouta! How are you?” Will asks.
”I'm doing good, thanks. How about you?”
”I am doing rather splendid myself!”
Ryouta cringes when he remembers Thelmes' overuse of ”splendid.”
”The wife is spending the day appearing on various shows, so I have the manor to myself at the moment! Well, the servants are still here, of course. I am considering taking a few of them out golfing,” Will continues. ”Do you golf?”
”Uh, the closest thing I've ever done to golfing is putt-putt,” Ryouta answers and hears the older man laughing on the other end of the call.
”Close enough! I shall have to take you golfing sometime.”
Alice covers her mouth and giggles when she hears her father's voice talking about more golfing over the phone.
”As for today, it has come to my attention that you are facing an issue,” Will says.
”Yeah. All of our girlfriends are here, and the neighbors complained, and I'm technically only supposed to have myself here, so I've got to make the others go home and hope that the landlord doesn't mind Alice staying here as a guest for a while,” Ryouta explains.
”I have also heard that your current living situation is very… modest.”
”One bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen attached to the living room.”
”Dear lord! How could you live in such small accommodations? I knew that your apartment was small but not that small!”
Ryouta wonders if this man has no idea that his tiny apartment is actually considered a pretty great deal compared to what most people have. ”Aha, yeah, now just imagine a man and three women trying to live in it.”
”On my authority, I forbid you from living in such impoverished conditions! You, my dear daughter, and your girlfriends require a much finer home! Tell me, Ryouta, do you prefer city life or would you like something more rural instead? Suburban? I could also arrange for you to all live off the grid if that is your preferred lifestyle.”
Ryouta cringes at the idea of living off the grid. He needs his electricity and internet. ”I… kind of like city life since I'm so close to everything, but I've always kind of liked the idea of living out in the country.”
”Hmm. I shall give you all time to consider where you would like to live. Twenty-four hours should be more than enough to decide. Call me back as soon as you have decided!” Will says, hanging up the phone before Ryouta can say anything else.
”That sounds like it went well!” Alice says.
Ryouta looks at her. ”Uh… I guess you could say that? He… told me that we've got twenty-four hours to figure out where we want to live,” he says.
”Then I suppose we should hurry up and decide!”
”Are we really going to move into our own place already? Isn't this like, really fast?”
”Consider it an adventure!”
Ryouta sighs and hands Alice's phone back to her. ”I guess we're moving then. It's not like I'm attached to this place anyways.”