Chapter 63 - Playing the Players (2/2)

General Bell pretended to get mad as always about this running bet, but it was plain to see he enjoyed the attention. "Hmph, back in my day we bet with our lives!" General Bell said resolutely.

"Back in your day they used muskets..." General Lillian stated with a friendly smile.

The meeting room went dead silent for a moment before General Bell burst out laughing followed by everyone else except General Lillian. General Lillian didn't have much of a sense of humor, but sometimes it would sneak up on everyone and most of the time she wasn't even aware of what she said was funny as she was just giving her honest opinion.

"Now now, quiet down, I have a suggestion that should appease everyone." General Lillian said politely. "We need to give the players the option to join the military directly. Having only 200 pilots under our direct command is not nearly enough to counter the Hegemony forces. We may have 40 percent more pilots and superior mechs, but we're not a solid unified force."

"Given what we know of the player's nature, all we have to do is offer them 'quests' or 'missions' and they will come to complete them from what we've observed." General Brian said.

"Yes, but we are unable to control when and in some cases how they complete said mission. I still think it's better to force them to join the military so we can have a single united front." General Bellerose said.

"So let's try to take the positives of both of your arguments. I want to open the military up to them to join, but on a contractual basis. Merits do not cost us much so what we can do, aside from offering a salary of merits to those that join, is to offer them exclusive mechs and weapons as well as give exclusive missions." General Lillian said.

"Makes sense, from what I've read the players want to feel like they're special and if we can get them to think the military is exclusive that will get them to want to stay and maintain that status." General Brian stated.

"With player created factions though, won't they want to join their friend's factions instead of the military if given the choice?" General Bellerose said.

"Yes, but we all know that the faction system was designed to deplete the player's merits in order to create a greater demand for them and force them to disband their faction or have it be absorbed by the military." General Lillian said.

"Ok, so what do we do about those that want to leave the military after they recover their losses?" General Brian asked.

General Lillian's expression darkened slightly and she said "Who says we let them?"