Outrage

Intrigued, Rin stepped up to the counter to sit beside Seth. There were a few people debating over the game on the news, Rin found nobody prolific of the gaming community, other than the anchors.

Apart from the sensation of pain in the game, the dispute seemed to revolve around the absence of a recording feature in Apotheosis Online. Rin hadn't checked the tabs, but judging from the indignation of people, it seemed to be accurate.

The beta players were displeased because they weren't allowed to monetise their game on the web, while the general people were simply outraged due to the absence of footage. They were completely in the dark about the game dynamics.

This seemed a bit overboard. Tens of thousands of gamers would be jobless, as streaming was their primary source of income. Not everyone was capable of going pro at the international level, after all.

Rin himself had a channel of his own with over a hundred million subscribers. Not that he uploaded anything in the last two years, nevertheless, it was still a hefty sum of passive income.

"What did Stephen say?" Rin asked.

"No official accounting on the matter yet," Seth said as he read and scrolled something off his smartphone. "However, it was mentioned in the Terms and Conditions that Avalon will keep all the rights of the game footage, and they will be able to publish any non-sensitive footage of the game freely."

"Damn," Rin cursed. "This is a blatant violation of people's privacy."

Obviously, Rin didn't want his gameplay on the internet without his concern. It wasn't just a matter of him appearing as bad. He had other concerns that he couldn't be bothered with at the moment. Not to mention, most gaming communities were toxic in nature.

"They don't seem to care," Seth said. "Let me show you something. . ."

Seth quickly changed a couple of tags and scrolled down to what he wanted to show Rin. Getting there, he handed Rin his phone.

Rin read as a frown appeared on his brows shortly.

There were only two words that caused that.

[Don't play.]

It was a reply to a person who was complaining about the game on social media, as for the person who replied was none other than Stephen, the director of Avalon conglomerate.

"Damn," Rin cursed again, "Damn you, Stephen."

Rin tossed the phone back to Seth and moved up the stairs to bring back his laptop. On the way, he brought his cell phone as well. However, as he unlocked it, he was greeted with a deluge of unsolicited messages.

Most of them were from gamers and teams seeking his participation in gaming-related activities, or even blatantly offering a big chunk of money to join their team.

As Rin couldn't be bothered with that, he tossed his phone to Seth, who used to be his manager in his pro days. Well, Seth was still his employee, though Rin considered him a friend first, then anything.

"Sort them out," Rin said, "while I check what's cooking up in the forum."

"No shit," Seth said, catching the phone. "I have over a dozen people asking what you're doing now."

"Tell them all to bugger off," Rin told him as his eyes fixated on the laptop. As the page was loaded, he lifted his head to turn to Seth again. "And calm these customers, will you? I wasn't looking for lively patrons when I bought this place."

Seth set to work as Rin got back to his laptop. The Avalon forum was graciously outraged today, the reason being what it was. Even though there were barely 25000 official players in the beta program, tens of times that number were complaining in the forum.

Here were a few threads related to the chaos.

[I died. Why can't I log back in! , by SigmaChad]

[Give Back Recording Function!, by DaoistBlueFeather] Upvote: 1.7m, Comments: Closed.

[10 reasons why Apotheosis Online is bad for the gaming community, by ProfessorLoreman] Upvote: 521.4k. Comments: closed.

[10 Reasons Why It Isn't, by Devil's_Spawn] Upvote: 278.5k, Comments: Closed.

[Who has an extra VR Headset to spare?, by Savageboy] Upvote: 1.34m, Comments: Closed.

[When can we get the gameplay footage?, by AvalonBound]

[Stephen, You Sadist!, by Killshot] Upvote: 78.5k, comments: Closed.

[No Censorship in Apotheosis!, by PrincessAvetha] Upvote: 958.5K, Comments: Closed.]

[Apotheosis: Generically Marvellous, by TheWall] Upvote: 773.5k, comments: Closed.

[Dawn is my Waifu, by Devi's_Spawn] Upvote: 898.7k, comments: Closed.

Rin paused momentarily after reading the last entry. There were a few familiar names, but why wasn't he surprised by their post?

Getting all these outraged complaints, the moderators seemed to have closed all comment sections as well as new post sections. Rin checked out a few posts of illustrious names like TheWall and ProfessiorLoreman.

While one just complained about the game dynamics, all there was to complain about, the other reviewed his first-day gameplay in simpler words. ProfessorLoreman's complaint revolved around Apotheosis Online losing the deal of escapism that Avalon Online provided.

TheWall fretted about poor plot constructs, though he wrote it all in a good light, saying we have much of the world left to see.

Rin checked a few more, even the "Dawn is my Waifu" one, too.

People really were creative. Even though the recording function wasn't available, there were countless illustrations of Dawn on that thread already. Thankfully, the forum censored all sensitive posts, or else the sophisticated AI would have gone into another existential crisis if she got access to this.

"We got an official statement from Avalon," Seth said, nudging him on the shoulder.

Rin turned to find Seth pointing towards the screen in the wall. The male anchor recited the post they got from Avalon's official social media page.

In the post, they listed three main things in simple words. No, they haven't given in to people's outrage and agreed to calibrate the pain sensation in the game.

The matter they first addressed was about the game footage. They were firmed in their terms of keeping all the rights to the footage, however, they agreed to bend a little. Avalon agreed to send players their individual gameplay under request only if there was no sensitive content displayed in the footage.

'I guess it would really be a problem if there really was no censorship in the game,' Rin mused.

Secondly, Avalon would not calibrate the pain sensation. Further dealings with this decision would be addressed in a press conference on Sunday morning.

Lastly, there won't be any world league like the World Avalon League, however, they are organising something along the line, though it will only be online when the third phase of the Beta was over.