1 Pay-to-Play!?
After years, Eric finally check his character looks again.
He spent so much time in the game but he never really cared about paying attention to this type of thing.
in front a him is the face of a asian guy, 175cm, dark hair and eyes. The hair obviously not stylized, it's just a short military cut.
Now that he stopped to think he remembers looking down on the people that loose to much messing around with character looks.
He never do that, but he is basically the same level everyone else are. Probably more frustrated.
He should have enjoyed the game more.
He sighed heavily.
With a right hand movement, a column of options appears.
Eric opens the "shop" option.
The game is not exactly Pay-to-Play. However gamelogic items are only possible to get by the "shop" or on holiday missions. (black market trade between players too).
'At a quick glance I see that there is no StarEngines anymore. My sister's virtual company must be making millions of V-dollars by selling their version of.'(virtual company is independent of real life company)
'No matter, I want to take advantage of this new expansion to relax '
Eric purchase the following items:
Change appearance (permanent*) D$99.99
2 years supply of S grade juice (RL) D$30,000.00/year
WarpEngine D$6,000.00
CustomDNAsample#12~#37 (for clones) D$20.00/sample
250x Clone juice D$1.99/juice
Technomancer improvement#3 (mental IA) D$34.99
Custom world* coordinates D$20.00
2x World shield#3 D$9.99/shield
'Maybe the game is pay-to-play! I've never bought anything other than grade-D juice, maybe because, before I had no money to spend I tried to motivate myself by saying that I did not have to invest money to be good in this game. Although, these things are not making ME better, they are making my vacation better, besides, I have enough money to spare'
The Asian man looks downcast for a second, but quickly returns to a cheerful countenance.
With a few touches he spent enough money to make some guild masters feel headaches. Eric has become rich quick, and along with the money he also have a flown of frustrations that can only be cured with consumerism.
---- character design ----
Eric is actually the son of a South-african father and a Korean mother. They are actually both martians of birth, but this is the basis of Eric's ethnicity.
Eric character. Being a white, short-stature Asian is a minor offense that Eric's past has never fixed. He quickly leaves the measures similar to reality, making only a few changes on the face, so that it is not easily recognized.Now a mixed Asian, with a skin tone of chocolate and 185cm tall. He has compact muscles, not of regular exercise but because of the physical enhancement vaccines that all Martians take at birth. The hair is still short, but now it is possible to see more wavy hair than the Asian smooth.
Eric continues to look from various angles and makes minor repairs and modifications, when he is satisfied he push a button to modify the appearance of his character. His appearance will remain that way until he use a modification item or have a plastic surgery (3 days to recover, but it is cheaper and uses the virtual dollar)
Remembering the virtual money, Eric checks the dollar quotation, to buy V-dollars for his character.
Today the quote is for every 1 dollar you buy 227.43 V-dollars.
A rifle ammunition costs +-$0.5 V-dollars
"That's why the amount of resources in the game is monstrous and technology is evolving so fast, a company can fund a research in the game with two hundred times less real money and have the same result! Probably in 50 years a real WarpEngine will be developed."
Eric has in the bank a little over D$ 250,000 and less than VD$ 18,000. All the virtual money was achieved with hard work. And real money is what Eric got by selling some patents for objects he created. Although sister wants to give some of the money to him, Eric refused. Still, his parents receive shares of sister's company in his name saying that all the money will be his inheritance. Eric knows they love him, but still he feels weird to accept the money.
Throughout all his life he had the mission to make his parents have a good life, when he finally takes a step forward, suddenly the whole family becomes rich. Eric needs to get used to this new reality, he is definitely not able to make a difference in the company of his sister. But his parents and she are not worried about it. They realized Eric's frustrations and suggested these extended vacations. Moreover, Martians have almost 300 years of life expectancy, enjoying life for 2 years means nothing.
2 years in reality is 6 years in Universe Online. Eric still needs to buy a spaceship...He spends D$ 150,000.
Maybe he's adapting to a rich man's life too quickly.
