A Patch After The First Day of Servers Being Open

The second patch of DO that changed the way player economy was massive."

"It helped to both systemise and simplify the trading between players, making sure everything can proceed smoothly, including with the NPCs and dealing with any questions they have."

"And railroaded everyone down the path that one man desired."

"The path laid down by James Larant, the creator of Dynasties Online."

Theodore Felond, CEO of Felonds Fashionable goods.

….

As Reginald browsed the Dynasties Online forums, he noticed a drastic shift in the opinions on the forums. The previous criticisms had vanished into thin air now that the game had been fully released, replaced by an air of excitement. Players could now exchange in-game money for real-life currency, a feature that the players had eagerly anticipated since it was first announced as making money from the game was the primary motivation for many players of DO. Some players had even shared recordings, captured through their VR headsets, showcasing the stunning in-game world and their successful money-making ventures. They proudly shared their stories of how playing the game had turned into a profitable investment.

Other players were saying how they had bought many different things using in-game currency instead of real-life currency, saying how they had done their food shopping or purchased a new car with all the money that they had gotten from the game and their starter kits.

'I managed to use the money from my starter kit to buy this week's shopping! It's nice to see that there is actually a company that comes through on its promises!'

'It's amazing that you can use in-game currency to pay for real-life items.'

One player said they, like many others, had only really played the game because they had nothing better to do and could afford it even though they were on UBI due to the progressive pricing strategy that James Larant had put in place, and so the game forums were full of praise now that people had seen that all the promises made by the eccentric businessmen were honoured.

Reginald only smiled slightly at this comment, as the player had no idea that buying groceries and other necessities through the Dynasties Online system would force businesses to invest in the game or potentially lose 20-30% of their customer base.

'I have managed to buy a decent car. I've not been able to afford one all my life. It's just a shame that the selection is truly too low.'

Another player added that had also spent a relatively large amount of money from his starter kit to finance his life in the real world. Unfortunately, players who exchanged too much of their starting gold would struggle in the early game as this money was meant to help them invest in their characters and dynasties' future to help them grow faster as not everyone was like Reginald, who had set up multiple streams of income during the Dynasty History System and so had thousands of gold at his fingertips if he so desired or a noble who made money with their territory able to provide them with much more.

The intelligent players were the ones who would use this money to buy any extra starting equipment they may need that is not included in their starter kits, food, and other necessities while trying to find ways to make more money and invest it so that it would bring them profit in the future. Unfortunately, not everyone had a long-term outlook. Some even believed that the game company would have to close the game within a few months, not realising the meticulous preparations that its creator had made, and so wanted to cash out as much as they could.

'Have you seen that a few supermarket products have been listed? These products have nothing to do with the Larant supermarket, which was the only place supplying grocery products through the system. It seems some businessmen have already begun to use this game to sell and market their products. Though I don't see why they wouldn't register all of them if they could.'

One noted as Lee Smith, the CEO of one of the country's largest supermarkets, Emart, had already used a few of his character's product slots, allowing him to register some of his products, but he would need far more in the future. He was surprised when it allowed him to charge people with either in-game or real-life currency, depending on his preference. However, he imagined that if it were that guy, some form of player marker simplification and change would likely be instituted soon. As the current system would not do what he knew his friend intended

Because a player's bank account was registered in the system, it was easy for it to be integrated into the player market, so a player may use their characters or dynasties in-game money or real-life money to buy things, allowing for a unique market to form if only temporarily.

Of course, the system would still take its tax, but because it was technically a transaction between players or their owned businesses and not directly with the system, the tax was only 5% instead of 20%. Of course, this tax would be paid by the business or vendor of the product, so in this case, the company that was selling the Rango.

While it seems complicated, as most things are practically, it is a relatively simple system. For example, a player who buys a bottle of Rango for £2 from another player's real-life business. 5% of that, so the game system would take 10p as tax. So, the company would make 1.90 in revenue. Obviously, they could claim the system tax as expenses, but the main reason for this system tax was to provide the game company with a form of income allowing the game to sustain itself while also having players make fewer transactions with the game company and its affiliates.

While James had made extensive preparations to allow his game to continue for a few years, at the end of the day, it was not profitable or sustainable for him to continue to pay players and allow them to buy things with their in-game gold while the profits for his buisness' and rented land was large if hundreds of millions of players eventually join and he has to pay 1000s of pounds out to each them even if most of that will come back to them from subscription fees and through them purchasing things from him it was still a net drain on his resources as he was essentially paying himself while losing a bit of money in the process from VAT and other taxes imposed on him by the government.

So what the eccentric DO creator is using his entire wealth gambling on is that the profits of companies would be so affected that they would have no choice but to invest. Luckily for James, the race to invest in DO had already begun. Lee Smith and his friend Theodore, who trusted him to develop such a revolutionary idea, had already started investing in the game. This would allow them to gain more and more of the market as they gain more influence within the game, build shops, and register products. That old monster Okura Noboru would not miss the opportunity, either. As long as one person in the industry invests, then the others will have no choice but to invest to be able to compete properly and fight over the now 20+% of the population who see the game as their full-time job.

Even if an industry agrees to boycott the game, it may not work as all it takes is one person to break ranks, and they would become a leader in its industry, able to gobble up the 20-30% of the people who are unemployed and will play the game as a job.

How could these people who had competed for so long suddenly come together? How could they trust that no one secretly set up a team to play the game? Allow them to spy on their corporate secrets? Only an idiot would allow such a thing!

As a result, with no trust, all of them will invest because if someone does while the others don't, they will eventually outcompete their competitors.

'What a vicious scheme.'

Reginald sighed for the umpteenth time, deep in thought as he absentmindedly scrolled through the forums, hearing this his friend who was cooking looked at him with concern.

"Is there a problem, Reg?"

Carter said the pasta he was boiling bubbled, bellowing out steam like a steam engine.

"No, I'm just still in awe at the cunning bastard's scheme."

Reginald said out loud more to himself than anyone else, shaking his head slightly, but his comment got a reply from a curious Carter.

"Who's that scheming bastard? Ow! Bloody pasta!"

Carter asked before letting out a pained yelp as his pasta boiled over and partly splashed on his hand.

"James Larant, of course! Though, honestly, I'll never understand that guy's motivations! He seems to be as odd as I am at times. For the past few decades, the business and political class have ignored those at the bottom of society, giving us enough to eat and a few luxuries to appease us when we make trouble. So why would he risk his entire fortune to give us hope of a better future?"

Reginald said again, talking to himself out loud while answering Carter's question.

"Oi, you know someone else is here, right, and you don't have to talk to yourself? Why don't you be more clear on this vicious scheme of the DO creator? It won't affect me, will it?"

Carter asked, having no idea of the conclusions Reginald had come to after he saw Dynasties Online player market, but he knew that Reginald was rather introverted, and because he does not go out or talk to many people, he has created the habit of talking to himself. This is especially prevalent when he is playing games where he regularly talks to the AI troops he commands while insulting the ones he does not, but this habit also emerges occasionally when he is talking or listening to others.

"Have you looked at the player market yet, Carter?"

"Yeah, I have. We can buy things there with both real and game currency and exchange our in-game gold for real money!"

Carter said; however, this only led to Reginald sighing again and shaking his head again.

"See, he has hidden his true intentions so well that most people would never find them. If it were not for me studying business and looking at it carefully, even I wouldn't have been able to see it."

"He intends to turn DO into another Gamazon and, worse for those rich fucks, force them to compete against each other in the game as well as in the market."

Reginald said, his expression turning serious in an instant, and his eyes, usually casual and uncaring, began to take on an intelligent light and blaze with a long-lost passion.

"What do you mean?"

Carter asked again. He was starting to get annoyed with how Reginald seemed to magically be constantly able to avoid giving a straight answer. If he didn't get a good job in a business career, with all the waffling he does when he talks, he could definitely make it in politics with how vague he was and using a question to answer a question.

He could even imagine the media getting so annoyed at him as he answered a question with a question and then complained about how stupid they were with him, not caring a bit how angry they or the viewers got.

"Tell me, why do you think he did a progressive taxation like pricing for his product, forcing those with more to pay more for the game and those with less to pay less?"

"Even to the point that he makes a loss by opening it up to the unemployed to make money?"

"He even allows you to register and sell some of your products through his system, though it is somewhat limited. I imagine there will be a way to market your products in mass soon.

"Imagine if players could buy shops throughout the world of Dynasties Online to sell their real-life products in mass in a virtual reality store-like environment and how that would incite these powerful businesses to fight for these shops and even cities to give themselves and their allies a monopoly over that consumer base."

Carter was stumped when he heard what Railius had said as in the jubilation of getting their first paychecks many of the players never saw too deeply into the game and its implications on the real world just thinking like the rest of humanity that this was some kind thing that James Larant had made for fun or as a test. He then began to think about it more, as the entire reason that he and Reginald could play such a high-quality game was because James had made it affordable for everyone.

As if the world wanted to ensure that all of Reginald's predictions would come true amongst the forums that were as chaotic as ever, a piece of news would emerge that would be overlooked by many but would have drastic consequences for the future.

Dynasties Online was getting another patch.

Seeing this announcement on the forums, Railius loaded up his computer and went to BBC News, the British government-run media platform known somewhat for its reliability as they, alongside all the other major news networks throughout the modern world, were talking about DO and its release thanks to its rampant popularity and uniqueness.

The patch notes were rather long and impacted everyone as they changed the game in significant ways, and some even cursed at the game company as it began to systemise and simplify player exchanges. Reginald, alongside Lee Smith and Theodore Forland, saw more into the creator's true intentions for it and that this patch would eventually set up a spark that would transform the business world as they knew it.

The only thing they thought was that the game creator was introducing this system a bit too early.

Some players had decided to buy shops to help them sell their in-game items to NPC, so it had some effect on them, but because shops cost several hundred, if not several thousand gold to run and get in the first place meaning only the top players were able to afford them.

….

Patch Notes V1.02

Overhaul of the Player Exchange and Player Trading System.

Real-world goods can now only be bought through the Player Exchange using real-world currencies.

Please find a way to change your in-game currency into real-world currency to buy these things. Please remember that players can trade money with each other and do not need to go through the system.

Any trades between currencies between players will be taxed as before. This tax is at 5% and will be paid by the person buying the in-game currency, and the tax will be taken in the form of real-life money.

Players can trade currencies with each other no matter how far away they are from each other, with in-game gold appearing and disappearing in front of players who are doing the transaction. Please be in a safe room so people do not steal this gold, as it will materialise in front of you or around you as real coins.

Because all currency in the game is currently in a physical form and not a number in a bank account, it can be stolen.

Introducing Banks.

The economies in DO are similar to those in the high and late stages of our world's middle ages. During these times, banks began to appear, with famous banking families like the Medicis of Florance gaining large amounts of wealth, power and influence, so Dynasties Online, which wanted to be as realistic as possible, also had this feature.

Some people will have already come into contact with these entities, but this is a general announcement to the player base with a short explanation of the banking system within the game.

There will be many NPC banks to choose from, and players can even make their own; however, because all transactions, even large ones, are still done in physical currency or with notes, you will need a safe place to store your client's gold, it can also be stolen by both NPC's and players.

The players may advance the banking industry as they wish, though they must have the political connections and support to make the changes they want.

Only real-life currency will be safe.

The game has always been like this, with the money on your character or faction sheet being kept safe somewhere, whether that is a castle treasury, in a safe or chest in your house or buried in the garden.

So please be careful, as all in-game money, whether gold, silver or copper coins, is currently kept in a physical form somewhere safe and, as a result, can be stolen from there.

Player Shops Overhual.

Players have been able to buy shops within the game's many cities, villages and towns; however, rules have not been fully explained or implemented correctly, which has led to confusion. These player shops can be pre-built or built by the player on vacant land as long as they have the assets and permits to construct them.

These shops can not only sell in-game items but real-life products as well.

Game items can be bought with both in-game and real-life currency; however, all real-life products must be purchased through real-life currency.

There will be a magical portal within the shop that will take you to a business' or player's virtual store where you can see a virtual reality version of the product you are buying as we try to emulate the traditional shopping experience as much as possible.

In-game items can be bought by NPC's using in-game currency, while a vendor can choose whether he wants to sell in-game items using in-game or real-life currency and will be displayed on shelves and other places within the game shop just like one would in a real shop.

Introduction of Shop and Company Wallets for Receiving Real World Money from Customers.

Instead of having transactions happen immediately, individuals and companies selling products through our game will now be given a wallet where money is paid in by their customers and available to be withdrawn by them.

You can withdraw this wallet every 60 in-game days (10 real-life days), which will then be taxed 5% by the system.

Money can be exchanged between player wallets freely without any system tax. 

This will help streamline and make it easier for people and governments to keep track of payments and finances related to the game.

NPC Player Knowledge.

Because of how realistic we want the game to be and due to the persistent world, there is no easy way to allow the trading of in-game currency and real-life currency without alarming the NPC as they react when a player uses they are unfamiliar with confusion.

Due to this, NPCs would notice when money that the faction owns suddenly disappears, as those who help manage your finances or look into your financial situation will find money that has seemingly disappeared because it has been traded to someone else.

Our NPC has had their cognitive functions organically created within the world of Dynasties Online, with each having a brain structure similar to a human's, so to ensure that our players can still make money in the game, we will give them limited knowledge of the player so these money disappearances and interplayer transactions can be explained.

This is not a decision we take lightly, but with no other easy way to explain the disappearance and selling of certain items between players, we have concluded that this is a necessary step to ensure logical consistency within the game.

We appreciate that some of these changes are slightly immersion-breaking, but this is the only way to ensure that the game structure is logical and easily understandable for both players and the NPCs who make Dynasties Online the unique virtual reality experience that we all enjoy.

If you have any questions about anything within this patch, please ask the ever-benevolent and helpful Friend System, which is on standby to help answer all your questions.

We hope you continue to enjoy the game!

The Dynasties Online team.