Chapter 395: The Alliance
"Uh... this formal?" Zheng Hongxi was rather lazy and didn't really want to join, but considering that he still had to take the game seriously, joining the chat group would let him communicate more with other players, so he joined anyway.
After joining, Zheng Hongxi noticed that there were quite a lot of people in the group—over eighty.
"So many people?" Zheng Hongxi was a bit surprised. The alliance only had ten members, so how did the chat group have over eighty?
The alliance leader, a player named "Jianping Tu General," explained, "Yeah, since the early alliance can only hold ten people, we have several sub-alliances. Everyone in this chat group is from the same alliance. Later, when the main alliance levels up and gets more slots, everyone will move into the main one."
Zheng Hongxi took a look and saw that it was true. Some of the players in this group were in the [Dragon Battle World] guild, others in [Dragon Battle in the Wilds]—all guilds starting with the words "Dragon Battle."
After chatting with a few people in the group, Zheng Hongxi quickly understood that these players had been playing this kind of nation-war game together for a long time. This time, they had all collectively switched to *Rate the Land*.
There were also some nation-war games in China, like *Righteous Slash Three Kingdoms*. These games were basically played with guilds as units for nation wars, so these players naturally formed these small groups.
Obviously, the [Dragon Battle] guild had existed in other nation-war games before, and these players had high loyalty and good relationships. They all voluntarily followed the alliance leader's orders and switched games immediately when told.
Zheng Hongxi typed: "I'm new, pretty noob."
Jianping Tu General: "No worries, we're all just starting out too. There's a lot we don't understand yet. But this game feels pretty innovative—I'm looking forward to the later nation wars."
"Oh, and everyone, remember to claim a lot of land early on. That way, the alliance will level up faster."
Clearly, for these hardcore nation-war game enthusiasts, their evaluation of *Rate the Land* was completely different from that of casual players.
For players like Zheng Hongxi, who hadn't had much exposure to nation-war games before, the early game had too little guidance and lacked satisfaction. These two flaws alone were enough to drive him away.
But for the players in the [Dragon Battle] guild, these shortcomings didn't make them quit. Since *Rate the Land* had already showcased nation-war-related content from the start, these people were all very excited to reach that part.
How do you attack others? How do you siege cities? How do you occupy the capitals of the thirteen provinces, capture Luoyang, and unify the world?
Clearly, the game provided these mechanics. For these hardcore nation-war game enthusiasts, this was something to look forward to. Driven by a strong sense of honor, they could ignore the early game's dullness and boredom, focusing instead on numerical goals like claiming land and upgrading buildings.
Moreover, as the game progressed, various small features constantly reminded players that many people were playing this game.
For example, when another player drew a five-star general, a broadcast message would notify all players. Especially when some whales drew multiple five-star cards in a row, the screen would be flooded, creating a striking effect.
The world channel, alliance channel, and province channel were filled with players chatting while playing, discussing the state of the world, making the game feel lively.
Additionally, early on, a special feature called [State of the World] would unlock. In this feature, the entire server's game progression was divided into many stages, such as the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Decline of the Han Dynasty, Chaos Under Heaven, Sharpening Weapons and Feeding Horses, and Warlords Dividing the Land.
The final stages of the State of the World were the Three Kingdoms Standing, Entering the Central Plains, Sweeping the World, and Three Returning to One.
Each of these stages had very clear goals. For example, [Three Kingdoms Standing] required the capitals of three provinces to be occupied. [Three Returning to One] required all thirteen provinces to be occupied by the same alliance.
After achieving these milestone stages, there would be special rewards for all players on the server, such as everyone receiving jade talismans (premium currency), limited-time exclusive card packs being unlocked, and bandit camps appearing on the map.
These features constantly reminded players that this was a nation-war game. For ordinary players, this might not mean much, but for those passionate about nation wars, it felt very novel.
...
It had to be said that, thanks to their foundation in other nation-war games, the people in the [Dragon Battle] group picked up *Rate the Land* very quickly.
Moreover, their division of labor was very clear. Some were responsible for researching game mechanics, including territory rules and skill systems, writing guides for members. Others were in charge of setting alliance rules, such as no land-grabbing and no fighting with other alliances without letting the alliance's designated diplomats handle disputes. Some whales only focused on providing high-end combat power, spending money early on to draw cards and quietly claiming land. And there were those specifically responsible for recruiting, sending invitations one by one, sending emails, and posting recruitment messages on the world channel.
Soon, Zheng Hongxi felt like he was getting into the game.
*Rate the Land* was quite similar to other nation-war games. Playing solo was completely boring, but once you joined an active alliance and met a group of players who also loved the game, player loyalty would greatly increase.
Moreover, after sticking with the game for a while, Zheng Hongxi could clearly feel the early game's main fun: land-grabbing.
The fun of *Rate the Land* could be roughly divided into several stages. The early stage was about land-grabbing, the mid-stage was about taking cities and unifying forces within a province, and the late stage was about breaking through passes and fighting province wars.
It could be said that the game only truly became fun in the mid-stage.
But that didn't mean the early stage was completely without enjoyment.
The early fun of *Rate the Land* mainly came from grabbing territory, increasing your resource production and power value. This was a relatively simple numerical incentive. Through in-game goals, it established a cycle of "upgrade buildings, claim land—gain resources—recruit troops—continue upgrading buildings, claim land."
In *Rate the Land*, there was no concept of combat power. Player rankings were based on "power value." The so-called power value meant how much land you had claimed. The more land you had and the higher its level, the higher your power value.
So, when players were driven by the clear goal of "power value," how to grab more land became the main strategic gameplay in the early stage.
Because high-level plots of land in the game were limited. The higher the land's level, the fewer there were on the map. If you were slow to claim them, others would take them first.
Thus, driven by this resource pressure, many players would choose to continuously adjust their skills, improve their troop strength, and upgrade buildings to challenge higher-level plots of land, expanding their power as quickly as possible.
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