Chapter 772: A Gift for Players: Stormwind City
Regarding Stormwind City, Chen Mo had actually already built a blocky version of it back when he was working on *Minecraft*.
So, the entire structure of Stormwind City had already been replicated. Chen Mo didn’t even need to give much further explanation; he could just have the project team take the Stormwind City from *Minecraft* and create a high-definition version of it.
Using the Pangu Engine, with the highest level of artistic quality seen in *Uncharted*. Building an entire *World of Warcraft* would take too much time, but just making Stormwind City alone was much easier.
Chen Mo wasn’t just replicating the Stormwind City from his past life; he also wanted to expand the scale of the entire city district further.
After all, the new Stormwind City needed to accommodate a large number of real-world players. No matter how big a city was, it would inevitably be packed full. In that case, the bigger the better, the livelier the better.
Of course, it couldn’t be infinitely large.
The sizes of towns in the games from his past life had been carefully considered. If Goldshire or Stormwind City were built strictly according to the lore’s dimensions, then even just Goldshire would be larger than Elwynn Forest. Players would need a ten-minute walk just to leave town and fight monsters.
So, Goldshire had been scaled down to a size where a player could cross it from east to west in a minute. The same logic applied to Stormwind City.
In other words, if you considered the scale of Stormwind City from the games of his past life, it was at least ten times smaller than the lore version. According to the story’s setting, Stormwind City and its surrounding towns had a population of 200,000. When players entered the game, they’d wonder, “Where are all these 200,000 people?”
You couldn’t really create 200,000 NPCs.
So, Chen Mo opted for a relatively conservative expansion. The dimensions of Stormwind City—length and width—were both doubled, meaning the area actually became four times its original size.
The proportions of the buildings couldn’t be scaled up equally, so more details had to be added, like more houses, more NPCs, and so on.
Building it too big wasn’t an option either, because the game content players needed was relatively limited. In a main city, they mostly just used the auction house, shopped with merchants, or accepted quests from important NPCs. Making it large might look impressive at first glance, but it would hurt practicality.
If players had to run for half an hour just to get into Stormwind City, that would be a waste of life. Plus, there wasn’t enough rich detail to fill it all. If you crammed in too much, with houses that all looked the same, and entering them revealed either empty spaces or useless NPCs, it would also harm the player experience.
So, Chen Mo settled on Stormwind City being four times its original area. For key parts, like the central plaza where players often gathered, he made appropriate adjustments to enlarge them.
Although this area was still smaller than the lore version, for the players, this city was already magnificent and grand enough.
If more cities were to be built in the future, they would generally follow this size. Of course, if special circumstances arose, further expansion might be needed. But Chen Mo hoped there wouldn’t be any special circumstances, since modifying things was still quite troublesome.
In fact, a fantasy city of this scale could only be built in a virtual world.
Someone had once calculated that if you tried to build a theme park based on the size of Stormwind City from the *World of Warcraft* games of his past life, the investment would be unimaginably huge. Just the NPC costumes alone might cost tens of thousands per set. Replicating the entire city district could cost hundreds of billions and still not be enough, making it basically impossible to recoup the costs.
With that in mind, building Stormwind City in a virtual world was a great deal.
But just building Stormwind City wasn’t enough; it also needed related gameplay features.
For example, NPC functions, player costumes, activities within the city district…
They couldn’t just create an empty shell where players could go in and do nothing.
So, Chen Mo conveniently gave the players something to do: run dungeons.
After all, there was a ready-made dungeon in Stormwind City: the Stormwind Stockade. He’d pick parts of the weapon and combat systems from *Dark Souls*, modify the equipment from *Dark Souls* as well. As for player classes, they’d start with four classic ones: Warrior, Mage, Priest, and Rogue. Each class would have three symbolic skills, plus the weapon system from *Dark Souls*. That would be enough to keep players busy for a while.
What? You’re saying players might clear the dungeon?
Say it again: this is the *Dark Souls* combat system. Do you think it’s that easy to clear?
Even if some hardcore players could beat it… just add more loot drops and lower the drop rates. If players want good gear, they have to keep suffering and run the dungeon more. This is just the beginning.
What? You’re saying it’s too unfair?
It’s basically an amusement park, not a real MMORPG. It’s just meant to give players a taste. Doing it to this extent is already very generous.
Additionally, Stormwind City had a wide variety of merchants, each with different functions.
For example, class trainers allowed players to choose or change their class and learn class skills.
Various merchants could sell players weapons, equipment, food, drinks, special items, and so on.
Some trainers could teach players professions like tailoring, jewelcrafting, and enchanting. Of course, this content was a bit much, so it would be released gradually.
This brand-new Stormwind City would be added as an update to *Seaside Mansion*, a major update for the Double Eleven event, given to players as a bonus.
Completely free.
…
…
As Double Eleven approached, many people were feeling the pain in their wallets.
After all, shopping impulsively on Double Eleven felt great in the moment, but you’d be eating dirt for the whole month. Maybe even after paying off next month’s credit card, you’d still be eating dirt.
Many players were lamenting, “We’re broke.”
Wallet-kun had already been drained dry by *Uncharted* and *The Last of Us*, and there was still Nikki in *Seaside Mansion* waiting to be fed. They really had no money left for online shopping splurges.
Still, some players couldn’t resist the temptation and started browsing various discounts online.
Digital products, clothes, shoes…
Anyway, whether big or small, things they usually couldn’t bear to buy, they’d buy on Double Eleven.
Games had to be played, and life had to go on. They usually spent their money on games, but on Double Eleven, many things were on sale, so they should buy some daily necessities.
Just as players were pondering what to buy, Chen Mo posted a Weibo post that instantly blew everyone’s minds!
“Holy crap! This is impossible! Go check out Chen Mo’s new Weibo!”
“Oh my god, Chen Mo is getting involved in Double Eleven? Is he trying to murder our wallet-kun??”
“I’m instantly losing my cool… Go take a look, you’ll lose your cool too…”
“What does this mean? Is Chen Mo going to take a loss again?”
“It’s not just a loss, it’s a bloodbath of a loss!”
“The biggest game company in the country, Thunderbolt Interactive, is going bankrupt! Chen Mo owes 350 million from gambling and whoring, and he ran off with his sister-in-law! Games that were originally over a thousand or two thousand are all half price, all half price! Chen Mo, you bastard, you’re not human, give me back my hard-earned money, give me back my hard-earned money!”
Many players were shocked. What was Chen Mo doing? Why was he getting involved in Double Eleven too?