Chapter 918: More Pets
Many players shared this concern.
Because they knew that the dog also had its own consciousness, many players treated it like a real dog. Coupled with the ability to freely change fur color and appearance, each person's dog was unique, making it easy to develop feelings for their own pet. Naturally, they worried about what to do if the dog became depressed.
In response, the official website of *Oasis* provided an explanation regarding this dog update.
In short, although the dog's intelligence is similar to that of a real dog, a specific limitation was placed on one aspect: its memory.
In other words, the dog is very forgetful.
The reason for lowering its memory was mainly to prevent irreversible psychological trauma caused by certain inappropriate player behaviors.
The dog's memory is slightly worse than that of a normal dog. To compensate for this, the program added an extra parameter called "Intimacy." This attribute increases over time as the player spends time with the dog and will, to some extent, influence the dog's behavior toward the player.
This means that if a player neglects the dog due to work, going AFK, or other reasons, causing it to wait alone for a long time and suffer some psychological trauma, it doesn't matter. The dog will quickly forget the incident. However, because of the Intimacy attribute, the dog's affection for the player will only fade slightly, and it won't forget its owner.
It sounds complicated, but in reality, it simply reduces the time cost and difficulty of raising a dog for players, while also preventing certain uncontrollable events.
Additionally, the officials made some special provisions. For example, after a player purchases a housekeeping robot service, the robot will help feed the dog if the owner forgets. Also, when a player is away for an extended period, a boarding service is provided, which essentially temporarily shuts down the dog's artificial intelligence system, putting it into a state of "hibernation."
On the surface, creating this system might seem redundant. Why not just make it exactly like a real dog? Why adjust this attribute and that attribute?
In fact, this system is mainly for future preparation. The animals to be created later won't just be harmless creatures like dogs. By continuously adjusting the various attributes of artificial intelligence from now on, when other animals are created, they will appear more realistic and better meet diverse needs.
...
Soon, various pet systems were updated in *Oasis*.
In terms of dogs, there were breeds like the Teddy, Shiba Inu, Akita, Golden Retriever, and the three sled dog breeds. The choices for cats were even more abundant, such as the British Shorthair, American Shorthair, Bengal cat, Siamese, and so on.
Of course, these pets weren't free; they all had to be purchased with money...
The prices were much cheaper than real-life dogs. In reality, the price of a Shiba Inu is generally around a certain range, which is relatively loose, but the purer the bloodline, the more expensive it is. Some high-end Shiba Inus could cost tens of thousands.
But in *Oasis*, the price was directly reduced by a hundred times, costing only 60 yuan.
As for other dogs or cats, the pricing was basically the same: the mid-to-high-end market price was cut by a hundred times. For example, the price of a Ragdoll cat is around a certain amount, and in *Oasis*, the market price was 150 yuan. For common breeds like the Chinese Rural Dog or Orange Tabby, the price was within 10 yuan.
Occasionally, there would be discounts, but overall, the price was relatively stable and fixed. After all, as a virtual commodity, the value of these pets had to be maintained; otherwise, it would severely impact their rarity and sales.
In addition, there were some very unusual pets, such as crocodiles and pythons...
Theoretically, no matter how strange the pet, someone would raise it, but the market size for this segment still had to be considered. After all, developing each new type of artificial intelligence came with corresponding research and development costs.
Furthermore, there were some particularly precious pets, even those that were completely illegal to keep in reality, such as pandas, tigers, lions, and golden monkeys. The market for these pets was certainly huge, but whether to release them had to consider social public opinion and relevant laws and regulations. Therefore, they weren't rushed out, and the early stages still focused on cats and dogs.
After the entire pet system went live, players universally expressed, "Damn, it's so hard to choose!"
Choosing a pet in reality was still quite agonizing, with very limited options. Just the factors of time and money could filter out most players.
Everyone knew that Ragdoll cats were cute and clingy, but aside from a few wealthy individuals, no one was willing to shell out tens of thousands of yuan for one.
But in *Oasis*, it only cost over 100 yuan!
Of course, virtual pets had many issues compared to real pets. The biggest problem was that you couldn't touch them or pet them. Even with haptic feedback, it still felt different from the fluffy texture of a real cat.
However, there were also some advantages, such as saving time, effort, and worry.
Previous virtual pets lacked the enhancement of intelligence, making them very limited in their appeal to players. But now, with pets feeling almost exactly like living creatures, their attractiveness to players had greatly increased.
Many people were agonizing: should they raise a Shiba Inu, a Ragdoll, or a Husky?
After all, they were virtual pets. The seaside mansions were spacious, and raising a large dog didn't mean worrying about bathing it every day. The range of choices was vast.
Many players decided to just buy several!
A mansion could accommodate up to three pets at once. You could buy many, but only three could be released. If you wanted to release more, you had to spend extra money to purchase slots...
Well, everyone was already used to this monetization strategy. Chen Mo's free games had always been like this. After spending so much money on Nuan Nuan, what was a little money on raising a few dogs and opening a few slots, right?
A craze for buying and raising pets immediately swept through the player base, and it continued to spread.
After all, it was so cheap, so realistic. Spending a hundred or so yuan to play around was pure bliss!
...
...
Soon, some pet-related games appeared on the market, both domestic and international.
The related artificial intelligence technology was opened up to several domestic S-class designers. Large companies like Imperial Dynasty and Zen Entertainment naturally had access to it. Assigning a few people to make a pet game was effortless.
But the problem was, it didn't work against *Oasis*...
Everyone knew that with the enhancement of artificial intelligence, virtual pets were a new hot spot. But the issue was, who had laid the groundwork as early as Chen Mo?
*Oasis* had been online for over a year and had integrated most of the game resources from Thor Entertainment. It could be said that every Thor Entertainment player with a VR game pod had *Oasis*, which served as their game login space. At this point, if you told them about a new electronic pet, even if it were free, players would be too lazy to install it!