God's Imitator

Lu Bingjun paused for a moment before continuing:

"In the second phase so far, we have experienced four games, which are ’Pain Game’ (B-Class), ’One Word Breaks the Prison’ (A-Class), ’Prison Factory’ (A-Class), and ’Jury Game’ (S-Class).

"Overall... the intensity has indeed increased significantly compared to the first phase.

"In the first phase, we only had games rated A and B, with the ratio roughly around 1:3.

"In the second phase, except for ’Pain Game’, the remaining three games have continuously maintained high intensity.

"Although our community won all three games, the process was not easy, and you can feel from the rules that the Imitator’s game design intensity is increasing.

"However, I believe everyone here shares my confusion: ’One Word Breaks the Prison’, ’Prison Factory’, and ’Jury Game’ are considered excellent, but why is only ’Jury Game’ S-Class? Does it have any uniqueness?

"According to everyone’s personal preferences, I am sure there are quite a few people who think that ’One Word Breaks the Prison’ and ’Prison Factory’ are better designed."

Huang Shengjie nodded: "Yeah, I think ’Prison Factory’ is better.

"Shouldn’t a unique setting add to the score?"

Everyone turned to look at Lin Sizhi, who was clearly the only person present qualified to answer this question.

After all, he experienced an S-Class Judgment Game firsthand during the first phase and must have discussed it with top players like Wang Yongxin.

Lin Sizhi did not play coy and directly provided the conclusion.

"Regarding the criteria for S-Class games, I’ll directly share the known conclusion with everyone.

"This conclusion may not be entirely correct, but it’s relatively reliable because it was derived after extensive discussion by everyone in my previous community.

"Generally speaking, when a game possesses the following two features, its rating is significantly enhanced.

"First, it can somehow stimulate the player’s deep-seated weakness or flaw to a certain extent, which is especially noticeable in Judgment Games. But it appears to be applicable to other game types, with a more lenient standard.

"Second, it qualifies as the ’pioneer’ or ’template’ for a certain type of game, setting a benchmark for all similar games that follow and bringing inspiration to all Imitators and players.

"—There is no need to perfectly fulfill both; it’s more a combined total of the two conditions.

"It could be a standout in one aspect and somewhat connected in the other.

"Or it could be that neither aspect is particularly prominent, but both reach a fairly good level.

"Of course, there may also be additional criteria, like beautiful scenes and packaging, the ability to contain multi-layered strategic spaces, breaking conventional perceptions, etc.

"Even if players perform well and showcase the strategic limits of the game, it might somewhat elevate the score.

"If the base of the game is A-Class, fulfilling these conditions has a high probability of elevating it to S-Class.

"Additionally, ’pioneering’ seems to weigh heavily; a game designed to a high standard without any reference, even if it may not quite reach S by itself, might be exceptional enough to be designated as S-Class by the Walkway."

Qin Cheng nodded thoughtfully: "I see, this does indeed sound reasonable.

"Kind of like academic research?

"For the same knowledge point, the person who first proposes it essentially establishes an entire theoretical framework, akin to founding a school of thought.

"Even though subsequent scholars may propose more enriched, practical derivative theories, the original is typically ranked higher in terms of impact and achievement, since it’s built on the shoulders of giants.

"When a new type of game emerges, the Imitator faces only a very vague standard, with no existing example to reference, forcing them to design with a bold attitude.

"Under such circumstances, the first game designed, even objectively rated as A, has the potential to be elevated to S by the Walkway.

"Therefore, the subsequent Imitators, even if they design games of similar intensity, can only reach a maximum of A.

"In this regard, ’Jury Game’ is the first role-playing game to appear, designed in the absence of any reference material, indeed establishing a standard for similar games henceforth, thus justified in being exceptionally deemed S; this aligns with the hypothesis.

"As for stimulating the player’s deep-seated weakness and flaw... is it because ’Jury Game’ exposed Tang Qing’s personality disadvantage to some extent, or did the four actors’ attack and defense of the story, or the story details themselves, reveal human nature to some extent?"

Lin Sizhi shook his head: "That’s hard to say, although I previously mentioned that the standard for this varies across different game types.

"If it were consistent, then only ’Judgment Games’ would enjoy this particular bonus point.

"Because there are no definite Sinners in other games, the design standards seem different, so in ’Judgment Games’ it must cleverly stimulate extreme human nature to qualify; whereas in ’Allocation Games’ or other similar games, just somewhat qualifying."

"I tend to think this game did well in ’pioneering the standard,’ combined with the special consideration of ’first-time game.’"

Huang Shengjie furrowed his brows: "Hmm... but I still think ’Prison Factory’ completely deserves S.

"Regarding exposing flaws and human nature, shouldn’t our experience in the game also count? Plus, the game has quite good scenarios."

Ye Lin pondered: "Based on Lawyer Lin’s statement, maybe it’s because the standard for ’Allocation Games’ is set too high.

"Considering this is a game type present since the early game stages, it’s been played countless times, ’Prison Factory’ would find difficulty in achieving anything noteworthy in ’pioneering.’

"Or it might be that other regions have seen S-rated Allocation Games, and if those were used as the benchmark, ’Prison Factory’ wouldn’t reach it, hence unable to be granted S."

Huang Shengjie asked curiously: "So, what was the S-Class Judgment Game that Lawyer Lin participated in as an observer like? I’m really curious."

Lin Sizhi pondered for a moment, then said: "That was the first Judgment Game our community participated in during the first phase, which can also be seen as the benchmark for all subsequent Judgment Games.

"More than one game later utilized its rules or concepts.

"It’s called ’King’s Judgment.’

"As for the specific rules and content of the game...

"That’s not free."

Huang Shengjie was taken aback: "Huh?"

Lu Bingjun laughed, not letting this topic continue: "Lawyer Lin definitely has reasons for withholding, but nonetheless, the information he’s shared is already quite valuable.

"This game’s substantial information might profoundly impact the community and the Walkway, and we will need a lot of time to slowly digest it.

"Alright, then today’s review ends here. Everyone worked hard, have a good rest."