This Is Not a Bug but a Game Feature-Chapter 241 - 166: Who’s Banning Whose Account? (Part 2)

Chapter 241: Chapter 166: Who’s Banning Whose Account? (Part 2)

Who would have thought!

The marble crafted by the Iron Fool System, once imbued with the Marble Soul mechanism, surprisingly contained a logic bug.

If the Marble Soul is below level 30, everything is fine, calm and peaceful!

But once a Marble Soul surpasses the level 30 limit, that bug gets triggered, allowing the marble to escape the original game framework and gain some game administrator permissions.

Talk about game rule restrictions, like the Marble Soul can’t enter classic mode; as long as the permissions are high enough and command priority is higher, who said it can’t?

"Administrator permissions?"

Lu widened his eyes and said, "Ba, you mean this red-patterned marble is not just a game item but, in a way, an administrator account?"

"Yes!"

"To be precise, it’s not an administrator account, just an administrator permission. Whoever holds this permission, their account becomes an administrator account."

Chen Ba sighed and said, "I just tried to ban the player [Ba’s Little Coquettish Wife], but as you can see..."

It’s absurd!

A game developer can’t even ban a player’s account?

"It shouldn’t be!"

"Even with partial administrator permissions, we can still delete it from the backend. There’s no way they could have access to the game operations backend and GM tools, right?"

Lu found it very strange.

Even if this marble mutated and inexplicably obtained some administrator permissions, as long as it didn’t involve the operations backend and GM tools, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

"I get what you mean. But what I’m trying to say is that this thing’s permissions will keep expanding..."

Chen Ba opened the operations backend page and pointed to a glittering account name, "See, it’s at the same level as me; he’s also a super administrator."

The internal permission levels of a game, also known as the permission system, can generally be divided into four levels.

Level one, customer service.

This level includes common permissions that many players often encounter, like bans, unbans, querying account information, checking purchase records, mutes, etc.

Level two, operations.

From a player’s perspective, this level also includes game planners, with permissions much higher than customer service, covering game events, items, game modes and gameplay, class balance, numeric adjustments, etc.

Level three administrators and level four super administrators, are reserved for chief planners, producers, developers, and project leaders.

The permissions at this level basically boil down to granting or revoking permissions to others, or adding or reducing permission accounts.

Chen Ba is a super administrator.

Generally speaking, in Tianba Studio’s games, Chen Ba is the only super administrator; even trusted subordinates like Dong and Lu are just regular administrators.

But now, what does he see?

In the game "Don’t Go Home: Marbles Storm," apart from [GameBugs], there exists another super administrator, a player named [Ba’s Little Coquettish Wife].

No wonder the account couldn’t be banned!

As a fellow super administrator, the permissions are equally high. On what grounds would you ban my account? Do you have that ability?

"A... hacker intrusion?"

"This has nothing to do with hackers!"

Chen Ba rolled his eyes and said, "This is a game underlying bug. Once Marble Soul exceeds level 30, it defaults ordinary players to administrators."

Initially, [Ba’s Little Coquettish Wife] was at this permission level.

Moreover, his administrator permissions were incomplete, not entirely whole. Chen Ba wanted to ban the account; that was the best opportunity.

But in order to investigate the cause of the issue, he missed the best chance to act, which led to [Ba’s Little Coquettish Wife] continuing to enhance the hidden level of the Marble Soul.

As the hidden level increased, he went from having incomplete administrator permissions to becoming a super administrator of the game...

Who knows if he keeps hunting other players, his permissions might continue to rise, eventually surpassing even Chen Ba, the game developer?

It’s embarrassing!

A dignified game developer can’t even handle a regular player, what a disgrace to admit.

But Chen Ba really didn’t have a better solution. Either stop the server, but the early access version of the game was just released a day ago; wouldn’t stopping the server have negative implications?

And even if the server was stopped, what then?

Resolving one [Ba’s Little Coquettish Wife] is just treating the symptoms, not the root cause, as long as the bug remains, it’s only a matter of time before a second little wife appears...

"So what to do?"

Lu was also dumbfounded.

He never imagined that one day the permissions of the game he developed would actually be inferior to a regular player’s.

Ban the account?

He’s just a regular administrator, while [Ba’s Little Coquettish Wife] is a super administrator. Who’s banning whose account?

"Contact this player!"

Chen Ba sighed and said, "Tell him the truth, let him not misuse the permissions, and to communicate with us if there are any issues."

Revoking the permissions isn’t necessary.

On one hand, it’s difficult to retract, on the other hand, revoking wouldn’t solve the problem; better to fix the server, to avoid another game session with 37 players.

To completely eradicate the problem?

If he could fix the bug created by the Iron Fool System, he would have ascended to the Immortal Realm and become the god of programmers long ago.

...

When receiving the private message from Tianba Studio, Jiang Yongqing was studying the "magical" red-patterned marble.

What was he studying?

Of course, it was the marble’s introduction page, and why a series of GM function modules appeared.

He just discovered this...

While rampaging in classic mode, using Marble Soul to make other players cry, a window suddenly popped up, and the marble gained a GM backend.

This shocked him.

He did nothing, how could the game automatically pop out the GM tool? Oh no! Ba wouldn’t think he’s a hacker, would he?

Just as he was feeling uneasy, even hesitating whether to turn himself in to Ba and plead for leniency, he received a private message from Tianba Studio.

"So that’s how it is..."

From the private message, Jiang Yongqing learned that it was a game bug, triggered when Marble Soul exceeds level 30, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

Lucky it’s a bug!

He thought so, how could he have become a game GM without doing anything?

As long as the misunderstanding is cleared, there’s no worry about being punished by Ba. With worries lifted, Jiang Yongqing became excited immediately.

This is GM permission!

Which game player wouldn’t be interested in this thing? It’s even more thrilling than playing a cracked version, after all the cracked version is at most single-player, but this is an online game!

"Don’t misuse it?"

After carefully looking at Ba’s reminder, Jiang Yongqing was very curious as to what extent is considered misuse?

If I just fiddle around, give myself some marbles and add some Game Coins, that shouldn’t count as misuse, right?

After trying it and finding out he could indeed copy and generate specific game items, Jiang Yongqing finally realized how foolish he was for spending money in the game before.

Turns out these things aren’t worth anything at all!

The GM tool is indeed powerful!

Though this kind of high is only temporary, as coming too easily doesn’t give the same satisfaction as spending, where after one purchase you want the next.

"Oh no!"

While testing the GM tool, Jiang Yongqing suddenly remembered something, and immediately broke into a cold sweat.

He had shared his experiences and the bizarre occurrences in group chats, his social circle, and the Tianba Community.

According to Ba’s explanation, as long as someone raises the Marble Soul above level 30, they ascend to administrator...

This is the real mysterious gift!

If that’s the case, if the way he gained permissions gets out, will it create a batch of pure player administrators like him?

He listens to Ba and chooses not to cause trouble, but it doesn’t mean others will stay honest! If a troublemaker acquires permissions, it’ll be a real issue.

Will this game become a player-governed game, relying on players themselves for operations and event planning?