Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

“What’s wrong? Didn’t go well?” Assistant Ruan Pingyi asked curiously.

“No, the Dubai Server Center thing went very smoothly.”

“Then why are you so serious?” Ruan Pingyi was puzzled.

“Lincoln has a… how should I put it, a new idea.” Lorin said haltingly.

Originally, after discussing the Dubai issue, he planned to leave, but Lincoln seemed to suddenly think of something and pulled him back to sit down, earnestly making a cup of fine tea – this tea was actually filched from the Little Princess’s Old Dad.

The moment Lorin took the cup of tea, he immediately sensed that something was wrong.

But before he could find an excuse to slip away, Lincoln took the initiative to speak: “I also have a question here, I want to consult with you.”

Lorin had no choice but to brace himself and say, “Let’s hear it.”

“You see, those who sell adult toys can interact remotely, even multi-player online PK, so virtual reality games should be okay if they open up a bit, right?”

“???”

Lorin felt like he didn’t understand.

“What do you mean by remote interaction? What does it mean for adult toys to have multi-player online PK?”

“You’re making a big deal out of nothing!” – Lincoln didn’t want to mock Lorin for his lack of experience, but he had to use this tone to make Lorin feel like this was a ‘very common and common thing’, so he would be more likely to agree.

Lincoln took out his mobile phone and opened a saved product picture – this part of the content was so embarrassing that he didn’t even dare to let Mavis search for it, he found it all by himself.

“Have a look.”

Lorin looked at the adult toys in the picture, [Lightweight Wearable], [Remote Discipline], [Smart Control], [Unlimited Distance], and immediately leaned back, his entire face wrinkled up – this was the first time Lincoln had seen so many wrinkles on his face.

Lorin felt extremely awkward.

Talking to an elder about this was also somewhat embarrassing for Lincoln, but it involved the well-being of at least tens of millions, and possibly even hundreds of millions of players, so he couldn’t avoid it. He simply thickened his skin and went all in, passing over the next picture.

“Online…multiplayer competition…fleshlights????” Lorin struggled to read the outrageous product, suddenly feeling that the world is really big, and that there are so many outrageous things…

From now on, he would never dare to boast of his extensive knowledge again; he was truly a frog at the bottom of a well!

Lorin took a deep breath, trying hard to control his emotions and understand Lincoln’s meaning: “So you mean, lift the restrictions on the players’ bodies in the virtual world so that the ‘mysterious stores’ in Night City can really provide adult services?”

“Is it possible?” Lincoln asked if it was possible first, instead of saying no, just in case.

“Of course not!!” Lorin’s answer was not unexpected for Lincoln, “You’re stepping too far.”

“Oh, alright.” Lincoln put on a disappointed expression, and then said: “So how about this, we abide by the different laws of each country, unban this feature in countries where the adult industry is legal, and continue to ban it in countries where it is illegal?”

Lorin’s first reaction was not whether it would work, but: “You said… ‘unbanning’? So that means the feature itself exists, but you guys just haven’t opened it?”

“Uh…” Lincoln hesitated for a moment, but still chose to tell the truth: “Half of it…”

“???” Lorin’s head was filled with even more question marks, “[Half] What does that mean?”

“Half means that the function for men is there, but not for women…”

Lorin looked at Lincoln with an incredulous gaze.

But Lincoln refused to explain further.

Lorin shook his head, not delving any deeper, “Still won’t work, Cloud Dream is a Daxia company, and must abide by Daxia’s laws. In Daxia, all prostitution is illegal, even in the virtual world.”

“But they don’t charge money…”

“Even so, it’s still not allowed.”

“If it’s not allowed for everyone, how about unrestricted access to married couples only? That should be fine, right?” Lincoln finally made his real request.

Lorin thought about it, and it seemed reasonable and wouldn’t face any social resistance, so he nodded in agreement: “That’s fine, marriage information is now networked nationwide, and it’s easy to verify. I can help you communicate on this.”

So Lincoln continued: “If it’s possible for married couples, then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work for couples, right?”

Lorin fell into deep thought.

He had already realized that Lincoln was using negotiation tactics on him, this being his true demand and the previous topics were just window dressing.

But unlike married couples, couples’ relationships have some uncertainties and are not so easy to decide on.

Lincoln then took advantage of the situation and began to explain his prepared measures: age restrictions, lover contracts, cooling period for changing contracts…

After explaining these, he started to talk about the benefits of such actions: preventing affairs, promoting harmony and stability in intimate relationships, increasing the marriage rate…

He just kept listing reasons non-stop.

Of course, Lorin wasn’t someone who would be fooled by a few casual words from others. But listening to Lincoln’s series of measures, he could tell that Lincoln was well-prepared, and was aware of the potential problems and proactively trying to prevent them with rules, instead of recklessly making decisions on a whim.

This made people feel much more at ease, so after “hesitating for a long time,” Lorin finally agreed.

Ruan Pingyi noticed that Lorin was struggling with indecision, but he didn’t seem to want to speak up, so she started the car and slowly left the neighborhood.

“Where are we going?” She asked calmly.

“Civil Affairs Bureau.”

“Huh?” This answer took Ruan Pingyi completely by surprise, and she even became a little flustered.

“What’s wrong?” Lorin asked, puzzled.

“Ah, it’s nothing.” Ruan Pingyi tightly gripped the steering wheel, trying her best to hide her emotions, and turned the car toward the Civil Affairs Bureau.

*

Meanwhile, Lincoln was in the living room, opening the global server map and beginning to study how to adjust the Middle East plan.

There’s no reason not to accept a free server, of course.

However, after building a server center in Dubai and coordinating with the Ottoman Republic’s server center to share the traffic, it seemed that the server pressure in the Middle East could be greatly alleviated for the time being.

The Persian population, the largest in the Middle East, needed only a very narrow submarine cable to connect to the Dubai server.

As for the neighboring countries, to be honest, it was still in a vague state of uncertainty as to how much demand there really was for their servers.

The Middle East is geopolitically strategic and rich in oil resources. After a long history of wars, the region’s infrastructure was nearly destroyed, and it has only been able to recover since the ceasefire.

Although the geographic advantages have once again become apparent after the peace, with booming economic and trade development and rapid progress in various industries, the region’s comprehensive economic strength has basically recovered within ten years, and it already has the market potential that Cloud Dream needs.

But there’s a problem: the development of a country does not necessarily mean the development of its people.

The poverty gap in these countries is extremely severe, with Persia being especially so.

And severe poverty gaps obviously don’t benefit consumer development, which naturally limits Cloud Dream’s potential user base.

——Incidentally, this is also why the priority for the India server center isn’t too high. While it has a population of over a billion, the actual number of potential consumers is only a few tens of millions.

Cloud Dream doesn’t mind the market of tens of millions of people, but the representative of the partner company they’re dealing with seems to have a strange self-confidence, always feeling that their billion-person market should receive some preferential treatment.

“Our market is bigger than yours, Daxia, and is truly the world’s largest. If you want to enter our market and make money, you have to show some goodwill, don’t you?”

Lincoln’s response: “Such a big market, you keep it to make money.”

After that, he just left it alone, planning to revisit it later.

Anyway, with India’s tax environment, who knows what would happen once they enter.

Back to the point, the current social situation in the Middle East countries can be roughly described as an unbalanced state of barbaric development. It is difficult to determine the actual situation based on data alone.

Now that they have received a free Dubai server center, effectively alleviating the computing needs of Middle Eastern users for a while, Cloud Dream can afford to look at the specific data and decide on future plans.

The energy and manpower freed up might be worth considering for… Egypt?

As the most peripheral country in the Middle East, Egypt’s gaming industry is booming too!

More importantly, entering Egypt means entering Africa.

Considering that Africa is almost the most economically underdeveloped continent in the world, Cloud Dream doesn’t expect any major projects in Africa.

In Lincoln’s plan, completing the work in Egypt would be equivalent to completing more than half the work in Africa, and they wouldn’t need to pay attention to the African situation for a long time after that.

It’s not quite a one-time solution, but it’s close.

They can fully focus on the other continents before turning their attention back to Africa.

“Then, Egypt!” Lincoln changed the priority, deciding to let the marketing department pay attention to focus during negotiations.

Afterward, he closed those pages and finally freed up his hands to do something “noble”—

To contribute to the development of “democracy” overseas!