Chapter three - Deja vu

Atharva had deja vu moments before. But they were blurred. Most of the time it was like this has happened before too. But when a girl who had won campus belle competition sat next to him and started the conversation, the feeling was not vague at all. The feeling of bolt out of blue and when you add the intense deja vu feeling, it was no wonder that Atharva froze like a rabbit.

Sabrina didn't mind this at all. This behaviour was okay. The worst was where the boy got nosebleed and started stammering and had run away mortified. She knew Dr Cavanaugh would be presiding the class. Though generous with academic points, he was very strict otherwise. All she had to do is to trip this patsy so that he would make a mistake - even a tiny one like not paying attention, he would be flagged. Who asked him to sit in the front benches, so near to presiding person's seat?

She behaves as though she didn't his deer caught in the light face and continued talking. Keep focusing on me boy, don't notice others. You will be noted just because you stood up late when Dr Cavanaugh comes in. What would happen if you are just sitting vacant faced when he enters the room? Would it end with just a note, a red flag or even a black mark?

Atharva was not listening to her. He was concentrating on the deja vu feel. What had happened before and when did it happen? Finally...a glimpse. A hot girl, with attractive clothes and accessories (no doubt, very costly), sudden raging of dormant male hormones. No wonder he had not focused on anything else. On top of it, he was in heaven and hell for next hour and half as her arms or legs touched him accidentally. It was practically out of the world experience. He didn't even remember who took the class and what was the topic. Only after class ended and everyone went off, had he come out of the dream world and found he didn't even get any academic points for attending the class.

Poor sap! He still didn't guess that the black mark in his record was due to this incident.

No points! No academic points! This was the main take home message he got. This blind man didn't even think of why a hot girl, a campus belle would sit next to him or talk to him. His focus was totally on losing out the academic points. He didn't have enough points to give exams. If he didn't get these points now, he would have to grind for them and waste even more time. The easy ways to collect points were all used up already.

Atharva was close to having panic attack now. Why would he care about the beauty? Just like that, all the plans of the beauty was foiled. Poor Sabrina! She wasted an hour and half, but she failed her task completely. She was not as bold as Patrick Channing to escalate the matter. She had to worry about how to save her skin too if she gets caught.

Bye bye Dream N series of VR pods. You and Sabrina are not fated.

The last class. Traditionally, Head of department would preside and upcoming teacher would teach in the most memorable class. Dr Cavanaugh was even stronger than the Head. He had taught the Head. The teacher turned out to be Dr Julius Arden, the almost became the Head. The reason he didn't get the promotion was because he was not in the college much of the time. He was a visiting professor in many colleges and frequently gave talks. Obviously, the class turned out to be interesting.

"... though open system of economy gives swift gratification, it is not opted habitually. It is not feasible for a long term or a large scale project.

Think of those casual games. You pay extra money and get special gems or points or extra moves, basically something to clear the level. But if you spam purchase option, you will lose the will to play. Other than bragging about clearing the level, the customer will not get any other satisfaction. The chances of him migrating to other game is more.

However, the closed system becomes another extreme of the scale. You are starting a new company, it's a closed system. You are working on state economy, again a closed system. Injecting cash, yes, it's possible. But who will provide it and how much? How many times can it be done?

We'll talk about games. Take any MMO games. If the initial phase, that's the phase with only NPCs is not a closed system, the game becomes rubbish. The Bo's journey or even 'Revenge of the fallen young master' can be considered as an excellent example. The story was good. The game mechanics were good too. But they didn't take off. Ever wondered why? There was no closed system. Weapons and equipments just spawned. Rate, rhythm- nothing was maintained.The closed system is not just the money, it's all the resources - be it even a trash equipment or respawning monster or the loot from it. If there is no cohesiveness, the story becomes more awkward with the introduction of players. If you include pay to win in such scenario, the game dies even faster as it did in the games I mentioned before.That's one of the reason why most of the famous games nowadays insist on long NPC phase. But developers need the pay for win strategies too. It is the major way they are getting back their investments. So for today's assignment, I want atleast 10 ways to introduce cash or other resources into a closed system and I want to know the rationale behind them along with pros and cons.

Next we will talk about....." The lecture continued. A total of five assignments to get points plus points to attend the class. This class was a huge success.