Chapter 1336 The Fundamental Difference Between Game Content and Reality

"Some may think that the root cause is the decline of morality, the lack of integrity, and the fact that intermediaries, in pursuit of personal gain, disregard the interests of tenants, just like the choices made by many players in the game. I only care about renting the house out; I don't care about the tenant's living conditions."

"But that's not the case. The game has already provided the answer, but most people haven't discovered it yet."

"Have you noticed any fundamental differences between the intermediaries in the game and those in reality?"

"The intermediaries in the game are actually both the boss and the employee, responsible for their own profits and losses, and accountable to themselves. In contrast, the intermediaries in reality are merely employees, replaceable employees with almost no bargaining power, who can only carry out the will of the superiors."

"This distinction is the key point that this game wants to express."

Ding Xiyao couldn't help but be taken aback.

She instantly realized the scene of the intermediary store she saw when she first entered the game: the store was completely different from reality, accommodating only one person, without any other colleagues.

As the game progressed, the intermediary store would continue to expand, becoming more spacious and beautifully decorated, but still, no other colleagues could be seen.

Previously, Ding Xiyao thought this was simply a game mechanism issue, but after hearing what Tian Gongzi said, it seemed to have a deeper meaning.

"In the game, the player plays a dual role as both the boss and the employee: when deciding how to serve customers and how to earn profits, the identity is that of the boss; and when implementing this service method and personally answering questions for customers, the identity is that of the employee."

"In reality, intermediaries only have one identity: employees who listen to the boss's instructions and come into direct contact with customers."

"Therefore, the various chaotic phenomena that appear in the intermediary industry in real life are certainly partly due to the personal qualities or morality of the intermediaries themselves, but the vast majority of the reasons lie with the company and the boss behind them."

"Because the boss doesn't care about the tenant's actual living experience, but only looks at performance and profits, the intermediaries can only 'use their own skills' under the pressure of performance. And deceptive tricks are precisely the most helpful in boosting performance and earning profits during periods of disorderly expansion."

"Intermediaries with high performance become top sales, naturally receiving high bonuses and commendations from the boss, while those with low performance, even if they confide in customers, can only get the most basic commission, making it difficult to even make a living."

"Over time, those who don't adapt to this environment are forced to leave, and most of the intermediaries who remain know what choices to make."

Ding Xiyao read this passage repeatedly and wanted to give this Tian Gongzi a thumbs up.

He was absolutely right!

Many people simply put the blame on the intermediaries, believing that the overall quality of the intermediaries is low and morally corrupt, which is why there are so many chaotic phenomena.

But in reality, the root cause is not with the intermediaries at all.

Even if individual intermediaries are indeed of questionable quality, it is mostly not innate, but forced out, cultivated, and influenced by this environment.

The real decision-maker is the boss. The boss demands volume and performance. As for conscience and reputation, if they can increase profits, they can be hypocritically emphasized; if they cannot increase profits, what's the use of these things?

The boss actually turns a blind eye to the various chaotic phenomena in the intermediary industry, or even tacitly approves of and condones them.

He says he wants to rectify, but even if there are complaints, he just makes a big show of it and lets it go.

If he really rectifies, who will be responsible for the decline in profits?

What's interesting about the *Real Estate Agency Simulator* game is that it doesn't separate the boss from the employee, but instead creates an image similar to a "self-employed individual," allowing players to be responsible for their own profits and losses while playing the dual roles of boss and employee.

If the two identities were separated, on the one hand, the fun of the game would be greatly reduced, and on the other hand, there would be too much preaching, which players would not accept at all.

And the current approach not only allows players to have fun in the game and be completely engrossed, but also allows them to reflect after calming down and understand the root cause of this chaotic phenomenon.

But this is clearly not yet the core part of the video.

This Tian Gongzi didn't just stop the topic on the game's gameplay and its connection to social reality, but continued to extend it, digging out more content.

"If you study it in depth, you will find that there is a hidden mechanism in the game."

"After the rental agreement is reached, the tenant will still have a satisfaction level with the house. If the satisfaction level is lower than expected, then when this tenant comes back, they will pick more faults, demand lower rent, or even not come back at all."

"Not only that, the satisfaction level of a large number of tenants will also affect the player's store's reputation. You may not be able to see it in the short term, but after it accumulates, this impact will become more and more obvious."

"In other words, choosing to deceive tenants for profit can indeed accumulate huge profits in the short term, but the cost is a decline in reputation, fewer and fewer high-quality tenants, and it becomes more and more difficult to make money. While treating people with sincerity gives up profits in the early stage, over time, the store's reputation gradually accumulates, more high-quality tenants will appear, and transactions will become easier and easier."

"This obviously also conforms to the laws of reality: most tenants are easily deceived the first time they rent a house, and after being scammed once, they will naturally be careful and mostly won't go to the same store that scammed them to rent a house again."

"But at this time, a new question may arise: why do many intermediary companies continue to grow and expand while continuing to do deceptive things, and seem to not be punished at all?"

"Why in the game, when players scam tenants, it leads to fewer tenants coming to the door and slow development, while in reality, those intermediary companies that scam tenants are still doing well?"

"Is this simply because the game has beautified reality, giving a reasonable but unrealistic setting?"

Ding Xiyao was stunned for a moment; she hadn't really thought about this question.

But after Tian Gongzi brought it up, she considered it in depth and realized that it was indeed a problem.

Logically speaking, after an intermediary company scams tenants, no tenants should come to the door afterward, but companies like Zhujia Group, despite repeatedly scamming people and even having formaldehyde-filled room incidents, still occupy a dominant position in the intermediary market, and there doesn't seem to be much shaking.

Although the formaldehyde-filled room incident also caused Zhujia Group's stock to fall and was rectified and fined, it seemed to quickly recover its vitality, and its market share is still very high, with no fundamental changes occurring.

Does this mean that people in reality are not as smart as the NPCs in the game?

Tian Gongzi quickly gave the answer.

"This question still comes down to the player's identity in the game."

"In the game, the player is both the boss and the intermediary, responsible for their own profits and losses, and responsible for their own consequences."

"Therefore, in the game, players can only be responsible for a small area's housing resources, and they also have to compete with other intermediary companies. In this case, tenants actually have many choices. After being scammed by the player, they will naturally go to other intermediaries, and the number of customers the player receives will decrease."

"In this case, the adjustment mechanism is still working."

"We might as well extend this. Suppose the game adds a 'merger and expansion' gameplay. The player is no longer the boss of a small intermediary store, but a large group company or controls a large amount of capital."

"Then, do you still need to abide by the existing game rules? Of course not."

"At that time, the optimal solution for the player is to swallow up all the surrounding stores, or find a way to squeeze out other intermediary companies and then open their own branches all over the city, or even all over the country."

"At the same time, using these stores as footholds, the intermediaries under their command constantly call and harass homeowners, monopolizing all the surrounding housing resources in their own hands."

"In this way, tenants have no other choice at all, because all the housing resources are in the hands of this company. If you don't rent from them, where else can you rent?"

"So the adjustment mechanism seen in the game will not take effect at all, because the tenant has no choice. Even if they are scammed, they can only change to another store. No matter how much they toss and turn, they have not escaped the control of this group company and this industry trend."

"Therefore, the setting of the player's identity in the game is clearly carefully considered, not only for game-related considerations."

"More importantly, it constructs a special contrast."

"In the game, the player兼任 (jianren - holds the concurrent posts of) both boss and employee, but in reality, the boss and employees of similar intermediary companies are completely separated."

"In the game, the 'intermediary' industry that players engage in is the original appearance of this industry, where there is full competition and improving service quality is the only way to succeed; but in reality, the real 'intermediary' industry is an alienated form, an industry with a certain degree of monopoly, an abnormal state in which group companies and large capital can completely disregard the actual living experience of tenants for profit."

"In other words, the intermediary identity in the game doesn't seem annoying, and you can even choose whether to keep your conscience; while the intermediary identity in reality makes people feel disgusted, and intermediaries often have no choice. In the final analysis, it is because the source has changed, which has led to a change in the 'intermediary' identity: from a service provider that connects people, to an intermediary that demands kickbacks and benefits."

"And through the comparison between the game and reality, we can more clearly see the difference between the two, so that we can more accurately locate the crux of the intermediary industry in reality!"