This Game Has So Many Mechanics

From the simplest game of rock-paper-scissors to elaborate online games, the most important things in any game are, first, the players, and second, the rules.

Players are the foundation of a game, while its rules determine victory, defeat, and rankings.

However, rules devised by people are never perfect, so games sometimes produce strange phenomena that have no counterpart in reality.

When these phenomena benefit players, we call them [game features].

For example, water-bucket clutching in Minecraft, wall clipping, extra lives, and getting above the map in Mario, or the Contra code: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A…

When these phenomena work against players, we call them [game-breaking bugs].

For example, clipping through walls, getting stuck in geometry, purchased items disappearing, drops vanishing, monsters locking at full health, forced disconnections, and characters going out of control…

Other situations that differ from reality are called [game mechanics].

For example, [health bars] can let players survive a shot to the head, but can also mean they die from a kick to the feet.

[Drops] let players loot enemies blasted to ashes, but also cause the value of dropped items to fluctuate.

When Bai Ye arrives in this unfamiliar world and one mechanic after another is triggered, what awaits him? A super CEO in the City of Flowers, or a Gate to Black Technology? Fighting monsters starting in a slaughterhouse, or Biochemical: Survival at the End of the World, or a modern-day version of the Scrolls for Girls…