Fontaine, this water city, was built on the river and is also maintained by the river. The urban layout and social structure are intertwined, providing a foundation for the daily system. As a traveler coming here from the outside world, he is both a guest and a potential community member. The daily commission system of Fontaine is a “social invitation” issued by this society to him.
First of all, let’s talk about the task process: the traveler must go through two main plots: “The Prologue of White Dew and Black Tide” and “The Light Rain that Falls Like No Cause”, and enter the Fontaine community before he can connect with the Adventurer Association and be formally included in the daily system. This link seems to be the threshold of “social network” and “identity legalization” in modern society.
After entering, the traveler accepts four commissions every day – assisting researchers to repair water devices, delivering court documents, dispelling phantoms, and assisting in the preservation of public facilities, etc. – these seemingly trivial daily labors are actually the core of the community embedding mechanism. They promote the traveler’s recognition of the Fontaine system by participating in urban maintenance, judicial cooperation, and security, and also let local residents see and trust him.
The reputation system, as a community evaluation mechanism, “quantifies” the contribution of travelers, similar to the “official evaluation” in rural areas or the “community points” in cities. By upgrading his reputation, he can unlock functional resources, such as “Water Phantom Identifier” and “Folding Light Cone”. These tools not only improve his personal efficiency, but also make it easier for him to continue to contribute to community affairs, forming a positive cycle of “trust → resources → participation → regeneration of trust”.
The attitude of community members (NPC) towards him, from politeness at the first acquaintance, to calling his name, and handing over a “thank you”, presents a micro-accumulation mode of “from stranger to familiar”. This is very similar to how the accumulation of “social capital” is achieved in real society: trust is nothing more than a simple contract formed in repeated interactions.
Take “assisting researchers in finding equipment” as an example:
Institutional requirements: Equipment is related to the water supply of the entire city and is a basic social service. Its failure means a hidden danger to public order;
Action participation: The traveler jumps into the river to repair the equipment, and this visible labor constitutes an explicit contribution;
Social feedback: Community members express gratitude, and the system grants reputation and props;
Institutional legitimacy: The task is issued by the Adventurer Association and monitored by Catherine, with clear procedures and clear structural levels;
Trust construction: When the traveler completes the commission many times, community members begin to take the initiative to pay attention to, rely on, and give priority to assisting him in matters such as document processing and bridge repair.
More socially significant is that this system encourages travelers to enter core nodes such as streets, municipalities, docks, and courts, and experience the intersection of the Fontaine system and folk life. He is no longer a distant spectator, but an embedder, an endogenous social actor.
The cycle of daily commissions helps community integration. On the one hand, it consolidates the administrative system – a closed loop consisting of task issuance, execution, feedback, and rewards; on the other hand, it builds the interaction between travelers and the community – from execution behavior and social recognition to identity and cultural identity.
Observing the logic of reputation upgrade, we will find that it is not only a “reward”, but also reflects “identity upgrade”: when the reputation reaches the second or third level, the traveler has gained public trust and can be entrusted to participate in tasks with greater social impact. For example, the submission of documents is related to the court, which indicates that he has entered the administrative core of the community; for example, the task of clearing phantoms reflects the maintenance of public safety, suggesting that he has been regarded as an “order guardian” by the organization. This is far beyond the daily “little things” and is closer to the role of community governance.
It can be seen from this that Fontaine’s task system is not a simple “punch-in + reward”; it is actually a highly sophisticated community embedding mechanism that imitates the public service, social trust, and identity structure of real society. It allows travelers to build a network of relationships with the city, allowing them to transform from “outsiders” to “community members.”
Professor Fei Xiaotong once emphasized the way social order is generated: not administrative orders, but “mutual assistance and trust.” Fontaine’s daily entrustment source code is exactly this logic – using embedded actions to guide participation and recognition, and then using rewards and system feedback to maintain the continuity of order and trust.
Therefore, in the daily life of Fontaine, travelers not only gain resources and experience, but also realize the transformation of social identity in the process of participation, recognition, and institutional embedding. This is a “sociological experiment” in modern games and a soft community governance strategy.
When night falls, the lights on the riverside reflect on the water, and the traveler is no longer a simple passer-by, but becomes an “other” in this community. His journey thus acquires a dual meaning: not only experience and adventure, but also participation and belonging.