This update announcement had apparently been released on the first day of the Lunar New Year, but Pei Qian had been staying at home then and hadn’t gone online, so he hadn’t paid attention to it.
The announcement contained quite a lot of content, which could be divided into three parts.
The first part was the Spring Festival event.
With the rapid development of the domestic gaming market in recent years, many foreign game companies had become increasingly focused on the Chinese market, so Spring Festival events had begun appearing in more and more games.
The Spring Festival event IOI had organized this time was quite good, including a set of Spring Festival-limited skins and a set of Valentine’s Day-limited skins, along with various other activities such as login rewards during the Spring Festival period.
These two sets of skins were relatively well-crafted, and the activities seemed generous. This aspect was beyond reproach.
The second part was the routine version adjustment.
After all, for a major update, certain balance adjustments had to be made. Otherwise, players would get tired of always playing the same few overpowered heroes.
This round of nerfs appeared to be standard, weakening several popular heroes from the previous World Championship. This should have affected domestic and foreign teams equally, since IOI had previously buffed heroes that foreign teams excelled at during the World Championship, and now they were nerfing some of them back.
Meanwhile, the heroes being buffed were unpopular ones that neither domestic nor foreign teams commonly used.
Obviously, Finger Company was conflicted about which heroes to nerf and which to buff—it was a difficult decision.
Should they continue buffing heroes that foreign teams excelled at? Nerf heroes that domestic teams were good with? That would make their targeting of FV team too obvious—were they afraid of having too many domestic players? Did they want to add fuel to the fire?
But if they buffed heroes that FV team excelled at and nerfed heroes popular with foreign teams, foreign players would be upset: Who had won the World Championship? FV team had already won, and they were still getting buffs? While those who hadn’t won were getting nerfed? Were they crazy?
They couldn’t win either way.
But balance adjustments had to be made; there was no alternative.
So the only option was to be even-handed. Nerf the strong heroes from last year and buff unpopular heroes that no one really used. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?
The third part was about FV team’s championship skins.
The reason these were presented separately, rather than alongside the Spring Festival and Valentine’s Day limited skins, was because Finger Company and Longyu Group were being quite generous this time, creating a special event exclusively for FV team’s championship skins.
This was clearly an attempt to appease domestic players.
After the conclusion of IOI’s World Championship, many players had expressed dissatisfaction, believing that FV team had suffered unfair treatment. In that situation, to protect the feelings of foreign players, Finger Company and Longyu Group didn’t dare act rashly and could only focus on making the championship skins as good as possible, hoping they would salvage some reputation and goodwill.
Now that the championship skins were finally ready, they naturally wanted to make a big deal out of it, allowing all domestic players who still persisted with IOI to see their sincerity.
After reading this announcement, Pei Qian couldn’t help but give Finger Company a thumbs up.
Not bad, they were showing some intelligence!
While this Spring Festival event wasn’t particularly outstanding and didn’t earn any major bonus points, it certainly shouldn’t lose any points either.
Boosting active users during the Spring Festival period shouldn’t be a problem, right?
“Too bad I can’t see IOI’s data, but by looking at player feedback online, I should be able to tell if this event was successful.”
“Even if it’s not successful, there’s no reason for it to be criticized, right?”
Pei Qian found an IOI forum to check player feedback on this Spring Festival event.
However, after seeing the posts, Pei Qian was stunned.
“Hahaha, I knew it, same old story. Finger Company, always the same nature, never able to bring any surprises to players!”
“FV team worked hard all year to master these heroes, and you just nerf them again? What’s wrong with you? Is it really ‘whatever FV team practices, we nerf’? Are you trying to nerf until they can’t play anymore?”
“Exactly. Why don’t you just cancel FV team’s qualification altogether? Just write explicitly in the announcement: ‘We don’t allow any ICL team to win the finals!’ Then domestic teams can just enjoy themselves in the domestic league without getting involved in your World Championship. Let other foreign teams compete for the championship!”
“Nerf, nerf, nerf, it’s always nerfs. Are your balance designers getting paid to do nothing? I could do this kind of balancing—just look at a table of hero win rates in professional matches, nerf those at the top, buff those at the bottom, right?”
“Exactly! Balance designers should consider game mechanics and hero characteristics for balance. Learn from GOG!”
“There’s a reason why IOI is failing in every aspect.”
“Hah, don’t even mention it. Look at the main Spring Festival activities—a set of Spring Festival limited skins and a set of Valentine’s Day limited skins—clearly just another opportunity to grab money! Just like before, constantly releasing new skins in different ways. Don’t you have any self-awareness about how terrible your game has become? And you’re still releasing skins?”
“But that’s not the most infuriating thing. The most infuriating thing is FV team’s championship skins! FV team’s attitude is very clear—such a garbage company doesn’t deserve player support!”
“Sigh, look at GOG next door with their annual big giveaway! Perfect timing for the New Year, red packets being handed out like they’re free. What’s a down-to-earth operational activity? Giving out red packets during Spring Festival—that’s a down-to-earth operational activity!”
“I’m out of here. Buying one set of FV team skins, then goodbye IOI. No more attachment!”
There were many similar posts.
In short, the entire forum was permeated with an atmosphere of farewell!
Pei Qian was dumbfounded.
What was going on?
This New Year activity seemed fine, so why was everyone so agitated? What exactly went wrong?
After carefully studying the content of these posts, Pei Qian leaned back in his chair, seeming to understand.
If you only looked at the content of this update, there wasn’t really any major issue. If GOG or another game with a better reputation had done this activity, it would definitely have received some praise.
At the very least, it wouldn’t have been criticized.
But IOI was different—these seemingly problem-free activities had precisely struck at the players’ wounds!
First, releasing Spring Festival limited skins and Valentine’s Day skins was completely standard procedure; GOG had done it too. But the problem was that since Finger Company had partially lost autonomy over IOI, Dayark Group had organized too many similar skin activities to maximize cost recovery!
While having more skins wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, focusing most of their energy on skins naturally meant fewer other updates.
For a long time, IOI’s game mechanism updates, balance updates, and new hero development plans had all taken a back seat to skins. Players weren’t stupid—they could see what this was about: making money!
Making money wasn’t an issue, but shouldn’t the game content be good?
So when players saw IOI releasing more skins this time, they had absolutely no desire to spend money and immediately categorized it as “IOI shamelessly trying to milk players.”
How could this be well-received?
Secondly, this routine balance update had angered the masses.
Logically, nerfing strong heroes from the previous World Championship was normal behavior, but the problem was that FV team had already suffered too much unfair treatment, causing all domestic players to lose trust in Finger Company on this matter.
No matter what Finger Company did, it looked like they were targeting FV team!
FV team had spent a long time and put in a great effort to master these few strong heroes, reaching the same level as other foreign teams, and Finger Company had cut them down with a single stroke. Why?
The key issue was that the buffed heroes weren’t ones that FV team excelled at, which made it seem very targeted.
Players couldn’t control what other foreign companies thought, but judging from the treatment FV team received, it was truly infuriating.
Many couldn’t help but wonder: if the champion wasn’t FV team but SUG or some other foreign team, would Finger Company still be in such a hurry to nerf those strong heroes?
Once such speculation arose, it was difficult to contain.
Thirdly, the comparison between IOI and GOG’s activities had once again stabbed IOI players in the heart.
GOG’s Spring Festival activity was called “Agents’ New Year Red Packets,” with red packets worth a total of ten million yuan for all players to share based on luck!
It was based on luck, not speed, with accounts logging in on the first day of the Lunar New Year sharing the prize.
There were five million red packets in total, with the minimum amount being 0.88 yuan and the maximum being several 888 yuan red packets.
As for who could get these 888 yuan red packets, it all depended on luck.
Of course, according to Tengda’s consistent lucky draw rules, similar activities had certain activity requirements to prevent scalpers. The higher a player’s weight in the game, the better their luck would be.
The key was that players could even choose to withdraw this money directly!
If they didn’t withdraw it, they could also choose to multiply the amount by ten and convert it into vouchers for purchasing skins, which could be used incrementally.
Simply put, if someone drew a 0.88 yuan red packet, they could exchange it for an 8.8 yuan voucher that could be used to purchase any skin.
If someone drew a 188 yuan red packet, they would get a 1,880 yuan voucher that could be used multiple times. For example, if they bought a skin priced at only 10 yuan, they would receive a skin and a 1,870 yuan voucher, until the entire voucher was consumed.
Considering Tengda’s skin prices, those lucky enough to draw an 888 yuan red packet, if converted to vouchers instead of withdrawing, would probably be able to buy all of GOG’s skins for the coming year.
Even those who didn’t draw even a 0.88 yuan red packet would receive a consolation voucher that applied to everyone.
One game was releasing New Year skins to make money, while the other was giving out New Year red packets—the difference was crystal clear.
Which game won people’s hearts? Wasn’t it obvious?
Finally, FV team’s championship skins became the last straw that broke IOI players’ backs!