Monday, May 13.

Magic City, Longyu Group Headquarters.

“Come this way, Brother Min!”

Longyu Group’s HR Director Kang warmly led Min Jingchao into his office.

The staff of Longyu Group treated Min Jingchao as if he were a god of wealth.

In fact, initially, Longyu Group’s senior management had some disagreements about cooperating with Tenda.

After all, Longyu Group had been competing with Tenda Group for a long time, burning a lot of money and suffering many losses.

Under these deeply-rooted grudges, many senior executives did not trust Tenda.

During the development of “Bullet Hole 2,” Pei Qian required that Longyu Group could not interfere with the game’s operations, not even having the right to make suggestions, which angered many of Longyu Group’s senior executives!

But after “Bullet Hole 2” became a massive hit, these voices all disappeared.

Everyone proclaimed, “It’s truly fragrant!”

After all, who would argue with money?

Longyu Group could directly compensate for the losses of ioi with just this one game, and through this game, they could thoroughly consolidate their position as a first-tier domestic game channel.

As for the attractive financial statements and rising stock prices, those were just incidental!

Longyu Group’s senior management also made a fortune in this cooperation, so their resentment toward Tenda naturally dissipated because the money was right.

Of course, there were still a few narrow-minded executives who remained prejudiced against Tenda, but in this environment, they didn’t dare to speak up!

So, when Tenda announced the establishment of the Tenda Cooperation Department, Longyu Group immediately signed up.

They didn’t have high hopes originally, because many companies had signed up this time, and Longyu Group had already had indirect cooperation with Tenda.

Unexpectedly, Min Jingchao really chose Longyu Group!

For Longyu Group’s senior management, this was obviously a great thing, so they naturally had to give it 100% attention.

Faced with Longyu Group’s enthusiasm, Min Jingchao wasn’t overwhelmed.

He knew this was just surface courtesy.

Once Min Jingchao laid out the entire reform plan, some of Longyu Group’s senior management would surely step up to obstruct and oppose in various ways.

So, Min Jingchao didn’t appear too enthusiastic. He sat down, took a sip of tea, and then spoke calmly.

“About the details of this cooperation agreement, Mr. Pei should have already communicated with you, right?”

Director Kang quickly nodded: “Yes, we’ve communicated. We completely agree with and will comply with all the content in the agreement, including the matter of changing communication software!”

When they say “communicated,” it actually meant that Mr. Pei unilaterally gave orders!

Who would dare to question Mr. Pei’s decisions?

If Mr. Pei were to become displeased and had Min Jingchao switch to another company for cooperation, wouldn’t that mean losing the bird in hand?

So, even if Longyu Group had some doubts about some of the content in this agreement, they could only accept it unconditionally!

Moreover, this cooperation model wasn’t the first time.

In the previous cooperation, Mr. Pei’s attitude was very firm! This time, Longyu Group had already grown accustomed to it.

Min Jingchao was very satisfied: “Since there are no issues, let’s start immediately!”

Director Kang was somewhat surprised: “There’s no need to rush, is there? Why don’t you rest a bit first, and in the evening, I’ll invite a few managers to have dinner with you, a welcome feast. We can talk while eating.”

Min Jingchao immediately shook his head: “Time is precious, let’s skip these cumbersome steps!”

“My plan is to complete all work within two weeks, so let’s make the most of our time!”

Director Kang was stunned: “Huh? Two weeks?!”

How could this be done in two weeks?

Two months would be more reasonable, and six months wouldn’t be too long!

But seeing Min Jingchao’s confident demeanor, Director Kang didn’t dare say much.

Seeing Director Kang standing there stunned, Min Jingchao added: “Please assign someone to assist me as soon as possible, mainly responsible for facilitating communication with various departments.”

“Preferably someone familiar with game operations and who has some seniority and prestige among the departments.”

Director Kang didn’t dare to be neglectful: “No problem. Do you have anyone in mind?”

Min Jingchao replied without hesitation: “Isn’t there an operations manager named Jin Yong? I heard from CEO Zhao that this person has a good reputation and is solid in his work. Let’s have him come.”

Director Kang hadn’t expected Min Jingchao to already have someone in mind. It seemed he had come prepared, which made Director Kang even more cautious.

Jin Yong was currently responsible for the operations of “Bullet Hole 2,” but considering that the operational strategy for this game was set by Tenda, Jin Yong didn’t actually have much heavy work to do.

For someone like Jin Yong, who was quite capable and could take on major responsibilities at any time, doing such work was somewhat of a waste of talent. Having him help Min Jingchao wouldn’t be a waste of talent.

Director Kang nodded: “I need to check with the big boss, Director Ding, on this matter, but don’t worry, there shouldn’t be any major issues. I’ll arrange his personnel transfer as soon as possible.”

Min Jingchao was very satisfied with Director Kang’s cooperation.

Before coming, Min Jingchao had already conducted a rough investigation and had some understanding of Longyu Group’s situation.

According to Zhao Xuming, Jin Yong was a trustworthy assistant.

And Min Jingchao, wanting to implement drastic reforms to Longyu Group’s game operation model, would face the greatest resistance from the company’s owner and president, Director Ding!

But Min Jingchao wasn’t worried; he had come prepared.

Dealing with Director Ding wouldn’t be difficult; he just needed to bring out the big gun: Pei Qian.

Now, with everything in place, Min Jingchao just needed to wait for Jin Yong to arrive and then deploy the specific reform plan with him!

…

In the afternoon, at Longyu Group, the new office area after the Tenda Cooperation Department connected with Longyu Group’s operations team.

After a morning of busy work, Jin Yong’s work handover was completed at an extremely fast pace.

Meanwhile, the dedicated office space for Min Jingchao’s team had also been prepared.

In this large office space, there were not only workstations for Min Jingchao and Jin Yong but also for the operations managers of Longyu Group’s main game projects.

Originally, the operations managers of various game projects were scattered in different places, but now they were gathered together.

This was also specifically requested by Min Jingchao, modeled after the Tenda approach.

Because Min Jingchao felt that as department heads, working in separate offices could easily lead to communication issues.

Moreover, this centralized arrangement made it convenient for him to drive people out after work hours!

Jin Yong, who had previously worked as the operations department head for “Bullet Hole 2,” had already dealt with Min Jingchao and been influenced by Tenda’s operational philosophy, so he didn’t need much adjustment time and could connect directly.

“These are the main projects we’re currently operating. Please take a look at how to modify them,” Jin Yong briefly introduced the situation of several game projects.

Min Jingchao took a brief look at the situation of these games but didn’t speak immediately.

They were all pay-to-win games, the kind where players need to both grind extensively and pay heavily!

Longyu Group’s previous operational strategy was characterized by exhaustive exploitation.

It wouldn’t be appropriate to blame CEO Zhao or Jin Yong for this; the source should be Director Ding!

This operational strategy placed excessive emphasis on data performance, with everything prioritizing data.

There’s a saying that data doesn’t lie.

This statement seems unproblematic, but there’s a distinction between comprehensive data and one-sided data!

One-sided data, if further misinterpreted, could very likely lead to completely wrong answers.

In Min Jingchao’s view, data could certainly reflect problems, but one couldn’t rely entirely on data for everything.

Otherwise, what would operations personnel be needed for? Just to design activities?

As operations personnel, the most important task was to analyze a game and understand the players’ feelings!

They couldn’t completely cater to players, nor could they completely ignore them.

Game operations personnel were also a kind of game designer, except designers focused on gameplay, while game operations focused on player experiences in terms of consumption and activities.

Min Jingchao had already had a clear plan before coming. After a brief consideration, he instructed: “Let’s simply divide these games into three categories.”

“The first category consists of those that are clearly about to fade away. For these games, the currently planned operational activities should all be aimed at exhaustive exploitation, squeezing out all remaining value, right?”

“Cancel all such activities.”

“We will make drastic reforms to these games, trying to prevent the loss of grassroots players as much as possible.”

“As for how to specifically operate, I have a report here about the situation of ‘Hot Blood War Song’ back then. Go study it.”

“The second category consists of games that are currently thriving with a bright future. For these games, go to the forums and broadly listen to players’ demands, prioritizing the improvement of issues they are more concerned about!”

“It’s not advisable to make too many changes to the current framework; we need to proceed gradually!”

“The third category is special, neither very popular nor very cold. For these games, reduce the performance pressure on their development teams, let them come up with more gameplay, and maintain restraint in operational activities!”

“Find a few reliable operations managers to formulate plans based on the characteristics of these projects. Complete it within three days!”

Min Jingchao’s words surprised Jin Yong.

He had thought Min Jingchao would directly and drastically change all games into Tenda’s conscientious game model!

After all, judging from Min Jingchao’s track record, from GOG to “Bullet Hole 2,” he had been invincible throughout the world with just this one operational approach of conscientious gaming!

Unexpectedly, Min Jingchao gave completely different operational plans for these games.

But this also highlighted Min Jingchao’s professionalism!

Because a game’s operational strategy is directly linked to its charging method, and the charging method often relates to the game’s underlying architecture and gameplay design.

If one were to rashly change a game’s operational strategy without in-depth research into the game’s underlying architecture and verifying feasibility, it could very likely produce a counterproductive effect, achieving the opposite of what was intended!

Min Jingchao’s thinking was very clear!

For those games about to die, Min Jingchao’s approach wasn’t to squeeze the last remaining value, but to reform drastically, striving for survival by cutting off a limb!

Through such drastic reforms, he aimed to reverse the vicious cycle of continuous player loss, to bet on a miracle!

For games with good operational conditions and on the rise, one couldn’t act rashly. Governing a large country was like cooking a small fish; every change made had to be strictly validated!

As for those games that were neither hot nor cold, the focus was on working at the root of the game, putting effort into launching some better gameplay and better operational activities!

In short, with these three strategies, Jin Yong realized that Min Jingchao’s ability to operate GOG and “Bullet Hole 2” so well was definitely not undeserved fame, and it was certainly not just relying on Mr. Pei!

He truly had real skills and knowledge!