After much persuasion, Pei Qian finally convinced Meng Chang to stay.
Although whether Meng Chang would ultimately still push for parting ways depended on the effectiveness of Pei Qian’s marketing plan next month, but next month’s matters could wait until next month.
Even the system can’t defeat me, let alone a mere Meng Chang!
Actually, the marketing tasks Pei Qian gave to Meng Chang were just a weakened version of what the system required.
The system demanded comprehensive losses, while Meng Chang’s marketing task only required ensuring that the promotional plan for a particular industry didn’t work.
Pei Qian could handle even more difficult challenges with ease, so this simplified version—as long as he didn’t pursue the highest difficulty of 200,000 yuan commission—should be a sure thing… right?
At this point, there was no use thinking about next month’s matters.
Better to focus on the present.
Meng Chang’s promotional plan had completely failed, and while he could now wash his hands of it and just collect his base salary, Pei Qian couldn’t.
Poor Mr. Pei still had to find a way to clean up this mess.
The current situation was that rumors were spreading wildly. Internet users and numerous gaming media outlets had mistaken Old Qiao’s playtested game for “Eternal Cycle,” the sequel to “Turn Back to Shore,” and the rumors were becoming increasingly outlandish.
Players eagerly awaiting “Eternal Cycle” had become somewhat obsessed, even developing a habit of commenting about “Eternal Cycle” under any Tenda-related news.
For instance, when the official Weibo shared an ultra-wide wallpaper featuring all GOG heroes, comments below included: “I get it! Officials are hinting that ‘Eternal Cycle’s’ plot will be an extended version, at least twice as long as a regular game!”
When the official Weibo posted a cosplay photo of a girl, players commented: “I understand! Officials are hinting that ‘Eternal Cycle’ will feature cute girls and include a dating simulation system!”
If rumors continued spreading like this, they would only become more absurd, and who knows what players would come up with next.
Other projects were scheduled to launch in the next month or so. If this level of attention continued, with rumors spreading and causing more chain reactions, generating enormous popularity for “Eternal Cycle,” what would happen if the DLC became popular before it was even released?
The current rumors were already quite ridiculous. After another two months, who knows what terrifying things might happen.
He needed to clarify things a bit, lower the intense attention, prevent players from having such unrealistic expectations, and quickly quell the impact of this incident.
This way, when Pei Qian created other marketing plans next month, he would have cleared some obstacles in advance.
How exactly should he cool things down?
Pei Qian thought about it and decided he needed to clarify at least two points.
First, “Eternal Cycle” was not a sequel to “Turn Back to Shore” but just a regular DLC, vastly different in scale; second, Old Qiao was not playtesting “Eternal Cycle”—in fact, “Eternal Cycle” hadn’t even been initiated as a project, not even a folder had been created for it, and formal development wouldn’t begin until August.
Just by clarifying these two points, players might not be completely disappointed, but their enthusiasm would surely plummet, right?
It was like going to a high-end restaurant, thinking that a highly acclaimed main dish would be served in five minutes, feeling extremely excited, with phones ready to take pictures for social media.
But then the waiter comes over and says, “Sorry, what’s coming up isn’t the main dish, just a regular appetizer, and the main dish will take another half hour.”
Although they’d still remember this, their anticipation would definitely be significantly reduced.
Previously, Pei Qian couldn’t clarify because it would have affected Meng Chang’s promotional plan, and then Meng Chang would blame him if things went wrong.
But now that Meng Chang had given up, there was no need to worry about how this would affect him.
Seeing that Meng Chang was about to leave, Pei Qian quickly called him back.
“You’re leaving just like that?”
“Not to criticize you, but you always look forward without considering the aftermath. When you see a marketing plan fail, you just walk away, completely disregarding the potentially negative consequences.”
“Take this situation, for example. Internet users are showing such high interest in ‘Eternal Cycle’ that they’re becoming obsessed. If we don’t handle this promptly, when ‘Eternal Cycle’ is eventually released, its popularity will surely explode. At that point, if you try to create marketing plans to reduce its popularity, will it be too late?”
“By properly handling the aftermath of one project, you’re also clearing obstacles for the next one!”
“With your lack of attention to detail, isn’t failure inevitable?”
Meng Chang was stunned, a bit bewildered.
His expression now resembled that of an elementary school student being lectured by the homeroom teacher.
Mr. Pei’s criticism made some sense!
If they allowed this situation to continue fermenting, with internet users’ emotions unvented, the attention would only accumulate more and more, inevitably leading to some unknown chemical reactions in the future.
A professional reveals his skill with just one move.
At first, Meng Chang thought Mr. Pei was just messing with him, saying he would demonstrate a marketing plan, but Mr. Pei was a busy person with many industries to manage—how could he devote all his energy to creating a marketing plan for him?
So, Meng Chang hadn’t expected much.
But seeing Mr. Pei’s attitude toward details now, it was clear he was going to teach him hands-on?
Meng Chang felt almost overwhelmed, momentarily experiencing the illusion that Mr. Pei’s kindness toward him was as vast as a mountain.
Of course, it was just a momentary feeling.
“Then… Mr. Pei, what should we do? Just tell me, and I’ll execute it,” Meng Chang asked very humbly.
Pei Qian nodded slightly.
Hmm, the child can be taught. This is the right attitude!
As long as Meng Chang was willing to learn humbly, he was still promising material.
Pei Qian thought for a moment. “To calm the excitement, we must make it as simple and clean-cut as possible.”
“Saying too much can easily trigger players’ imaginations.”
“So, just post a clarification statement on Tenda’s official Weibo. Focus on the two points I mentioned earlier: ‘Eternal Cycle’ is just a DLC, and it won’t officially start development until August. This way, players won’t continue to focus on this matter, and the attention will gradually decrease.”
“Keep it somewhat concise and formal.”
Although Tenda’s official credibility was questionable due to too many “cry wolf” operations, the credibility of this statement was relatively high, and players should believe it.
Meng Chang was stunned. “Mr. Pei, are you sure this is okay?”
Pei Qian asked in return, “Is there a problem?”
“Um… nothing.”
Meng Chang just vaguely felt there might be something inappropriate, but at the moment, he couldn’t figure out what exactly was wrong.
Since it was Mr. Pei’s plan, he would execute it. Whether there was a problem or not would be clear soon enough.
…
Fifteen minutes later, Meng Chang came knocking again.
“Mr. Pei, the statement is ready. Please review it.”
Pei Qian took the phone and looked at the Weibo post’s content.
“Tenda Group and Tenda Games Department have noticed recent discussions among internet users and gaming media reports about ‘Turn Back to Shore sequel,’ which contain false information from unknown sources. To avoid misleading players, we hereby declare the following:”
“‘Eternal Cycle’ is not a sequel to ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ but merely a regular DLC for ‘Turn Back to Shore.’ There is a huge difference in scale between the two. Tenda Games currently has no plans to develop a sequel to ‘Turn Back to Shore’ in the near future.”
“‘Eternal Cycle’ has not yet entered the project preparation stage. The official project initiation and design time will be after August, not ‘already in the testing phase’ as rumored online.”
“We hope players can identify false information and not be deceived.”
“This statement is issued to set the record straight.”
The word count was quite high, so it needed to be posted as a long Weibo. Currently, the content was saved as a draft and hadn’t been officially published yet.
Meng Chang wasn’t sure if the statement was written appropriately, so he needed Mr. Pei’s approval.
Pei Qian nodded slightly.
Hmm, it’s written well.
Although it felt a bit rigid, with slightly too much official language, this had its advantages—players definitely wouldn’t think this was a joke anymore, which would improve credibility.
Regardless of any issues with the wording of the statement, it at least achieved its purpose.
“It’s fine, post it,” Pei Qian said.
Meng Chang took back the phone and pressed the “Send” button.