Yan Qi couldn’t help but feel anxious for the Morning Dew Gaming Platform.

What kind of operation was this?

This was pure nonsense!

According to normal logic, what’s the rush for a new platform?

If the games on the platform hadn’t been debugged yet, why not delay the launch? Wait until all the games were fixed and bug-free, then go online and promote it—that wouldn’t be too late, right?

What was the point of this rushed trial operation?

It wouldn’t make more money, wouldn’t accumulate players, and gamers could look but not play. They might even curse up a storm.

He really couldn’t understand what kind of thought process would lead to such a decision.

After searching online for player comments, he found that discussion about the platform was actually quite high. Though there was criticism, more people were treating it as a joke.

“This Morning Dew Gaming Platform is absolutely insane! They bombarded us with advertisements recently, and I thought it was some major platform. I was wondering if they’d give away a couple of games or have some activities for the trial operation? So I downloaded it, but to my utter surprise, not only were there no activities, but none of the games on the platform could even be played!”

“I was fooled because I saw this platform could be linked with Tenda accounts…”

“Shocked +1. The bugs in the games haven’t even been fixed, what kind of trial operation is this? Operating in solitude.”

“Are they treating us like monkeys? I looked around and the entire platform only has four playable games, and they’re all those outdated, played-to-death mobile games…”

“This Morning Dew Gaming Platform is really confusing. If you say they have no money, they’re constantly advertising, so their funding seems quite sufficient. If you say they have money, why not invest in collaborating with major developers to launch some exclusive games to promote themselves? That would be much more efficient than throwing money at ads!”

“This could definitely make it into this year’s top ten ridiculous gaming industry events: a trial-operating gaming platform with no games, letting players experience nothingness. Normal gaming platforms wouldn’t do something like this!”

“I’m dying of laughter. I saw ads for this platform before but never clicked on them. I thought it was a new platform backed by some wealthy company, but now it seems like they’re just comedians?”

“Yeah, and they even list the number of bugs in the games and update it in real-time. Are they holding a bug-fixing speed competition? Rather than calling it a gaming platform, it’s more like a testing platform or a bug-counting platform for these games…”

“Is there really such a ridiculous gaming platform in the world? I don’t believe it. Isn’t this just a made-up joke?”

“It’s real. Search for Morning Dew Gaming Platform. The official website and platform application data are synchronized. Go in and you’ll see.”

Those expressing anger were mostly players who had actually been successfully funneled in by the advertisements.

Although there were many smaller channels now, and most players had their preferred platforms, there were still some players who floated between various platforms, going wherever there were more discounts or free games to grab some benefits.

Many mobile gaming guilds would also organize people to explore new platforms, as new platforms had more new players. Even for old games, when they launched on new platforms, it was easier to encounter new players, making the gaming experience better.

So, the advertisements that Meng Chang had invested heavily in earlier, despite having a low conversion rate, still managed to convert a batch of people.

These people were either expecting to get some freebies from the new platform’s trial operation or were looking for a change of environment. Either way, they were all waiting for the platform to officially open.

But when they saw the platform after it opened, they thought: Is this it?

When expectations were dashed, they felt deceived and naturally became angry.

But most people didn’t have high expectations for the Morning Dew Gaming Platform to begin with, so they weren’t angry. Instead, they treated the whole thing as a joke.

A gaming platform’s trial operation without any games? It sounded like an April Fool’s joke no matter how you looked at it.

Many people even specifically searched the official website and found that it wasn’t a joke, but real!

As word spread, the Morning Dew Gaming Platform’s fame actually increased!

However, this increase in fame still didn’t do much to attract players to the platform.

And as one player correctly pointed out, with so much promotional funding, wouldn’t it be better to negotiate exclusivity or initial release with major developers?

After all, the most valuable resource on a gaming platform is game content.

Those excellent new games from major developers often come with a lot of attention and naturally bring large groups of players. Even if they couldn’t sign for platform exclusivity, they could at least sign for timed exclusivity. For example, for a week it would only be available on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform, and then after a week, it would be available on other platforms.

This way, most players who experienced the game on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform would stay. Wouldn’t this conversion rate be much stronger than blindly advertising?

If they could negotiate with Tenda for exclusive new games… No, that’s unlikely, given the huge difference in status. But talking with companies like the domestic Tianhua Studio, if the price was right, there was hope.

But it seemed that the people at Morning Dew Gaming Platform hadn’t considered this at all. They just contacted game companies normally, accepted all games, and let them on the platform once the bugs were fixed. They didn’t even have any special preferential treatment for some relatively excellent games.

In short, the more Yan Qi learned about the Morning Dew Gaming Platform, the more bizarre it seemed.

Compared to other platforms, it was completely out of sync, like it belonged to a different world!

Was this what they meant by “the mentally ill have broad thinking, the intellectually disabled have more fun”?

It was hard to understand.

Yan Qi couldn’t help but worry about “Empire’s Blade” as well. Would there be players coming to play their game if it was on such a platform? Would they make money?

But worry was worry, and there wasn’t much he could do about it. He could only hope that the Morning Dew Gaming Platform would deliver.

……

……

August 20th, Monday.

Meng Chang came to the Morning Dew Gaming Platform again to check on the current situation before returning to implement the next step of the promotional plan.

This time, Meng Chang found that there weren’t as many people in the office area as before, and it had become more orderly.

“Hmm?”

“Have they realized that the metaphysical approach doesn’t work, so they’re no longer fighting for workstations?”

“Please don’t let that be the case. I spent the whole weekend racking my brains to come up with a promotional plan based on the assumption that the metaphysical approach works. If it’s ineffective, what will happen to my plan?”

Meng Chang hurriedly quickened his pace to the conference room to ask Li Yada.

Li Yada shook her head: “No, quite the contrary, they haven’t doubted the metaphysical approach at all; they believe in it even more firmly.”

“The reason you see fewer people is because… these companies have reached an agreement.”

Meng Chang was confused: “Agreement? What agreement?”

Li Yada explained: “The companies that came later found that the key positions of the feng shui hotspots were already occupied, so they wanted to rent one or two workstations from the earlier companies at a high price. After all, for bug fixing, they only needed two testers here to test and submit issues to the development team for fixing.”

“But there are many new companies, and if they all started offering higher prices for workstations, it would be chaotic and full of malicious competition. So Yan Qi suggested that companies with more positions than they actually needed could keep just a few workstations and make the rest available.”

“Then, each other company could get two workstations, with transparent pricing, slightly higher than the original rent. These workstations would prioritize companies that were close to completion, about to go online, and urgently needed to fix bugs.”

“It’s a redistribution of these workstations. The companies that came first could make some profit by subleasing, and the companies that came later could also benefit from the feng shui hotspots. In short… with this rule, there’s no need to fight for workstations anymore, so things naturally look more orderly.”

Meng Chang: “…”

He didn’t know what to say for a moment.

Wow, they’d found a way to make such a game out of these few workstations!

But on second thought, they could play however they wanted as long as it didn’t affect his promotional plan.

“Alright, let’s get back to business.”

“I’ve been keeping an eye on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform over the weekend, and apart from not being cursed harshly enough, it generally meets our previous expectations.”

“Next, I’ll continue to invest in promotional funding to make the discussions more intense. If we can create an even bigger controversy, that would be even better.”

“By the way, when will the bugs in these games be fixed?”

Li Yada said: “The first batch of game companies, led by ‘Empire’s Blade,’ have been fixing bugs for more than a week now. If all goes well, they should be able to go online around Thursday or Friday this week.”

Meng Chang nodded slightly: “I see.”

“Let’s stick to the original plan. You focus on the gaming platform matters, and I’ll handle the promotional plan. Before the promotional plan is completed, try not to make public statements, even if there’s a sudden increase in criticism. Don’t clarify anything, just wait patiently.”

“My promotional plan is basically complete, just missing the final key element. But I still need to think about how to approach this key element.”

“Only with a perfect entry point can we achieve explosive promotional effects!”

……

Meanwhile, at Shenhua Haojing.

Like every Monday, Pei Qian came to the office to check on the status of various departments.

“Hmm… the situation with GOG and ioi seems to be getting increasingly problematic…”

Looking at the report sent from Tenda’s gaming department, Pei Qian had an ominous premonition.

During this period, Pei Qian had deliberately instructed Min Jingchao not to hold any more large-scale events for GOG, to take a break.

On one hand, it was because the settlement cycle was still early, and there was no need to rush spending money now. On the other hand, it was also to let ioi recover and rest a bit.

Although things seemed peaceful for now, looking at the recent game data changes for GOG submitted by Min Jingchao, Pei Qian sensed a hint of crisis.

Because compared to before, GOG’s new player growth, as well as active user numbers, online duration, and other data, all seemed to be increasing at a faster rate!

Although Pei Qian couldn’t see ioi’s data, judging from GOG’s data changes, it seemed there might be a certain danger on ioi’s side.

After all, these data wouldn’t increase for no reason. If they were increasing faster despite not having any events, it meant that apart from natural growth, some players were coming from other games.

So, where else could these players be coming from?

It was an obvious question, because there weren’t any other MOBA games of comparable size at the moment…

The question now was, what should be done?

What exactly should he do to help them?