Clearly, Lin Wan wasn’t the only one attempting the same analysis.
In the DGE Club, Zhang Yuan was also holding this list, with beads of sweat appearing on his forehead.
As these department heads were “apprehended” one by one, Zhang Yuan first felt a fear of impending disaster, which then turned into relief at having escaped by the skin of his teeth.
This feeling became even stronger when he saw Xiao Peng’s name on the list.
“Phew… that was terrifying!”
“If I hadn’t stepped down from my position as the head of Slackin’ Internet Café, Xiao Peng’s name on this list would probably have been replaced with mine.”
Although Zhang Yuan wasn’t clear about what kind of place Bao Xu’s suffering travel training base was or what kind of training programs it had, he could tell with his toes that it definitely wasn’t a place to enjoy oneself.
After his transformation, Bao Xu had instantly changed from someone who would impotently rage every time he was sent on a trip to a behind-the-scenes mastermind who held the power of life and death over the department heads.
This feeling was somewhat reminiscent of an imperial secret police chief.
The current head of Slackin’ Internet Café, Xiao Peng, was on the list, and quite high up too.
Zhang Yuan was very grateful. If he had continued as the head of Slackin’ Internet Café, he would certainly have been on this list as well.
Fortunately, after leaving Slackin’ Internet Café to become the head of the DGE Club and E-sports Division, Zhang Yuan had escaped disaster, while Xiao Peng, who had taken over, was caught in the net.
But this didn’t make Zhang Yuan feel at ease; instead, he felt even more unsettled.
Since this batch of department heads had been arranged, how far away could the reckoning for other department heads be?
Zhang Yuan pondered that, based on his understanding of Mr. Pei’s character, this matter was unlikely to end so simply.
In the worst-case scenario, Mr. Pei might normalize and institutionalize this matter, arranging for all core department heads to go through it.
In other words, Zhang Yuan himself might already be on the next batch list; it was just a matter of time.
“No, I need to find a way to save myself.”
“Although Mr. Pei’s arrangement definitely has deeper meaning and might benefit us and the entire Tenda Group, but… I really don’t want to go to this special training!”
Zhang Yuan’s current mindset was like that of a middle school student staying in the warm bed on a cold day. Although he knew that getting up early to run laps was good for his health, knowing it was one thing, but being willing to do it was another matter entirely!
“I need to quickly study this list and see what similarities these ten people share.”
“I must figure it out quickly so I can avoid being taken away as much as possible.”
Zhang Yuan listed various characteristics of these ten people and the recent work situations of their departments on his computer, beginning a serious analysis.
He was more serious than when he was actually working.
And other Tenda department heads who had luckily not been selected for this special training list were all more or less doing similar things.
The Tenda department heads’ chat group had become very quiet.
…
…
September 7th, Friday.
In the office building housing the Morning Dew Gaming Platform.
Yan Qi carefully examined the various data for “Empire’s Blade” on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform, the corners of his mouth slightly turning upward into a satisfied smile.
It was even better than he had anticipated!
After “Empire’s Blade” officially went online, the situation was good. Being among the earlier batch of games launched on the platform, it received an excellent featured position and could even be considered the best action mobile game on the platform for a period of time.
After the Bug-Finding activity, a large number of players flooded in. “Empire’s Blade,” being a game of good quality with few bugs on the platform, naturally attracted many players’ favor and was full every day.
New servers opened one after another, and the game’s popularity naturally grew day by day.
Previously, Yan Qi had been constantly worried about what would happen when the enthusiasm from the Bug-Finding activity died down.
At that time, he feared the popularity would plummet, and the game might even face the danger of being removed from the platform.
But unexpectedly, after Young Master Tian’s video came out, the situation completely turned around! A large number of players and designers responded, with new players flooding in and creating a huge impact on those old players who maliciously clicked “not recommended,” while the Last Resort Project continuously released excellent indie games, also injecting fresh blood into the Morning Dew Gaming Platform’s game library.
In this way, the Morning Dew Gaming Platform was gradually being revitalized!
Of course, there wouldn’t be earth-shattering changes in the short term, but everyone could feel that the situation was changing.
Previously, almost all games on the platform were on the edge of being removed, but after this batch of new players flooded in, the “not recommended” rate gradually decreased, and many games, including “Empire’s Blade,” moved away from the danger zone of being removed.
Obviously, these newly arrived players were striving hard, using their votes to keep these games on the platform as much as possible, preventing those players who hoped to profit from game removals from succeeding.
For some old players on the platform, this was certainly unacceptable.
They had put in so much effort, finally getting close to voting this game off, looking forward to getting a 50% refund, when suddenly a batch of new players flooded in and raised the recommendation rate again.
How could they tolerate this?
Both sides displayed their abilities, either spamming “not recommended” on the platform or attacking and cursing each other on external forums, making the battle extremely fierce.
However, the situation still inevitably tilted toward those rational players.
This was where the excellence of the Morning Dew Gaming Platform’s rating system was revealed: it wasn’t a rating from 1~5 or 1~10, but simply a recommendation or not recommendation.
Although ratings can better differentiate game quality in many cases, the vast majority of people are almost impossible to maintain objective and rational ratings under extreme circumstances.
Once the two sides with different opinions fall out, it’s either you mindlessly giving 1 point or me mindlessly giving 10 points. Both will push toward the most extreme direction, and whoever objectively gives 7 points ends up at a disadvantage.
The original intention was to more accurately represent the true rating of a game or a movie, but the result often went against expectations.
So, it might be better to just have the two options of “recommend” and “not recommend,” which makes it easier to deal with such extreme situations.
During this process, some games were indeed removed from the platform, but they were basically games with outdated gameplay and poor quality.
Although the Morning Dew Gaming Platform could strictly limit the number of bugs in games, it couldn’t limit the gameplay and quality of art resources, so inevitably some less popular old games would be listed.
The main purpose of this newly inflowing batch of players was to protect those excellent games on the platform. As for these outdated, not fun old games, they naturally left them to their own devices.
But this wasn’t a major problem. On one hand, survival of the fittest was the original purpose of the Morning Dew Gaming Platform; on the other hand, although these games were removed, they could still get their half of the revenue share, and they could be relisted after a period of time.
As long as most of the excellent games on the platform could be preserved, there would be no problem.
After witnessing the Morning Dew Gaming Platform’s “rebirth from the brink of death,” Yan Qi clearly knew that the most dangerous period for the platform had passed.
If Young Master Tian’s video hadn’t triggered a significant response, or if players had only verbally supported it, with the discussion quickly cooling down, then the platform’s shutdown would only have been a matter of time.
In the current situation, with game developers and players continuously flooding in, although on the surface it seemed like the struggle among players on the platform would continue for a long time, it at least indicated that the platform had passed through its biggest crisis, and the situation would surely gradually improve in the future.
The game “Empire’s Blade” could naturally rest easy!
As he was pondering this, he heard the test group leader beside him mutter: “How strange, this lucky spot doesn’t seem to be working anymore. Isn’t today Friday?”
The main development of “Empire’s Blade” was indeed complete, but there was still upcoming update content.
For a mobile game, the first few months after launch are the most profitable period, so although they could relax a bit compared to the development period, new content still needed to be continuously developed.
Taking advantage of the large number of players and high enthusiasm, releasing some new content would lead to more profit.
Only when the game reached the middle and later stages of its life cycle, when new content wouldn’t significantly stimulate revenue, would the entire project team enter a complete state of rest and begin to conceive new projects.
Yan Qi said: “If it’s not working, then write something, do something else, write a work summary. In a while, ‘Eternal Cycle’ will be officially updated, so it’s fine to relax a bit. It’s important to balance work and rest.”