Since moving to this location, Yan Qi and his employees’ work habits had changed to some extent.
This was mainly because the efficiency gap between different time periods when fixing bugs in this “lucky spot” was too significant!
If working overtime for an entire weekend resulted in finding fewer bugs than in one hour on a workday, what was the point of working overtime?
Of course, there were some unscrupulous bosses who, knowing that employees’ presence wouldn’t help the project at all, would still force them to continue working overtime.
But Yan Qi was clearly not such a person.
After moving here, he also discovered that the patterns of this lucky spot weren’t unchangeable. It wasn’t just about “not working on weekends” and the “spherical range”; sometimes there were exceptions.
For instance, the lucky spot occasionally didn’t work on certain weekdays.
At first, Yan Qi racked his brains trying to figure out what was going on, but after spending half a day searching for reasons with other designers in the group chat, he came up empty.
He had no choice but to give up.
After all, with mystical things like this, even trying to find patterns could only be based on guesswork. If there was truly no pattern to be found, one could only leave it to fate.
So Yan Qi stopped fixating on this point. The game was already confirmed to be profitable, so there was no need to be so anxious. They could work when efficiency was high and do other things when it wasn’t.
Today happened to be the day of the first update for “Eternal Cycle.” Yan Qi had pre-purchased the game when the announcement came out and was just waiting for the right time to download the content and experience it.
It was only 30 yuan anyway, which in Yan Qi’s view was practically no different from getting it for free.
After all, in mobile games nowadays, 30 yuan was just the price of a monthly card.
“‘Eternal Cycle’ is a DLC for ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ so the gameplay should be largely similar. But it’s said to be personally directed by Mr. Pei, and they even had the original novelist participate in development, so it’s worth looking forward to.”
Yan Qi saw that it was about time and began downloading the game content.
…
Meanwhile, in an inconspicuous small café.
In a corner table, Pei Qian, Li Yada, and Tang Yishu were staring at each other.
“Sir, your coffee is here… oh my!”
A waiter walked over with a tray holding the coffees the three had ordered. Just as he reached the table, he stumbled and was about to fall forward.
Pei Qian and Tang Yishu, who were closer to the waiter, both reached out almost simultaneously to steady the coffee cups on the tray.
However, Tang Yishu’s movements were clumsy, and as she stood up, she nearly knocked over her chair, while Pei Qian’s movements were swift and calm.
All three cups of coffee were saved, though the third cup, not being directly supported, knocked against the other two slightly, causing a small splash.
Pei Qian calmly took the two intact coffees and handed them to Li Yada and Tang Yishu.
The waiter hurriedly apologized: “I’m sorry, sir, I’ll get you a new cup right away.”
Pei Qian waved him off.
Hmph, good thing I was vigilant, observing everything around me, and had a premonition that there would definitely be an issue.
Pei Qian took a napkin from the side to wipe the small amount of coffee from his hands, looked at the two sitting across the table, and felt somewhat emotional.
Why does meeting my own employees feel like an underground rendezvous…
Ever since the Morning Dew Gaming Platform had turned from crisis to safety, Pei Qian had been pondering how to turn it back.
After thinking for several days, although he hadn’t come up with a great solution, he had gained some clues.
So, he wanted to meet with Li Yada and Tang Yishu to discuss it briefly.
Pei Qian considered that whether he went to the Morning Dew Gaming Platform or had Li Yada and Tang Yishu return to Tenda, neither seemed very prudent. There were too many people around, and if there was a leak, it could cause a major incident.
Therefore, he had no choice but to find a random café by the roadside for a secret discussion.
“Mr. Pei, let me first report the specific situation of the Morning Dew Gaming Platform during this period…” Li Yada had prepared for this reporting work before coming.
Pei Qian shook his head: “No need, I already understand what I need to know.”
Li Yada nodded slightly.
Indeed, Mr. Pei was paying great attention to this gaming platform! Constantly monitoring the platform’s every move!
This further confirmed her and Meng Chang’s speculation: the Morning Dew Gaming Platform was clearly a large-scale experiment, an innovation in the gaming platform model. Once successful, it would fully connect with Tenda Games and soar to great heights!
Pei Qian was unaware of Li Yada’s thoughts; he was simply organizing his own ideas, thinking about how to steer the Morning Dew Gaming Platform back to its original course.
After all, the platform’s current situation was just a fortunate escape from danger. Although it hadn’t collapsed, it was still far from truly exploding in popularity.
There was still room for recovery.
Soon, a new cup of coffee was brought over, this time without any mishap. Pei Qian picked up the coffee, took a sip, and asked, “How is the recommendation system currently arranged on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform?”
Li Yada was momentarily stunned, then secretly delighted.
Sure enough, Mr. Pei had seen the first phase of the Morning Dew Gaming Platform’s success and was now beginning to arrange for the second phase of work!
She immediately answered truthfully: “It’s similar to other gaming platforms, with manual review plus data screening.”
“For games that have passed the bug testing, we first give a rough rating based on the game’s quality. The higher the rating, the better the initial recommendation position the game receives.”
“After getting the initial recommendation position, we can see the corresponding data, such as click-through rate, retention rate, payment rate, and so on. We then make subsequent arrangements based on this data—games with good data continue to the next round of recommendations, while games with poor data will be given recommendations again after a period of time.”
“Of course, we also give certain preferential treatment to exceptionally excellent games. For instance, those outstanding single-player games and indie games from the Last Resort Project receive more favorable recommendation resources.”
Pei Qian took a sip of coffee, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
Obviously, this was the recommendation mechanism currently employed by most mainstream platforms, including official gaming platforms. Basically, novel websites, video websites, etc., also used similar recommendation mechanisms.
Various data could relatively comprehensively and objectively reflect the popularity of a game, not easily influenced by too many subjective factors.
On the basis of objective data, combined with the judgment and analysis of professionals to make appropriate interventions where the data was inaccurate, a fairly good result could be achieved.
Of course, different platforms had different emphases on “data” versus “manual input.”
Some platforms trusted data more, completely relying on data theory. No matter how good a game’s reputation was, if its profit data was poor, it wouldn’t be given recommendation resources. The advantage of this approach was that it could boost performance and earn more money, avoiding errors caused by subjective human judgment.
On the other hand, some platforms gave their staff significant weight, with which recommendation position to use entirely dependent on internal arrangements. Sometimes after under-the-table deals with game developers, a not-so-good game would occupy the best recommendation position for a long time, which was also a common occurrence.
After all, the ultimate goal of the platform was to make money, and openly pricing recommendation positions wasn’t shameful. As for the potential impact and losses to the platform… there wasn’t actually much, as long as the developers paid enough money, everything was negotiable.
For Pei Qian, this issue seemed somewhat difficult.
Rely entirely on data?
But in many cases, data was indeed quite accurate. Although a small portion of good games might be buried, overall this was still a very fair system.
Not to mention, games that were promoted to the forefront based on data, regardless of quality, were mostly very profitable games at present. With a 50-50 revenue split, the platform definitely wouldn’t earn less.
But relying entirely on manual input wasn’t appropriate either.
Because Li Yada understood games, and not just her—many people on the platform understood games.
Even if Pei Qian arranged for people who didn’t understand games very well to manage this, they would inevitably be influenced by the Tenda spirit and guided by other employees, ultimately still selecting relatively excellent games.
Data and manual input combined?
Wouldn’t that just bring them back to the starting point…
After considering for a moment, Pei Qian said, “I think… the arrangement of recommendations should be entirely left to the players!”
Li Yada was taken aback: “Left to the players?”
Pei Qian nodded: “That’s right.”
“What I’m considering is, through a certain mechanism, to filter out a small portion of players as opinion leaders. These people will have a special tag on the platform, and can also be called ‘connoisseurs’.”
“These connoisseurs have the power to decide game recommendation positions.”
“Which game gets which recommendation position depends entirely on these connoisseurs’ ideas, not on the specific data of the game.”
“Of course, there will be a certain selection and removal mechanism for connoisseurs. Think about this carefully and show me the plan once you’ve come up with it.”
Pei Qian’s idea was simple: to deliberately induce internal strife among players through this system!
If all players were to vote openly, it would just be a rating system with greater power.
The games selected for recommendation positions would mostly still be those played by many people and earning a lot of money, which wouldn’t achieve the desired effect.
Therefore, he needed to find a way to divide the players, allowing a small portion to become connoisseurs with the power to arrange recommendation positions for games, while the majority of players could only watch.
Among the connoisseurs, there would also be different preferences, and they would inevitably be at odds with each other as they competed for recommendation positions.
Game developers would also try to curry favor with these connoisseurs and influence them; ordinary players would try every means to bring down the existing connoisseurs and take their places.
In short, on other platforms, the power of recommendation remained in the platform’s own hands. No matter how it was arranged, the end result was mostly profitable, the only difference being whether this game or that game made money.
After Pei Qian’s manipulation, the recommendation positions on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform would be irresponsibly handed over to a minority of players.
Now many players appeared righteous, solemnly claiming they would judge these games fairly.
But if a few people became connoisseurs and gained the power to manipulate recommendation positions, would they still adhere to their previous ideas?
Could those who became connoisseurs remain true to themselves?
Could those who didn’t become connoisseurs accept it calmly?
Pei Qian thought, it was most likely impossible!