April 15th, noon.
Pei Qian sat in his office, deep in thought.
Last night at 8 PM, Season Three of “Mr. Pei’s Daily Life” officially premiered exclusively on AiLiDao.
From yesterday until now, a huge promotional banner had been displayed in the most prominent position at the top of AiLiDao’s homepage, advertising “Mr. Pei’s Daily Life.”
Many viewers came because of its reputation, eagerly sending bullet comments. The short videos, just over a minute long, became quite lively. The dense bullet comments showed many viewers who had just migrated from traditional video websites like Banana Potato Network the unique aspects of this new form of video interaction!
Pei Qian didn’t watch the premiere, but the next day, he checked the video’s view count.
It had already reached over 600,000!
At this rate, the video’s final view count would likely reach around 1 million.
Not all of these might be effective clicks, but by any calculation, the video incentive revenue from this episode on AiLiDao would be around 200,000 yuan.
Moreover, as the popularity accumulated, later videos might have higher view counts than earlier episodes.
By this calculation, for all 10 episodes of the season, the revenue sharing income would likely exceed 2.3 million.
In other words, AiLiDao had essentially paid over 2 million yuan for the exclusive broadcasting rights to Season Three of “Mr. Pei’s Daily Life.”
This price wasn’t particularly high compared to popular drama series or variety shows that could cost tens of millions in licensing fees.
But for Pei Qian, this was even worse than his worst-case scenario, and it was enough to make him despair!
Perhaps this was what they called misfortunes never coming alone…
A knock came from outside the door—it was Assistant Xin.
“Mr. Pei, these are the new company benefits we decided on earlier. I’d like to confirm with you one last time. If there are no issues, we’ll proceed with the distribution.”
Pei Qian took the papers and glanced at them.
These were the new benefits package decided on approximately a month ago.
After “Sea Fortress” was completed, Pei Qian introduced a series of benefits, such as company-wide salary adjustments, project bonuses, shopping cards, and mandatory reimbursement quotas.
This time, Pei Qian had also established a new benefit: company-wide physical examinations!
He had chosen high-standard examinations at the best tertiary hospital in Jingzhou City with premium examination packages, costing 3,200 yuan per person.
Currently, Tenda, Fei Huang Studio, and Moyu Internet Cafe together have over 50 employees, totaling 160,000 yuan!
In addition, regular benefit policies remained unchanged, with shopping card allowances increased to 3,000 yuan. Combined with various other creatively named benefits, this round would distribute a total of 500,000 yuan to all employees.
Originally, Pei Qian had planned to save this money as a final loss-making measure.
Assuming he could control the system funds at around 700,000 yuan, spending these 500,000 yuan would be perfect, wouldn’t it?
But now the situation was awkward.
Because according to Pei Qian’s calculations, even after spending these 500,000 yuan, the system would still show a profit!
Based on the profit conversion ratio, this sum equates to 5,000 yuan in personal assets. Spending it meant Pei Qian would receive 5,000 yuan less.
Pei Qian didn’t give it much thought: “Proceed as planned. Leave the documents, and I’ll review them again.”
“Yes, Mr. Pei.” Assistant Xin flipped through her notebook. “One more thing, a reporter named Hu from Fun Times called today requesting an interview. This is the third reporter this week. Should we refuse as usual?”
Pei Qian nodded: “Yes, refuse. Stick to our two principles: no one should reveal my name or true identity to the outside world, and no one should disclose our company’s specific salary and benefits package. Please remind everyone of this again.”
“Understood, Mr. Pei.” Assistant Xin turned and left.
So far, Tenda has remained a mystery in the eyes of gaming media and players.
Many knew of such a company, but who the boss was, what the benefits were like, and what the specific situation inside the company was—all remained unknown.
As for why Pei Qian insisted on this approach…
There were two reasons.
First, if Tenda’s specific benefits and salary figures leaked out, seeing such excellent benefits and high salaries, top talents in Jingzhou City would certainly be desperate to join, and many might even come from other cities, attracted by its reputation!
If many exceptionally talented people voluntarily accepted lower salaries to join, Pei Qian would have to rack his brains for reasons to refuse. If the reasons weren’t reasonable, the system wouldn’t agree, and he would be forced to hire some exceptional talents…
He was already struggling to eliminate the current staff through preliminary screening, and adding new people would only create more trouble for himself.
Second, Pei Qian couldn’t let his parents know his true identity yet—the longer he could keep it secret, the better.
Pei Qian also didn’t want to become famous. After all, fame brings trouble. Once famous, with many people watching, many things would become inconvenient.
The system had one rule: others couldn’t suspect the existence of the system or the challenge. Pei Qian didn’t want to create additional problems.
So, Pei Qian didn’t accept any media interviews.
Many media outlets called Tenda’s reception desk wanting interviews, but all were politely declined, and this time was no exception.
…
Pei Qian looked again at the 500,000 yuan benefits plan on his desk.
“Try to think positively. This is like paying 5,000 yuan out of my pocket to provide 500,000 yuan in benefits to employees.”
“When I think about it that way, it’s quite worthwhile…”
“Ah, I am a good boss.”
Pei Qian couldn’t bring himself to convert 5,000 yuan of personal assets by denying employees 500,000 yuan in benefits.
No matter what, these employees were sincerely working for him. Although people like Huang Sibo and Bao Xu always found ways to interfere with his plans, they were genuinely loyal to him…
And from the employees’ perspective, they were wholeheartedly contributing to the company!
It’s just that in Pei Qian’s view, they were all creating more problems…
“Never mind, let fate decide. Salaries and benefits will remain as planned and continue to increase according to the previous schedule.”
“I can’t mistreat my brothers.”
“If I didn’t make a loss this time, I’ll just try harder next time…”
Pei Qian felt a faint melancholy.
Learn from the pain. Summarize the experience. Draw lessons.
Figure out exactly why “Game Developer” had succeeded!
Or, identify what major flaws “Game Developer” had that could be inherited in the future.
Since the game launched two weeks ago, many players and professional game reviewers have analyzed and studied it online.
This time, Pei Qian didn’t need to ask the design team to summarize the success factors. He could just browse online comments to roughly understand where he had failed!
First, from an authoritative gaming media outlet:
“‘Game Developer’ is a very successful interactive narrative experience that completely subverts traditional game narrative methods.”
In this game, you play as a game developer, and your goal is to overcome various obstacles and choose the most likely path to success in making games. Will you become a star developer or fade into bankruptcy? It all depends on your choices.”
“The highlight of this game is that it maximizes the player’s experience of inner conflict and difficult choices, which precisely reflects the true inner experiences of game developers!”
“However, if that were all, this game would only qualify as an excellent simulation game. Compared to some traditional simulation games, apart from more beautiful graphics, it wouldn’t have any special advantages.”
“What makes this game a masterpiece is the narrator that accompanies the player throughout—this is precisely the game’s masterstroke!”
“When first playing, you might find the narrator annoying and feel angered by the mockery, but upon careful consideration, you’ll realize it’s precisely the narrator that makes the game interesting!”
“The narrator can be seen as each developer’s inner greed, or as someone beside them giving unwanted advice. For a content creator, the difficulty isn’t finding ideas or making the right choices, but persevering with self-belief amidst others’ negativity, staying true to one’s original aspiration to ultimately achieve success!”
“In short, this is a game rich in content, profound in concept, innovative in gameplay, and distinct from others. It not only conveys the difficulties faced by game developers but also reveals the true causes of chaos in the gaming industry, while encouraging all content creators to stay true to their original intentions and forge ahead with determination!”
Overall score: 9.0
Summary: Uses dark humor to deeply analyze the entire gaming industry, providing players with a refreshing interactive gaming experience!
Advantages:
Dark humor;
Multiple endings that leave players wanting more.
The masterstroke narrator.
Profound revelations about the industry that provoke deep thought.
Disadvantages:
Sometimes deliberately restricts players, though this is part of the game content.