While driving, Hu Xianbin explained: “The direct-drive steering wheel can operate on its own by reading in-game data, but pedals and gear shifts can’t do that, so we can only display them on the screen.”
“For safety reasons, we require viewers to keep their hands off the steering wheel. Once the steering wheel detects external force, it will automatically exit viewing mode to prevent the rapidly turning direct-drive steering wheel from injuring the player’s hands.”
“In short, through this built-in streaming function, players can see on their own devices how experts turn the steering wheel and press the brake and accelerator. These recordings can even be taken back for repeated study and analysis.”
Ye Zhizhou nodded: “Hmm, this is sufficient for now. We can continue to optimize it gradually in the future.”
For a long time, the most frustrating thing for racing game players had been the high learning curve.
Many people wanted to learn drifting, but how exactly do you drift?
It sounds simple in theory, but it’s actually very difficult to execute.
Although there were many video tutorials online explaining the principles of drifting and the hand and foot movements involved, most people still found themselves able to understand but unable to execute.
Forget about judging the distance to the apex of a turn for drifting—they couldn’t even perform a constant-radius drift in a fixed area.
Besides poor driving fundamentals, another important reason was that the demonstrations weren’t intuitive enough!
In expert drifting videos, you could only see the expert rapidly turning the steering wheel, sometimes even letting go to let it auto-center before grabbing it again. After a series of fluid operations, they’d drift through.
After watching, viewers would just exclaim how amazing it was, but upon reflection, they couldn’t remember how the expert had actually executed the maneuver.
The video itself was small, and the expert’s hand movements would obscure the steering wheel. If you focused on the game screen, you couldn’t see the hand movements clearly; if you focused on the hand movements, you couldn’t see the actual game screen clearly. It was difficult to integrate the two.
Some people did overlay steering wheel rotation data on the screen, but the same problem persisted—it wasn’t clear enough!
Moreover, most of these videos were of track racing, where each turn required different techniques.
Experts could distinguish which approach to use for each turn, but beginners would only be confused, having no idea where to start learning.
So after discussing with Hu Xianbin, Ye Zhizhou decided to collaborate with Rabbit Tail Live Streaming to incorporate a built-in streaming system!
It could also be called a remote teaching system.
Actually, this streaming system operated on similar principles to GOG’s spectator system, combining streaming software with the game and accessing deep data.
As a result, when a streamer operated their steering wheel on their computer, the viewers’ steering wheels would also turn automatically.
The steering wheel had a center marker, and being close-up, it was very clear. Viewers could see the subtle movements of the steering wheel in great detail, and could clearly see exactly how many turns were made.
Its greatest advantage was intuitiveness!
A streamer could open a tutorial session and, once all viewers were ready, drift in a circle on the practice ground to demonstrate the specific operations.
Viewers could escape the limitations of the small screen, watching the game screen while observing the steering wheel’s rotation and feeling the G-force fed back through their seats.
This comprehensive learning approach was far more intuitive than staring at a small screen to watch the streamer’s hand movements.
Moreover, this teaching system wasn’t limited to high-end racing techniques like drifting—it had broad applicability.
From how to approach each turn in circuit and rally racing to improve lap times, down to how to execute reverse parking in subject two—it could teach everything!
As long as there were enough streamers on Rabbit Tail Live Streaming, they would naturally seek differentiation by teaching different content.
Then players who purchased steering wheels could find the teaching content they needed on Rabbit Tail Live Streaming and learn gradually.
Although driving itself remained something with a high learning curve that required boring practice and persistent effort, with such a convenient learning method and different difficulty levels in the game, players should find it increasingly smoother once they got past the initial driver’s license test.
This was different from other racing games.
Other racing games might be easy to get into at the beginning—just brake, accelerate, and steer, adapting slightly to race at high speeds—but the fun would be diluted the further players progressed, becoming less and less interesting.
This was a huge difference between “Safe and Civilized Driving” and other racing games.
Ye Zhizhou was very satisfied: “Good, this is exactly the feature I needed!”
“I’ll make arrangements and update ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ with the built-in Rabbit Tail Live Streaming as soon as possible, so players can enjoy this feature early.”
Hu Xianbin asked, “How has ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ been doing since its release?”
Ye Zhizhou smiled: “Everything is within my expectations.”
“Because I used the promotion plan passed down from Mr. Pei, it has sparked some controversy initially. I’ve seen many people arguing online about the Passat’s crash test results.”
“But it doesn’t matter. We obtained our data from IIAS and adjusted these vehicles based on IIAS crash test results. Once IIAS publishes their results, the truth will naturally come to light.”
“The quality of ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ itself is solid enough—that’s beyond question.”
Hu Xianbin took out his phone and checked the date: “But when will IIAS release the crash test results? I remember it won’t be until Monday at the earliest. Is it really okay to be criticized for so long?”
Ye Zhizhou shook his head: “It’s fine.”
“The harsher the criticism now, the more dramatic the reversal will be when the results come out.”
“Moreover, ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ is just a game after all. Only Da Zhong fans will fixate on this point; most other players won’t give negative reviews or refund the game because of this issue. They still care more about the gameplay.”
“In other words, as a game, ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ has a built-in shield when it’s criticized, and a built-in amplifier when it’s praised!”
“The current negative reviews are just minor skirmishes. Having been at Tenda Games for so long, what haven’t we seen? ‘Game Producer,’ ‘Looking Back Is the Shore,’ and ‘Struggle’—which one wasn’t criticized more harshly than now? In the end, didn’t everyone still admit they were wrong and love the games?”
Hu Xianbin nodded: “That’s true. Let’s wait patiently then!”
…
Meanwhile, at Terminus Chinese Web’s Writers’ Inspiration Class.
As soon as Cui Geng appeared, he was surrounded by writers.
“Teacher Cui is here!”
“Brother Cui, you’re amazing! How did you know about the Yukelaiya election?”
“Please share your experience—how can we write works suitable for adaptation?”
Ever since “The Successor” had been scheduled for adaptation, Cui Geng had been slacking off, enjoying himself thoroughly.
Even after “The Successor” was released, he still spent every day at the nearby Slackin’ Internet Café, having the time of his life.
Of course, his slacking off wasn’t just due to laziness or reluctance to start a new book—it also stemmed from avoidance.
Because “The Successor” had indeed received poor reviews after its release!
Seeing that the series couldn’t increase its viewership or ratings, with many online critics criticizing it—especially those led by someone surnamed Qian who were the harshest—even Cui Geng, the original author, began to doubt his story.
As the original author, he couldn’t personally join the fray, so he could only suppress his feelings, making him quite unhappy for a while.
But unexpectedly, the election results from faraway Yukelaiya turned the tide for “The Successor”!
Many people online who had been calling Cui Geng a “pigeon spirit” (chronic procrastinator) one second were calling him “Teacher Cui” the next—it couldn’t be more real.
The apology led by the person surnamed Qian sparked an apology trend, even making Cui Geng feel a bit embarrassed.
“The Successor” saw its ratings soar, achieving success in both reputation and viewership, suggesting that Fei Huang Studio should also be able to profit from this series, which reassured Cui Geng.
After all, if this series had failed, it definitely wouldn’t have been Fei Huang Studio’s fault but his fault as the original author.
If other adapted works failed, one could blame the director for poor filming, the screenwriter for losing the essence of the original work during adaptation, or the financiers for forcibly interfering with the script—the original author could completely distance themselves.
But “The Successor” was different. Fei Huang Studio had been completely faithful to the original work during filming!
Issues like poor direction, screenwriters making changes, or financiers interfering simply didn’t exist!
Not only that, but Fei Huang Studio had also allocated extremely high-standard resources to film this series, not only collaborating with foreign film companies in the U.S. but also inviting actor-level talents like Lu Zhiyao to take minor roles in the series.
If it had failed, it would only have been the original author’s fault.
People would have said that the original work was too terrible—even Fei Huang Studio couldn’t save it!
Fortunately, everything had finally settled.
So Cui Geng had finally relaxed and come to the Inspiration Class, considering whether he should officially start his new book.
Of course, when he said “start,” he actually meant creating a new folder.
Now, Cui Geng didn’t want to write a single word outside the Inspiration Class. Whenever he went to Slackin’ Internet Café, he would involuntarily open games, unable to control his hands.
Only in the environment of the Inspiration Class could he truly spark inspiration and have abundant creative energy.
Obviously, these three adapted works had already become the focal topic of discussion among the Inspiration Class writers.
First, the great success of “Eternal Cycle” had shown writers the bright prospects of copyright adaptation, greatly encouraging them.
But then, “The Successor” received poor responses and seemed on the verge of failure, making all writers anxious, fearing that the project’s failure would dampen Mr. Pei’s enthusiasm for copyright adaptations, leading to fewer adaptation opportunities for the Inspiration Class in the future.
Finally, “The Successor” saw a reversal in reputation, and “Proxy Academy” also became a hot animated series on the AiLiDao website due to its astonishing daily updates. Everything had settled!
The success of all three copyright adaptation projects had brought the writers’ admiration for Mr. Pei to its peak!
Among the three projects, “The Successor” was obviously the most concerning and dramatic.
Although “Eternal Cycle” was also successful, its author Yu Fei had become the head of Tenda’s gaming department and no longer had time to come to the Inspiration Class.
So, the writers could only learn from Cui Geng.