Many players had expressed concerns about “Ghost General 2.”
Clearly, this marketing approach was actually working!
Meng Chang hadn’t used any tricks at all; he had simply and honestly told all players that “Ghost General 2 is a fighting game,” without taking any actions that might mislead them.
But precisely because he was so straightforward, it had triggered various concerns among the players.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but smile with delight: “This Meng Chang, not bad! My trust in you wasn’t misplaced!”
“Now you’ve even learned to extrapolate and use clever tactics! No longer using the same old moves and routines to death like before!”
“Excellent. It seems that commission is truly the greatest source of creativity.”
Pei Qian was thoroughly satisfied. It appeared that the promotional strategy for “Ghost General 2” had succeeded. Now it was just a matter of seeing how the game performed after its release.
…
…
January 27th, Sunday.
Bunny Tail Livestream, Zhang Yan’s streaming room.
At this moment, Zhang Yan was at a racing venue, struggling to perform a circular drift.
She stared at the screen with intense focus, her hands gripping the steering wheel tightly, her right foot pressing down on the accelerator, followed by a series of practiced maneuvers!
As a result, the car spun completely out of control and finally came to a stop far away from the ice cream cone at the center of the circular drifting area.
Fortunately, the venue was very spacious, and no collisions occurred.
Zhang Yan felt somewhat defeated: “Ah! I gave it too much gas!”
“Damn it, I was so proficient with the training car before, but switching to my own car has set me back to square one…”
“Should I sell this car and buy a training car of the same model?”
“No, no, that would be absurd. I’ll continue practicing with this car! I refuse to believe that with my diligent practice, I can’t achieve perfect harmony between person and vehicle!”
Zhang Yan refused to give up and continued practicing.
Drifting is a very high-difficulty technique for ordinary people. It’s impossible to start practicing directly on a racetrack; one must at least go through the stages of circular drifting and figure-eight drifting before being considered basically proficient.
Zhang Yan had previously mentioned that she had practiced drifting a bit in real life, but in reality, she had only practiced circular drifting, and after such a long time without practice, she had forgotten most of what she had learned.
As for a real-life racing license, she had never obtained one.
Getting a racing license in real life isn’t particularly difficult, but it’s not exactly easy either—it depends on which level you’re attempting. Lower-level licenses only require finding a training base, spending tens of thousands of yuan, and training for a few days, and you can basically get one. But some higher-level licenses are much harder, and the money spent on cars alone is a bottomless pit.
Moreover, real-life racing licenses are divided into many types, such as rally off-road, track racing, drifting, and other categories.
Some lower-grade licenses mainly focus on racing culture, theoretical knowledge, safety explanations, starting, shifting, emergency braking, handbrake use, cornering, lane positioning, track practice, walking the course, and lap time assessment. Some of these contents might seem to overlap with regular driver’s license tests, but they’re actually quite different.
Racing license exams primarily teach people how to drive in a racing style. Starting and shifting gears in a race car is definitely different from driving a private car.
The racing license test in the game isn’t exactly the same as in real life; it has been simplified in many ways.
This is because Ye Zhizhou felt that many steps in real-life racing tests are rather cumbersome and not very suitable for specific game situations.
Of course, the complex procedures in real-life racing tests make sense. After all, if an accident occurs in real life, at minimum your wallet takes a serious hit, at worst the driver is seriously injured, and other people might be affected as well. So it’s necessary to prioritize safety and ensure everything is perfect before moving to the next stage.
Although “Safe and Civilized Driving” can also be costly when accidents happen, in-game money is earned through grinding, which is certainly not the same concept as in real life.
Ye Zhizhou’s understanding of “Safe and Civilized Driving” is high realism, graduated difficulty, and strong punishment measures. This doesn’t necessarily mean strictly following reality. For instance, the game combines the written tests (subjects 1 and 4) into a single 50-question test, which reflects Ye Zhizhou’s design philosophy.
In the game, players need to obtain three racing licenses. The first is the basic racing license test, which is relatively simple with only three components: professional knowledge questions, circular drifting, and track practice.
The professional knowledge questions mainly test racing-related expertise, circular drifting requires maintaining a certain time in the circular area with the test car, and track practice involves completing an entry-level track within a time limit.
After passing all of these components, players obtain a junior racing license, which allows them to participate in some entry-level racing events.
There are also specialized track racing and rally racing licenses, but those are beyond Zhang Yan’s current consideration.
The junior racing license isn’t difficult. Zhang Yan learned some theoretical knowledge online and watched other streamers’ tutorials, and with two days of effort, she passed.
Having obtained her racing license, she immediately excitedly used the money she earned from driving trucks and long-distance buses to buy a new race car.
Then, tragedy struck.
She discovered she couldn’t perform circular drifts anymore!
Since the car model she used for the racing license test was different from the one she was driving now, and each car’s performance varies, the operations required for drifting naturally changed as well.
Circular drifting involves a series of operations such as accelerating while turning the steering wheel, pushing the rear of the car outward, and following the steering, ensuring that the vehicle continuously drifts within a circular trajectory. Figure-eight drifting is equivalent to drifting two circles and being able to freely switch between different trajectories.
Only after mastering these two types of drifting and forming muscle memory can one adapt to different tracks and adopt different cornering strategies for various curves. Otherwise, so-called drift cornering would be purely based on luck.
During circular drifting, if the sliding angle of the rear of the car doesn’t match the turning angle of the steering wheel, the car will spin out of control, just like the situation Zhang Yan just encountered.
Therefore, to master drifting well, one must be able to discern the vehicle’s trajectory and make adjustments and control through the steering wheel and accelerator, keeping the vehicle always on a circular path.
Some experienced drivers can control the trajectory of a drifting vehicle solely through the depth of the accelerator without touching the steering wheel. If the vehicle’s trajectory is clearly too far outward, more acceleration is needed; conversely, less acceleration is required.
Of course, these concepts are simple to explain but extremely difficult to execute.
Although Zhang Yan had previously passed the racing license test, the car model was now different. The familiar feeling she had with the previous test car model didn’t apply to this new car!
She would have to get used to it all over again.
However, she didn’t get discouraged and continued to practice patiently in this circular drifting area.
The viewers in her livestream had increased compared to before, and her popularity had reached a new level.
Clearly, for most viewers, watching someone race was more interesting than watching them drive trucks or long-distance buses.
Zhang Yan was gradually uncovering the highest difficulty level of this game.
“I really admire the streamer. Not everyone has this kind of patience; many male streamers would also be impressed.”
“Drifting is truly difficult. Forget about drifting on a racetrack; I spent an entire afternoon trying to master a simple circular drift and couldn’t do it! Driving seems simple, but the threshold is actually very high. Even if your brain understands it, if your hands don’t, it’s all for nothing.”
“No worries. Judging from the streamer’s current state, she should be able to drift once she gets a bit more familiar with the new car. Driving is about achieving harmony between person and vehicle. Even if you put a race car driver in a new car, they would still need time to adapt.”
“Compared to other racing games, ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ already has a relatively low learning curve. Many driving simulation games don’t even provide circular drifting training venues, nor do they have tutorials or this built-in streaming system. Players have to figure it out entirely on their own—that could take forever!”
“Looking forward to the day when the streamer teaches drifting!”
“Speaking of which, I previously searched for so many tutorials online, bought a steering wheel, and tried to practice drifting in driving simulation games, but I could never get it right. After watching the streamer practice, I suddenly had some insights. Once the stream ends, I’ll try again—I feel like I can do it now!”
The audience in Zhang Yan’s livestream was now quite diverse, roughly divided into several categories.
The first type came purely to watch a female streamer drive and play “Safe and Civilized Driving”—essentially the cloud gaming faction.
The second type noticed Zhang Yan’s continuous practice and improvement, growing from a small streamer to one with more and more fans, and enjoyed experiencing this growth with her.
The third type genuinely came to learn techniques from her livestream.
Regardless of the category, all viewers recognized that Zhang Yan was indeed a representative player in “Safe and Civilized Driving,” truly improving her driving skills through this game.
From the initial ride-share car, to the later trucks and long-distance buses, and now racing cars, each vehicle type required extensive practice to gradually adapt to and improve driving skills, and Zhang Yan had taken each step steadily and performed well.
Looking at the current situation, conquering the track and becoming a true race car driver shouldn’t be far off.
Many players found it a bit strange: among all racing and driving simulation games, “Safe and Civilized Driving” was definitely not the most enjoyable, nor was it the most difficult, but it was the most beneficial for improving driving skills.
This was because “Safe and Civilized Driving,” through well-designed progression and moderate punishment mechanisms, allowed players to focus more on experiencing the game content—something that other racing and driving simulation games had failed to achieve.