Yu Fei was now completely caught in a dilemma.
Mr. Pei and the enthusiastic players were indeed difficult to refuse, but deep down, he still wanted to leave.
Although Qiao Liang’s video had specifically praised him, highly affirming his important value in the game’s plot design and acknowledging that Yu Fei’s storyline had added the finishing touch to “Ghost General 2,” Yu Fei didn’t feel there was any absolute reason he had to stay.
If previously the factors in his heart for “wanting to leave” versus “not wanting to leave” were 80% and 20% respectively, now that ratio had been pulled to 50% and 50%, an even split.
This made the decision even harder!
Yu Fei felt that although the plot he wrote for “Ghost General 2” was indeed quite good, game design was ultimately a very specialized field, wasn’t it?
After all, he had only written some storylines. The game’s core concepts were completed by Mr. Pei, and the specific details were completed by other designers in the gaming department.
If it was just about the storyline, then Yu Fei could actually accept an “outsourcing” model—that is, after leaving Tenda Games, he could continue to take on storyline requirements from them. Given Mr. Pei’s generosity, the pay would certainly be substantial.
Thinking like this, he still had no compelling reason to stay at Tenda, right?
Besides, he had just posted on Weibo saying he was leaving, and his attitude had been quite resolute.
But then less than half an hour later, to post again saying he wasn’t leaving?
That wouldn’t be appropriate either—wouldn’t that be toying with the players?
Yu Fei now felt stuck between a rock and a hard place, somewhat at a loss.
He scrolled through Weibo full of indecision, seeing more and more people replying to him and @-ing him in the notification bar.
He habitually opened them to check while thinking about what he should do.
Should he ignore everyone’s pleas and continue insisting on leaving? Or should he pretend he never posted that previous Weibo and simply “eat his words”?
It was such a difficult choice!
After thinking it over, Yu Fei decided to edit another Weibo post.
“Thank you all for your kindness and support. As a lead designer who came into the role through an unconventional path, receiving support from so many players makes me feel extremely touched!”
“The plot of ‘Ghost General 2’ indeed contains some of my efforts, and I’m very happy to see that everyone likes it. However, my contribution to Tenda Games is limited to the storyline aspect; I haven’t made any achievements in other areas.”
“In my current state, I should say I’m occupying the position of lead designer while doing the work of a story designer, which is obviously inappropriate. A truly qualified lead designer should be well-rounded in all aspects, not just capable of writing stories.”
“So, thank you for your kind wishes to keep me, but I still lean toward leaving. However, please rest assured that in the future, I can still cooperate with Tenda Games in a more flexible way, such as ‘storyline outsourcing.’ I believe the new lead designer at Tenda Games will definitely bring everyone even better works!”
After editing this Weibo post, Yu Fei’s mouse hovered over the send button, but he didn’t immediately press it.
“Let me think more, be more thorough. If I change my mind again after posting this, it would create quite a spectacle…”
Yu Fei became more cautious this time, after all, his first Weibo post had already generated considerable attention.
For him now, he could either leave or stay. But if he posted this second Weibo and then changed his mind again, it would seem rather inappropriate.
While he was hesitating, more people started @-ing him.
Yu Fei checked the notifications and suddenly froze.
Among these new @s was a name he was quite familiar with: He An!
This name was not unfamiliar to Yu Fei. In fact, anyone with even a slight understanding of the domestic gaming industry would recognize Old He, who was a big shot during the pioneering years of China’s gaming scene.
Yu Fei was quite shocked. How had his Weibo post gained such influence? It had even drawn out the long-retired He An, who had been absent from the industry for years!
He quickly clicked to view and found that He An had not only simply @-ed him but also posted a long Weibo!
The title was: Understanding Mr. Pei’s Art of Employing People Through “Ghost General 2”!
Yu Fei was very surprised.
The art of employing people?
Could this… be talking about me?
Yu Fei hurriedly read on.
…
“I’ve been playing ‘Ghost General 2’ recently and have gained some insights that I’d like to share with everyone.”
“Regarding the game’s content itself, many people have already discussed it well. I’m not very professional when it comes to fighting games, so I won’t elaborate further.”
“However, I would like to use this game as an opportunity to briefly discuss Mr. Pei’s art of employing people!”
“I’ve seen some people say that as a web novelist, Yu Fei has indeed made significant contributions to the game’s storyline, but his abilities in other areas are weak, and he even needed Mr. Pei and the veteran planners from Tenda’s gaming department to guide him in completing this game. In other words, they consider him only a qualified story designer, not a qualified lead designer.”
“I have a different view on this.”
“Let me ask: how should we define the difference between a story designer and a lead designer?”
“Suppose now, the story designer’s narrative design conflicts with the game’s basic gameplay and level progression. How should the development team make a decision?”
“Should they modify the game’s other fundamental content to better showcase the storyline? Or should they modify the storyline for the sake of the gameplay?”
“This is what I want to emphasize—the issue of authority!”
“Generally speaking, what we call a ‘story designer’ necessarily holds a position within the development team that is subordinate to the ‘lead designer.’ The story designer’s task is to create a reasonable narrative wrapper for the game mechanics based on the requirements set by the lead designer. Once a conflict arises, they must naturally follow the lead designer’s requirements and change the storyline.”
“Conversely, what if the story designer’s position within the development team is higher than the lead designer’s? Then when conflicts arise, the lead designer listens to the story designer—the story remains unchanged, and the game features are modified.”
“Many people might say, ‘Isn’t it all the same regardless of how you change it? As long as the game can ultimately be made, these minor adjustments won’t affect much.'”
“But I must say, this is clearly something only an outsider would say. How can you call it ‘minor adjustments that won’t affect much’? A finished game can be viewed as a precision instrument with tightly meshing gears—pull one thread and the whole fabric moves. Sometimes changing one small detail can trigger a chain reaction, causing the entire game to completely collapse.”
“When laypeople direct professionals, tragedies occur like ‘a story-driven game that feeds players garbage in its narrative.’ At minimum, it will leave flaws in a game that originally had the chance to pursue perfection; at worst, flaws in the storyline can destroy all efforts put into the game mechanics and quality, even casting a once-legendary IP into an abyss from which it cannot return!”
“So someone might ask, should we support the story designer or the lead designer?”
“I can only say that we must analyze each specific situation and consider how important the storyline is to a particular game. If a game is a story-driven interactive movie type, then the storyline is naturally crucial. If the game itself doesn’t primarily focus on the story, then the narrative should give way to game mechanics.”
“But here I want to emphasize one point: there are some games where the entire PVE content and many game mechanics are built on the story setting. In such cases, while the storyline might seem less important on the surface, and it might appear that modifying it for the sake of gameplay wouldn’t be a big deal, in reality, the importance of the storyline in these games is on par with story-driven games!”
“For example, ‘Eternal Cycle’ and ‘Ghost General 2.'”
“Neither is a story-driven interactive movie type game—the former is an action game, the latter a fighting game. On the surface, their highlights are the combat systems and the rich PVE and PVP content. But they are games where the game mechanics are built upon the storyline setting.”
“For instance, all game mechanics in ‘Eternal Cycle’ come from the original setting, while the diverse character skills, levels, and combat systems in ‘Ghost General 2’ also derive from the game’s plot and worldview setting.”
“Because the storylines of these two games are so seamlessly integrated, people naturally overlook the role of the plot.”
“But think carefully—have you played games where the hero’s skills are at odds with the character design? Like some relatively low-quality card games where you can clearly feel that certain skills could just as easily be assigned to other heroes; some skills are obviously just basic mechanics with a thin veneer related to the hero, and could be applied to other heroes with just a change of skin.”
“In games, how often do you see a hero’s abilities and feel they’re particularly fitting and natural, as if they’re an inherent part of the hero’s design, perfectly integrated?”
“Obviously, the former is the common phenomenon, while the latter is rare. ‘Eternal Cycle’ and ‘Ghost General 2’ fall into the latter category.”
“Why is this the case? It goes back to the issue of authority. Because the story designer has enough authority, the game background and mechanics can blend perfectly together, rather than having the game storyline become a mere skin.”
“And this difference in detail is the key factor that determines whether a game is excellent or top-tier.”
“Some might ask at this point: So what? What does this have to do with Mr. Pei’s approach to employing people?”
“Of course it’s related, because Mr. Pei boldly appointed Yu Fei as the lead designer for ‘Eternal Cycle’ and ‘Ghost General 2,’ which is a concrete manifestation of Mr. Pei’s talent for knowing people and using them well!”
“To achieve the current perfect state of these two games, Yu Fei had to sit in the lead designer’s chair, not the story designer’s chair, because only by sitting in the lead designer’s chair would he have sufficient authority!”