The key issue with this kind of moral coercion is that those involved truly have no good options—they can’t argue back, and can barely even speak up.

Because once they speak up, it only invites more moral coercion.

He An could see that these people’s goal was simply to knock Tenda off its pedestal, using moral coercion to damage the reputation and goodwill Tenda had accumulated.

Previously, many players considered Tenda “the light of domestic games,” the future and hope of Chinese gaming. Tenda had won one tough battle after another based on this reputation.

But if this smear campaign could make some people feel that Tenda wasn’t anything special, that “the light of domestic games” was just a persona—that while they might do a little better than other domestic game companies, there was no fundamental difference—then they would have maximally destroyed that reputation.

Examples of this have appeared in many fields.

A company does many good things, but as soon as they make one mistake—or even without making a mistake, just being misinterpreted, distorted, or quoted out of context by people with ulterior motives—the storm of public opinion immediately backlashes. Many people end up hating them even more than they hate genuinely terrible companies.

This situation was inevitable and nearly impossible to solve.

“This is outrageous, too much!”

“Mr. Pei is such a passionate game developer, and Tenda is such a conscientious game company—how dare you slander them like this?”

“If Tenda can’t speak up, then I will!”

“Do you really think there’s no one left in the domestic game industry? That we can’t handle your petty paid commenters?”

He An couldn’t stand seeing this kind of thing. He immediately logged into Weibo, ready to correct the narrative.

Some things Tenda couldn’t say themselves, but as a veteran in the gaming circle and an industry insider who could to some extent represent the attitude of the domestic game industry, he could say these things.

“Where did these monsters come from, people with absolutely nothing to do with the domestic game industry jumping out to spout nonsense?”

“You claim to care about the domestic game industry while morally coercing Tenda. May I ask how many domestic games you’ve played? What contributions have you made to domestic games?”

“For a game company, the best way to support domestic games is to create more good works. In this respect, Tenda has already done excellently—not only do their two direct studios continuously release new games of various types, but they also share their designs with Tardy Studio, Skyfire Studio and other companies, constantly providing players with excellent games of different genres.”

“As for whether to invest or not, is that so important? Tenda has the right to decide how to use its own funds. Can’t they keep it to develop their own major game projects? Why must they invest in other game companies?”

“Besides, the producer of ‘Shuli’ has already said they don’t lack money, so why are so many people worrying unnecessarily?”

“I request that those of you who normally have nothing to do with the game industry go back where you came from and stop meddling. The domestic game industry is now in the best state it has ever been, and doesn’t need your concern!”

As a veteran in the domestic game circle, He An was quite direct and didn’t mince words.

Not long after this Weibo post was published, other game developers and industry insiders quickly spoke up in support of Tenda!

Some took a firm stance, like Zhou Muyan, who was already a close partner with Tenda and naturally supported them strongly. Others who didn’t have direct cooperative relationships with Tenda also spoke up fairly based on their goodwill and support for Tenda.

After all, Tenda had changed the entire domestic gaming environment and expanded the user base for single-player games. For these single-player and independent game developers, this had been beneficial.

He An thought the matter would end there, but after some time, he checked again and found that not only had the debate not subsided, it seemed to be expanding!

“What’s going on?”

He An was puzzled until he took a closer look at Weibo and understood.

There were indeed many people supporting Tenda, but there were also many attacking those who criticized Tenda!

And this time, it wasn’t just paid commenters and ordinary netizens—some industry insiders had stepped out to take sides, mostly bosses of game distribution channels or developers of pay-to-win online games and mobile games.

These people didn’t directly attack Tenda, clearly knowing that direct criticism without clear evidence wouldn’t work, but they could find ways to help the other side!

“The fact is that someone offered a helping hand to the ‘Shuli’ project, but Tenda didn’t. Just talking about this specific issue, it is indeed disappointing, isn’t it?”

“Elder He is right, but the problem is that Tenda isn’t just a pure game company—they also have investment operations. Dream Venture Capital invests in so many companies each year across various industries, including many failed companies. So why hasn’t Tenda allocated money to help domestic single-player and independent game developers who need funds?”

“Verbal support is far different from real money, and Tenda rarely even offers verbal support!”

“Exactly, Tenda clearly has money for investments, but they still prefer to invest in other companies.”

“I think deifying Tenda is quite absurd. Doesn’t Tenda make games to earn money too? If everyone’s making money, why are other companies criticized while Tenda is beyond question?”

“Let’s not even talk about the ‘Shuli’ project. Morning Dew Gaming Platform is such a good platform, compatible enough with Tenda’s values, right? But has Tenda expressed anything? Mr. Pei is undoubtedly the top game developer in China, but to say Tenda is a pure, untainted company emerging from the mud without being stained is a bit excessive.”

“I agree, there’s no need to put Tenda on a pedestal. It’s better to recognize that Tenda is just an ordinary company, also striving for profit and money. It’s indeed stronger than other domestic game companies, but there’s no fundamental difference.”

“Honestly, I think some small domestic channel operators have also done their best to support domestic games. Although the resources go to small mobile game companies, these companies are also the foundation of domestic games!”

There were many similar arguments.

He An could see this was clearly a prepared attack!

If the previous paid commenters were just trying to build momentum, then these industry insiders speaking out was the real follow-up move.

These were industry insiders—how could they not understand the contributions Tenda had made to the entire domestic game industry?

Of course they understood!

As fellow industry insiders, they understood much more than people from other industries or ordinary players.

But precisely because they understood, they hated Tenda even more!

Because Tenda was, in a sense, destroying their rice bowls and cutting off their sources of income.

Think back to what the domestic game industry was like before Tenda appeared. Although there were official platforms and some excellent single-player game designers, these small channels still had powerful influence, and most popular games on the market were pay-to-win.

Quality single-player games existed, but were relatively few, and hadn’t broken through to form such a large influence.

But with the emergence of Tenda Games, everything changed.

Because Tenda Games’ excellent single-player games were so popular and broke through boundaries, players’ expectations for domestic game manufacturers increased, and the overall taste of the player base gradually improved.

For those channel operators and companies that only knew how to make pay-to-win games, the good days of making easy money were gone forever.

Especially for those large channels and traditional pay-to-win game manufacturers, players increasingly used Tenda as a benchmark to make demands of them.

Their profits hadn’t increased, but the criticism had.

What was even more infuriating was that Tenda not only made better single-player games, but their pay-to-win games were better too!

“Ghostly General’s” revolution of the mobile game monetization model, “Sea Fortress” being praised for its integrity despite selling the 888-yuan Fiery Qilin, as well as GOG and “Bullet Hole 2” with their fair competition and cosmetic-only monetization yet still earning huge profits—all these were squeezing these companies’ survival space.

How could they not be upset?

And what they hated most was Tenda’s reputation and good name.

Why, when everyone was a game company trying to make money, did they get criticized for earning money while Tenda not only avoided criticism but gained both fame and fortune?

Even worse, players would use Tenda as a benchmark to criticize them!

As the saying goes, “where you stand depends on where you sit.” It was precisely because they knew Tenda’s emergence meant they could no longer make money effortlessly like before, and they knew they and Tenda were fundamentally not on the same path but were natural opponents, that they chose to stand with the anti-Tenda alliance at this moment.

Getting criticized? That didn’t matter—hadn’t they received plenty of criticism before?

But if they could truly seize this opportunity to splash some dirt on Tenda, that would be worth it!

Tenda had so few vulnerabilities that they could only grasp at vulnerabilities that weren’t really vulnerabilities, looking for chances to attack.

Because once the argument started, after several rounds of debate, there would be no absolute winner.

Even if many companies strongly supported Tenda, this would inevitably provoke antipathy from some people, since no perfect company exists in the world.

Many people, when seeing a company with a perfect image, will try every means to find problems with it. When they actually find problems, or when problems are exposed by others, they clap their hands and laugh: “See, I told you it was all an act!”

For companies with imperfect images, it was even easier—criticize the real flaws, and criticize things that weren’t flaws too. The result was roughly the same.

He An couldn’t help but frown slightly, feeling that the situation wasn’t as simple as he had imagined.

At first, he thought it was just some company buying a few paid commenters to stir up a minor controversy that would quickly fade away.

But now it appeared that wasn’t the case at all!

This was an organized, premeditated attack, and the forces behind it were quite powerful!

What started as a very ordinary event—the “Shuli” game releasing a promotional video—had somehow evolved into a clear-cut case of taking sides within the game industry!

More and more people began to take positions. Even those who wanted to remain neutral and not take a stance were forced to express an opinion due to the high attention and pressure from players.

Domestic game companies seemed to have only two choices left: support Tenda or oppose Tenda!

He An couldn’t help but frown slightly, feeling that the situation had become thorny.

Everyone knew that the combined reputation of these companies couldn’t match Tenda’s, but the problem was that as long as this debate continued, it would continuously weaken Tenda’s standing in the game industry.

It was like a clean person fighting with a dirty person—even if you win in the end, you inevitably get dirty!

“Self-interest turns people into demons,” He An shook his head helplessly.