August 7th, Wednesday.

Qiao Liang hid in his small room, wearing the latest Doubt Pro VR headset, rapidly operating with both hands while emitting “hee-hee-hee” laughs.

If not for the controllers in both his hands, the scene would have definitely led to serious misunderstandings.

In his game screen, there was a stunningly beautiful girl wearing traditional Chinese attire, her flowing robes making her appear like a fairy descending from ancient mythology.

Qiao Liang was editing this fairy’s outfit in beginner mode, either modifying the long sleeves or adjusting the skirt hem, or changing the color scheme of different sections of her clothing. He was absolutely tireless in his enjoyment!

After a long while, Qiao Liang felt his eyes getting a bit tired, and only then did he reluctantly remove the VR headset.

“This game is so much fun, it’s basically a super-sized face customization simulator.”

“There are other games with complex face customization systems, but a game that makes clothing this detailed? This is the first of its kind.”

“Most importantly, it’s a VR game, so you can view the girl from a full 360 degrees with no blind spots.”

“Any flaws? Well, there are some.”

“First, there are only 3D girls, no 2D anime-style girls. Having an anime style would probably be more exciting.”

“Second, the girl can only stand in place or perform some simple actions. There’s no deeper interactive gameplay, so it’s relatively monotonous.”

“Third, no matter how you adjust things, the girl always wears underwear. Although the underwear style can be adjusted according to different outfits, you ultimately can’t remove it completely, which is somewhat regrettable.”

“Ahem, I shouldn’t say too much about this—it makes me sound like a pervert.”

“I’m now a well-known gaming content creator and a famous single-player game streamer, so I need to be mindful of my image.”

“But to be fair, this game’s popularity isn’t particularly high yet, which might be limited by the hardware threshold. Once there are more players and more excellent design solutions online, this game will definitely explode in popularity!”

By now, “Tailored to Measure” had been on sale for three days, and Qiao Liang had been following the latest developments of the game.

Three days had passed, and Tardif Studio still didn’t seem to have any plans for large-scale promotion. Instead, the trolls had been very active, bringing considerable early attention to the game.

Many players only discovered that Tardif Studio had released a new VR game after seeing trolls criticizing its lack of gameplay.

Qiao Liang had naturally purchased both the new VR headset and the game immediately, and after experiencing it thoroughly, he roughly understood why the game’s initial popularity was low.

In essence, there were two reasons.

First, the game’s configuration requirements were too high. To experience it at the highest settings, you needed not only a high-performance computer but also the latest 8K VR headset. Using original equipment would result in slightly inferior graphics quality.

Often, differences in graphic quality directly affect people’s first impression of a game.

Second, the game’s content was indeed relatively monotonous, with only the clothing design gameplay. Although you could interact with other players online and adopt design solutions from veterans, there were currently few players and thus few design solutions available online. This interactive aspect hadn’t been fully developed yet.

The gameplay itself didn’t have characteristics for rapid spread, and Tardif Studio’s early promotional work wasn’t particularly strong, so low initial popularity was quite natural.

Setting aside these two issues, Qiao Liang felt the game had considerable merits.

The ability to make face customization and clothing design features so comprehensive turned this game into both a face customization simulator and a tailor simulator.

This was something other games had never attempted before.

And for many female players and farming-type game enthusiasts, the clothing design gameplay could keep them engaged for several years without getting bored.

Qiao Liang considered whether he should release a video to properly introduce this game to players.

However, he hadn’t yet found a good angle.

He had initially thought about creating several beautiful outfits or recreating characters from well-known anime. This way, just by posting the entire face customization process online, he could achieve good publicity.

Some games had gone viral simply by allowing players to recreate various anime character faces. How much more viral would a game go that could fully recreate everything from faces to clothes?

But the problem was that Qiao Liang had the will but not the skill—his mind told him he could do it, but his hands told him he absolutely couldn’t.

He tried hard to customize a character based on famous anime characters online, but after two or three hours, he gave up in frustration.

This kind of professional operation was completely beyond his capabilities.

So in the end, Qiao Liang simply gave up, deciding that just changing outfits for the pretty girls in the game was more suitable for him.

Since he had abandoned this approach, he needed to find a different angle for his video.

But if he just introduced the gameplay, it would seem hollow, and wouldn’t that further confirm the online rumors about “Tailored to Measure” having limited gameplay and low playability?

Feeling confused, Qiao Liang decided to search online for reviews of this game to see how others praised it, hoping to find some inspiration.

As he browsed, he came across a review titled “‘Tailored to Measure’ Shows That Some Domestic Game Designers Have Reached a Dead End.”

Qiao Liang frowned slightly—he disagreed just from seeing the title.

But noticing that this review seemed to have high engagement, with top-ranking likes and comments, he thought perhaps the game review had some valid points, so he clicked to read it.

…

The beginning of this review first gave a simple introduction to “Tailored to Measure,” especially praising its highly customizable face and clothing design systems.

Additionally, the review also highly commended the hardware update and improved game graphics.

Clearly, this was a standard setup for the classic “praise before criticism” strategy!

The author of the review didn’t want to appear to be mindlessly hating, so they first listed some of the game’s more excellent points at the beginning.

The author clearly wasn’t concerned that these advantages would impact what they wanted to express because they had already found an excellent angle of attack.

“Despite listing many advantages above, I still believe that the emergence of ‘Tailored to Measure’ indicates that some domestic game designers have reached a dead end.”

“This dead end is called ‘neglecting the essential while pursuing the trivial.'”

“This game certainly put a lot of effort into face customization and clothing creation, producing the dress-up game with the highest degree of freedom to date. In professional mode, players can even modify the shape and color of each piece of fabric, or start completely from scratch, using different fabrics and dyes to create clothes.”

“But tactical diligence cannot conceal strategic laziness, and rich game details cannot hide the lack of gameplay!”

“For this kind of game, we players have a common evaluation: this game is good in every way, just not fun to play.”

“In fact, this game has strong functionality, allowing players to freely design various attractive clothes, and perhaps in the future, this game will collaborate with GOG and other games. But the problem is that right now it’s just a tool, not a game.”

“For games, gameplay should be the top priority.”

“The creators of this game clearly didn’t understand this point, spending too much energy on minor details. Although they created a rich and comprehensive system, it doesn’t bring players enough enjoyment!”

“More accurately, it should be a tool—a tool for clothing design or game costume creation. It can ultimately only satisfy the niche interests of a small number of people and cannot have a broader impact.”

“After all, clothing design is a very specialized category requiring very strong professional knowledge to create outfits that truly conform to trends and public aesthetics.”

“So I believe that although this game cost a fortune and is well-made, its starting point was wrong from the beginning! It will be difficult to generate enough buzz, difficult to recover development costs, and difficult to have a significant impact on players’ gaming lives or real lives!”

…

After reading this review, Qiao Liang felt somewhat furious.

This was too much!

It wasn’t that the review’s criticism was particularly outrageous. If it had been the kind that completely distorted facts, it would have been easier to address—he could simply refute with the truth!

But this review criticized from a peculiar and skillful angle.

It first briefly introduced the game’s advantages, presenting a seemingly fair stance, and then fiercely attacked the game’s playability.

“This game is good in every way, just not fun to play!”

For a game, this statement can be considered the greatest sarcasm, even an insult.

For games, of course, gameplay and playability are top priorities. Otherwise, no matter how beautiful the graphics or how excellent the production, it’s just a soulless beauty—just an empty shell.

But using this statement here was clearly an abuse.

Was “Tailored to Measure” really not fun? Not necessarily.

It’s just that its enjoyment is relatively niche, and players who lack patience might not appreciate its gameplay. But for players who enjoy face customization and making outfits for their characters, this game’s gameplay is off the charts!

It’s incredibly interesting!

Although Qiao Liang wasn’t a core player of this type, he could still feel this enjoyment and thought the game could keep him engaged for at least a month or two.

So this game review was actually swapping concepts, using mainstream entertainment to negate niche entertainment, and using this to attack the game for lacking gameplay.

Qiao Liang wanted to publish a game review or release a video to refute it right away, but after careful consideration, he couldn’t think of very effective arguments.

If he insisted on dwelling too much on whether this game was fun or not, he might actually end up at a disadvantage.

Because this game was indeed relatively niche in its appeal. If he held onto the fun factor, engaging in a back-and-forth with the other side, he couldn’t completely refute them.

Only by finding another angle could he thoroughly dismantle the other’s arguments.

“But what specific angle should I find?”

Qiao Liang frowned deeply, sinking into deep thought.