At the beginning of the video, Qiao Liang mainly attempted to diminish the criticism in the original negative review about “Tailor-Made” lacking gameplay by reinterpreting the game’s mechanics.
But this alone wasn’t enough to fundamentally counter the negative review.
At best, both sides would just be speaking past each other, each with their own reasoning.
Which side players would ultimately agree with depended on whether they could feel the enjoyment embedded in “Tailor-Made.”
This was clearly disadvantageous for Qiao Liang.
Because “Tailor-Made” could be seen as a variant of farming-type games, which was already a niche genre. Within this group, those who enjoyed character creation and clothing design were an even smaller niche, and when filtered further by VR game players, the true target audience for this game was very small.
Therefore, Qiao Liang had to find another angle to counter the negative review.
“‘Tailor-Made’ marks that Slow Walker Studio has found a brand new entry point to influence reality through games.”
“Here, I first want to raise a question: why is the clothing brand collaborating with ‘Tailor-Made’ called ‘luxury’?”
“In the current social climate, choosing this name seems extremely unwise.”
“Foreign clothing brands fleecing Chinese consumers and charging ‘IQ tax’ is an undeniable fact. This has caused increasing consumer resentment, and recently, many foreign brands have jointly boycotted our high-quality cotton, further inflaming public anger!”
“Against this backdrop of rising patriotic sentiment, domestic consumers are increasingly willing to support local brands that don’t charge ‘IQ tax’ or engage in excessive marketing, but instead focus on making quality products at reasonable prices. This has become a prevailing trend!”
“But the brand name ‘luxury’ seems completely at odds with other domestic clothing brands.”
“First, it uses an English word as its brand name, and more egregiously, this English brand name literally means ‘luxury goods.'”
“Isn’t this going against the current wishes of domestic consumers?”
“It’s actually a domestic product pretending to be a foreign brand, and affordable clothing pretending to be a luxury brand.”
“Looking at it from this angle, the brand seems fundamentally misaligned from its inception.”
“But if people knew the origin of the ‘luxury’ brand name and the connotations behind it, they wouldn’t think this way.”
“This clothing brand originally came from Tenda Games’ classic work, the interactive movie-style game ‘Struggle.'”
“In ‘Struggle,’ the creators deeply exposed and criticized how consumerism harms ordinary people, and the ‘luxury’ clothing brand was both a tool for the rich to harvest money from the poor and a form of discipline imposed by the rich upon the poor.”
“The rich attached various additional concepts to clothing brands, creating an illusion that wearing these designer suits and carrying designer bags would give one dignity and allow entry into the circles of the wealthy.”
“But in reality, truly rich people don’t need the ‘Luxury’ brand to prove their status. Instead, those who eagerly pursue luxury are ordinary wage earners supporting themselves with salaries!”
“And this simple, blunt name represents the creator’s attitude toward clothing brands. The golden logo formed by two capital L’s looks glamorous on the surface, but in reality, it’s making itself look dignified by constantly draining the blood of the poor.”
“After understanding this point, when we look at the real-world ‘luxury’ brand, we’ll find that it’s actually positioned completely opposite to the ‘luxury’ clothing brand in the game.”
“In reality, this ‘luxury’ clothing brand has maximally stripped away the marketing attributes and luxury attributes of its products. We can see on the official website that all ‘luxury’ clothing is basically affordable, with no significant markup beyond the original design costs and raw material processing fees. At least compared to those foreign brands, you can immediately see the price difference.”
“After doing some online research, I found that the raw materials and processing factories for the ‘luxury’ clothing brand are all domestic, and they use the best raw materials and top manufacturing plants. From this perspective, it’s not actually very different from foreign brands, since most of their manufacturing is also done in our country.”
“Of course, some might argue that a piece of clothing’s value isn’t just about raw materials and processing; other aspects are also very important, such as brand value and design.”
“If these were factored into the cost, the price would certainly be higher. The ‘luxury’ clothing brand cannot satisfy consumers’ needs well in these two aspects, so the low price is just out of necessity.”
“But that’s clearly not the case! The ‘luxury’ clothing brand has already considered these aspects.”
“First, in terms of design, the ‘luxury’ clothing brand has hired some well-known domestic designers. Of course, some might say this isn’t enough, as domestic fashion designers still have some gaps compared to top international designers in terms of aesthetic and design capabilities.”
“So the ‘luxury’ clothing brand has another major trump card, which is the game ‘Tailor-Made.'”
“Do you remember how Tenda Group responded during the initial update battle between GOG and IOI?”
“At that time, IOI wasn’t yet a defunct company. They were ambitiously releasing new heroes every day, hoping to seize the market with frequent version updates and rapid expansion. GOG didn’t try to match them in manpower but came up with a better solution.”
“By extensively soliciting player creativity on the forums, GOG quickly generated a large number of excellent hero designs. The official design team would comprehensively evaluate these ideas, fully adopt the good ones and share profits with the creators, while improving the slightly inferior ones to integrate them into the game as much as possible.”
“GOG overwhelmed IOI in both quantity and quality. Many of the excellent classic heroes we play today, such as the Wind Calligrapher, emerged during this period.”
“This proves that the creativity of the masses is limitless!”
“The same applies to clothing design. Once the broadest group of players and designers is mobilized, various excellent designs will inevitably emerge one after another. Moreover, ‘Tailor-Made’ has a comprehensive selection mechanism. These designs will go through multiple rounds of player screening, maximally reflecting the tastes of ordinary people and the aesthetic needs of the general public.”
“How many renowned designers, despite possessing advanced theories, create clothes that hurt the eyes and are unacceptable to ordinary people? Furthermore, Western cultural aesthetics might excel in their own established systems, but they can never create clothing with excellent Eastern cultural connotations.”
“The ‘luxury’ clothing brand wants to delegate this power to ordinary players, achieving an effect of ‘gathering talents regardless of background’ through incentivizing the continuous emergence of excellent designs from ordinary people, ensuring truly outstanding designs don’t get buried.”
“Even if the profits from these clothes are shared with the designers, the actual cost is far less than hiring top designers, and these savings are reflected in the clothing prices.”
“As for what many call ‘brand value,’ I want to ask: what is brand value?”
“If your so-called brand value is just following the crowd, thinking something is good because everyone says so, or if you can’t articulate what brand value actually is and can only talk vaguely about cultural heritage or celebrity endorsements, then I think this brand value might just be a manifestation of vanity!”
“Accurately speaking, brand value should be the comprehensive image of a brand in the minds of its consumers. This includes improvements in image, quality, class, culture, personality, and many other aspects that the brand brings to consumers. In other words, so-called brand value is the value recognition of a brand by a large number of consumers.”
“Or to put it more extremely, your recognition of a brand’s value represents a certain attitude toward life.”
“When you believe that expensive luxury goods, despite not improving in practical value, can bring you psychological satisfaction, it might mean you’re eager to show off your wealth to others.”
“When you believe daily necessities should return to their practical value and not be hijacked by excessive marketing, and choose some affordable brands, it might mean you value pragmatism, resist consumerism, and hope to spend money on more meaningful things.”
“Of course, there are individual cases, perhaps because you’re either extremely wealthy or extremely poor.”
“From this perspective, I think the brand value advocated by ‘luxury’ is a more correct and healthier brand value! All luxury brands actually approach issues from the corporate perspective, endowing brands with cultural and spiritual connotations through various means to better fleece consumers. Only the ‘luxury’ brand stands from the consumer’s perspective, helping consumers resist the numerous tactics of merchant brainwashing and induced consumption, allowing products to return to their practical value.”
“This is the true meaning behind Slow Walker Studio creating the ‘luxury’ clothing brand!”
“So looking back at the game ‘Tailor-Made,’ we find it’s no longer just a game, but also a bridge connecting all ordinary consumers with the ‘luxury’ clothing brand.”
“Every ordinary consumer can actually influence the ‘luxury’ clothing brand and the entire clothing brand consumer market through this game. Here, consumers are no longer obediently opening their wallets and being fleeced like leeks, but truly becoming masters who can change everything and determine their own destiny!”
“That’s why I say ‘Tailor-Made’ hasn’t reached a dead end, but is exploring a completely new path!”
“On one hand, it polishes game quality to the extreme and is willing to cater to the enjoyment of some niche players. It’s definitely not, as some claim, an unenjoyable game. For players who like dress-up games, this game could literally be played for a lifetime!”
“On the other hand, although it’s a game, it continuously influences reality. Not only does it link the game with a real-world clothing brand, more importantly, it allows every player to participate in real-world clothing design and the innovation of the clothing brand market.”
“Many people say that gaming is the ninth art form. Let’s think carefully: what else can this ninth art form do besides influencing people’s spiritual world and bringing people joy?”
“Perhaps the path that Slow Walker Studio is continuously exploring—integrating games with reality and making games a tool to transform reality—is the future direction of game development!”