“After understanding the meaning of this ending, when we look back at the entire process, we gain new insights.”

“Many people feel the gameplay is monotonous, and this monotony comes from several aspects.”

“First, the combat content is monotonous. Although the protagonist constantly changes his cybernetic implants and enhances his abilities, the enemies he fights are always the same. Though their appearances change, the feeling that combat brings has no essential difference.”

“Second, the content outside of combat is monotonous. The protagonist’s comrades die one by one, and before players can even remember their names, they’ve already forgotten them. The protagonist arrives at each new battlefield and gains new weapons, new teammates, and new equipment, but the game never explains where these equipment and money come from.”

“Third, the game scenes are monotonous. Except for a few indoor scenes like banquets and celebrations, for most of the time, Captain Lu is just rushing from one battlefield to another. These battlefields may look different, but the feeling of combat is identical.”

“Finally, the game characters are monotonous. Especially in that critical victory celebration scene, when Captain Lu looks around, he finds that there isn’t a single familiar face in the resistance. The comrades who fought alongside him are all dead, and the only somewhat familiar faces are the executives of various financial groups, but they’re only vaguely familiar—he can’t even recall their names.”

“Does it feel frustrating? It should, because that’s exactly what Captain Lu feels.”

“When players experience the entire game for the first time, they’re attracted by the intense scenes and driven by the goal of completing the game. They can feel every upgrade of the cybernetic implants and become excited by the combat.”

“Captain Lu is the same. He fights desperately and modifies himself relentlessly because of the visible goal of overthrowing Tenda Group, and he can see his progress after each battle.”

“But when players and Captain Lu reach the latter part of the story, especially after seeing the past and future of the entire story, things suddenly feel off.”

“The game doesn’t explain where these resources and new soldiers come from. It’s simple—they’re sent by other financial groups. The resistance’s activities give other financial groups hope of overthrowing Tenda and taking its place, so more and more financial groups provide support to the resistance.”

“Resistance soldiers die in waves, but that’s fine because for the financial groups, these soldiers are just consumables. The reason Captain Lu can always survive is probably not because he’s so brave and good at fighting, but simply because he’s a god created jointly by these financial groups. He must survive as a spiritual belief to maintain this war against Tenda Group.”

“So Captain Lu was never the true protagonist of the story. All he did was pick up the guns handed to him by the financial groups and continuously attack Tenda Group.”

“The player adopts Captain Lu’s first-person perspective, naturally experiencing the same emotions as him.”

“In the second or third playthrough, this feeling becomes stronger, and players start to question the meaning of the entire action. This is exactly the effect the game designer wanted to achieve.”

“The last question: who is the real villain in this game? What is the creator opposing in the thoughts being expressed?”

“Some might think Tenda Group is mocking itself.”

“Others might think Tenda Group is just putting on a show.”

“But I want to say these views are too shallow. If simply defeating a big company touches the core of the world, then this task is too easy to complete.”

“Tenda Group is not mocking itself, nor is it mocking others. In fact, no specific company is worth Tenda criticizing with a dedicated game.”

“What the designer truly hopes to show is that intangible will wandering the world—the will that continuously creates Tenda Group and then jumps to other financial groups when Tenda Group is exhausted.”

“The company boss who inherited Tenda Group’s data and intelligent systems might think he will become the ruler of the entire world, but the game has already shown that he is not the ruler but a puppet.”

“This boss and that empty chair in the last scene are not essentially different.”

“So I believe this game is not self-mockery, but self-reflection. Rather than attacking a specific company, it’s sounding an alarm for all companies.”

“I know ‘The Future You Chose’ also has a film version that has already won awards.”

“To be safe, I should watch the film first and then conduct an in-depth analysis combining the film’s content. Comparing the two might reveal more details.”

“But truly capable people don’t need to play it safe.”

“I’m very certain that the core and viewpoints expressed in the game will definitely apply to the film as well.”

“Of course, because the form of expression is different in the film, there might be more ways to interpret it. But no matter what, they will definitely reach the same destination by different routes.”

“You can consider this video of mine as a prophecy. Is this prophecy accurate? We’ll find out when the film is released!”

…

After watching Qiao Laoshi’s game interpretation video, Lu Xiaoping leaned back in his chair, his mind blank.

He never imagined that Qiao Laoshi had actually predicted his prediction!

Although Qiao Laoshi’s video was created independently, in the process of explaining the game’s connotations, he very cleverly addressed the two biggest criticisms of the game from the outside world.

Why is the gameplay relatively monotonous? Just like “Turn Back to Shore,” it’s to break the fourth wall.

Is Tenda criticizing itself or secretly praising itself while appearing to criticize? Neither—Tenda is using its company as an embodiment. What it criticizes is not a specific company or entity, but an intangible will.

Compared to those accusations that stay on the surface, Qiao Laoshi’s video analysis cuts to the core and strikes directly at the soul.

When these core ideas are laid out, no one will care about those superficial accusations anymore. This is like a dimensional reduction attack.

All the efforts made by the Anti-Tenda Alliance to stir up public opinion have come to nothing.

Lu Xiaoping stood up and paced quickly around the hotel room.

He couldn’t give up at this moment. Even if he had to make a fuss, he needed to muddy the waters.

Because the film would be released this weekend, if nothing was done to confuse the public, the heat from Qiao Laoshi’s video would definitely continue to ferment, creating an excellent promotional effect for “The Future You Chose” film.

For the “My Property” film, this would be an unfavorable start.

After much consideration, Lu Xiaoping made up his mind.

It would be impossible to find a higher meaning or find loopholes in Qiao Laoshi’s video, because Qiao Laoshi’s arguments were indeed well-founded, and the entire video was very solid.

But this didn’t mean Lu Xiaoping had no room to maneuver. To protect his own film, he had two final moves.

One was over-interpretation, and the other was forced bundling to ride the popularity.

On one hand, while unable to completely refute Qiao Laoshi’s video, he could shift from offense to defense and emphasize that Qiao Laoshi was over-interpreting the game’s content and making excessive inferences. This might not reverse public opinion, but at least it could extend the dispute between the two sides for some time.

After all, metaphor is a double-edged sword. While stimulating players’ or viewers’ imagination, it can also cause instances of over-interpretation. And some normal meanings might be understood as over-interpretation, which to some extent would undermine the technique of metaphor.

On the other hand, he could attach “My Property” to “The Future You Chose” and pit them against each other, expressing that “My Property” had a higher and more profound meaning.

This approach could create a tense, confrontational atmosphere before the films were released. The higher the popularity of “The Future You Chose,” the higher the popularity of “My Property” would be. Although the two sides would fight fiercely, fans of one side would always be curious about the performance of the other.

All of this was based on Lu Xiaoping’s absolute trust in the quality of “My Property.”

Lu Xiaoping immediately called Nie Yunsheng and then directed his subordinates to urgently carry out the plan.

After rounds of exchanges, both sides finally entered the decisive moment.

Success or failure would be determined by this move!

…

…

Saturday, September 21, 12:00 AM.

Pei Qian sat in the cinema, in a position relatively close to the corner, waiting for the film to start.

The midnight screening is generally the most important session for a film, because those who come to the midnight screening are basically hardcore viewers, and the word-of-mouth from the midnight screening will directly affect the word-of-mouth and reviews of the film throughout its entire run.

However, what Pei Qian was watching was not “The Future You Chose,” but “My Property,” which Fanqi Media had been promoting with all their resources.

For Pei Qian, since “The Future You Chose” had won the Golden Lion Award, it was unlikely to be a bad film.

The key to success or failure now lay in whether “My Property” could surpass “The Future You Chose” in some aspects.

The public opinion battle between the two sides had been very intense these past two days, with both pushing the popularity of the two films very high.

The Anti-Tenda Alliance continuously attacked the game and film versions of “The Future You Chose,” but most of these attacks were resolved one by one by Qiao Liang.

But even so, the Anti-Tenda Alliance had not given up. Obviously, they were treating this film as their last line of defense.

From various online situations, “My Property” seemed to have a real chance.

Although it didn’t have the support of many big-name actors and famous directors, the script of this film was excellent. The entire team involved in the production was also very dedicated, and it was very likely to become the biggest dark horse recently.

Pei Qian was full of expectations for this.