July 26th, Monday.

Shangyang Games.

Lin Wan held her nose while experiencing “Hot-Blooded Battle Song.” She had been testing it for two weeks now.

From her initial disdain and confusion to now, she increasingly felt that this type of game had its reason to exist.

The original “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” was a traditional pay-to-win game where wealthy players spent money for an enhanced experience, while ordinary players accompanied them, either as subordinates or punching bags.

It was essentially “those with money contribute money, those without contribute their presence.”

These pay-to-win national war games were filled with negative emotions, with the biggest issues being unfairness and the deliberate creation of hostility.

These two points were precisely why similar pay-to-win national war games had always maintained extremely poor reputations.

The unfairness stemmed from the fact that combat power in the game was obtained through recharging money—the wealthier the player, the stronger they became.

Game companies divide the same game into different tiers. How much money you spent determined what kind of gaming experience you received.

If you spent enough money, you could slaughter opponents at will, completely trampling over other players’ gaming experiences.

This unfairness naturally triggered negative emotions among players, as the saying goes: “People don’t fear poverty as much as they fear inequality.”

As for deliberately creating hostility, many game developers intentionally designed gameplay mechanics to stimulate players’ competitive mentality and trigger spending.

For example, the national war feature.

The player who captured the royal city became the king, triggering a server-wide announcement and distributing massive benefits to players in their nation—a perfect opportunity to show off in front of all server players.

When several wealthy players all wanted to be king, they could only compete by spending more money, seeing who could spend more aggressively.

You spend ten thousand, I spend thirty thousand; you spend fifty thousand, I spend a hundred thousand…

Under this competitive mentality, a rat race formed where two wealthy players competed against each other, spending on virtual data, both manipulated by the game developers.

Once the version was updated and new equipment was released, no matter how much you had spent before, you had to spend again or quickly be surpassed.

Players who had spent significant amounts would look back after a year or two and feel only endless emptiness from the game.

However, from another perspective, why did these games prevail?

Precisely because they constructed a sufficiently complete, rich, and diverse world within the game.

Traditional MMORPG games were doing the same thing. For example, in “Fantasy World,” there were also guilds with officials like guild leaders, guild administrators, raid leaders, battleground commanders, etc. Players similarly played different social roles.

But the role-playing in pay-to-win national war games like “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” was more immersive because interpersonal relationships were more complex with more social strata.

The only difference was that in “Fantasy World,” a player’s presence depended on their online time and understanding of game mechanics, while in pay-to-win national war games, a player’s presence depended on how much money they had spent.

Now, after the update to “Hot-Blooded Battle Song,” they had tried to remove as many pay-to-win elements as possible.

This greatly reduced the negative emotions players experienced, dropping them to the level of traditional MMORPGs like “Fantasy World.”

At the same time, the complex social hierarchies and interpersonal relationships in “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” were preserved. Each player could play different roles, making the entire game function like a miniature society operating in an orderly fashion.

Take the Chosen System in the national war, for instance. Everyone had the chance to play a key role, and this experience was something other games could never provide.

After being selected by the Chosen System, a player’s combat power would directly crush other players, allowing them to experience the feeling of effortlessly mowing down opponents.

Though hack-and-slash games could simulate this feeling, those games only let you fight NPCs—programs. In “Hot-Blooded Battle Song,” you were fighting real people, with a real player behind each ID.

When you became invincible on the battlefield, helping your side capture key strongholds, you were genuinely showing off in front of hundreds of players, a sense of achievement incomparable to other game types.

So, the current changes to “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” preserved the unique experience of pay-to-win games while removing as much “toxic” content as possible that might trigger negative emotions in players.

This was the principle Lin Wan had come to understand after playing “Hot-Blooded Battle Song” every day and chatting with many players in the player groups.

“I see now. I was naive before, not realizing there were so many intricacies involved.”

“Now I understand why so many wealthy players prefer to spend massive amounts in these games rather than playing games like ‘Fantasy World.'”

“This makes Mr. Pei’s goal very clear.”

“Why did he acquire the heavily loss-making Shangyang Games?”

“It was to do something very risky with ‘Hot-Blooded Battle Song’—to conduct an experiment no one had ever attempted before!”

“Mr. Pei hopes to free players from being slaves to money, to transform players’ tastes, allowing all players to enjoy the exclusive pleasures of wealthy players without spending money…”

“This motivation… is truly noble!”

“Or rather, it’s simply going against the heavens!”

Lin Wan couldn’t help but refresh her understanding of Mr. Pei once again.

The reason pay-to-win games could make money was that they sold wealthy players an exclusive, customized gaming experience at a premium.

Whether it was the golden wings in the game or the title of king in national wars, these could all be seen as products specially customized for wealthy players, and the wealthy didn’t mind spending thousands or tens of thousands to purchase them.

In this process, game companies gained enormous profits, wealthy players received exclusive customized experiences, and the only ones who suffered were the ordinary players who served as punching bags.

Now, Mr. Pei chose to forgo this profit, taking back all the exclusive customized experiences from the wealthy and distributing them to ordinary players according to certain rules.

Wasn’t this going against the heavens?

Lin Wan felt the weight on her shoulders grow heavier.

Now, Mr. Pei had spent so much money producing “Hot-Blooded Battle Song: Power Enhanced Version” to fix the game’s only shortcoming—its graphics. If this game were released, combined with Tenda’s powerful promotional capabilities, it might gradually transform the distorted landscape of the domestic pay-to-win game market!

Of course, this idea was somewhat idealistic. Such pay-to-win games wouldn’t disappear as long as wealthy players kept paying; they would continue to exist.

But if “Hot-Blooded Battle Song: Power Enhanced Version” could contribute even a little to purifying the gaming environment and changing players’ tastes, it would be an immense virtue!

Among game developers, some kowtowed to wealthy players, using pay-to-win games for their profit; others valued their reputation and seriously developed single-player games.

Only Mr. Pei, having already achieved tremendous success in single-player games, was willing to wade into these troubled waters, ready to sacrifice enormous profits just to transform these players’ tastes and guide them to no longer be slaves to money…

What a noble aspiration!