“So, how should we evaluate it? I’m about to give it one star.”

“I think it’s fine. The first two monsters just have high damage, but after dodging them, killing them is quite simple. You’re giving one star just for that? Why don’t you reflect on your poor gaming skills?”

“?”

“What are you questioning for? We, water army members, have principles too. We do the job we’re paid for. We’ve taken the boss’s money, how can you be so irresponsible?”

“Damn, if you’re so righteous, why the hell are you working as water army? You’re just a beggar thinking you’re an emperor reviewing official documents!”

“And you’re not a beggar yourself?”

“If you’re so amazing, why are you working as a water army? Why don’t you go be a keyboard warrior and fight for justice?”

“What’s wrong with finding a job to earn some pocket money? How do you know I’m not a keyboard warrior in my spare time?”

Seeing that two people in the group were about to engage in an “elegant” battle, Hu Xiao quickly stopped them.

“Alright, everyone, stop arguing!”

“Both of you get a one-hour mute!”

“We are professionals, we need to control our anger, understand?”

“Don’t bring emotions into work, be calm like me, got it?”

Hu Xiao was speechless.

Actually, this was normal. Although these water army members were in the same group, they were all just doing jobs for money. With several hundred people in one group, how could they all know each other?

Moreover, most of these water army members were people without much money, living not-so-good lives, and who enjoyed typing on keyboards to comment on world affairs online. They tended to be “elegant” people who enjoyed insulting each other’s immediate family members at the slightest disagreement.

It wasn’t surprising that they would argue over something like this.

Hu Xiao now realized that the request from the “Hardcore Review” content creator wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

There was a trap here!

If these water army members were given a very clear objective, such as either relentlessly criticizing or praising this game, they would just do the job they were paid for without saying anything extra.

And no one would speak against it, after all, water army members have professional ethics.

But now, the boss hadn’t required them to evaluate the game in any specific way.

So, as these water army members discussed in the group, they started fighting among themselves due to differing opinions…

Only after the administrators stepped in, urgently muting several people and announcing that anyone who continued being “elegant” in the group would be kicked out and never receive Water Army jobs again, did the situation come under control.

Hu Xiao observed everyone’s comments and found that most people had poor evaluations of this game.

Many people had inadequate computer specifications, experienced severe lag when playing this game, and had a bad gaming experience, naturally leading to a poor first impression.

Some people, like Hu Xiao, had no issue with their computer specifications, but went in and were immediately destroyed by small monsters, making them question their life choices, so of course, they didn’t have a good impression of the game either.

But there was a small portion of people in the group who thought the game was acceptable.

The graphics were good, the action was smooth, and the combat feedback was satisfying. Although the small monsters could one-shot players, as long as you were a bit careful not to get hit, you could still defeat these small monsters.

This small portion of people had a good first impression of the game, so their opinions were opposite to others.

This was normal. After all, in any group, there would inevitably be some players who enjoyed challenging themselves.

In the water army group, there were many internet-addicted youths used to hanging out in internet cafes, with rich gaming experiences. When encountering such a high-difficulty game, their first reaction wasn’t to get angry enough to smash their computers, but rather to find it challenging.

Although these people were a minority, they represented a different voice.

Hu Xiao thought about it and realized that it was almost impossible to unify opinions, and there was no need to.

The boss had said to let everyone evaluate based on their first impressions, and hadn’t specified whether to give positive or negative reviews.

That being the case, just let everyone freely express themselves!

Hu Xiao typed: “Alright, everyone, stop arguing and start working. If you want to give one star, give one star. If you want to give five stars, give five stars.”

“Everyone is professional at setting trends. If you have personal grudges, resolve them with keyboards on forums; don’t argue in the group. Typing on forums gets you paid, typing in the group only gets you muted.”

Everyone in the group thought about it and agreed.

What’s the point of arguing in the group? Just start working!

Those water army members with extremely poor first impressions of the game directly gave one-star negative reviews, wrote a few sentences expressing their extreme disappointment and not recommending the game, then refunded and uninstalled it.

Those who were more interested in the game directly gave five-star positive reviews and came up with all sorts of ways to praise it.

After all, everyone was professional at mindlessly praising or criticizing.

They were skilled at setting trends, but asking them to write a plain, ordinary evaluation would be difficult.

Moreover, writing evaluations wasn’t the end of the job.

This time, each person was getting three to four hundred yuan, so they couldn’t just post one comment and be done.

Everyone had tasks to complete—they had to post comments, create threads, and write evaluations on various platforms, including the official platform, Weibo, and forums. They also needed to comment under popular threads and increase likes and shares for each other.

The boss had paid a hefty price, so the entire package of services had to be delivered properly.

So, these water army members who had posted comments began sharing links to their Weibos and reviews in the group.

“Help like this comment, brothers.”

“You can copy and paste this comment I posted. Brothers who need it can use it as a reference.”

“Brothers, this is the Weibo I posted, everyone share it.”

“There seems to be a player on AiLiDao who made a complaint video criticizing this game. Brothers who are criticizing, quickly like it and try to get it to the homepage.”

“Here’s a post praising this game, brothers who are praising, quickly go increase its popularity.”

The water army members in the group immediately began working intensely, continuously sharing content about the game “Return to Shore” from various websites. One group posted negative reviews, another group posted five-star positive reviews.

Both sides very tacitly avoided arguing in the group, instead bringing their argumentative spirit to other websites and forums, battling fiercely.

Watching all this, Hu Xiao couldn’t help but cover his face, feeling that something was off about this scene.

“This is the first time I’ve seen such a situation, it’s like two groups of people simultaneously hired water army from our group to fight each other…”

“But it doesn’t matter, I’ve already done what the boss asked for.”

“However, the evaluations for this game are chaotic, completely polarized.”

Out of curiosity, Hu Xiao also looked at the players’ evaluations of “Return to Shore” online.

It was indeed polarized, with many five-star and one-star reviews!

The water army’s influence was certainly a factor, but even excluding their impact, players’ evaluations of the game remained mixed.

The main points of criticism were still those two: high system requirements and high difficulty!

Players complained in forum posts that they had already died more than a dozen times against small monsters, and that the game’s numerical design had major problems!

Some cursed the programmers, some cursed the planners. In short, most people thought the game’s numerical values probably had an extra zero added by mistake.

“I really can’t stand it, this game is too difficult, it’s unplayable! Can someone tell me if the game will adjust the numerical values back to normal levels in the future? If it will, I won’t refund.”

There were quite a few similar comments.

Although opinions were mixed, players’ resentment wasn’t that intense.

Because the game could be refunded within five hours.

Now that the game had just been released, it was still far from the five-hour refund window. After experiencing it, players found that the game’s quality was pretty good, whether in terms of graphics, action, combat feedback, art design, and other aspects.

High system requirements could be solved somehow.

As for the abnormal difficulty level, they could only hope that the officials would make adjustments.

Many people thought this might be a serious bug in the game, so they didn’t rush to refund but were waiting for an official statement.

If the officials could urgently fix this bug where small monsters could one-shot players, then the game would still be playable.

However, not long after, the official Weibo account made a statement.

“Dear players: The current numerical difficulty of the game is already the optimal difficulty after official adjustments, not a serious bug. There will be no further adjustments to the difficulty in the future. This is to better ensure the gaming experience for every player.”

After just a few minutes, this Weibo post was shared to various forums and player groups, and comments underneath the post began to increase rapidly.

“?”

“Slowly typing out a question mark.”

“Officials causing trouble? This level of difficulty is called ‘the optimal difficulty after adjustments’?”

“Ensuring the gaming experience for every player… (smirking)”

“I originally thought the officials accidentally killed players, but it turns out it was intentional?”

“Hello? Can you explain what the epitaph means?”

“No adjustments will be made in the future? Are you sure? Haha, when the game sales crash, I want to see if you can still be so stubborn. Screenshot waiting to be proven right.”

“Laughing at a bunch of noobs crying foul. I can’t beat small monsters, it must be because the official difficulty setting is too high, it has nothing to do with my poor skills!”

“This is why Chinese players are only fit to play mindless reset-button web games. When the difficulty is slightly higher, they shout for officials to adjust the difficulty. Would you like them to change it to one hit for 999 damage?”

“Is this just ‘slightly higher’ difficulty?”

“Mentally challenged players shouldn’t play games at all, go get treatment quickly.”

“I @#$%*…”

Soon, the battle in the comments section of this Weibo post rapidly spread.

Hu Xiao vaguely saw traces of the water army in these battling comments, but couldn’t confirm.

Hu Xiao knew very clearly that members from the group had participated in this discussion. Those few comments with high likes at the beginning could all possibly be from his group members.

But who specifically was hard to say!

Because other people’s comments also looked like water army comments…