October 4th.
After having dinner with Lin Chang yesterday, Pei Qian carefully considered the matter of the new business.
Industries like livestreaming and mobile phones both required huge initial investments and would generate equally huge losses. Even if he wanted to start one, he would have to wait until after this month’s settlement.
Of course, when he said huge investments, there were ways to play with a lot of money, and ways to play with less money.
Take mobile phones, for example. Even if Pei Qian decided to make them, he couldn’t possibly stock hundreds of thousands of units. It would be neither realistic nor necessary.
Large manufacturers stocked more products, partly to achieve economies of scale for lower procurement prices, and partly to avoid stockouts that would anger consumers.
But Pei Qian didn’t need to consider these things.
If the procurement price was high, so be it—higher prices meant more losses. If they ran out of stock, so be it—President Pei never expected these phones to sell anyway.
Initially, limit it to three thousand units; if they sold one more than that, he’d consider it a loss.
The goal was to lose money, so why be too ambitious? Lose as much money as you have.
Of course, the specific approach still needed to be considered carefully. He would only act when he was sure of failure.
After arriving at the company, the first thing Pei Qian did was check on the status of “Turn Back to Shore.”
Although one day’s data wouldn’t reveal much, for Pei Qian, as long as the game’s data showed no significant improvement compared to before, that was the best news.
Just as he closed the backend and was about to watch some shows, there was a knock on the door.
Pei Qian looked up and saw Li Yada.
Li Yada timidly pushed open the door, adjusted her thick glasses, and pressed the tips of her index fingers together: “Mr. Pei, there’s a rather serious situation…”
“According to the official platform’s regulations, if a game’s refund rate exceeds 20%, the platform will issue a warning; if the refund rate exceeds 35%, the game will be forcibly taken down for modifications…”
“Currently, our game has nearly reached 30%, and if this continues, the situation might… not be too optimistic.”
Pei Qian was taken aback.
Oh? Could this be good news?
Pei Qian had never encountered this problem before because Tenda’s games had always been fair to players, and the pricing wasn’t expensive, so the refund rate had never been very high.
Even for a game like “Lonely Desert Highway,” because the price was so cheap, players rarely asked for refunds.
But this time the situation was different. “Turn Back to Shore” had attracted a large number of ordinary players and players with poor gaming skills. Although most of these players had stayed for various reasons, there were still quite a few who had angrily requested refunds.
Not only were the game’s reviews polarized, but the refund issue was also very serious.
But for Pei Qian, this was a good thing!
If the game was taken down for rectification, they could leisurely make some changes and then relaunch it. Such a disturbance would further reduce sales, as long as it was back online a week before settlement, it would be fine.
This wasn’t something Pei Qian deliberately caused, so the system couldn’t complain, right?
Pei Qian glanced at the backend: “Where’s the warning?”
Li Yada lowered her head: “Um, the official platform does have such regulations, but as for why there’s no warning, I’m not very clear.”
“Maybe it’s because Tenda has a good reputation on the official platform?”
“I’m just reporting this situation. What would you like to do? Should the game be slightly modified to lower the difficulty of the early content?”
“No need!” Pei Qian raised his hand. “I fully understand the situation. Don’t worry about it.”
“O…okay.” Li Yada nodded and retreated.
Looking at the refund rate of less than 30%, Pei Qian felt somewhat pained.
Ah, what a shame!
He should have pushed a bit harder initially to directly reach 35%!
Now the game’s refund rate wasn’t only not increasing but was showing a downward trend, which Pei Qian found quite distressing.
This was normal because as information about the game continued to spread across the internet, most new players already knew it was a high-difficulty game and had mental preparation when entering.
So naturally, the number of players requesting refunds showed a rapidly declining trend.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and then opened the chat with “Xiaofox Reviews.”
The water army he bought last time had worked well; the game was being severely criticized.
Since that was the case, he should increase the effort!
Try to generate more criticism, lead the public sentiment, and if possible, get more people to request refunds. If not, at least scare away some players, which would still reduce sales.
Of course, he still couldn’t be explicit.
Pei Qian could only proceed as before, giving hints as much as possible.
…
Meanwhile, Hu Xiao was deeply reflecting on his impulsive behavior.
Too regretful!
Looking at the “hehe” that appeared repeatedly on the screen, Hu Xiao felt his intelligence, personality, and dignity were all being severely damaged.
What exactly had happened? How had his brain malfunctioned, causing him not to request a refund?
It was ironic that while others were being paid to act as water armies, Hu Xiao had spent a hundred yuan himself. It was truly indescribable.
“Could it be that I was set up?”
“Did they anticipate that some people definitely wouldn’t request refunds?”
“That’s too scheming!”
“When he contacts me again, I must question him thoroughly! I won’t let this matter rest until it’s clear!”
Hu Xiao thought angrily.
Just as his anger peaked, he suddenly noticed a new message from “Hardcore Reviews.”
“Buy another 100,000 yuan worth of water army, increase the effort!”
Hu Xiao was startled and quickly replied: “Yes, bro! No problem!!”
Seeing another 100,000 coming in, Hu Xiao’s mood instantly improved.
How could such a generous boss set him up?
He was overthinking it!
…
…
October 5th.
Beijing.
In his rented apartment, Qiao Liang was anxiously pacing back and forth.
It was unbearable!
Since the release of “Turn Back to Shore,” he had been following it closely.
But the more he saw, the more anxious he became.
On gaming websites, the reviews of this game were mixed. Many people started criticizing without even understanding the essence of the game.
Although some content creators on video sites had made introduction videos for the game, they hadn’t grasped the essence of it. The rich storyline design of the game hadn’t even been mentioned.
Most players were still debating whether to refund or whether the game’s difficulty was problematic—trivial topics that, in Qiao Liang’s view, were completely worthless!
“Turn Back to Shore” was like a treasure, and these people were like those arguing at the entrance of a treasure cave that the entrance was too narrow—it was simply foolish!
Thinking of President Pei’s deep affection and kindness, remembering the big crabs President Pei had treated him to, Qiao Liang wanted to step up and help President Pei right now.
However, although he had a standard answer in his hands, he couldn’t reveal it.
Because Qiao Liang had promised President Pei that he would only release videos a week after the game’s launch. During this week, Qiao Liang couldn’t spoil anything and had to let other players experience this unique game without interference.
So, Qiao Liang could only transform his grief into motivation, continuing to frantically complete “Turn Back to Shore” during this period, accumulating material for his upcoming video.
For someone who had already completed multiple playthroughs, the combat aspects of the game were already very clear. Now his focus was mainly on the game’s storyline.
After all, the storyline and world-building were important components of game content, and “Turn Back to Shore” was a game with very rich connotations.
After playing for a while, Qiao Liang opened a document and began writing the script for his video in advance.
“If you pay attention, you’ll notice that these monsters appearing in the video will all be encountered in the formal game progression, and they will change.”
“The corpse lying by the river twitched in the video, hinting that it had also become a monster. In the game progression, there’s an item next to the corpse’s hand. If players try to take it, the corpse will suddenly jump up and grab the player, instantly killing them.”
“…In the video, the old monk in the ruined temple outside the city keeps chanting scriptures, fending off the attacks of these wandering souls. But in the game, when players reach the ruined temple outside the city, they’ll find that the old monk has also lost his sanity and will frantically attack players.”
“…Killing the old monk will yield prayer beads and a zen staff. The former is an important consumable item in the early game, while the latter has average attributes and only has collection value as an off-meta weapon.”
“…Since the prayer beads are quite important, and the old monk’s combat ability is extremely weak, it’s recommended that everyone kill the old monk for the items after reaching the town.”
“The deranged scholar burned down his own house. When players arrive here, the house has been completely burned to the ground. In a corner not far away, the scholar’s corpse can be found. From him, players can obtain a torn family letter he wrote, revealing some past events of this small village…”
“…There are certain storyline trigger points in the game that might lead to different endings. It’s not yet clear exactly how many endings the game has, but there are at least two or more.”
Qiao Liang played the game while recording all these details and easter eggs he found.
The more he recorded, the more he felt how rich the game’s content was!
He hadn’t noticed these things when he was playing the game before. His mind was focused on how to complete the game, how to defeat certain bosses, and he couldn’t pay attention to these details.
But now, back in his rented apartment, after completing multiple playthroughs and no longer seeking the challenge of the game, he started to explore these intricate details.
The more he explored, the more he discovered how rich the content was!
Qiao Liang even suspected that there must have been an entire storyline design team to create such a complete story with such rich details!
Of course, objectively speaking, compared to some foreign AAA titles that emphasized storyline, the storyline content of “Turn Back to Shore” wasn’t extensive; it was just very fragmented.
But this feeling of treasure hunting made Qiao Liang feel completely addicted, unable to stop!
After writing a long section of the video script, Qiao Liang decided to take a break.
After making a bowl of noodles, Qiao Liang opened his fan group to see what his fans were discussing.