April 4th, Monday.
After waking up in the morning, Pei Qian briefly organized his work objectives for the next few days.
First, he needed to arrange something for Tenda Games and Shangyang Games, the two game departments that kept making money!
For Shangyang Games, he would have them focus all their efforts on promoting the ioi China server.
As for Tenda Games, Pei Qian also needed to find something for them to do.
Otherwise, Hu Xianbin and his team would continue to pour all their efforts into updating GOG, releasing new heroes, and increasing marketing efforts, and the ioi China server might not necessarily be able to beat them.
After all, GOG had a much smoother start in China than ioi. He needed to find a way for ioi to steal all of GOG’s players.
As for what work to give Hu Xianbin and his team…
Pei Qian thought for a moment and decided to learn from experience, absorb the lessons, and this time develop a single-player game that no one would care about!
The success of “Beautiful Tomorrow” was a rather heavy blow to Pei Qian, completely overturning his worldview.
Why weren’t audiences at all angry about what he considered to be antagonizing them? This wasn’t scientific at all!
After much contemplation, Pei Qian understood.
The main issue was with the method of expression!
If viewers of the film “Beautiful Tomorrow” had put themselves in the protagonist’s shoes, they would have felt extremely uncomfortable and stifled, quickly dying from the toxicity.
But this was precisely because it was a film.
Through specific techniques, Zhu Xiaocai made the audience maintain a god’s perspective throughout, with no one identifying with the male or female lead, allowing them to view the story with a higher level of understanding and compassion.
As a result, the entire tone instantly changed.
In Pei Qian’s view, this was exactly where “Beautiful Tomorrow” failed the most, turning from a huge loss to a huge profit—a complete reversal that was beyond redemption.
So, after much thought, Pei Qian concluded that the idea of “feeding poison to the audience leads to losses” was fundamentally correct.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be an expression like “kneeling before reality.”
The key was in how to feed it, which required a certain technique.
He needed to strengthen the sense of immersion!
As long as people identified with the character, and that character suffered greatly, it would achieve the desired effect.
Pei Qian felt he had found the underlying cause of “Beautiful Tomorrow” making money, and now he needed a small verification.
But how exactly to verify it…
Fei Huang Studio had already been put on hiatus by Pei Qian, and having been bitten by a snake once, he wasn’t too keen on dealing with films again in the short term.
Comparatively, games were an art form with stronger immersion!
Some hardships in movies wouldn’t trigger much resentment from viewers, but in games, if players suffered along with the protagonist, that was a different story.
Of course, some might point out that suffering games like “Turn Back to Shore” didn’t provoke players’ antipathy, but instead made them feel good.
This was a complete misunderstanding.
Although suffering games like “Turn Back to Shore” would make players suffer, what players liked wasn’t the feeling of suffering but the feeling of becoming stronger afterward. At the root, it was about gaining a sense of achievement from overcoming difficulties.
In other words, players of such games weren’t masochists at all; on the contrary, they were sadists.
Almost all games in the world must provide players with enough positive feedback for them to derive pleasure.
And Pei Qian had already decided that this time, the game would not give players any positive feedback, only conveying thoroughly negative energy!
Wasn’t it called “kneeling before reality”?
This time, he would make a game that was realistic to the extreme, ensuring it would have no friends!
This time, Mr. Pei decided to take matters into his own hands, writing the game’s story outline himself to prevent Hu Xianbin from misinterpreting his intentions. He had to make sure the players were arranged clearly!
Of course, Pei Qian also realized that this approach wouldn’t necessarily guarantee a loss. The failure of “Game Producer” was a profound lesson.
At that time, Pei Qian also believed that the narration in “Game Producer” was insulting to players, but players weren’t angry at all. Instead, the narration became a huge positive feature.
Combined with Qiao Laoshi’s over-interpretation, things got completely out of hand.
For these issues, Pei Qian had already thought of countermeasures. He absolutely would not repeat the same mistakes, let alone stumble in the same puddle twice!
In short, Pei Qian had learned from the failures of “Beautiful Tomorrow” and “Game Producer” and decided to go all out in one fell swoop!
…
In the reception room of the Tenda Games department.
Hu Xianbin was somewhat nervous.
Pei Qian had called Hu Xianbin alone to the reception room to discuss the design approach for this new game.
This time, Pei Qian hadn’t called anyone else, especially veteran employees like Li Yada and Bao Xu.
Because these people had participated in the development of “Game Producer” and had a deep understanding of its success, Pei Qian feared they would derail this new project if they were involved.
So, Pei Qian decided to isolate these veteran employees.
He would let the few veterans who had participated in “Game Producer’s” development casually maintain GOG, while bringing out new employees like Hu Xianbin, who had little experience in single-player game development, to be responsible for the new game’s development.
To ensure this project could fully meet his expectations, Pei Qian would meticulously explain everything to Hu Xianbin, preventing any mental filling-in of gaps.
Pei Qian took a sip of tea and eloquently shared his ideas.
“This game will be called ‘Struggle,’ a realistic interactive movie game. All characters need high-definition modeling and motion capture, with visual quality on par with AAA masterpieces.”
“Of course, since the game’s duration will be relatively short, it won’t cost too much money. About… let’s prepare 40 million yuan first, and add more if needed.”
“The development time is tentatively set at five months, aiming to launch around September 1st.”
Hu Xianbin listened in confusion.
What?
An interactive movie game with realistic themes?
What a strange combination!
So-called interactive movie games could be seen as text adventure games with exquisite visuals. After the story begins, players can choose different routes to achieve different endings, but all they need to do is make choices among certain options without actually needing to perform operations.
Interactive movie games sometimes use game visuals, sometimes use real sets and actors for filming, neither of which is cheap.
But as Mr. Pei required, with all characters having high-definition modeling, motion capture, and quality comparable to AAA masterpieces, this would likely cost even more than using real sets and actors.
Forty million yuan would be enough to make a movie…
Thinking of this, Hu Xianbin felt tremendous pressure while being completely baffled.
It didn’t sound very feasible!
If it wasn’t Mr. Pei saying this in person, Hu Xianbin would have thought someone was falsely transmitting orders.
Pei Qian continued: “The so-called ‘Struggle’ lets players re-experience the journey of struggle in reality through the game.”
“This game will be divided into two parts, the rich version and the poor version, sold separately.”
“‘Struggle’ rich version is sold to poor people, original price 29 yuan, discounted price 19 yuan; ‘Struggle’ poor version is sold to rich people, original price 99 yuan, discounted price 79 yuan.”
“If players buy only one version, they can enjoy the discounted price; if they buy both versions, they must pay the original price, totaling 128 yuan.”
Hu Xianbin blinked: “Is there… any deeper meaning to this?”
Pei Qian nodded: “Of course, there’s a deeper meaning. Poor people experiencing rich people’s lives—poor people don’t have money, so the price is lower; rich people experiencing poor people’s lives—rich people have money, so the price is higher; life offers no second chances, so if you want to experience both, you have to pay more.”
Hu Xianbin fell silent, then remarked: “Even Mr. Pei’s pricing is so philosophical…”
Pei Qian continued: “Whether it’s the poor version or the rich version, they will be divided into several stages, from childhood to adulthood, from school to work, from work to life, from rest to entertainment… Through these scenarios, we want to showcase as many aspects as possible of poor or rich people’s lives.”
“In the rich version, players play a rich person who, from childhood, has been well-provided for and had smooth sailing, easily achieving success in all aspects of life, career, and relationships thanks to their parents’ money and resources.”
“But in the end, they die at the hands of a homeless person.”
“In the poor version, players play a poor person who, from childhood, has been living frugally on a bumpy road, and even after growing up, they don’t achieve any reversal of fortune, but continue the cycle of poverty.”
Hu Xianbin listened in a daze: “And then?”
Pei Qian: “Then? There is no ‘then.’ This is the entire content of the game.”
Hu Xianbin was even more confused: “As an interactive movie game, shouldn’t there be many endings?”
Pei Qian shook his head: “No, no matter what choices players make earlier in this game, there are only these two endings: the rich person is killed by a homeless person, or the poor person remains poor.”
Pei Qian thought to himself, “I absolutely won’t make the same mistake of multiple endings as in ‘Game Producer’!”
Hu Xianbin exclaimed in shock: “If everything is predetermined, what’s the point of players playing?”
Pei Qian explained: “The process will differ. Each different choice by the player will lead to different branches, but all branches will return to the same ending.”
“The differences in those branches won’t be reflected in the ending.”
“As for the details of this game, within the larger framework, we need to fill in various aspects of life.”
“For instance, during school, poor people can only attend ordinary schools with low educational quality, while rich people can go to expensive elite schools; when looking for jobs, poor people repeatedly hit walls in interviews, while rich people directly go to work at their father’s company; when dating, poor people break up with their longtime girlfriends because they can’t afford to buy a house, while rich people bring different girls from nightclubs to their homes every day; when getting married, poor people gather the entire family’s resources to buy a small second-hand house, while rich people’s families have already prepared mansions for them, requiring no effort on their part, and the annual increase in property value alone exceeds what poor people earn through hard work…”
“Understand?”
The corner of Hu Xianbin’s mouth twitched slightly: “I… understand completely.”
Pei Qian thought for a moment and added: “Oh, right, the story background should be set in Western countries. Find some foreigners for motion capture and voice acting.”
Hu Xianbin: “Mr. Pei, does this game… have any profound meaning?”
Pei Qian laughed: “Whether there’s any profound meaning or not, you don’t need to worry about it. Just do your job well.”
“I’ll provide the game’s story outline, and you and the rest of the production team will refine the plot. After the storyline is completely written, show it to me again to ensure there are no misunderstandings.”
“Alright, you can start preparing.”
“Art resources and the like can be done first. After all, you can imagine what kind of characters need to be created—parents, teachers, classmates, bosses, and the like.”
Pei Qian gave a few more simple instructions and then left.
Hu Xianbin was left alone, pulling his hair and pondering deeply.
Teacher, this question is beyond the scope of our lessons, right?
It’s completely unfathomable!
…
This time, to ensure a total loss, Pei Qian had made thorough preparations.
The pricing had deep significance.
The poor version, which could also be called the ultimate suffering version, allowed players to experience again the hardships that poor people endure in reality—ultimate torture.
The rich version, which could also be called the gold-foil-wrapped excrement version, started smoothly and followed a complete Mary Sue template, making people feel great, but ended with death at the hands of a poor person.
Considering that the rich version was gold-foil-wrapped excrement, only revealing its true nature at the end while being enjoyable earlier, Pei Qian deliberately set a low price of 19 yuan.
The poor version, which was torture throughout, was instead priced high at 79 yuan.
To prevent players from playing both versions and developing some strange interpretations, Pei Qian deliberately increased the price for buying both versions together.
If players were to buy, the best choice would be to buy the rich version for 19 yuan, which wouldn’t cost much, minimizing Pei Qian’s risk of making money.
The content was even more outrageous. Being tortured throughout was bad enough, but crucially, both endings were unfortunate, and players could not change these two endings, no matter how hard they tried in the game!
Would anyone play such a game?
Impossible!
Pei Qian was determined to “kneel before reality” this time.
By self-destructing in this manner, he aimed to make the entire 40 million yuan go down the drain without a penny left!