Yangcheng.
Tianhua Studio.
“Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.?”
“Coming to Yangcheng to visit our studio for exchange and communication???”
Zhou Muyan felt somewhat bewildered.
What the hell was a game company doing visiting another game company for observation and exchange? He had never heard of such a thing before!
Those who typically visited major companies were college students doing social practice activities, organized by their schools, to visit large companies in preparation for their future careers.
He had never heard of a game company organizing its employees to visit another company!
At least not in China.
Because the vast majority of game companies in China were profit-driven, traveling such a long distance for a visit was very wasteful!
Just calculating for a team of twenty or thirty people, round-trip flights, hotels, other expenses, plus the lost work time during those days… it wasn’t a small amount.
Moreover, such a major undertaking wouldn’t create any benefits—it was pure money loss.
They claimed it was for exchange and learning, but what could they exchange? Nothing!
What game company would be so stupid…
Zhou Muyan instinctively wanted to refuse.
He was the producer at Tianhua Studio and was quite well-known in the industry.
Of course, strictly speaking, his reputation was mixed. Many people criticized Tianhua Studio, and as its producer, he inevitably shared in that criticism.
Zhou Muyan wasn’t his real name but a nickname. Using nicknames was quite a popular trend in some southern companies, and Tianhua Studio was no exception.
Recently, Tianhua Studio had been developing an FPS online game for over a year and was about to launch internal testing.
In this state of company-wide overtime, Zhou Muyan was not in the mood to spare half a day to receive employees from a game company who had traveled from Handong Province.
“Director Zhou, this company has successful projects; they developed ‘Ghost General.’ I suggest you make time to meet them. If you’re busy, you can have Brother Sun receive them. Just showing them around the company won’t take much effort,” reminded the administrative assistant who had spoken with Xin Hailu on the phone.
“‘Ghost General’ was made by them?”
Zhou Muyan was surprised, but then thought the administrative assistant had a point.
As the saying goes, the more friends, the more paths.
Although competitors were natural enemies, when someone traveled from afar to visit your company and exchange ideas, it would be too unfriendly to simply reject them.
Moreover, Zhou Muyan knew about “Ghost General.” It was a mobile game that had recently risen to prominence, so its producer was likely not an ordinary person.
Meeting such a person and getting acquainted wouldn’t be bad.
After all, it would only take a day to meet them and show them around the studio, which wouldn’t delay much work.
With this in mind, Zhou Muyan nodded: “Fine, accept it then. Set the schedule in advance, and I’ll receive them personally.”
“Yes, Director Zhou. There’s one more thing—the list of bottom-performing new employees for elimination is ready for your review.”
Zhou Muyan took the list and scanned it.
“Dismiss everyone except Lin Wan. Follow the policy.”
“Understood.” The administrative assistant didn’t ask further questions and left with the list.
The bottom-elimination system was very popular in many game companies, especially those that recruited heavily from campuses.
Tianhua Studio was no exception. Fresh graduates who were recruited would be evaluated during their first few months of work, and the bottom 15% would all be eliminated.
These fresh graduates who were eliminated would find themselves in a very awkward position.
On one hand, they were no longer fresh graduates and had completely missed the campus recruitment season; on the other hand, they only had a few months of work experience and had been eliminated from their previous company, giving them no advantage in social recruitment.
In other words, with a wave of his hand, Zhou Muyan had placed a huge stumbling block in the life paths of this batch of eliminated fresh graduates!
However, Zhou Muyan didn’t feel there was anything inappropriate about this. Although he knew that those eliminated would certainly curse him and his immediate family in private, he didn’t care.
In Zhou Muyan’s view, the gaming industry followed the law of the jungle—competition and natural selection, survival of the fittest!
In this harsh environment, there was no room for sentimentality.
Of course, there was one exception on this list: Lin Wan.
She was a female graduate recruited from a prestigious university in the Imperial Capital, with high academic qualifications.
According to the bottom-elimination system’s evaluation mechanism, she also fell within the bottom 15% that should be eliminated.
Lin Wan, like many young people, had made the same mistake of being overly optimistic and naive.
For Zhou Muyan, games were a business.
But Lin Wan, like many young people, treated them as art or a dream, which naturally clashed with the bottom-elimination system’s evaluation mechanism in many ways.
In other words, she wasn’t the kind of talent that Tianhua Studio needed.
But among all those who were bottom-eliminated, Zhou Muyan specifically selected Lin Wan to stay.
Not for any other reason, but simply because her background was too intimidating…
Her father was the CEO of Shenhua Group, the country’s largest telecommunications and smart hardware developer. Zhou Muyan couldn’t afford to offend him.
“Couldn’t afford to offend” might not be accurate—it would be more correct to say that Zhou Muyan couldn’t kiss up to him fast enough!
Of course, Lin Wan didn’t know her identity had been exposed, as she had entered Tianhua Studio through the normal campus recruitment process.
But clearly, Lin Wan had underestimated how much her father valued and cared for her…
On the second day of Lin Wan’s normal employment at Tianhua Studio, Zhou Muyan received a call from the CEO’s office of Shenhua Group.
There were two requests: first, they hoped Zhou Muyan and Tianhua Studio could help take care of Lin Wan and not let her exhaust her health; second, they hoped Zhou Muyan could quickly destroy Lin Wan’s good impression of the gaming industry and make her abandon this field!
The phone call was quite tactful, but Zhou Muyan was smart and immediately understood.
The old man didn’t want Lin Wan to work in the gaming industry, but he didn’t want to be too forceful and strain the father-daughter relationship, so he took an indirect approach!
For this kind of matter, Zhou Muyan naturally couldn’t ask for more and immediately agreed.
That was the domestic behemoth Shenhua Group—establishing a connection would bring too many future benefits for Tianhua Studio!
So, everyone at the bottom of the list was dismissed, except for Lin Wan, who continued to stay.
Zhou Muyan had long considered how to quickly wear down Lin Wan’s enthusiasm for games and make her leave the industry as soon as possible.
It wasn’t difficult.
He just needed to let Lin Wan see the truth about the gaming industry.
The gaming industry, at least in China, was a sweatshop.
Bottom elimination, 996 work schedules, abandoning dreams and pursuits for money, turning art into a money-making tool…
None of these were new phenomena in China’s gaming circle.
Of course, these things weren’t absolute; there were talented designers and conscientious studios in China as well.
But they were relatively few.
Zhou Muyan believed that as long as Lin Wan saw the truth about the gaming industry, she would be very disappointed and leave the field—it was almost a certainty!