April 18th, Monday.
The Imperial Guards matter had been handed over to little Tang, and it was unclear what kind of people she would find.
Tenda now had quite a few departments, and even with one management trainee placed in each department, more than a dozen people would be needed, which would be difficult to gather in such a hurry.
Pei Qian’s requirement for Tang Yishu was to find all the people by next Saturday.
Then, on Saturday, while the company was empty, they would secretly hold a small meeting to arrange the work. Thinking about it gave him a strange sense of excitement.
Today, Pei Qian again slept until he naturally woke up, and after eating, he came to the company to make a brief appearance.
However, before he could even open the AiLiDao website to watch dramas, he heard a knock on the door outside.
“Hmm?”
Pei Qian frowned slightly. What was so urgent?
He had just entered his office not two minutes ago, and someone was already knocking on the door, clearly having waited for a long time.
“Come in.”
From outside, Hu Xianbin pushed the door open.
“What’s the matter? Is there a problem with the development of ‘Struggle’?” Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel a bit of anticipation.
Hu Xianbin shook his head: “No, the development of ‘Struggle’ is going smoothly so far. It’s about GOG!”
Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
On one hand, it was because the development of “Struggle” was going smoothly; on the other hand, Hu Xianbin was still concerned about GOG, which was very inconsistent with the Tenda spirit.
Pei Qian coughed lightly twice: “Let’s not rush to talk about GOG.”
“There’s a problem with your work approach.”
“Human energy is limited, and one can only do one thing at a time. How can you manage both the development of ‘Struggle’ and the operation of GOG?”
“Hurry up and hand over the operational work of GOG.”
After all, Hu Xianbin was part of the development team for the latter half of GOG and had been responsible for the launch of both the mobile and PC versions, so he knew the GOG project very well.
Pei Qian assigned Hu Xianbin to lead the development of the “Struggle” project specifically to prevent him from managing GOG anymore, but he wanted to do both jobs at once, which was too much.
Hu Xianbin was stunned for a moment: “Uh, okay, Mr. Pei. I’ll go back and hand over the work to Min Jingchao.”
“But… I do have something very important to report about the GOG project!”
Pei Qian nodded: “Go ahead.”
Hu Xianbin appeared very urgent: “Mr. Pei, I hope we can make an exception and urgently recruit more staff for Tenda’s game department!”
Pei Qian frowned immediately.
Make an exception?
Recruit more staff?
Little brother, this is a very dangerous idea!
Currently, all departments and positions at Tenda have unified recruitment, only twice a year, in May and November.
This timing was mainly set to avoid the peak recruitment season.
Since the recruitment process was rather complicated, and new employees were given ample time to handle resignation procedures and hand over their work, the actual start date would be a month later.
But Pei Qian checked the date—today was already April 18th. What urgent matter did GOG have that couldn’t wait for another month?
There must be a problem here!
Pei Qian was highly alert internally, but his external demeanor remained calm as he asked: “Why the rush to recruit people?”
Hu Xianbin said: “Mr. Pei, because ioi is going to engage in an ‘arms race’ with us, and the GOG project urgently needs staff expansion! Otherwise, our initial advantage will completely disappear!”
Pei Qian’s heart leapt with joy.
Although he didn’t understand exactly what “arms race” meant, one thing was clear: Lin Wan had begun to act!
By now, ioi’s national server should be pretty much prepared, and they probably have formulated a series of promotion strategies to start competing for GOG’s market.
It was unclear how Hu Xianbin had obtained this information.
However, considering that Tenda Games and Shangyang Games were brother departments, it wasn’t surprising to get information through various channels.
With an attitude of enjoying the spectacle, Pei Qian smiled and said: “Is that so? Tell me in detail.”
Hu Xianbin hurriedly said: “ioi’s strategy is to update frantically, winning through quantity. According to their current plan, they’ll update two new heroes every month, which is too fast!”
“Currently, GOG has slightly fewer heroes than ioi, but it’s still within an acceptable range.”
“Once ioi updates new heroes at this lightning speed, while we leisurely update one new hero every two months, we’ll be left behind quickly. By then, GOG’s first-mover advantage will completely vanish!”
Pei Qian nodded frequently as he listened.
Well done! Finger Corporation and Lin Wan were reliable!
Indeed, the script was developing just as I had imagined. I truly am calculating without a single oversight.
Pei Qian’s expression became increasingly calm: “So, you want to recruit more people to compete with them in terms of speed?”
Hu Xianbin nodded: “Yes, we have no reason to lose to them in terms of speed! Whoever updates faster can better maintain player stickiness and the game’s popularity. The advantage in this aspect is too significant!”
“The current situation is that when enemies meet on a narrow road, the brave will win. GOG absolutely cannot give way!”
Pei Qian remained silent for a moment: “I disagree with your view.”
“Early recruitment definitely won’t work, and even for next month’s recruitment, I don’t recommend that the game department recruit too many new people.”
Hu Xianbin was stunned: “W-why?”
Pei Qian leaned back in his executive chair and said seriously, “Quality over quantity.”
“With more people, speed will increase, and more ideas will emerge, which seems like a good thing.”
“But more people can be either a treasure or a cage.”
“Don’t always resort to this brute-force approach when facing problems. It will lower your thinking ceiling and extinguish your inspiration.”
“In short, don’t recruit more people.”
Hu Xianbin was a bit anxious: “But Mr. Pei…”
Pei Qian emphasized again: “Don’t recruit more people.”
Hu Xianbin had nothing more to say. He didn’t dare to make Mr. Pei repeat it a third time, so he could only sigh and silently exit the office.
Pei Qian revealed a satisfied smile.
Lin Wan, this is all the help I can give you. Make sure to complete your mission quickly!
…
Hu Xianbin returned to the upper floor with his head hanging low and sat down at his workstation.
Seeing Hu Xianbin return, Min Jingchao immediately came over.
“How did it go? Did Mr. Pei agree?”
Hu Xianbin shook his head: “No, Mr. Pei refused.”
Min Jingchao was startled: “Refused? That can’t be right? Mr. Pei has always been generous with various company expenses, so how could he not allow recruiting a few more designers? This doesn’t make sense.”
Hu Xianbin sighed: “Ah, I don’t know what Mr. Pei is thinking either, but his attitude was very firm. He said not only can we not make an exception for early recruitment now, but we also can’t recruit too many people during the recruitment a month later.”
Min Jingchao frowned, puzzled: “Why would Mr. Pei say something like that without reason? Did he say anything else?”
“Generally, there are some hidden clues in Mr. Pei’s words.”
Hu Xianbin tried hard to recall: “Let me think…”
“He seemed to say something like, ‘More people can be either a treasure or a cage.'”
“But this sentence doesn’t seem to have much deep meaning…”
“Should we consult with Sister Li and Brother Bao?”
Min Jingchao shook his head: “I think we shouldn’t always toss analytical problems to Brother Bao. At Tenda, reading Mr. Pei’s intentions is an essential skill. We need to practice more ourselves.”
Hu Xianbin thought for a moment: “You’re right. But Mr. Pei’s words this time don’t seem to have much deep meaning. I still have absolutely no clue.”
Min Jingchao frowned deeply, falling into deep thought.
After a long while, his brow relaxed slightly.
“Looking at the literal meaning, this sentence suggests that each designer has different ideas. More people can indeed provide different perspectives, approaches, and concepts, but when all these perspectives, approaches, and concepts are combined, it becomes a cage.”
“Other people’s perspectives, approaches, and concepts will, in turn, limit your thinking, and similarly, your concepts will limit others’ thinking.”
“If everyone does their own thing, they’ll end up hindering each other, reducing efficiency.”
“So, creating new heroes for GOG is both a laborious and technical task that requires continuous creative output. The key isn’t about having more or fewer people, but whether the lead designer can accurately control the game’s direction.”
“No matter how many designers are recruited, in the end, only one person can make the final decision and unify the style, while planning for the game’s balance. Otherwise, the game will become a patchwork monster.”
Hu Xianbin was familiar with this type of interpretation and immediately understood: “Hmm, that makes sense!”
“But this still doesn’t solve the problem.”
“Each person’s ability to produce ideas is limited. With too few people, inspiration simply isn’t enough. You can handle the overall planning, but we still need manpower to provide inspiration and design different new heroes.”
Min Jingchao fell into deep thought again, this time thinking for even longer.
After a long while, he finally spoke slowly: “It seems… not necessarily.”
“It’s true that each person’s inspiration is limited, and the ideas they produce are also limited. But it’s not only designers who can provide inspiration and design new heroes.”
“Mr. Pei is expressing dialectical thinking. He didn’t deny the power of having more people; his exact words were ‘can be either a treasure or a cage.’ We only analyzed the ‘cage’ aspect but didn’t delve into the ‘treasure’ aspect.”
“How can recruiting more designers compare to the wisdom of the vast player base?”
“Designers are just a small treasure, while players are the big treasure.”
“Mr. Pei doesn’t want us to recruit designers because this approach can’t fundamentally solve the problem; it’s inefficient.”
“In other words… we can involve players in GOG’s hero design!”
“What does it matter if ioi develops heroes faster? If we can fully mobilize players’ enthusiasm, then inspiration and ideas will be inexhaustible!”
Hu Xianbin suddenly realized: “That makes sense!”
“So that’s what Mr. Pei meant?”
“Indeed, fully mobilizing players’ enthusiasm, letting players provide ideas and content, and then our designers only need to be responsible for screening, modifying, balancing, and other work. This perfectly solves the problem!”
Min Jingchao stood up abruptly: “I’ll go draft an activity plan right away!”
…
After dismissing Hu Xianbin, Pei Qian watched some dramas.
Looking at the time, it was already three o’clock in the afternoon.
“Haven’t seen Old Ma in a long time. Let’s go to Dream Realization Venture Capital.”
Pei Qian just remembered that he had been planning to ask Old Ma about promising investment projects, but had forgotten amidst his busy schedule.
Today, the weather was nice, so he could go out for a stroll and check on Old Ma and the recent situation at Dream Realization Venture Capital.
Pei Qian had previously agreed with Old Ma that he should notify him immediately upon finding suitable projects.
However, so much time had passed, and there was no movement from Old Ma’s side.
Pei Qian couldn’t help but wonder what Ma Yang was busy with.
He wasn’t worried about Ma Yang secretly spending money, because after the incident of investing in Finger Corporation, Pei Qian had required that all investments from Dream Realization Venture Capital must have his approval.
Since no one had requested approval, it meant that Dream Realization Venture Capital hadn’t spent a penny.
So the question was, if Ma Yang wasn’t spending money, what was he doing?