Old Zhou chuckled: “The H4 Club will soon start extra training too. If you’re going to train completely according to the DGE model, none of you will escape.”
Huang Wang: “I’m thrilled! You don’t know how uncomfortable I’ve felt these past few days without working out. I’ll voluntarily do extra training tonight! And these teammates of mine all have terrible physical fitness. I’ll have Coach Yaling arrange proper regimens for them!”
Hearing this brief exchange, DGE’s new mid-laner and the H4 Club players all showed “this doesn’t look good” expressions.
Pei Qian stood silently watching all of this, completely bewildered.
What was going on?
The GOG division of the H4 Club had moved directly to Jingzhou?
I did give you money and asked you to provide Huang Wang with a better training environment, but I didn’t authorize you to come to Jingzhou!
What a mess—sold one player and ended up bringing back an entire club!
Team Leader Su came up to Mr. Pei and said with emotion: “Mr. Pei! I haven’t had the chance to thank you yet. If it weren’t for your generous funding, we wouldn’t have had the financial means or determination to come to Jingzhou. Anyway, please take care of us in the future!”
Pei Qian: “…”
How the hell is this my fault again?
However, Pei Qian couldn’t say anything and could only force a smile.
Zhang Yuan called out, “Everyone, don’t just stand outside. Come in and sit down. Jiang Huan, give them a hand with the luggage.”
Everyone filed into the DGE Club, while Zhang Yuan contacted Manager Cui from Mingyun Mountain Manor, asking him to help find another vacant villa for rent.
There would be no discount on the price, but for the H4 Club, even the original price was cheaper than in Magic City.
At the same time, subsequent costs for tables and chairs, ROF computers, gym fees, etc., would all be covered by the H4 Club. Since Mr. Pei had specifically given them 2.2 million to “improve training conditions,” they had ample funds.
Pei Qian realized that a large portion of this money had somehow made its way back into his pocket…
Apart from the rent, the money for fitness, buying computers, ordering takeout, and the like would all be earned by Tenda!
“You all take your time. I’ll be leaving first.” Pei Qian couldn’t bear to watch the bustling moving scene and chose to slip away.
After Mr. Pei left, Team Leader Su said to Zhang Yuan, “Why do I feel like Mr. Pei wasn’t very happy?”
Zhang Yuan was taken aback: “Really? Oh, it might be your imagination. Mr. Pei is a person with great composure, never showing joy or anger on his face.”
“Mr. Pei values esports very much. Although he doesn’t say it, you can see it from his actions.”
“Take today, for example—he heard we had recruited new players, so he made time in his busy schedule to come and see, fearing that the new players might not mesh well with the team.”
Team Leader Su suddenly understood: “I see! Manager Zhang, we’ve just moved to Jingzhou and are unfamiliar with everything here. We’ll need you and Mr. Pei to look after us. Also, please share more information about Mr. Pei with me.”
Zhang Yuan patted his chest: “Of course!”
“By the way, Team Leader Su, how do other clubs view your move to Jingzhou?”
Team Leader Su smiled: “They’re still observing.”
“All these clubs are watching our moves, all hoping to play training matches with us.”
“They want to see the effects after we’ve purchased players and changed our training methods. Only after seeing the results will they follow suit.”
“This is fine by us. We can use this time to train intensively and widen the gap between us! Let them observe all they want. In the next training match, the gap between us will be so large it will shock them!”
…
…
August 28th, Sunday.
At a coffee shop near Handong University, Qiu Hong’s final lesson.
“Mr. Ma, regarding experiences of failure, I’ve shared everything I know, um… except for one last point.”
Qiu Hong paused, seeming to feel that the phrase “shared everything I know” was problematic, but after thinking, he couldn’t come up with a more appropriate expression.
“This last point may not be universally applicable, but it’s truly the last thing I can teach.”
Pei Qian nodded: “Please continue.”
After a moment of silence, Qiu Hong said: “Persist in your dreams.”
Pei Qian was taken aback: “This is… an experience of failure?”
Qiu Hong nodded, his voice somewhat melancholic: “Yes.”
“Has Mr. Ma seen my resume? The earliest record of my career that can be found online is from 2001, when I worked as a numbers designer for a pay-to-win xianxia-themed game.”
“Doesn’t Mr. Ma find it strange? Why was I able to be the lead numbers designer for a major PC game right when I entered the industry?”
Pei Qian thought for a moment and realized this was indeed somewhat unusual.
Since Tenda always promoted unconventionally, elevating newcomers from entry-level positions to number designers or lead designers, Pei Qian initially didn’t find anything odd about Qiu Hong’s resume.
But now that Qiu Hong brought it up, Pei Qian thought more carefully and realized that ten years ago, in the context of an ordinary game company, becoming a numbers designer right after entering the industry was indeed unscientific.
In Chinese pay-to-win games, a numbers designer’s status is second only to the lead designer, because the most important parts of the game—combat systems, monetization systems, game experience, etc.—are all closely related to the numbers.
A numbers designer can be considered the right-hand person of the lead designer. Many lead designers or producers were promoted from number designers.
Conventionally, even a mathematics graduate from a top university would only start as an ordinary implementation designer with some number design responsibilities. Initially, they would only be filling in tables, and it would take about one to two years or even longer before being promoted to lead numbers designer for a game.
In large companies and major projects, this pattern would be even more pronounced.
The fact that Qiu Hong became a numbers designer in a large company, a major project right after entering the industry, fully responsible for the game’s numerical balance, excluding the possibility that he was related to the company’s boss, suggested that he already had work experience before that.
Even if his previous work experience wasn’t particularly successful, as long as the part he was responsible for was excellent enough, he could still secure the position of lead numbers designer at a new company.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, “So, you didn’t enter the industry in 2001. Your actual entry was earlier than that.”
Qiu Hong nodded: “That’s right. I entered the industry two years earlier.”
“In the era when I entered the industry, it was the golden age of Chinese single-player games. ‘Phantom Sword Fairy Romance’ sold 300,000 copies, earning 10 million yuan; the long-awaited ‘Dark Age 2’ was introduced to China and made about the same amount of money—though it couldn’t compare with overseas, it was still a record-breaking figure; ‘Heroes and Martial Artists’ also sold well.”
“In that era, all the game developers who entered the industry with me had dreams. We all thought we would sell Chinese single-player games to the world, and one day we would win enough awards in various international game competitions.”
“However, just a year or two later, the situation changed dramatically.”
“At that time, I had the fortune to meet the president of a domestic single-player game company. He told me that there was no hope for single-player games and urged us to quickly transition to online games. I didn’t listen, and neither did our project’s producer.”
“Later, in 2001, all single-player games became unsellable, and our first game that we had worked so hard to develop never even made it to market.”
“The company couldn’t pay salaries. We struggled along with the company for more than two months, until our producer was the first to give up.”
“So I went around submitting resumes. Because I specialized in number design, many companies accepted my resume, but during interviews, their first question was always: Do you have experience in online game development?”
“Why was it like this? Why, in just two years, did Chinese single-player games die out completely?”
Pei Qian felt confused: “Died out completely? Surely not? Aren’t single-player games doing fine now?”
He was puzzled. If single-player games had truly died out, then how could he have made so many successful single-player games?
Qiu Hong smiled: “Mr. Ma, you’re still young. You were probably not even ten years old back then, so you wouldn’t know about these things.”
“During those years, Chinese single-player games did indeed die out completely.”
“The reason Chinese single-player games are doing reasonably well now is because around 2006, the official ESRO platform was established, and piracy was strictly prohibited in various fields. Only then did Chinese single-player games slowly find a path to survival again.”
“But even so, that vacuum period of about five or six years created a huge gap between our game industry and the overseas one, a gap we still can’t close even now.”
“Why was it that when I entered the industry, Chinese single-player games were in their golden age, but just two years later, all ongoing single-player game projects had completely died out?”
Pei Qian thought for a moment: “That period should have been when online games rapidly became popular, taking over the single-player game market, and a large number of game companies transitioned.”
Qiu Hong nodded: “That’s right. A large number of single-player game manufacturers transitioning to online games was the direct cause of the demise of Chinese single-player games. Then the question is: Why didn’t foreign single-player games die out under the impact of online games?”
“Moreover, even if online games made more money than single-player games, it wouldn’t lead to the extinction of single-player games, because not all companies are good at making online games.”
“As long as there’s still money to be made from single-player games, even if it’s less, there would always be companies willing to make them.”
“This is a very complex issue, certainly not caused by any single factor, just like the fall of a dynasty isn’t caused solely by a flood, a plague, or a war.”
“All disasters tend to come at once.”
“That era coincided with the booming development of gaming consoles overseas, but our country didn’t have home consoles, only personal computers. The computer is a platform that makes it very convenient to write and modify software, so including operating systems, it quickly entered the era of piracy.”