These companies were progressing at different rates—some fast, some slow. Some were steadily developing their products, while others were racking their brains every day thinking about marketing strategies.
With different personalities of the founders, the companies naturally operated with different styles.
From the current situation, Meng Chang was indeed quite capable. Being able to open the first store in such a short time, handling all aspects impressively, and generating good online buzz was enough to prove this point.
Among all the projects currently invested in by Dream Fulfillment Investment, Cold Face Girl was one of the best performers, and also the fastest at burning through money.
Soon, reports from all projects were completed. Two companies had minor issues, which Jing Haibing pointed out, and their financial staff immediately noted them down to correct after the meeting.
The meeting ended, and the video signals were disconnected one by one.
He Desheng said, “Mr. Pei, shall we continue to strictly follow our previous policy? If we continue investing after they burn through their money, then… at Cold Face Girl’s current spending rate, we might need to invest more next month.”
Pei Qian nodded. “Mm, keep the original plan unchanged. Invest when necessary! Just give me a heads-up when it’s time to invest in Cold Face Girl again.”
He Desheng nodded. “Understood, Mr. Pei.”
…
…
November 25th, Friday.
After lunch, Pei Qian specifically came to the office and checked the results of the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test in the backend.
There were four chances to take the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test. New employees entered a one-month probationary period after joining, with one test opportunity every Friday.
If they passed any one of the four tests, they would be formally employed; if they failed all of them, they would have to leave.
However, because these new employees needed different amounts of time to complete resignation procedures at their original workplaces, their start dates at Tenda also varied.
For this Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test, about 1/4 were people who had failed the previous test, and the rest were taking it for the first time.
Pei Qian hadn’t held high hopes for this, as only a week had passed since the last test—what changes could there be?
Even if what he said at the managers’ dinner had subtly influenced the company’s atmosphere, it shouldn’t have had such an immediate effect.
Pei Qian opened the backend to check.
“Huh?”
“This pass rate seems to have decreased, right?”
“It has decreased!”
Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel delighted—this was a surprise!
The backend of the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test displayed the pass rate for each test, as well as the pass rates for the first, second, and third tests separately.
In other words, it showed detailed statistics on what percentage of new employees in this batch passed the test twice, and so on.
There seemed to be a noticeable downward trend.
“Could this be happening?”
“No, I shouldn’t get carried away.”
“Although the pass rate for this batch has indeed decreased, since different people take the test each time, there will naturally be some fluctuation in the pass rates.”
“This kind of thing requires long-term observation; I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.”
Pei Qian silently reviewed the data again, planning to continue observing for a while longer. After all the new employees had completed their Tenda Spirit tests, he would look at the final pass rate before making a decision.
After closing the Tenda Spirit Compatibility Test backend, Pei Qian casually browsed recent news online.
Suddenly, he noticed a keyword near the bottom of the trending searches: “IOI new version.”
“Hmm? Has news about IOI’s new version leaked?” Pei Qian immediately clicked to check.
Recently, Shangyang Games had already gathered some information about changes to IOI’s domestic server strategy. After all, Shangyang Games had more channels for obtaining industry information than the average internet user.
But if Shangyang Games could find out about these changes, it meant they were already in development and set in stone. So it wasn’t surprising that this information had leaked and been exposed online.
Shangyang Games’ information would indeed be more current, but at most only a week or two ahead.
Pei Qian searched online for information related to IOI’s new version and discovered that this news had emerged because IOI had updated these changes on their test server.
As soon as the changes were updated on the test server, they immediately sparked huge controversy among players, and various gaming media outlets widely reported on it.
Although IOI had cooled down significantly in China, it still held a considerable market share worldwide, so gaming media had no reason to ignore such big news.
The main changes in this IOI test server update were related to gameplay, including adjustments to the counter-farming mechanism, hero bounty changes, enriching map resources, and more. These were slightly different from the changes Lin Wan had mentioned earlier, but broadly similar.
However, after the update, veteran players weren’t buying it. The official social media accounts of Finger Company were instantly flooded with opposition from old players.
Before Finger Company could explain, another wave of controversy arose.
Some gaming media obtained internal information from an unknown source, disclosing Finger Company’s operational strategy adjustments for IOI’s domestic server:
The domestic server would be changed to a low-price region, with hero and skin prices reduced to about 1/2 to 1/3 of the international server.
The domestic IOI server would cooperate with China’s Longyu Group, with Longyu Group responsible for the localized operation of IOI’s domestic server.
Additionally, it was reported that Finger Company had finally decided to organize the first World Championship, and that IOI’s domestic server head, Christian, and Longyu Group executives were contacting various domestic clubs that still maintained IOI divisions.
By the time Pei Qian noticed, these rumors were spreading like wildfire among IOI players.
“It leaked so quickly—their confidentiality work isn’t great.”
“No, it might also be deliberately leaked to test player reactions.”
“First, release some rumors without concrete evidence. If player reactions aren’t intense, they can step forward and confirm; if reactions are intense, they can switch to a relatively more conservative plan based on public opinion.”
Pei Qian had thought these rumors would take at least another week to leak, but they were already spreading rapidly.
Longyu Group was among the top gaming companies in China in terms of size, and their PR department wasn’t useless. When this news first broke, if they wanted to suppress it, they definitely could have.
But not only was the news not suppressed, it spread quickly.
Pei Qian didn’t believe there wasn’t someone pushing it behind the scenes.
The key was that IOI’s only competitor in China now was Tenda. Pei Qian knew it wasn’t Tenda’s doing, so it could only be Finger Company itself.
Thinking carefully, this wasn’t a particularly difficult strategy to understand.
Finger Company’s decision to make these changes was mainly to attract more new players, but this would inevitably change veteran players’ gaming habits.
After implementing this operation, backlash was certain; the only question was how severe it would be.
If, while facing criticism, they could genuinely generate buzz and attract more new players, then the criticism would be worth it.
So, Finger Company first released some unconfirmed information, letting gaming media spread it around to gauge public reaction.
If public reaction wasn’t too intense, they could proceed; if it was extremely intense, they could temporarily shelve the strongly opposed parts and only implement some of the changes.
Simply put, they were trying to leave themselves an escape route through this operation. Otherwise, if they updated directly without consideration and then had to backtrack amid a barrage of criticism, it would be too embarrassing.
Pei Qian, of course, welcomed such changes with open arms.
An IOI that fiercely resisted and struggled hard was a good IOI. Otherwise, if GOG’s market share continued to expand like this, wouldn’t it become increasingly difficult to lose money in the future?
But player reactions were a different matter.
Of course, online opinion wasn’t one-sided. Many players supported these changes, and both sides argued fiercely.
“Don’t mess with the gameplay, do the designers have water in their brains? I know you’re envious of GOG, but if you change it like this, I might as well just go play GOG!”
“I oppose all changes except enriching map resources! The game will change its flavor after these modifications!”
“You people are hard to please. It was you who said the game wasn’t exciting enough and didn’t have enough gameplay options. Now that the game is changing its gameplay, you’re jumping out to oppose it. I think these changes are good; you don’t have to play so exhaustingly anymore. If you want to criticize, shouldn’t you wait until the effects on the test server are out?”
“Sigh, domestically, IOI had already cooled down. As a die-hard veteran player, I had given up hope of it becoming popular again, but I was surprised to see it trending. Changing to a low-price region certainly benefits new players, but what about us veteran players who have spent large sums of money?”
“Damn, I just bought a skin yesterday, and now its value will plummet? At best, it’s halved, at worst, only 1/3 remains? Those who waited to buy are laughing now? It’s not that you can’t lower prices, but lowering them this much—are veteran players not people to you?”
“So hard to please. It’s as if veteran players don’t benefit from price reductions, too. Your future skin purchases will also be cheaper.”
“I heard the international community has already exploded, with many people criticizing Finger Company for being unfair and kowtowing to domestic server players.”
“They’re just feeling unbalanced.”
“It’s not just that. Mainly, GOG is dirt cheap both domestically and internationally. If there were no GOG, Finger Company’s operation might not have received so much criticism, but with this comparison, problems immediately arise…”
“Finger Company finally got it. Hurry up and start the World Championship! Dayak Group isn’t short on money. They’ve been delaying such a competition for so long. GOG has already finished its Global Invitational over two months ago, and GPL is about to start! Finger Company is too slow!”
“Are there still clubs playing IOI domestically? I seriously doubt it…”
“There are, there are. A few veteran clubs reportedly still have IOI divisions. I heard Longyu Group will pay a sum to keep these teams, just to maintain appearances.”
“I think these actions are good. It’s already obvious that IOI can’t beat GOG, and if they don’t change, it will just be a slow death. Might as well take a risk.”
“If you have the ability, unify the domestic and world servers, make all heroes free, price skins lower than GOG, then burn money on leagues, promotions, even things like earning skins by playing games, and give veteran players additional rewards like exclusive skins or currency compensation—absolutely no one would complain! Dayak Group has so much money, I fully support them burning their own money for promotion. But now they want to take money from players’ pockets and also want players to support them. What kind of nonsense is that?”
“Exactly, if you want to expand your market share, bleed yourself dry! What’s this about sucking blood from veteran players?”
Players with different opinions argued endlessly online.