After watching Qiao Liang’s video, Pei Qian fell into a long silence.

It wasn’t because he thought what Qiao Liang said made sense, but because he was shocked by his endless stream of exaggerated praise!

This Qiao Laoshi always seemed to come up with new angles!

Actually, regarding the game “Mission and Choice,” Pei Qian hadn’t expected it would have as big a twist as “Look Back to Shore” or “Struggle.”

After all, although “Mission and Choice” had revolutionized traditional RTS gameplay, this revolution was still within players’ comprehension, not likely to cause massive controversy upon release like “Look Back to Shore” and “Struggle” did.

Moreover, the early discussions about “Mission and Choice” mainly focused on its storyline.

So after seeing the initial player reviews, Pei Qian thought the praise had already reached its peak.

The storyline, gameplay, graphics, and everything else had already been praised—what else was there to praise?

Even if Qiao Laoshi made a video, at most he would just repeat these aspects, right?

But unexpectedly, Qiao Liang had actually found a new angle!

This time, Qiao Liang emphasized two points: “milestone significance” and “production model.”

The milestone significance referred to how the original “Mission and Choice” compared to “Fantasy Warfare” symbolized the weakness of domestic games, whereas now the comparison between “Mission and Choice” and “Fantasy Warfare Remastered” symbolized the rapid rise of domestic games!

This was an important milestone event for the development of domestic games.

As for the production model, it referred to how game production was beginning to move away from unstable workshop-style creation that depended on designers’ inspiration, and gradually moving toward an industrialized creative model with professional division of labor across departments and stable production of high-quality works.

With these two points raised, the video’s theme was instantly elevated!

Because the video wasn’t analyzing how good “Mission and Choice” was as a game itself, but rather breaking free from limited thinking and elevating the discussion to the level of the entire domestic gaming industry.

Just like how the fifteenth year of the Wanli Emperor seemed like an ordinary year, but historians could see various signs of dynastic rise and fall through the events of that year. That year would then be recorded in history as a key turning point, and every detail would be repeatedly studied as an entry point!

Pei Qian’s heart sank as he continued watching.

This Qiao Laoshi was trying to kill him!

Looking at the level of praise, it seemed like he wanted to build a monument for Pei!

With a few large characters inscribed: “The Savior of Domestic Games, Mr. Pei, Will Be Immortal”?

Please don’t do this!

If this monument were really erected, how could he lose money making games in the future? Wouldn’t domestic players just frantically buy everything regardless of quality?

“Handsome and wise player-lords, please don’t listen to his nonsense!” Pei Qian silently prayed.

However, after briefly browsing through the video’s comments and bullet screen messages, his heart sank even further.

“This makes so much sense! Industrialized films, industrialized games—so that’s what it’s all about!”

“I vaguely had this feeling before, thinking this game was somewhat different from Tenda’s previous games, but I couldn’t articulate it. After watching this video, I get it—this is exactly what I wanted to say!”

“Seen this way, the release of ‘Mission and Choice’ really is an event of great historical significance! Maybe in the future, I can proudly tell my grandson: the original ‘Mission and Choice’ symbolized the dark age of domestic games, while the remastered ‘Mission and Choice’ symbolizes the golden age of domestic games!”

“No more words needed—this game of such great commemorative significance must be bought out!”

“I’m going to recommend it to all my friends right away!”

Pei Qian: “…”

Seeing these comments, he was on the verge of tears, feeling desperately anxious.

He could consider taking the blame for other things, but he absolutely could not take this “milestone in domestic game development” blame!

Once he accepted it, all future games would be in the spotlight, becoming popular before release—how could he lose money then?

It was worth noting that Tenda’s gaming department was Tenda Group’s core business department, making the most profit. Although it was already as difficult as climbing to heaven to lose money now, there was still a glimmer of hope.

If he shouldered this “milestone” label, there would be absolutely no possibility of losing money in the future!

What should he do?

Pei Qian’s brain rapidly processed, considering countermeasures.

He scrolled through the comments under the video again, finally finding some dissenting voices.

These opposing views felt that Qiao Laoshi had gone too far with his praise.

The game was good, but to call it a “milestone in domestic games” or “the beginning of industrialized games” seemed far-fetched.

One comment in particular made Pei Qian feel like he’d found a kindred spirit:

“I think old Qiao’s video today is a bit of a stretch! As far as I know, most game companies have fixed development processes, and Tenda’s previous games probably followed the same development process. How did ‘Mission and Choice’ suddenly become an ‘industrialized model’? The game is good, but exaggerated praise is inappropriate. I think even Mr. Pei probably didn’t consider such long-term implications—he’s just diligently turning his ideas into games, while fans are over-interpreting.”

Pei Qian was almost moved to tears.

Brother, you truly understand me!

To be honest, Mr. Pei himself just learned about this “industrialized model” concept!

But such good comments received a lukewarm response, with many people even opposing them.

Obviously, most viewers had embraced the narrative in Qiao Liang’s video, believing that both the “milestone” and “industrialized model” were intentional on Mr. Pei’s part.

How could he ensure these comments reflecting the truth didn’t get buried?

Pei Qian fell into deep thought.

The first solution he came up with was to publicly clarify.

Release an official announcement stating that “Mission and Choice” never intended to bear any “milestone” historical significance and had nothing to do with the “industrialized model”?

But on second thought, that wouldn’t work well either.

Because it could easily come across as an attempt to cover up the truth. There had been too many false official announcements before, and players weren’t buying it anymore…

For instance, previously with “Struggle,” they had deliberately misled players with promotional materials, and before the release of “Mission and Choice,” they had intentionally misdirected players toward “Fitness Showdown.” Similar tricks had been played many times.

And each time false information was released, players had interpreted it differently.

It was like crying “wolf”—after crying too many times, no one believed it anymore!

If they made an official clarification this time, players might interpret it as official modesty, which would actually reinforce their beliefs!

So, the official account’s credibility was gone, rendered useless.

Pei Qian thought again—since the official channel wouldn’t work, he would have to go through unofficial channels.

Hire paid commenters!

Pei Qian had rarely hired paid commenters recently, mainly because as Tenda Group grew larger, the amount of money needed to make an impact through paid comments was increasing, and he couldn’t afford it out of his own pocket.

But this situation was different.

Qiao Liang’s theory hadn’t spread widely yet, still confined to his video. Based on Pei Qian’s past experience, Qiao Liang’s videos could potentially break through to wider audiences, but it would take time.

It might take a day or two to top the gaming section rankings, and three to five days or even longer to top the site-wide rankings or produce a breakthrough effect, spreading wildly across various websites.

So, within this timeframe, hiring paid commenters to flood the video’s comment section and create the impression that “this video is somewhat exaggerated” could influence and guide public opinion to some extent, thereby reducing the potential adverse impact of the video!

Time was of the essence—he had to act quickly.

Pei Qian made up his mind and immediately contacted Hu Xiao of “Xiaofox Reviews” to discuss hiring paid commenters.

As a professional leader of paid commenters, Hu Xiao was basically online intensively all day except when sleeping, so Pei Qian was able to contact him quickly.

Their last collaboration dated back to the release of the movie “Better Tomorrow.” After such a long time, Hu Xiao had almost thought he’d lost this big client.

Now seeing this mysterious client approach him again, he was naturally delighted.

Pei Qian didn’t waste time on pleasantries and directly stated his request: “I want to hire some paid commenters to flood this video’s comment section. [Web link]”

“Regarding content, I’ve come up with some ideas; have your commenters elaborate based on this. [Text document]”

“I want high-end paid commenters, the kind that people can’t detect, understand?”

Hu Xiao opened the web link and felt a bit disappointed.

Just this?

In their previous collaboration, the battlefield had spanned the entire internet, but this time it was limited to just one video on AiLiDao website?

It seemed a bit lackluster.

However, Hu Xiao was a person with strong professional ethics. Since this was business, there was no need to be picky—just take the money and do the job.

He opened the text document and found it contained several hundred words all about the concepts of “milestone in domestic games” and “industrialized model.”

For example, it listed several excellent games that it argued were more qualified to be called “milestone in domestic games”; it analyzed “Mission and Choice” and concluded it fell far short of “milestone” status; it claimed that “industrialized model games” was a pseudo-concept; it argued that “Mission and Choice” hadn’t achieved an “industrialized model” at all, and so on.

The viewpoints in the document varied. Some argued that the “industrialized model” was a false concept not applicable to the gaming field; others acknowledged that the “industrialized model” was applicable to gaming but claimed that “Mission and Choice” hadn’t achieved it at all.

In fact, these seemingly different viewpoints all served the same purpose: to completely dissociate “Mission and Choice” from the concepts of “milestone” and “industrialized model”!