diymy Chapter 23 Tonight 818
Chapter 23 Tonight 818
The online gaming market in 2009 was a battlefield without gunpowder.
In July, Perfect World announced that it would fully upgrade the expansion pack for "Zhu Xian" originally scheduled to be released in September into a standalone new game, "Zhu Xian 2".
The concept of "server storyline determined by players" immediately sparked heated discussions among players.
IGN, 17173, and Xinlang Games, among other mainstream media outlets, published special reports on it, bestowing upon it the title of "the most anticipated Eastern fantasy online game of 2009".
In August, the promotional video for Zhou Xun, a three-time Golden Horse Award-winning actress, who plays Biyao, dominated major video websites, and the theme song "Love and Hate" topped various music charts upon its release.
All of this groundwork culminated in the public beta launch on September 22nd.
Within the first hour, the number of registered users exceeded 300,000, and all six servers were at full capacity, with a large number of players having to queue to enter. The official team urgently added three new servers, but it was still difficult to alleviate the pressure.
Within a week of its launch, the number of registered users exceeded 300 million, and the 7-day retention rate reached an astonishing 48%, far exceeding the industry average of 30%.
Throughout the National Day holiday, no one on the operations team took a break. Everyone was holding their breath, preparing to achieve the legendary feat of reaching 10 million registered users and breaking 100 million RMB in monthly revenue by the end of October.
They are even envisioning scenarios that surpass "Fantasy Westward Journey" and "Tianlong".
However, everything changed on October 7th, the day the final episode of "Men's Diary" aired.
Teng He stared at the graph on the screen, his brows furrowed.
The new user acquisition curve for "Jade Dynasty 2" seemed to hit a high wall after 8 PM, and came to an abrupt end.
Not only has the acquisition of new users stalled, but the number of online users has also seen a strange decline.
"What's going on? Is there a problem with the server?" Teng He turned to ask the operations staff behind him.
"Boss, it's not the server..." The operations manager swallowed hard, pulling up another public opinion monitoring document. "The hype... has been absorbed by 'JX3'..."
The document is full of discussions from various forums about the longing for the martial arts world under the Tang Dynasty. Many of them are from the newly launched Lang Weibo account. Even Zhang Xinyu, who is known as the number one beauty in online games, posted on Weibo that she would do a set of cosplay of JX3.
"This is impossible!" Teng He slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "Guo Weiwei's half-finished game doesn't even have a decent promotional video. What makes you think he can do this?"
"Based on...love and being a loser."
Pig City West Mountain Residence.
Guo Weiwei's hands were trembling as he looked at the server's online user count, which had surged nearly fourfold.
Alive!
Ren Pingsheng revived this highly anticipated but mediocre martial arts masterpiece.
He paced back and forth in his office excitedly, waiting for the phone in his hand to connect.
"Mr. Ren, you're amazing! Our daily active users have surpassed 300,000! Have you seen the data?"
"I saw it, Mr. Guo." Ren Pingsheng's voice remained calm on the other end of the phone. "Most of these users are male players who were swayed by emotions. If there's nothing in the game that attracts them, they'll leave faster than anyone else."
Guo Weiwei instantly calmed down. "What advice does Mr. Ren have?"
"Male players can only find romantic partners in games if there are enough female players," Ren Pingsheng pointed out incisively.
"But this is a hardcore martial arts MMO, and there are already few female players."
"Then let's make the game the way they like it."
Ren Pingsheng tapped his fingers on the table, speaking at a measured pace, "Your hardcore dungeon development plans will continue as usual, that's the foundation. But you need to allocate some of the art team's energy to quickly upgrade the fashion and mount systems, find more designers who understand traditional Chinese style, and make the clothes as ethereal as possible, and you must add an appearance preview function."
"If you can't add attributes to the appearance, will it sell?" Guo Weiwei is still somewhat limited by the operational thinking of traditional online games.
"Mr. Guo, you still don't understand what female players need. Female players don't care whether your equipment can deal more damage. They only care about how good the clothes look on them and how well they look in screenshots posted online."
"As long as you can make the female players happy and willing to enjoy the scenery in your game world, the male players will naturally flock in like they're in heat, and will be willing to pay for these beautiful clothes."
Ren Pingsheng picked up his teacup, took a sip, and made his final conclusion: "As long as you can make the female players happy and make them willing to stay in your world and enjoy the scenery, the male players won't leave even if you try to drive them away. The romance gameplay will then become your true moat."
Guo Weiwei remained silent for a full half minute on the other end of the phone.
"Mr. Ren, to be honest, if you were to become a game producer, my domestic counterparts would probably be out of a job."
"Mr. Guo is joking. I only know how to sell emotions, not how to write code. Hurry up and get it done, traffic won't wait."
After hanging up the phone, Ren Pingsheng leaned back in his chair.
With shows like "Unexpectedly," "Men's Diary," and this collaboration with "JX3," he has made a fortune from this traffic frenzy.
But he also knew that the traffic bestowed by fate had already been secretly marked with additional benefits.
Traffic is a double-edged sword; if you enjoy its benefits, you will inevitably suffer its backlash.
Sure enough, one day in mid-October.
A long post appeared on the JX3 (Sword Net 3) forum.
The poster claimed to be a small business owner who met a gentle and considerate romantic partner in the game.
To win her favor, he not only emptied the store's exterior but also transferred over 100,000 yuan offline to buy her bags and cosmetics.
Yesterday, he unexpectedly discovered that his "white moonlight," who called him "brother" every day on YY, was actually cheating on him with three other women in the game!
The three victims met and felt an instant connection, sharing information and piecing together the complete timeline of this time management master.
The most amazing thing is that the three of them got angrier and angrier as they talked, and eventually each used their own methods to find out the other's real information, only to discover that he was a big, burly man weighing 180 pounds!
The post immediately went viral on Tieba.
Immediately afterwards, countless other victims of the online romance scam emerged in the comments section.
Some were scammed out of game points by "green tea" girls, while others were already married in real life but had multiple "husbands" in the game.
If it were just gossip among game industry insiders, the situation would be manageable, but the media with a keen sense of smell wouldn't let this opportunity pass.
A youth newspaper published an editorial stating: "From 'Unexpectedly' to 'Men's Diary,' Sohu Video openly promotes materialism, seriously impacting the bottom line of social morality and having an extremely negative influence on teenagers whose values are not yet formed!"
Some media outlets have even directly criticized Kingsoft: "The state has clearly stipulated anti-addiction measures and real-name authentication, yet Kingsoft, as the official entity, cannot even guarantee the authenticity of the gender of game characters. Isn't this condoning fraudulent activities?"
The public outrage quickly spread and turned into a siege against Sohu Video and JX3.