Almighty Video Game Designer #Chapter 61 - Read Almighty Video Game Designer Chapter 61 Online - All Page - Novel Next
Chapter 61: Chapter 60: Not Fully Understood
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
The starting theme song started playing after the start sequence.
"I am MT, I'm built like a wall. I parry, I dodge, I'll use my body to guard thee..."
Chen Mo felt his passion from his teenage years reigniting upon hearing the melody. He had provided the melody and lyrics for the starting theme. The singer's voice also fit it quite nicely and was quite infectious.
Su Jinyu was a bit shocked; the song exceeded her expectations!
Nobody in this world had seen Saint Seiya, but this song was composed by Hiroaki Matsuzawa and Nobuo Yamada, embracing the anime style to the fullest; it would remain a classic no matter which dimension it was in.
The story had finally started.
MT came to the Wailing Taverns in order to finish a task. MT met the heavily wounded Shaman at the cave entrance. MT and Shaman. MT and Shaman was trying to save Rogue, who was being chased by Tyran, but Tyran was already guarding his corpse...
Dazzling Aurora Studio was a professional team, after all. Be it the pacing of the story, sound effects, or connection plots, they were all done better than the original. Moreover, Guo Feng made minor adjustments according to what they knew about the story to make it even easier to understand.
Chen Mo also intentionally included some settings from World of Warcraft in order to slowly introduce it to the audience.
Other than that, when Tyran appeared, Chen Mo indicated with text on the screen: Alliance – Tyran. Alliance was written in red word art, introducing the character to the audience.
Tiny changes like that explained most of the things that the original version never explicitly mentioned.
——
Ten minutes went by quickly, and the end theme started playing.
Everyone knew what the melody was. It was L'Internationale. But what made the others curious was that the lyrics had many famous people or places in this world.
Chen Mo turned off the projector and asked, "How does it feel?"
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Their expressions were a bit complicated.
Chang Xiuya said after some thought, "There's a part of the plot that I'm not fully understanding."
Jia Peng saidm "The production is quite good, basically top notch."
Weng Lingwei said, "Too short."
Su Jinyu also nodded, "Yeah, it's only ten minutes. It feels like it ended before there was any advancement in plot. However, you can kinda feel that the world is massive."
Jia Peng added, "It is quite funny, but... it feels like I'll be watching it my entire life. At ten minutes per episode, wouldn't it be releasing until the world ends?"
Everyone started chattering and discussion, but the general consensus was that it was too short, and the background of the story and setting wasn't explained enough.
Other than that, the characters, scenes, and story were quite good.
Chen Mo had already seen those points coming. Although Guo Feng and Chen Mo had made some minor changes to it and gradually added some explanation of the world, without basic knowledge of World of Warcraft, it was quite normal for the audience to not understand some parts.
Chen Mo asked, "Be objective on this: If there were more episodes released, would you watch them? Don't think about the associations of the series and me, just treat it as somebody else's work."
Everyone went silent and gave it some thought.
Jia Peng nodded, "I probably would. The theme is quite fresh, and to be honest, I've never seen the combination of cute animations, humor, and Western fantasy. I'd probably continue watching it just based on that."
Chang Xiuya nodded, "Yeah, I think so too. The characters are quite cute, and they all have their own features. I really want to find out what happens to Shaman."
"What about you guys?" Chen Mo looked at Wen Lingwei and Su Jinyu.
Su Jinyu was a bit hesitant, "Umm... I'd probably watch it. First, because the theme is quite unique, and there was a lot of suspense just from the first episode. It's probably decent for killing time in the future. Also, the ending theme is awesome."
Wen Lingwei said, "I don't know. I'd probably watch it if it was popular, but I might just forget about it if it wasn't."
Chen Mo nodded, as it was basically what he had expected.
Was I Am MT completely helpless without World of Warcraft? Obviously not.
For the viewers of the parallel world, although they lost a bit of the familiarity and references, they gained freshness and mystery.
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The animations in this world were almost completely devoid of Western fantasy, so the world of I Am MT would be completely new to some of these people. Everything on Azeroth would draw the attention of viewers, and having a minotaur as the main character was an interesting gimmick.
This feeling was reminiscent of when the players in the previous world first experienced the wonders of World of Warcraft.
Moreover, the high production quality of I Am MT, combined with the humor, fast-paced story, and various interesting characters were all features that would draw viewers into continuing to watch.
It didn't matter even if it didn't reach the popularity of the previous world. It was more than enough as long as the IP was able to allow the players to recognize the value of the cards in the game!
By Chen Mo's calculations, if this series did become a hot topic, it would certainly break ten million views in its first month, which would bring in more than enough players into I Am MT.
How much was ten million plays? Just like One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes[1] in his previous life, breaking ten million views in just three days. The first episode had one hundred and sixty million views in total!
In the parallel world, the quality of Chen Mo's I Am MT was impeccable, and the story and character designs had withstood the test of the people in his previous life.
Even taking away viewers watching on the basis of throwbacks, the worst case scenario was getting a third of the views. That was enough to support I Am MT the video game!
What if the views were even lower? Chen Mo might be hugely disappointed...
—–
After seeing the production quality of the first episode and getting feedback on it, Chen Mo was quite relieved.
"Alright, let's go back to work!" Chen Mo said as he went back upstairs.
Su Jinyu was about to ask a question, but for one reason or another never did so.
She was actually quite puzzled. Why was Chen Mo putting so much effort into the animation, but completely shafting the video game? If Chen Mo put the effort and money into producing the video game instead, he'd probably produce something even better, so why was he doing so much?
——
Chen Mo continued working on the second floor. He was focused on planning the numbers and abilities of the various cards, as well as content relating to the level design.
Chen Mo wasn't bothering to draw the UI and other graphical resources, which was why he outsourced it. As that artwork wasn't important, he figured he'd throw money at it, and just do some final quality analysis.
Chen Mo now had to spend his time on making sure there weren't any problems with the card system and numbers.
TL Note: [1] One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes is a 2014 Chinese animated fantasy comedy film.
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Chapter 62: Chapter 61: The World of Azeroth
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
If the IP was the soul of card games, the numbers would be its lifeline. If the numbers system crumbled, the game would follow.
Conversely, if the numerical system was very well done and complete, the game would have very strong survivability.
A good example would be a card game from his previous life, OMG! Kingdoms. It was still making tens of millions in profit two years after its release, an incredible result in the card game world.
Despite it being a card game, its IP was terrible and could be compared to not having an IP at all. When it entered the market, the Three Kingdoms had already been driven into the ground. There would be several games with a Three Kingdoms theme every month. If it was solely on the basis of IP, OMG! Kingdoms would have no chance of differentiating itself from the other games.
There were many games with Three Kingdoms that were quite successful, such as OMG! Kingdoms, Junior Three Kingdom, Immortal Conquest, and Gong Cheng Lue Di. These games gave players a misconception that Three Kingdoms was an alright IP.
If they actually tried to make a Three Kingdoms game themselves, they would realize that this IP was a trap.
As there would be a few Three Kingdoms games every month, it was completely overdone. If the gameplay was average, they would have no chance of making a break in the market. IPs like anime or popular novels would blow Three Kingdoms out of the water.
For example, if he made a One Piece game now, there would be a large number of players playing it, but if he made a game with Three Kingdoms in its title, would anyone play it?
There were many companies using Three Kingdoms in their games who intentionally excluded the words 'Three Kingdoms' from their titles. For example, Rivaless Thrashing, Beating Wei Shuwu, Immortal Conquest, and Gong Cheng Lue Di had emphasis on warring and sieging in their titles in order to reduce the bad taste the players would have surrounding that theme.
A feature of a good IP was it being able to make money and differentiate itself. If you had an IP like One Piece or Naruto, even if the game was just a reskinned first generation card game, it would still be raking in money.
But what about Three Kingdoms? If you reskinned a game using Three Kingdoms, not only would you not be making money, you would look bad doing it too!
That was proof that the IP of Three Kingdoms didn't add anything to the game.
Then why was OMG! Kingdoms so popular? It wasn't because of its theme, but its game quality.
The system functions, playstyle, and numerical settings of OMG! Kingdoms were the top among card games. Its success was entirely on its game quality, and not the IP.
Even if it was called Let Go of Water Margin it would still be popular, albeit slightly less.
If it was able to get One Piece or Naruto as its IP? It would probably hit the moon, doubling or tripling its monthly income.
This was what many players neglected, the charm of the playstyle itself.
Why were Chinese card games done over and over again, despite there being so many more other games on the market? Why did the players continue coughing up money, despite it all being based on the same genre?
For example, Onmyoji was very popular, a game that managed to perfect its artwork. Ignoring how well it did in the art department, it was still a card game at its core.
Chen Mo was working in the direction of OMG! Kingdoms and Junior Three Kingdom, replicating anything he could. Even if the game didn't reply on the IP of I Am MT, it would still be a fun card game!
——
Two weeks later...
It had been a whole month since the start of the development of I Am MT.
Other than making the video game project, Su Jinyu continued drawing. So far the art had progressed almost halfway, and the game was almost finished.
The only thing left was continuing to improve on the number system, finalizing the attributes of each card, and wait for the remaining artwork.
The development of the game progressed quite quickly, as the ruleset of the game was quite simple.
Everyone other than Chen Mo, including Su Jinyu, was feeling lukewarm towards the game. Su Jinyu was just doing it solely because it was part of her job.
However, everyone's interest in the animation was growing.
————–
"I think this concept of achievements is quite good. Just imagine, after doing something, a pop-up appears with a ping; wouldn't that make you feel you accomplished something?"
"Did you guys think that the rules of that world would be so fun? After the characters die, all they have to do is to move their soul to their bodies to be revived."
"Yeah, that setting is quite forgiving. The characters in other series could never die, but in this one they can die again and again. This allows for more creative freedom in some scenes."
"I think this rune thing is quite interesting, too. They just have to use a rune to get back to the Inn. This feels like something from a game, which probably makes it quite an interesting series to watch for gamers."
"I've actually done some research on that. Apparently it comes from the Middle Ages, where they would take a piece of stone from their fireplace at home if they were to leave on a journey. When they get homesick, they'd look at that stone to ease the sickness. In the end, the series somehow made it into something useful. That's quite interesting!"
"I really don't know how the manager manages to think up things like this. However, wouldn't these creativity juices be better spent on making games?"
"I don't really understand what the manager is thinking, but this world is way too expansive. I think you'd need to be an A or S-level videogame designer to be able to handle it. Could it be that it was too far out of reach for the manager, which is why he chose to make a mobile game instead?"
"But you can really tell that the effort the manager spent on the animation and the world was way more than the game itself."
"What is he trying to do? Even if he made an excellent animated series, what does it have to do with the game? Is everyone who liked the series going to play the game?"
"Who knows... However, I really want to see the world of Azeroth being made into a VR game. Just imagine being a Tauren running around on the endless plains."
———-
Chen Mo had been paying attention to their chatter.
At the start, everyone was waiting for the next episode to come out solely because it was a cool new theme. However, they were slowly becoming more and more curious about the world behind it.
There were many interesting settings going on on Azeroth, such as returning to the Inn using a rune, travel speed was increased while mounted on a wyvern or a griffin, reaching your body with your soul after dying would result in resurrection, leveling up after completing tasks, and getting achievements for doing special tasks...
Some of these settings were very reminiscent of games, but they were quite easy for everyone to understand, as everyone there was a gamer. They wouldn't feel weird about it, but might even find it quite interesting.
On the other hand, Chen Mo had gained another task on hand; creating the Universe of Azeroth!
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Chapter 63: Chapter 62: Animated Series Premiere
Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Of course, it might be better if Chen Mo called it National Geogrpahic Azeroth (NGA) just like in his previous world, but Chen Mo didn't plan to make a forum, but a site to access the lore of Azeroth.
Of course, the NGA was an important part of the website, and Chen Mo intended to add it later.
The concept of Universe of Azeroth took inspiration from Universe of Leaugue of Legends.
After League of Legends gained popularity, Riot Games spared no effort in building their own gaming culture, in particular the world of the game, also known has Universe of League of Legends.
As games are a unique type of art medium, its world can be huge and expansive, and they woulnd't be able to fully convey it just from the scenes or settings of the game. In order to increase the cultural influence of League of Legends, Riot Games developed the Universe of League of Legends.
Due to the feature of being a MOBA, there would be many heroes, which may result in an incoherent world, makign it extremely difficult to produce Universe of League of Legends.
On the other hand, the world of World of Warcraft was already quite mature. Making Universe of Azeroth would make the world easier to recognise, and improve its impact.
What would a website called Universe of Azeroth be like?
In Chen Mo's plans, it was mainly to introduce the lore for Azeroth and World of Warcraft in four main categories, History, Heroes, Rules, and Areas, which would cover the history of Azeroth, lore for certain characters, rules for the world, and the various areas.
Of course, covering every single point would be a long and tedious process which would be impossible to compelte in a few months. Chen Mo had made long term plans to migrate some of that information over when he had time.
He had his focus on history, rules and areas.
History would go over the invasion fot he orcs, the construction of Orgrimmar and key events in human history, as well as the relationship between the Alliance and Horde.
Rules would cover a settings in the world such as runes, Corpse Running, Races, Jobs, and skills.
Areas would cover the major cities of the various races, as well as the more important locations in Azeroth.
This was so allow players to better understand the content of I Am MT, and was also laying down the path for the future. When Chen Mo would eventually gather enough resources, he would recreate the world of WoW in a better format, therefore this site could be compared to building up hype.
—
The first three episodes of season one for I Am MT now on all major streaming platforms!
Chen Mo made some preparations before havin the animation go live. One of which was contacting the bigger streaming platforms and bought the advertisement spots for their front pages.
Dazzling Aurora Studio was extremely familiar with this process, and they also happened to know a few from the companies, so the more basic advertisement spots could be gotten as soon as money changed hands.
Of course the more important spots on the front page were reserved for the hotter videos with more views and would cost Chen Mo an arm and a leg, so he wasn't considering that for now.
Dazzling Aurora Studio also did some advertising and hyping on their own website.
On the other hand, Chen Mo had also released the news of I Am MT's release on his Weibo as well as Plants vs Zombies. It briefly went over the settings its world, and hinted that it would be related to his new game.
On Weibo, Chen Mo also posted a promotion clip for the animated series, which was the two minute lon gstarting scene of the first episode, giving and overview of the world of Azeroth.
In a short amount of time, Chen Mo's Weibo was reposted several thousand times!
This included fans of Plants vs Zombies and FlappyBird, the Video Game Media who were invested in the bet, as well as fans of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
Soon thereafter, gamers who weren't aware of the situation also caught wind of the news. After watching the clip, some of them became interested in the series.
"What's going on? Animated series? Am I seeing that right?"
"...Aren't they betting on the income of their next game? It's been a month, and Chen Mo produces an animated series?"
"It's even produced by Dazzling Aurora Studio. My goodness it seems like he planned it from the start. He probably forked out a large chunk of change for that right?"
"I'm more worried if Chen Mo still has time to make his game..."
"It's quite interesting that he's using an animated series to promote the game. It seems like the world is quite expansive, it's probably worth a view."
"Yep, let's see what it has to do with the game after we watch it"
At 8 PM, I Am MT was official live!
After all the hyping as well as the advertisement spots of the streaming websites, the video gained plenty of attention right after going live. There was also a trending topic on it on Weibo. The Plants vs Zombies discussion forum was also filled with discussion about the animation.
The hyping from before worked well, but it was only the first step. But what was important was the ratings of the viewers and if they were willing to continue watching.
Chen Mo was a bit worried and had his eyes glued to the number of view as well as the comments on the various streaming sites.
You could say that the success of this animated series would decide how popular his next game gets. If the series crashes and burns, it would most certainly impact his game. Although it wouldn't completely comprimise the game, it would still give him a major headache.
Su Jinyu, Jia Peng, and the others were also biting their nails and were constantly refreshing the statistics on the streaming websites.
Soon, the audience discussion got going.
"It just ended there? That's way too short!"
"That's it? What happens next?"
"The main character's a cow, how nonmainstream! I like it!"
"Although it looks a bit silly, the world does look quite interesting."
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Chapter 64: Chapter 63: Game Complete
"What the? There's such an expansive world behind it. There's also artwork for it."
"Too long; didn't read."
"Huh, it seems like a full fledged Western fantasy world."
There was varying reactions from the audience. Some of them who weren't quite as patient spent a few moments on the site before leaving, but the others who were more interested in it and would spend more time looking into the settings and story behind the world.
Just like his previous world, there weren't many people who liked Western fantasy worlds. However, even if there weren't many who were into it, at least they didn't dislike it.
Universe of Azeroth was assembled by Chen Mo based on the lore of World of Warcraft. It also included some artworks, which were mainly concept art for important races, areas, and equipment. Although the art were quite simple, it was much better at conveyed meaning than pure text.
In the end, I Am MT recieved 1.3 millino views in twenty-four hours!
Chen Mo didn't sleep too well that night as animations were a completely new territory, so he didn't know what to expect.
However, Chen Mo was relieved after seeing the numbers.
The numbers for the first day weren't high, but it wasn't bad. Compared to other Chinese animations, this number was considered alright. Of course, it didn't come close to the ones that got super popular.
At this point, there had been more than ten million copies of Plants vs Zombies sold, all of which would be looking out for Chen Mo's next game.
In addition, with Dazzling Aurora Studio's reputation, promotional spaces on various strreaming website, the bets from before, as well as the reports from various gaming media allowed I Am MT to be the center of attention from its release. It should recieve another wave of attention in the next week.
Compared to the number of views, Chen Mo was more concerned at the discussion of the audience.
All in all, there were very few bad reviews, and most of them were focused on it being too short or the lack of explanation of the background. The good reviews mianly focused on the fresh theme, the cool setting and the humour of it.
The next two episodes had slightly reduced views, but that was expected.
Moreover, as the number of views of I Am MT increases, the animations gained more and more traction on the various streaming sites. According to Guo Feng's expectations, it could probably reach the key recommended sapces on the streaming sites within a week!
When that time comes, there will probably be even more viewers.
—
Qiu Bin was also paying attention to the matter.
He had watched through the first three episodes of I Am MT, and his eyebrows were in a knot.
Qiu was confused, what was the meaning of that? There hadn't been any news of Chen Mo's new game, and he released an animation?
Although I Am MT was getting a decent amount of attention, but Qiu Bin wasnt' convinced. Even if the game was based on the animation, how many viewers would actually convert into players?
After all, there weren't many gamers within animation lovers. Moreover, gamers wouldn't start forking out money just because of it was an animation turned game, it still would depend on the quality of the game.
In this world, the more popular IPs are quite expensive, but they are usually used as TV or movie adaptations. The few IPs that were sold to video game companies are usually used for VR games.
How long had Chen Mo been in the industry? He was only a C-grade video game designer, and he was already planning to do animated series adaptations? That's too naive!
No matter how Qiu Bin looked at it, Chen Mo's strategy would no work. He was slightly concerned at first, but the confidnece in him was gaining.
—
As days went by, I Am MT continued to gain popularity, and the production of the video game progressed streadily too.
The number of views the series got continued to grow after release, as it got recommendations on the front page of many streaming sites, as well as becoming a trending topic on Weibo.
The first episode recieved 3.29 million views in the first week, and two months after its release, the first season had recieved more than fifty million views!
Chen Mo was still deciding if he should release a second season, but Guo Feng had already made the decision for him. Under the strong recommendation of Guo Feng, Chen Mo used another Super Accelerator to produce the script and storyboarding.
The animation got some attention, but didn't get close to what the original recieved. However, Chen Mo was content with that he had.
Moreoever, Chen Mo was very surpised at how many people were interested in Universe of Azeroth. There were many players discussing about the background of the story on in the comments of the videos as well as on the Universe of Azeroth website itself. There had even been some fanart.
Therefore Chen Mo had been working overtime to add a discussion forum on the Universe of Azeroth. He decided to give it the same name as the one in the previous life, "National Geographic Azeroth forums" (NGA). The players would be able to use their Thunderbolt Game Pass to log in and would be able to submit their original content, including fan fiction and artwork.
There was only a month left until the agreed release date, and the content for the mobile game I Am MT was finished, and the graphical resources were already done. Chen Mo will be using this time to do some testing, installing it onto the computers and tablets in the experience store.
"Phew, finally done."
Chen Mo let out a long sigh.
Chen Mo felt that the game was already complete and had reached a good enough level to be released. Next would be making minor adjustments according to the experiences of the players.
The changes would need to be main in three main areas, game length, level difficulty, and pricing. Although Chen Mo had plently of experience of these from his previous life, he wasn't too sure about the players in this world.
Chen Mo went downstairs where the projector was playing the second episode of the second season for I Am MT.
In the second season, each episode had been extended to twenty four minutes, and each of them was more content rich. Of course, the price was also doubled accordingly.
Chen Mo poured in nearly two months of income from Plants vs Zombies into the making of the second season.
Plants vs Zombies was a standalone game afterall, so the profit would d
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Chapter 65: Chapter 64: Free Runes
The assembling of the game using the game engine was done entirely by her, therefore she knew the contents of the game better than anyone. It was just that she could understand why the game would be fun and found it boring from her imagination.
However, upon considering the fact that it was a game made by her and being able to see MT, Shaman and the other characters, she decided to give it a try.
Jia Peng already had the game installed on his phone.
The icon for the game was an adorable image of MT and was one that was easily identifiable.
The game started after a simple opening scene.
The opening was from the animated series. As all the resources belonged to him, he could use it interchangeably.
The game required a log in using the Thunderbolt game pass.
Upon starting the game, the player was entered into a battle. On the player's side was MT, Shaman, Hunter, Rogue, Beauty and Thief. On the enemy's side was Lady, Brick, Tyran, The President, Hunter and Elder Sister.
The players normally only had access to five cards a battle, but in order to make the first battle more intense, Chen Mo elected to use six cards instead.
These cards were all at their highest levels with detailed borders. The art on the cards were very good looking, and they also had some simple animations and effects.
"Hmm, feels quite nice," Jia Peng was surprised. Although he had seen the graphics for the game well before. But seeing it in game with its borders, animations and special effects made the card feel completely different.
This scene was a recreation of a scene from I Am MT's second season, the battle on Hillsbrad Foothills, which happened to coincide with the episode release.
After some simple dialogue, the two sides started fighting. The various cards attacked one after another, each with different types of attacks. There were normal attacks, Chain Lightning, ranged attacks, assassinations... The animations of every single card and even the art for the damage numbers have been adjusted by Chen Mo time and time again to recreate the quality of the original game.
"The attacks feel so satisfying!"
Jia Peng was shocked as he thought card combat would be awful to watch, so he wasn't expecting it to be so satisfying.
For example, for Thief's normal attack animation, the card would move on top of its target, and the card would shake as if it was showing off its weapon, followed by a slash effect.
And when Thief uses its abilities, it would disappear from its original location, then appearing behind its target so stimulate a backstab.
No matter the floating numbers of expanding text during attacks, they were adjusted to perfection. Combined with the animations when the cards are attacked and screen shake, it created a very satisfying strong hit.
Many attacks such as Chain Lightning or Moon Glaives had very flashy animations. Although it was just a pile of cards battling one another, it didn't give away a childish vibe.
"Making something out of a pile of cards fighting, quite amazing to be honest."
Jia Peng was also quite surprised that he felt that although the game wasn't a huge production, a lot of attention was given to the details, all just from the first battle.
The game continued on.
After the short tutorial, Chen Mo received his very own starting cards, blue MT and Shaman. Other than that, he could pick one out of Rouge, Hunter, Druid, and priest as their third character.
"Yep, according to the story, Priest probably heals. I'll pick her then."
Jia Peng picked Priest.
After going through some more tutorials, the player entered dungeon challenges. The story driven tutorials were clear and concise, conveying information using the least amount of words, so as to not make the player feel like they're being nagged.
Combat, receiving equipment and experience, training cards, drawing cards, collecting online bonuses.
This was the best feature of Chinese mobile games, the whole flow of the game, especially the gameplay for the first day, have been planned extensively. Every single activity and every single would drag the player deeper and deeper into the game.
On one hand, the player wouldn't need to expend too much effort into understanding and learning the game, allowing the player to have a good grasp on the mechanics of the game even if they weren't paying full attention to it. This gaurrenteed that there wouldn't be players who quit because they didn't understand the game.
On the other hand, the player would demonstrate different mechanics of the game from the start, allowing the player to feel that the game was content rich.
Jia Peng was feeling exactly that. In reality the combat of card games would completely lose their charm after a few battles, and would trigger the player to quit the game.
However, whenever the player gets that feeling, the game would suggest a new playstyle to the player, or give them another reward to bait them into playing on.
"Hmm? Purple Lady?" Weng Lingwei said out of nowhere.
Jia Peng and the others were shocked, "Huh? How did you get a purple card? How come none of us have gotten one?"
Wen Lingwei said, "Ten draws, it's in the store."
Jia Peng entered the store. There was a tutorial on ten draws, but it only guided the player through single draws. Moreover, Jia Peng didn't have enough runes.
"This requires twenty-five hundred runes, how did you get so many of them?" asked Jia Peng.
Wen Lingwei said, "Are you dumb? Isn't the game just handing out runes? Level chests, online bonuses, missions, you'd know once you collect all the rewards."
Jia Peng took a look. Indeed, he had his focus on battling and didn't pay any attention to what rewards he could receive.
Collect! Collect! Collect!
Many of the missions and achievement systems were already completed. Finishing levels would also yield chests. There were also log in bonuses, and online bonuses.
Jia PEng went through all the collecting and discovered that they contained many goodies. There were gold, experience cards, runes, normal cards... so many of them he could barely keep up.
After collecting most of these rewards, Jia Peng realised that he had around twenty-six hundred runes, enough for one ten draws.
"That's so much money! That works out to about two hundred RMB! Didn't someone say the game would be very expensive? Why is it handing out money? Could it be that because we are testers and these are tester perks?" Jia Peng asked shockingly.
The others asked, "Yeah, manager, why are we receiving so many rewards, is it just a tester's perks?"
Chen Mo shook his head, "The normal players would also receive the same amount."
Everyone was shocked, "Does this happen everyday?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Everyday. But you'd get more on the first day."
Su Jinyu was puzzled, "Manager, isn't this game supposed to make money from this game? The highest VIP tier costs fifty thousand RMB, but if you continue giving out resources like this, who would pay up?"
Chang Xiuya agreed, "Yeah, the money comes in faster than I spend it. It doesn't take much time to save up enough for ten spins."
Chen Mo laughed, "Don't worry about the players spending money, just think about if you're willing to continue playing the game."
Jia Peng said after some thinking, "I'll decide if I'll continue playing after I draw ten..."
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Chapter 66: Chapter 65: One Two Punch of Card Games
Chen Mo laughed, "Yep, that's right. You must draw ten before you leave."
Jia Peng went to the store and tapped on the ten spins button, he was even slightly nervous.
As someone with extraordinary terrible luck, Jia Peng was very anxious when it comes to drawing mechanisms like these. He usually struggled to handle luck based situations like these.
"I'm going in!"
Prepared for the worst, Jia Peng hit the draw ten button.
Chen Mo snicked. No wonder you have terrible luck. You don't even have a ritual before drawing, not even simple prep like washing your face or hands, it's obvious that you aren't being sincere enough.
Swish swish swish...
There were now ten cards on the screen, as the cards were flipped over, Jia Peng had his eyes focused on their borders.
"Heavens bless me with a purple..."
Blue, blue, blue, shards...
The disappointment in Jia Peng slowly crept up, as he felt like quitting the game in the next moment. But on the second last card, he managed to draw a purple Brick card!
"Ah! Purple! I drew a purple!"
Jia Peng was about to tear up from his happiness. As someone with terrible luck, it was the first time being on the same level as Wen Lingwei in terms of luck.
"Who did you get?" asked Chang Xiuya and Wen Lingwei as they gathered around.
Jia Peng said, "Brick, the human caster."
Weng Lingwei said, "Tsk, not bad! Turns out you're able to draw purples too!"
"Heh heh. It's about time that luck was on my side."
Full of happiness, Jia Peng looked into the description for Brick and checked out his abilities.
"Blizzard? Sounds incredible, I'm gonna level him up now."
Jia Peng also drew a bunch of useless monster cards, which he spent all to level Brick up, raising it to purple.
"Mm, I need another Brick to get it to the next level. Guess I'll leave it at that."
Fully of glee, Jia Peng stared at his newly gotten card. He then adjusted his strategy and went to battle filled with hope.
The others also managed to gather enough runes to draw ten.
"I got a purple MT. Uhh.. why does it feel kind of useless?"
"Purple rouge. Feels alright, I could try out an assassinating strategy."
"I should probably raise the attributes of my purple cards right? I'll spend more of my resources on it then."
Everyone managed to draw a purple card, and swapped it into their strategy full of happiness.
Chen Mo had such a big smile on his face that he couldn't say anything.
In reality, these have been decided beforehand. The first ten draws guaranteed a decent purple character card. It didn't matter how lucky or unlucky you were.
However, subsequent ten draws would definitely be lucked based. Although there was a certain guarantee for purple cards, it was possible to draw Ambasador, Baron Rivendare, The Mayor, or other purple monster cards which didn't have too much value in raising.
However, once you do a certain amount of draw tens, a rare card must appear, such as Cannon Lady, or Nosuke Shinsuke.
These were all traps.
If they players didn't get good cards from the first ten draws, the player would be more likely to quit the game. Therefore adjustments must be made to the probabilities, as well as guaranteeing a purple character card.
Afterwards, the amount of runes players will get will decrease, and the probabilities will return to normal in order for the cards to retain their values. If the players wanted better cards they'd have to top-up.
For the rich, there must be certain guarantees in place to make sure that every penny they spent would be worth it to prevent them from feeling cheated.
This was a hidden specification among Chinese card games. Of course were more headstrong and wouldn't do that, such as Onmyoji.
Onmyoji didn't have any guarantees in place, therefore the ability to draw SSR would be entirely up to luck. This led to account selling in the early stages of the game, amongst many other problems.
Of course, as Onmyoji was already really high quality, it had the rights to do so. Chen Mo's current 3D art skill was still lacking compared to Onmyoji, therefore he didn't dare be as headstrong as Onmyoji when making I Am MT.
Jia Peng had hadded Brick into his team.
The monsters in the dungeon did not stand a chance against Brick's Blizzard. He progressed through the dungeons swiftly with the help of the others in his team.
"This feels great!"
Jia Peng won one battle after another, and every time he beat one he would receive some rewards as well as chests, task rewards and achievements. When he got stuck, he would redeem the rewards and level up his cards. Afterwards he would continue going through the levels...
"Hmm, I think I can level up again, but I don't have enough monster cards yet. Whatever, I'll just go through one more battle."
Jia Peng navigated to the next level once again.
Chen Mo was looking at the expressions of everyone.
Su Jinyu was tense and unwilling to give in, but she was still playing on.
Jia Peng on the other hand seemed infected by the game, burying his head in his phone.
Wen Lingwei wasn't trying to push through the levels, but was looking through the cards gallery, evidently she was still deciding on her team.
So far, the effects of the one two punch of Chinese card games were working well.
IP draws players into the game.
High level cards demonstrating the abilities of the cards.
Clean and simple tutorial.
Many different playstyles to rid the player from getting bored of the game.
Handing out runes to allow the player to draw good cards.
Good cards crushes dungeons allowing players to feel growth and satisfaction.
This combination of events would allow players to feel a great sense of satisfaction and allow the players to recognise the value of the in game currencies.
With the satisfaction and recognising the value of the currency, it would allow the player to continue playing on the second day, chasing for another good card.
The IP's function in card games was most important in the first step, attracting the players. The better the IP, the more players it attracts, the more loyal they are, the more players the game will get.
As the numbers go up, profit naturally went up.
However, could the IP decide the fate of a card game? Not necessarily.
Under a circumstance with about the same attractiveness, the profit deciding second day retention, long term retention, and average spendage are all based on the quality of the game, where the IPs don't add much to it.
Many would say that the IP was very important to the game, and would be the point of comparison to other games. What they mean was that it would be easier to differentiate yourself among the ocean of other mobile card games with an IP.
What if the card game was compared to other mobile games? In reality, without the IP, card games would still come out on top.
At the later stages of mobile card games, it eventually devolves into an AFK quest completing game, as the playstyle of the game would no longer be sufficient to keep the players' interest, and could practically be ignored. However, with the numerical stimulus, luck based card drawing, and virtual currency makes it difficult for the player to detach themselves from the game in fear of losing it, which in turn keeps the player in the game.
Numerical stimulus: new levels every day, new rewards, upgrading main character cards, and leveling them up...
Luck based card drawing: gathered enough money to draw ten times, I'll probably receive a good card this time...
Virtual currency: I've already spent hundreds in the game, the perfect strategy, you want me to quit now?
At this stage, the effects of IP were basically negligible.
These three points would keep the player attached to the game, as well as a top-up promotion which would continually entice you to pull out money.
It's fine if you don't take money out of your wallet. As long as you are playing, that day will arrive soon enough.
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Chapter 67: Chapter 66: Self-improvement for the unlucky star
The release date for Guardian of the Holy Spring and I am MT approached as the days went by.
Qiu Bin had been worried the past few days because of the hype surrounding the animated series for I am MT manage to gather.
The series continued to gain more fans, and the world of Azeroth also became increasingly rich. There were also more and more discussions surrounding the series, and fanart of characters and Azeroth also started to appear.
Although the growth of this animation did not compare to the one from the parallel world, it was still a considerable threat to Qiu Bin as Guardian of the Holy Spring did not have extra support such as this.
Although Emperor Dynasty Entertainment does have great distribution channels, it wasn't so much so to allow for every game to become massively popular. Therefore, Qiu Bin was slightly worried that he would mess this up.
Especially after looking into the contents relating to the world of Azeroth, Qiu Bin's doubt towards himself grew even further.
This world is way too massive!
Two different factions, multiple races and an incredible background story! Not to mention the big cities, important locations and the dozens of characters from the animations. This world had way more depth than Guardian of the Holy Spring!
What game was Chen Mo trying to make? Can he fully replicate all of this in the game?
Qiu Bin didn't believe that it was possible to replicate all this in a mobile game. First of all Chen Mo was only a C-grade video game designer, he wouldn't be capable of that. Secondly, with only four months of time, it would practically be impossible to include too many features!
It wouldn't be enough time even if Chen Mo started working on it immediately after Plants vs Zombies went live.
Moreover, even if Chen Mo managed to squeeze that out of him, what about testing time? And the time for feedback and fine tuning? If an array of problems show up after the game goes live, he'd be digging his own grave!
Qiu Bin didn't understand a single bit.
According to him, if Chen Mo wanted to win, he'd have to make a game with the quality surpassing that of Plants vs Zombies. And judging from what Chen Mo had some so far, with the animations and websites, how much time would he have left to work on the game?
All Qiu Bin could do was continually improve on Guardian of the Holy Spring. Only time could tell whoever will win the bet.
—
In the past few days, Wen Lingwei was very happy, but Jia Peng was the exact opposite.
During the testing phase of I am MT, Chen Mo gave everybody eight thousands runes, giving them more than enough to make ten consecutive draws.
Moreover, more credits are given out each day based on the rankings in the arena.
Note, it was credits, which is not the same as being the free stuff given out by the system. This meant that their VIP levels were growing as well.
This was to test the difference in combat abilities of a high tier VIP to the mid-low tier VIPs and if they matched expectations, as well as if the opinions of the different VIP levels matched what Chen Mo had in mind.
In the end, on an even playing field, the combination of cards and the luck aspect started to show.
As Wen Lingwei experimented with different strategies the most, and had great luck with ten consecutive draws, she frequently held the top spot in the arena.
On the other hand, Jia Peng's terrible luck started to show, frequently drawing purple monster cards from his draws, and his cost of drawing a purple character card was much higher than others. He was ready to give up.
Currently in the arena, Jia Peng was completely dominated by Wen Lingwei.
If it wasn't for Chen Mo handing out runes daily, he probably would have quit a long time ago from all the beatings he's taking.
Jia Peng complained to Chen Mo time and time again, on how the game was terrible for unlucky people such as himself, and was on the verge of quitting.
Chen Mo really wanted to reply with, "Brother, heard of Onmyoji?"
However, as Jia Peng's situation was so depressing that Chen Mo thought that the rates he input was wrong, and looked over the drop rates for cards many times over.
And the conclusion from investigating was that Jia Peng's draw rate was indeed much lower than the expected value. The only thing that could be said is that his luck was definitely showing...
Chen Mo was also shocked, money can't change fate!
It was only two days until the game goes live, and Chen Mo has made many numerical changes, including level difficulty, level up experience, balancing of cards, VIP benefits etc. It basically met his standard of being perfect.
The hyping form the animations were also as good as it gets. Although it didn't compare to the level of the one in his previous life, based on Chen Mo's estimations, it should draw in enough players to kick off the game with a decent player base.
This was more than enough for Chen Mo.
While waiting for the game to go live, the testing save files were wipes. Wen Lingwei and the others needed to start off at the same point as the other players.
Yet Jia Peng was still lamentfully grinding through dungeons.
Wen Lingwei said to Jia Peng while looking at her strategy with glee, "Stop doing that, the save file will be reset in 2 days. What's the point of grinding dungeons now."
Jia Peng said without lifting his eyes away from the screen, "I will live out this life fate has dealt me!"
Weng Lingwei was speechless.
Now Wen Lingwei and the others were discussing on the best strategy to start off with, and which strategies were the best, only Jia Peng was still relentlessly grinding.
It can only be said that people who are unlucky are more dedicated than others.
All of a sudden, Jia Peng jumped out of his seat, shouting, "I got a purple drop! A purple drop!"
Chang Xiuya asked, "Really? Congratulations on finally getting a purple!"
Wen Lingwei said, "Oh, even someone as unlucky as you can have a change of fates?"
Chen Mo patting Jia Peng on the back, "That's great! Even though you were the last one to draw a purple, it still deserves recognition."
Jia Peng was hysterical, "I'm taking a screenshot to mark this occasion!"
Everyone else in the room could only empathise with his emotions.
A few special levels have a chance of dropping purple monster cards, although his chance was quite small, set at 0.5% by Chen Mo.
This was meant to be a surprise for players who have great luck.
However, what they didn't know was that this was a fake percentage set up by Chen Mo.
Although the base chance was 0.5%, Chen Mo added some clauses, according to when the player created their account, this percentage would increase by 3% every day.
After a purple card is dropped, this is reset back to 0.5%, and after a certain length of dry period, the percentage increases again, but the increase will never be higher than 5%.
This was to allow for more players to get the joy of getting purple drops, but at the same time not so common as to devalue the drops.
That also means that Jia Peng's chance of getting purple drops were probably over 80%...
The others received their purple drops two weeks ago, whereas Jia Peng only received his now. Chen Mo could only describe this as "miraculous".
"If I decide to make Onmyoji in the future, should I let Jia Peng know..."
Chen Mo started to seriously consider this problem.
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Chapter 68: Chapter 67: Game is Now Live!
Wen Lingwei stared at her best cards, not wanting to depart with them.
"I just thought of something. Should we spend money on this game when we are officially testing the game?"
Jia Peng grinned, "Huh? Spend money on the game? I can't even draw good cards using the resources that were given out for free. Spending my own money would be the same as pouring it down the drain."
Wen Lingwei rolled her eyes, "The unlucky star showing off his skills again."
Chang Xiuya said, "Spend money? Uh, don't think I'll be able to keep up. Millions of RMB come and go just like that in this game. How much would we need to spend to reach this level when the game is officially released?"
Wen Lingwei shook her head, "I'm not talking about playing up to this level. Look, no matter if you spend one RMB, ten RMB or a hundred RMB, you'll receive your respective VIP levels as well as other top-up bonuses, and you would immediately have an advantage over players who don't spend any money."
Chang Xiuya nodded as if she understood, "Mm, so you're saying that we spend less, maybe around a hundred? That still feels a bit... expensive."
Wen Lingwei said, "But if you think about it, more than half the players might never spend any money. If you spend a hundred RMB, you should be stronger than the majority of the players right? Think about the arena ranking bonuses, as well as receiving dungeon rewards earlier, among other things"
Chang Xiuya nodded, "Yeah, seems like... we would be slightly better than others."
Wen Lingwei said, "Right? No matter what we should spend a small amount of money. This game is free to play anyways, spending ten RMB on it doesn't seem like a huge cost anyways."
Wen Lingwei started to investigate how much money she should spend in order to get the best value for money in terms of benefits.
Chen Mo said, "Just saying, you drawing a card for me is enough to buy an Elder Sister card."
Wen Lingwei rolled her eyes again, "What are you trying to say? Are you still thinking about how much I charge for artwork? There's nothing to discuss in that department!"
Chen Mo laughed.
The thing he was most worried about wasn't the popularity of the animation, nor the amount of players, but if the players weren't willing to fork out money.
After all, it was difficult to manipulate the willingness of the players to spend money. If the majority of players weren't willing to fork out money to spend in game, and if there weren't enough whales, spending money in game wouldn't provide too much excitement either. This would cause the monthly income of the game to remain low.
However, after noticing Wen Lingwei's reaction, Chen Mo gained confidence in the game's ability to rake in money.
Once the majority of players get a taste of the thrill of spending money in game, they would struggle to stop themselves from spending a second time. And the players who weren't willing to spend money would feel more inclined to spend money for the first time.
As long as there are enough of these two types of players, the profitability of the game was more or less guaranteed.
—
As the release date approached, the advertisements for Guardian of the Holy Spring were being advertised more and more by Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
The advertisements weren't exactly everywhere, only present on a few key advertisement spaces on the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform. They also arranged for a few video game media to announce the game and wrote a few advertorials.
After all, it was only a mobile game. As Emperor Dynasty Entertainment had a rough estimate of how profitable the game could be, there was no way they would spend all their resources on advertising it, as it costs money to put the game out there.
Even the promoted spaces on the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform weren't exactly free. If the space was given to another better game, they would be able to profit more from it, which in a way would be money lost.
Therefore, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment couldn't put down everything and give Guardian of the Holy spring all of its resources, and would only give it some of the better ones.
However, in the eyes of the higher ups in Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, a few adverts like these was enough to compete with a nobody videogame designer such as Chen Mo.
Qiu Bin also had an idea of what Chen Mo was planning, likely using the animation to hype up the game, giving it publicity by proxy.
However, Qiu Bin was comforted by the fart that the animated series haven't gained so much traction to become a tier one phenomena. Moreover, if Chen Mo's game was a one time pay game, the conversion rate from viewer to player wouldn't be high.
Moreover, could Chen Mo's game recreate the expansiveness depicted in the series? Qiu Bin had his doubts. If Chen Mo didn't do the game justice, the ratings would drop, which would directly affect the sales.
No matter which train of thought he followed, Qiu Bin felt that Chen Mo had no outs.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter. We'll just have to wait until the games go live!"
Qiu Bin did a once over on the contents of Guardian of the Holy Spring, and uploaded it to the official app store.
——
I Am MT and Guardian of the Holy Spring were now live on the app store at the same time!
Many gamers had their eyes on these two games ever since the bet. After simmering for four months, the moment of truth finally arrived!
Other than being released on the official app store, Guardian of the Holy Spring was also released on the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform. Just using the platform as well as Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's huge distribution, the sales in the first day skyrocketed!
Guardian of the Holy Spring were priced the same as Plants vs Zombies, at ten RMB. Qiu Bin didn't dare to set the price too high, mainly because Guardian of the Holy Spring didn't have massive changes from Plants vs Zombies, and if the price was set at twenty, it might cause the number of sales to drop drastically, affecting the monthly income.
Soon, the sales of Guardian of the Holy Spring was released, quoted at one thousands two hundred and ninety!
Qiu Bin breathed a sigh of relief after seeing this number.
Qiu Bin's assistance also had their eyes on this number alongside Qiu Bin. They couldn't help but smile after seeing that number, "Not a bad result, congratulations!"
Qiu Bin had a smile on his face, but still didn't dare to step out of line, "Don't let yourself go so soon. Have you downloaded Chen Mo's new game? Let me see."
The assistant replied, "Not yet. I'll do that now."
Qiu Bin waved his hand in dismissal, "Don't worry about it. I'll do it myself."
Qiu Bin launched the appstore and searched for Chen Mo's new game.
The assistant said, "Don't worry too much, you'll still be able to show your face in Emperor Dynasty Entertainment with a result like this. This number was almost double what Plants vs Zombies achieved when it first came out."
Qiu Bin nodded, "Of course, but this still isn't a confirmed victory."
The assistant laughed, "Still isn't a confirmed victory? You're too humble. Even if Chen Mo was given a miracle, his monthly income wouldn't even come close to this level!"
Just the first hour sales have already exceeded Qiu Bin's expectations.
If this game was able to double Plants vs Zombies, then it should be possible to sell around a million copies, meaning more than ten million in income.
(Income meaning the gross income generated by that user, before the cuts are taken.)
A game would be considered amazingly popular with tens of millions in income, and climbing on to various leaderboards were only a matter of time, it might even stand a chance at the total sales leaderboards.
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Chapter 69: Chapter 68: Free to Play Game?
Qiu Bin didn't expect to sell this many copies. Why? Because the target audience for this game had significant overlap with Plants vs Zombies, and the fans of Plants vs Zombies would be on Chen Mo's side!
It might not have mattered so much if there wasn't a bet, but now that there is one, the fans of Plants vs Zombies who wanted to play Guardian of the Holy Spring would wait until next month before purchasing the game.
Of course this meant that Qiu Bin would lose a portion of his players.
Luckily, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was very supportive. Under the various methods of advertising, Guardian of the Holy Spring managed to capture the attention of players who haven't played Plants vs Zombies. This allowed Guardian of the Holy Spring to double the performance of Plants vs Zombies.
However, Qiu Bin couldn't say that he had this in the bag, as he had yet to check out Chen Mo's game.
It didn't take long before Qiu Bin found Chem Mo's new game, I Am MT.
"He really did use the animated series to advertise for his game. However, how does the game play? Did it really recreate the vast universe?"
Filled with his own suspicions, Qiu Bin clicked the download button.
"Hmm? That can't be right!"
Qiu Bin was shocked.
He realised that the game was free!
If it was a game that required purchase, the button wouldn't be download, but purchase instead.
Chen Mo wanted to bet on the first month's profits, and he decided to make a free to play game?
Qiu Bin was shocked as to what Chen Mo was planning.
The assistant asked, "What's wrong? Why are you so shocked?"
Qiu Bin replied with disbelief, "Chen Mo's new game is free to play! Free!"
The assistant was also shocked, "It can't be! That would make sense if the bet was on downloads, but the bet is on the income of the first month!"
Qiu Bin scowled, "Free to play games can only rely on buying credits and selling ads. But you can't make good money off that!"
The assistant didn't say anything in reply, there was nothing to say that could explain the situation!
Qiu Bin looked back to his phone while trying to figure out the situation, but was met with something else he didn't expect.
The game finished downloading in the time of that short exchange?
Qiu Bin took a deeper look to find out that the game was only about a hundred a seventy megabytes, not much bigger than Plants vs Zombies!
All the artwork for Guardian of the Holy Spring were rendered in HD, and the entire installer was about four hundred megabytes, much bigger than I am MT.
Qiu Bin was stunned. How could Chen Mo reproduce that enormous world with one hundred and seventy megabytes? It couldn't be a bait and switch!
Full of suspicions, Qiu Bin tapped on the icon and launched the game.
After I am MT went online, despite not having a promoted spot like on the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, it still recieved a good amount of attention.
The first players of I am MT consisted of the players from Plants vs Zombies, viewers of I am MT, as well as the bystanders wanting to see the end of the bet.
These people were coming either based on Chen Mo's reputation from the last game, coming from the story of I am MT, or just trying to stay on top of the drama.
In the end, they were met with the same thoughts Qiu Bin had.
A free to play game?!
Only one hundred and seventy megabytes?!
At first, a large portion of players were contemplating if they should purchase the game. But after noticing it was free, they downloaded the game before asking any further questions.
The game was free to play anyways, and one hundred and seventy megabytes wasn't much. It's for the better to download first and talk later. The game can be deleted if it wasn't fun, and they wouldn't lose anything in the process.
Chen Mo had made his own preparations, advertising the mobile game on his Weibo as well as at the end of the most recent I am MT episode.
"The mobile game by the same name is now live! Battle alongside MT and Shaman! Completely free, with no ads!"
Of course, these were just buzzwords to get the game out there. In the previous world, upon seeing the word "free", most players would mutter the words, "Another pay to win game!"
But it wasn't the same in this world. Most players in this world were still quite innocent, and were shocked upon seeing the word "free" while promising no ads.
"Free? The game is free to download? With no ads? How is he going to make money?"
"Probably in app purchases!"
"How much money can you get from in-app purchases? Moreover, the players would decide if they would spend money in game, what if the players aren't spending any money?"
"Yeah, and Chen Mo is betting over income in the first month, isn't this suicidal?"
"We shall see, it's a free game anyways."
After the bet on Weibo and the hyping up via the animations, all the gamers were shocked upon seeing the word "free".
Some were worried that Chen Mo would lose the bet.
Some didn't understand why Chen Mo would be so "charitable" to take a bet that he would most definitely lose.
And others were just there for the drama.
And based on that, almost everyone who had some concern in the matter downloaded the game to find out how this "free" game would work.
Inside the experience store.
"In the first hour of going live, there's nearly four thousand downloads, about three times more than Guardian of the Holy Spring. Yep, acceptable."
Chen Mo was quite happy after looking at the download statistics for I am MT.
In terms of downloads, of course a free game would have an advantage over games that required to be purchased. Afterall, players would have some hesitation when buying a game, even if it was only ten RMB. The players are given an option for a refund too, but that process took effort and would be quite troublesome to go through.
Free games were different, downloading and deleting the game was easy and didn't require any hesitation.
Under the same amount of advertisement, a free to play game would easily surpass a game that required purchase by over ten times. However, Guardian of the Holy Spring had the support of the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, being able to maintain a third of I am MT's numbers was already quite good.
Su Jinyu, Wen Lingwei and the others had their eyes on the statistics as well.
Jia Peng said, "There are so many downloads! Oh my, it's much higher than the ones promoted by the big platforms."
Wen Lingwei said, "Of course. It's a free game. Downloading it doesn't cost anything. Furthermore it's only one hundred and seventy megabytes, it would take no more than two minute to download even under free wifi, of course the downloads are high."
Chang Xiuya said, "Mmm, so the key point still depends on how many people are willing to spend money in game."
Su Jinyu was also there, and asked Chen Mo about a few numbers on the screen, "Boss, what do these numbers mean?"
These were backend management features Chen Mo implemented. In app announcements, balance changes, as well as giving out runes would be done using this system.
On the data query page, there were a few numbers, all of which were english abbreviations, such as DNU, ARPI, ARPPU, LTV, and so on.
To anyone else other than Chen Mo, these letters bore no significance. They could only guess as to what these letters meant.
Chen Mo said, "It's not easy to explain. All you need to know is that once the numbers reach the target, this game would start making money."
Everyone looked at each other.
Really? Is it that incredible?
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Chapter 70: Chapter 69: Potential Revenue
Soon, reviews for I Am MT on the official app store started to come in.
"What is this? I wanted to see huge clashes between the Alliance and Horde. What's the meaning of a couple of cards like these!"
"This turned out to be a card game? Moreover, a type of card game that we've never seen."
"What should games like these be called? Card battling game?"
"Seriously differs from expectation! Refund!"
"To the previous poster, this game doesn't cost anything, it's free to play..."
"I was planning on giving a one star review, but after giving it some more time, I'll be giving a three star review for now. I'll update this in a few days."
"Is it just me who thinks that the game is pretty fun? I think the cards are very cute. Five stars."
"Is the previous poster a girl? Guessing you've never played a proper game."
"Hehe, I'm the previous poster. Would you believe me if I said I was bigger than you?"
"It's so funny that people are giving this a bad review. Chen Mo is a C-grade video game designer. Moreover, it's a card game. No matter what he did, it was impossible for the whole world to be recreated. Being able to represent the characters like this is a job well done in my opinion."
"Yeah, I think it's not bad for a mobile game."
"Don't you guys think this game is great? Free to play without any ads, as well as giving out all these free runes. In the end, Chen Mo is still betting on the income of the first month."
"I think I'm giving this a five star for now, on the premise of the free runes."
"Was it that easy to buy your votes?"
"What's wrong? I support Chen Mo. I'd like to see 'Guardian of the Holy Spring' made to be a free to play game!"
—
So far, I Am MT had a score of 7.6. Very few of these were one star reviews, most of them were four stars, with a few three and five stars sprinkled within.
Chen Mo guessed that in two days time when the players finally caught onto how much the game actually costs, the reviews would plummet even more, possibly 7.4 or lower.
However the scoring wasn't a big deal to Chen Mo. As this was a free to play game, players would continue playing as long as the score isn't completely horrible.
On the other hand, Qiu Bin was also looking into I Am MT.
"That's it? Isn't this a bit too simple? The combat system is monotonous, and the difficulty of the levels have no progression as you roll through all of them. Not only is the game free, but the game gives away so much free resources, allowing anyone to continue playing the game without any difficulty."
"Who would spend money on this? The game relies entirely on in app purchases, and these purchases would be spent on buying more cards or making your team stronger? Would players be buying this?"
"Is he just trying to give away money, using this to draw in players? You're betting on the income of the first month! If you lose by a landslide because of how low your income was, it would make the win meaningless!"
Qiu Bin played the game for nearly an hour.
The dungeons were still monotonous, the free resources kept coming in. He even managed to do a draw ten, and got a rare purple card out of it.
"This game was a huge letdown. I'd forgive being unable to recreate the world. But making the game free, and giving out so much free resources at the same time, the players would have no incentive to make in-app purchases."
"It seems like collecting cards may be a way to make money, but how many players are actually willing to spend that money? Moreover, based on how generous you are with giving away resources, I'd have saved up enough to get more cards in two days. Isn't it a matter of time before the players collect all the cards?"
"There's no point in continuing to look into this game, this game is hopeless."
"Qiu Bin deleted I Am MT off his phone. From his perspective, so what if the game has higher sales? The players aren't required to spend money, so the number of sales aren't representative of anything!"
—
It was now twenty-four hours since the games were released.
Guardian of the Holy Spring achieved thirty eight thousand, nine-hundred and thirty eight sales at the twenty-four hour mark, maintaining about double what Plants vs Zombies achieved.
Plants vs Zombies was definitely a late bloomer as it slowly climbed up the ladder of the official app store, significantly increasing down the line.
On the other hand, a large portion of the sales in the first day for Guardian of the Holy Spring depended on the promotions from the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, so it might not keep this momentum.
However, Qiu Bin wasn't worried. Even if the sales decrease down the line, the number of sales in the first month should be no less that eight hundred thousand, meaning that the income of the first month would be at least eight million, with hopes of breaking ten million.
Qiu Bin had no idea on how much money I Am MT would bring in, as I Am MT didn't rely on the number of sales, and the revenue from in app purchases is only known by the developer themselves.
However, Qiu Bin wasn't worried. In his eyes, Chem Mo's game had no chance of breaking ten million RMB, and this bet may well be decided.
—
Inside the experience store.
Chen Mo had his eyes on the various numbers on his screen.
Jia Peng and the others were behind him, all staring at the numbers on his screen. No matter how long they looked at the numbers, they couldn't make any sense of it.
"Manager, do you mind explaining what these numbers mean?"
"Yeah, the revenue for Guardian of the Holy Spring is already out. What about I Am MT?"
"Say something already!"
Everyone started to chatter.
Chen Mo looked at the numbers for a few more moneys and said, "Don't worry, this beats Guardian of the Holy Spring by a landslide."
Wen Lingwei didn't buy it, "Hmm? Really? You're not saying that because you're too afraid to admit defeat right? How can you tell just by looking at these numbers? Where's the revenue? Honestly, if you wanna escape somewhere, I know a few people..."
Chen Mo was speechless, "Stop talking about the people you know..."
Chang Xiuya asked, "Well then, could you at least tell us how it's winning by a landslide?"
Jia Peng nodded, "Yeah, you could go over the current situation briefly right?"
Su Jinyu squinted, trying hard to figure out the relationship between the numbers, but was still unable to get anything out of it.
Chen Mo said, "Let's put it this way, the revenue for the first month will not be any less than twenty million"
Jia Peng almost choked on his own saliva, "W-what? How much? Twenty million?"
Su Jinyu was also shocked, "Isn't twenty million too far out there? This is a mobile game!"
Wen Lingwei did some mental arithmetics, "If the game gets twenty million every month, that means you'll get over one million every month?!"
Everyone was shocked.
Twenty million! This may well double the monthly revenue of Guardian of the Holy Spring? Chen Mo must be inflating this number!
Chen Mo stood up and said, "When the revenue of the first month is released and if I'm not right, I'll reveal the meaning behind the numbers."
Su Jinyu asked, "Huh? What's the point of telling us if you get it wrong?"
Chen Mo laughed, "If I get it right that gives me more of a reason to not tell you!"
—
These numbers referred to a few statistics regarding I Am MT. "DAU", "LTV", and the others might seem alien, but they were just english acronyms.
DAU: Daily Active Users.
Almighty Video Game Designer #Chapter 71 - Read Almighty Video Game Designer Chapter 71 Online - All Page - Novel Next
Chapter 71: Chapter 70: Spreading Playerbase
As the days go by, the agreed date of a month from release inches closer and closer.
The sales of Guardian of the Holy Spring have noticeably slowed down, especially in the last two weeks, where the daily growth rate fell by 15%.
Qiu Bin was metally prepared for this as Guardian of the Holy Spring heavily depended on the support by the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform. It also took a lot of inspiration from Plants vs Zombies, which many players didn't find interesting anymore.
Even if the quality was improved, it would never come close to the success of Plants vs Zombies.
If both games never got any support from any distribution channels, would Guardian of the Holy Spring reach the number of sales that Plants vs Zombies achieved? Most likely not.
Guardian of the Holy Spring managed to nearly double the sales of Plants vs Zombies thanks to how well distributed the game was, and Qiu Bin was more than satisfied by that.
On the other hand, the downloads for I Am MT continues to sky-rocket, with hundreds of thousands of downloads every day.
This explosive growth made Qiu Bin worry.
"How can the game gain hundreds of thousands of downloads every day?" Qiu Bin was confused.
The assistant replied, "Well... It's a free game after all, and it doesn't reflect actual sales. Don't worry about it."
Qiu Bin shook his head, "But more players mean more paying players. At this speed, he would have more than three million players in the first month!"
The assistant didn't say anything in reply, as they didn't know how to explain this situation either. It would be slightly absurd if Chen Mo somehow managed three million players in the first month, as Guardian of the Holy Spring only had about eight hundred thousand, which means that I Am MT had about four times the players.
But I Am MT is a free to play game after all, this amount of downloads are reasonable right?
After some thought, the assistant said, "Don't worry too much about it sir, I think the downloads metric can totally be faked. His game is free after all, it wouldn't cost much to fake the number of downloads right?"
"Moreover, even if he did have three million players, and with a generous ten percent of them who are willing to pay in game. And if each of them pays twenty RMB, it would only result in a monthly income of six million, which is still a ways off what we have."
Qiu Bin nodded in agreement, not excluding the fact that Chen Mo could have hired someone to hype up his work.
"Let's not be rash and have a second look," said Qiu Bin as he reinstalled I Am MT onto his phone.
—
In the Subway.
Two boys were on their way to catch a train to school.
A boy who was wearing glasses yawned and brought out his phone, and started playing I Am MT on his phone.
The other boy asked, "What game is this?"
"I Am MT, never tried it?"
"Nope, isn't that an animated series? It also has a game?"
"Of course it does, it was recently released."
"Recently released? Is it fun?"
"Uhh, it's alright, not bad for killing time."
"How much is it?"
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"It's free."
"Free? Then how does it profit?"
"Uhh, by in app purchases. It really depends if you want to spend money on it."
"And is that a standalone game?"
"Nope, it's an online game. You can play together with friends. Why don't you download it and give it a try? It doesn't cost anything just to try it out."
"Sure, I'll do that when I get back."
"You can just download it now, it's less than 200M, so it's not going to use up much of your data cap."
"Sure, I'll download it and try it out."
—
In some random university dorm.
Four guys sharing the same dorm were on their beds playing I Am MT.
"Huh? Zhang Er did you change your team leader? Wasn't it MT before? Why did you change it to Nosuke Shinsuke?"
"This card is incredible! I got it from buying credits. It was super strong when I tried it out."
"Really? How strong is it?"
"It can carry and heal. If you bring her along, everything else you bring along just has to be fodder."
"Really? That's starting to sound good."
"You guys can try it out using the friendly aid function and see how well it works"
"Let's me try it out. Oh my, it really is good! It's better at carrying that MT? And its normal attacks lifesteal, that so strong!"
"Oh my, I'm forking out some money too!"
"... Calm down you guys!"
"Yeah, I saw another super strong card the other day, even stronger than this one."
"Who?"
"Elder Sister."
"Oh, that's The President's sister right? Is it strong?"
"Super strong... I could never hope to beat that level, but that guy with the Elder Sister carried me right through like was nothing."
"Really? How do you get Elder Sister then?"
"Not sure, let me check. Uhh, it seems like it's a gift from buying credits."
"How much?"
"Uhh, seems to be two thousand?"
"Two thousand runes? That's like two hundred RMB, that is quite pricey..."
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"No, it's two thousand RMB, twenty thousand runes..."
"..."
A short moment of silence followed.
"What the, what's the problem with this guy! Two thousand RMB for one card, are they crazy?"
"All I can say is that we'll never understand the world of the rich..."
"I don't have anyone in my friend's list that has an Elder Sister!"
"Of course, whales like these are few and far between..."
"Huh? My friend's friendly aid has an Elder Sister! I'll send him a friend request. I'll get them if I can't beat anything in the future."
"What? Their friend's list is already full!"
"...Whales are so popular!"
"I wish for a friend who has an Elder Sister!"
—
A random company, lunch time.
Two employees were playing I Am MT.
"What the! This guy I'm facing is a monster! They have an Elder Sister! I'm gonna be destroyed!"
"What can you do about that? They're rich..."
"This company doesn't even guarantee a level playing field! They just have their eyes set on money!"
"... I thought you knew that from the moment you started the game?"
"No! I must give it a bad review! I'm so mad that I'm still being bullied after paying over two hundred RMB!"
"... Is it that weird that you're being bullied by someone who's paid two thousand RMB when you've paid two hundred?"
"I don't care, I'm going to leave a bad review! What a garbage game for wasting my youth and my money!"
"If you're quitting, let me have your account."
"Who says I'm quitting! I spent more than two hundred RMB on this! Quit trying that to try and take my account!"
"Your imagination is quite good I see!"
—
The growth of I Am MT's player base showed no signs of slowing down.
It goes without mention that I Am MT's friend system was one of the most classic designs, comparable to the use of alliances in Clash of Kings whereby guildmates help each other by speeding up building.
And using the most classic design sometimes achieves the best result.
I Am MT had no way of including co-op because of the design of the combat system. However, I Am MT's friend system addresses this problem extraordinarily well.
After becoming friends, players will be able to help each other in combat. Although it wasn't much, it was enough to attract players to add others based on how strong they are.
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Chapter 72: Chapter 71 Whale Specific Card
The friendly aid feature achieved three different goals.
First, weaker players will be able to clear some levels that they can't clear themselves with the aid of stronger accounts. This presents itself as a stronger player carrying the weaker one, and in turn the weaker player will feel as though they weren't playing alone, making the game feel more social, and increasing the player retention of weaker players.
Second, stronger players with stronger cards achieve an advertising effect, showing everyone on their friends list how strong the card is, incentivising other players to spend money in game as well.
Third, the non-playing players will naturally flock to the stronger whales, flooding them with friend requests. This makes the stronger players feel a great sense of satisfaction, further encouraging them to spend more money.
These three points are key to the profitability and retention of I Am MT. And a simple "friendly aid" system allowed for the best possible result using the least amount of resources possible, without the need of any co-op mode, achieving the three aforementioned points.
Hyping up using the animated series, free downloads, as well as inviting friends allowed I Am MT's user base to spread far and wide into the circles of the younger population.
And the paying players will maintain at about ten percent.
—
Inside the experience store, Chen Mo was so bored that he yawned a few times.
The servers for I Am MT were rented, the customer service was outsourced as well, and the player feedback would be filtered back to the developer once in a while.
There virtually weren't any problems with bug fixes or server maintenance in the parallel world. Although many players will have questions regarding buying credits or have criticism with the gaming experience, they were usually handled by a customer experience team. All Chen Mo had to do was gather the opinions of the players and make changes to the game accordingly where he sees fit.
Everyone else within the experience store was playing I Am MT, surrounding Wen Lingwei asking questions about strategies on team composition.
Wen Lingwei had spent around three hundred RMB, and the others have also spent some money in game, some just ten, some slightly more at thirty.
"You currently have Shaman and Cannon Lady. You should probably focus more of your resources to level up Cannon Lady, and work toward Shaman's leader ability, then your Chain Lightnings will be really strong."
"Yep, you have many single target casters, and could probably do crazy burst damage to take out the enemies. You could add Thief or Rogue to your team, with the five fireball priests in a row, you could probably wipe out the enemy in an instant."
"Jia Peng... Oh, your cards are terrible, may as well make a new account."
Wen Lingwei gave each and everyone advice.
Su Jinyu came to Chen Mo's side and asked, "Why aren't you playing?"
Chen Mo said, "Oh, because I don't have any money."
Su Jinyu was speechless, "This game doesn't require money!"
Chen Mo said, "You wouldn't understand, it's free when it's the most pricey."
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Wen Lingwei walked over, "Please stop pretending you're poor, Mr. Stingy owner. You said it yourself that I Am MT was capable of raking in more than twenty million a month, which means you'd be getting ten million in your pocket this month!"
Chen Mo waved his hand, "That's when the end of the month comes, and that day is not today. Besides, I don't have much money left to spend on credits, as I've spent most of the money on the animations."
Wen Lingwei said, "Oh, then when you get your paycheck, be sure to get yourself to V12, that way we have someone to rely on."
Chen Mo said, "I have to use that money to develop better games, why would I waste it on things like these?"
Everyone was speechless.
"Do you believe the words that just came out of your mouth yourself? Obviously you just want to develop more pay to win games like these!" complained Wen Lingwei.
Chang Xiuya asked, "Manager, do you mind telling us if there are any V12s in the game?"
Su Jinyu was shocked, "No way right? V12 takes fifty thousand RMB, is it possible for someone to spend fifty thousand on the game already?"
Wen Lingwei also thought it was not possible, "Probably not, no matter whose money it is, it doesn't come easy. I think there would be V12 players in a month or two, because of how high the ceiling of this game is."
Chen Mo said, "Uhh, actually there's already some."
Su Jinyu was shocked, "Really?! Who?"
Chen Mo said, "There's actually twenty seven V12s, which one are you after?"
Everyone was stunned.
Jia Peng muttered, "I really don't understand the world of the rich."
Su Jinyu said, "I don't either."
Wen Lingwei said, "Quickly! Give me their account ID and I'll add them! I've been stuck on this level for so long, all I need is a max level Elder Sister to pass this!"
Meanwhile, someone walked through the door.
It was when Chen Mo realised, isn't that Zhao Zihao?
"Why have you made your way here?" Chen Mo was shocked.
Zhao Zihao was also shocked, "Oh my, why are there so many people? So many girls, too."
Chen Mo stood up and said, "Oh, let me introduce you to the assistant I was posting about before, Su Jinyu. And well, they are all players."
Chen Mo then pointed to Zhao Zihao, "One of my bros, Zhao Zihao. And uhh, an idiot."
Zhao Zihao greeted the others with a nod before sitting down.
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"By the way, Chen Mo. Could you take a look at this, which card should I pick out of these ones?" Zhao Zihao passed his phone over.
Chen Mo took a look at his phone and said, "Hmm? You're also playing I Am MT?"
Zhao Zihao said, "Yeah, I can't not play your game right? I've been busy before, so I wasn't playing when it was launched, so it's a fairly fresh account."
The others took a look, wow, V12.
What the, it's a whale!
Everyone was shocked when they looked further into what cards he had.
Elder Sister, Nosuke Shinsuke, Huntress, Cannon Lady, Winter... He pretty much had all of the rare cards, and even had duplicates for quite a few of them.
Wen Lingwei was speechless, "You're outrageous! All these cards are wasted on you!"
Zhao Zihao scratched his head, "Sigh, I've drawn a bunch of them and I haven't spent the time looking into them, it would've been better to come here for advice."
Jia Peng said, "Senior, give him some tips."
Wen Lingwei rolled her eyes, "Why would I embarrass myself in front of the owner?"
Chen Mo looked at Zhao Zihao's cards and asked, "What type of strategy are you going for?"
Zhao Zihao was shocked, "What type of strategy? Just give me the best one you have!"
Chen Mo said, "There isn't really a best strategy, all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. Whatever, since you have so many good cards, may as well go for the "Unmatched Pro" strategy."
Chen Mo explained as he put the strategy together.
"The Unmatched Pro strategy is like a love story, consisting of Elder Sister, Cannon Lady, Shinsuke, and Winter. These four characters provide a high amount of firepower and burst damage. It's a waste of an Elder Sister to not use this strategy.
"As your who you should bring as your fifth, because your leadership stat isn't high enough, you'll have to consider that later. You probably could consider Blood Elf Mage, Shaman or maybe Waning Moon. Depends if you're more conservative or more liberal.[1]"
Jia Peng had his hand on his forehead, "There are all free gifts. The team of a real whale!"
Zhao Zihao nodded, "Sure, I'll play with this strategy for now. I'll level up these cards at the meanwhile too."
Wen Lingwei scowled, "Why do you say that this strategy is' the best? How could the four most overpowered cards on the same team not be the best strategy?"
Chen Mo said, "There isn't a best strategy, the cards have strengths and weaknesses."
Chan Xiuya asked, "Well, could you recommend a more approachable strategy?"
Wen Lingwei nodded, "Yeah, it'd be better if it could destroy the "Unmatched Pro" strategy."
Chen Mo was speechless, "Why would I let you peasants bully a whale? Will I be making money then?"
TL note[1] In playstyle, not politically
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Chapter 73: Chapter 72: Fifth Best Selling?
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chang Xiuya urged, "Don't worry, just slightly buff the cheaper more common cards."
Chen Mo said, "Sure, then you guys should try this out: MT, Shaman, Blood Elf Mage, Nosuke Shinsuke, and Druid. This is called the "Crow Team" strategy."
Chang Xiuya said, "Uhh, Nosuke Shinsuke costs quite a bit..."
Chen Mo said, "Uhh how about the Pocket Rocket strategy? Barrel Bull, Priest, Thief, Warlock, and the Five Fireball Priests. These should be easier to obtain."
Chang Xiuya paid extra attention to that, ready to collect the required cards.
In truth, Chen Mo had built up all the balancing numbers from ground up, and was completely different from the version in the previous world. This meant that the strategies would play differently in this world.
However, Chen Mo still referenced a few more classical strategies and made balance changes according to how easy they were to obtain.
Wen Lingwei said, "Is there really a strategy that could beat the "Unmatched Pro" strategy? I was using that exact strategy during the testing phase and it felt unbeatable!"
Chen Mo said, "I can't tell you if there is one, otherwise the whales would stop paying after being beaten."
Wen Lingwei replied, "All I need is a hint! How about this, if you give me a hint, I'll spend the money to buy the Elder Sister, how's that!"
Su Jinyu said, "I feel that two thousand RMB isn't enough to bribe the manager..."
Chen Mo said solemnly, "Of course, trying to bribe me with two thousand RMB. I won't leak how you could use the Fallen Goose and the President to instantly wipe out your enemies!"
Everyone was speechless.
It's too easy to bribe you Mr. Manager!
Wen Lingwei stood up, "Alright, I'm gonna test that out!"
Chen Mo could help but laugh. The hint he gave actually works, and strategies that did huge burst damage did have a chance of beating the "Unmatched Pro" strategy, but that would still depend on what level your cards were!
The strategy of using the Fallen Goose and the President, was just the "Elder's Help" strategy, which is a combination of Fallen Goose, The President, Waning Moon, and Winter.
However, something that Chen Mo didn't mention was that in order for this strategy to beat whales, there must be two max levels Fallen Goose.
The two Fallen Gooses would be placed in the same row, their thief ability was single target rupture, making the targets take more damage from warriors. When The President's Whirlwind as well as Winter's healing reduction, they could deal huge damage to the enemy's Elder Sister, making it a four on five in the first round.
Moreover, this strategy also required a decent amount of money. Otherwise, with the lack of firepower, they would still be destroyed by the whales.
Chen Mo believed that Wen Lingwei would be able to reach this strategy eventually.
—
It was now just a few days from the end of the first month, and Qiu Bin had his eyes locked onto the ratings of I Am MT.
Currently, I Am MT's rating was just 7.1, and the number of one star ratings were now much higher.
"Garbage game wasting my money!"
"I've never drawn a good card! NEVER!"
"You can't beat anyone if you don't spend money! I thought you said this was a free game!"
"From fan now hater!"
"How could you make a game like this? Don't you feel shame?!"
Qiu Bin was puzzled as he looked through the one star reviews.
What does this mean? It feels like most of these people have spent a lot of money in game? And still weren't satisfied?
Wasn't this a free game? Moreover, the game was practically handing out money, and they still felt the urge to take out money from their pockets?
Qiu Bin was confused.
All of a sudden, the assistant barged through the door, "Oh no! Oh No! You must take a look at the best seller leaderboard!"
Qiu Bin was shocked, "What's wrong with the leaderboard?"
He took out his phone and looked at the best seller leaderboard of the official app store, and was completely shocked.
The fifth place of the best selling leaderboard was held by I Am MT!
Qiu Bin rubbed his eyes in and double confirmed it in disbelief. I Am MT!
That's ridiculous!
"It can't be, something must be wrong! How could it reach the top ten in a month! That's impossible!" Qiu Bin was so shocked he started blathering.
Qiu Bin didn't pay attention to the best selling leaderboard for a long while, as he believed that Guardian of the Holy Spring and I Am MT stood no chance at that leaderboard.
Entering the best selling leaderboard of the official appstore was a difficult task. The games that manage to enter the top ten had to be extremely popular social phenomena. All of those were classic, evergreen games that would break millions in sales every month!
Although Guardian of the Holy Spring did make a decent amount of money, most of it didn't come from the official app store, but from the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, which is why it stood no chance on the official app store best selling leaderboard.
Qiu Bin didn't think that I Am MT had any capability to get into the best selling leaderboard, and never paid any attention to it.
But now, not only did I Am MT enter the best selling leaderboard, it managed to reach fifth place!
Qiu Bin looked at the games in fourth and sixth place, and they were two classic games from Zen Entertainment, both at ten RMB, selling 1.5 to 2 million copies each month.
That means that I Am MT's revenue for the first month was close to twenty million!
Qiu Bin still couldn't believe it, but it was clearly the case. As it was impossible to cheat the system of the official app store, especially the number of sales. He didn't believe that Chen Mo had enough power to get the official appstore to do such a thing.
Therefore, the only explanation was that the monthly income for I Am MT was more than twenty million!
"How? Why?"
Qiu bin looked at the 7.1 rating of I Am MT, completely speechless.
—
Qiu Bin wasn't the only one shocked, everyone in the industry, video game media, as well as the people following the whole predicament was also shocked.
Ever since I Am MT showed up on the best selling leaderboard, its growth had grown even more, and eventually got to fifth place and maintained that position solidly at the end of the month, when the bet was due!
There was no need for Chen Mo to publish his earnings, most could guess how much I Am MT was making based on the other games on that leaderboard.
Twenty million!
What caused even more head scratches was the fact that the rating for I Am MT always hovered around 7.1 to 7.3, and was as low as seven at its worst.
On the other hand, other games that were in the top ten of the best selling leaderboard were above 8.5, and some of them were above 9.2!
A rating of 7 would usually point to a terrible game, but I Am MT somehow manages to sit comfortably at the top five of that leaderboard, and the number of downloads kept climbing!
Many video game designers and video game media felt that this was completely abnormal and have never seen a game with such terrible reviews making so much money.
Many thought that Guardian of the Holy Spring had no chance of losing after looking at what it managed to achieve, and these people didn't believe that Chen Mo could make a game that would double the monthly income of Plants vs Zombies.
And when Chen Mo got to making the animations, even fewer of them thought it would end up well.
And when I Am MT reached the top five of the leaderboard, everyone's socks were blown off.
What's this?
What's going on?
Did I miss something?
I thought this game would be a complete flop, how did it do the complete opposite? And manage to completely destroy Guardian of the Holy Spring?
This makes no sense!!
Chapter 74: Chapter 73: Admitting Defeat
After I Am MT solidified its position on the app store's fifth best seller, nobody could deny that this "free to play" game was very profitable.
It was even more profitable than most highly priced games that sell many copies!
Hard surprised, half baffled.
Many designers couldn't comprehend how this low quality game that's only one hundred something megabytes, average rating could do so well. Even when taking into account the hyping from the animated series, there was no way that would be enough to go toe to toe with a massive distribution platform of Emperor Dynasty gaming platform!
However, I Am MT managed to destroy Guardian of the Holy Spring by nearly two times.
Video game designers that swept I Am MT under the rug have now begun looking into how the game came to become successful.
The video game media are once again working overtime thanks to Chen Mo.
At the end of the month, and the date where the bet is due.
Guardian of the Holy Spring sold eight hundred and ninety thousand copies, 8.9 million in profit. On the other side of the ring, Chen Mo had also released his earnings of twenty three million!
It was beaten by almost three times!
Soon thereafter, the articles of various gaming media were slowly being released.
The bet comes to a conclusion: Chen Mo trumps Emperor Dynasty Entertainment!
I Am MT brings in more than 23 million in the first month, solidifies its position as fifth best selling!
Revealing I Am MT's method of profit, the secret of free to play games
Whales dumping tons of money in this game
Two thousand RMB for one card? That's right, it's a free game
Losing with Emperor Dynasty gaming platform being your back! How did the Guardian of the Holy Spring lose?
Qiu Bin remains silent, can he fill the end of his bet?
Chen Mo's Weibo under fire, remaining silent from gamers' questions
An "unfair" game?
Pop science: How much money can I Am MT bring its creator?
Professionals discuss: A game that brings happiness through in app purchases isn't a good game!
—
There were many different articles representing different views. The spread in views were basically identical as the reviews, a close to even split between positive and negative. Some were surprised at the downloads and revenue I Am MT brought in, and others posed questions regarding how the game brings in revenue.
This result wasn't anything special in Chen Mo's previous world. The original I Am MT raked in fifty five million each month, not to mention two hundred million Soul Hunters managed, as well as the three billion Honors of Kings managed.
However, this wasn't the case in the parallel world. Mobile games primarily profited from sales, and if one wanted to make more than twenty million in monthly revenue, they would need to sell two million copies. Even if the game was twenty RMB a pop, they would still need to sell one million copies.
Easier said than done to sell that many copies!
Therefore, after I Am MT solidified its position as the fifth best selling, many video game media were shocked at this method of profiting, being able to get into the top five best selling games within a month, not to mention with a terrible score of around seven. This was good enough to go down into history!
Being able to earn all that money while being under fire by the fans was a unique phenomena in it of itself!
While the popularity of I Am MT continues to grow, Chen Mo was now a familiar name to more and more people.
Plants vs Zombies was also very popular, and was very high quality with very good reviews, but unfortunately it wasn't "classic". It was still a game that managed a huge amount of sales with a unique and creative idea, but to the people of this world, it was a ways away from how shocking I Am MT was.
Free game.
Unfair, pay to win.
Raking in money while under fire from the fans.
These three characteristics of I Am MT were enough to differentiate itself, drawing the attention of many players and industry professionals to look deeper into its success.
—
Many have been expecting them to go at each other's throats, but it was the complete opposite.
After I Am MT's monthly income was released, Qiu Bin released a simple Weibo post: "I admit defeat".
Chen Mo also released a Weibo.
"Thanks for all the love you guys have given. Please calm down with sending me razors, I understand that your wishes are to shave more often to maintain my handsome looks, but I'm running out of space in my experience store.
The players were furious upon seeing someone so shameless! Is that for shaving your beard?
"I've never seen such a shameless video game designer!"
"Where's the experience store! I'm bringing a knife there!"
"Please like everytime I get a purple card."
"Please update! When is season three coming out!!"
"Why not use this time you're spending on Weibo to update the World of Azeroth!"
"Garbage game wasting my time and money. Refunds please!"
"Add me if you play MT, my ID is XXXXX ..."
There were many different comments, but most of them were "wishes" from "extremely friendly fans".
What was surprising was that there were no arguments between Chen Mo and Qiu Bin. Chen Mo didn't rub it in, nor did Qiu Bin try and wiggle his way out. The both of them just went on with their lives.
The fans that bought snacks and drinks, ready for some drama were extremely unsatisfied.
They thought that there would be drama, but just as I'm getting ready you tell me it's over?
However, as both parties have backed off, there was nothing to be unsatisfied of. No matter how hard they tried, the fans were unable to start anything, leading them to leave it as it was.
What the people waiting for a show didn't know was that something dark was creeping about in the video game industry.
—
Emperor Dynasty Entertainment headquarters.
Qiu Bin handed over his resignation better with both hands onto the desk of Lin Chaoxu.
Lin Chaoxu lifted his head and saw Qiu Bin, and pushed the letter away, back towards him.
Qiu Bin was shocked, "Mr. Lin..."
Lin Chaoxu said, "It's just a promotional space, he can have it."
Qiu Bin was embarrassed, "Sorry, Mr Lin, I..."
Lin Chaoxu waved dismissively, suggesting that there was no need for him to continue.
"This matter wasn't all bad. At least you've revealed a new threat to the company."
Lin Chaoxu stood up and walked to the window in his office, and said as he looked out at the view, "If it wasn't for this, it would've taken us six months to a year to realise the huge potential that Chen Mo possesses. Knowledge of this a year in advance in exchange for a promotional space was worth it."
Qiu Bin could finally relax. He thought that Lin Chaoxu was about to go off at him, and even had his resignation letter ready. Turns out, Lin Choaxu wasn't even mad.
Indeed, someone who was able to build Emperor Dynasty Entertainment had better foresight and forbearance than the average Joe.
Lin Chaoxu said, "Don't worry about the promotional space, I'll send someone over to Chen Mo and discuss the details."
Qiu Bin lowered his head, "Alright."
Liu Chaoxu walked in front of Qiu Bin, "However, there's still something I need you to do."
Qiu Bin asked, "What's that?"
Lin Chaoxu said sternly, "Copy I Am MT and make a reskinned version of it."
Qiu Bin was shocked, "Again?"
Lin Chaoxu nodded, "Yes. If you're worried about the pressure from the fans, you can publish it under some C-grade video game designer. But the game must be done under your supervision. I hope it's playstyle can fully mimic I Am MT."
Qiu Bin replied after a pause, nodding, "Yes, I understand."
Qiu Bin picked up the resignation letter from the desk before leaving Lin Chaoxu's office.
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Chapter 75: Chapter 74: Emperor Dynasty Entertainment Internal Meetings
Lin Chaoxu got back to his seat and placed his phone with I Am MT running on the table
A V12 account.
The friend notifications tab lit up again, Lin Chaoxu opened the friends tab to see yet another friend request. He would receive a huge amount of friend requests every single day. Although Lin Chaoxu deletes low rank friends every day, he was still struggling to deal with the amount of friend requests he was getting.
Lin Chaoxu tapped lightly tapped the phone screen, seemingly deep in thought.
Suddenly, someone was at his door.
"Come in," said Lin Chaoxu.
A man in his twenties walked through the door. He was dressed quite casually, with messy hair that looked quite unkempt.
The man sat on the sofa in the office and opened a bottle of soda, without a hint of care.
Lin Chaoxu laughed, "You came?"
The man seemingly unsatisfied, put his legs onto the coffee table in front of him, "Do you need to call all three of us here for a meeting, just because some C-grade videogame designer made a mobile game?"
Lin Chaoxu didn't mind his move, laughing in reply, "He isn't just some C-grade video game designer, the game isn't just a mobile game either."
Lin Chaoxu walked over to the man and handed his phone to him, "This game was only on the official app store, bringing in more than twenty million a month. And judging from the downloads, it would bring in even more profit next month."
The man scowled, "Twenty million?"
Lin Chaoxu nodded, "That's right, and the game is also free to play. All its profits come from in-app purchases."
The man finally gained some interest in the matter, taking the phone into his hands to give the game a try.
The man was visibly confused the whole time, evidently I Am MT's combat system and artstyle was an eyesore.
After giving the combat system a quick look, he went onto the VIP system and awards, as well as the friends on Lin Chaoxu's account.
The man thought in silence for a bit, "Sure, even though I feel that your thoughts as a designer are outdated, but I will recognise that your planning skills have always been excellent. If you think this game has potential, get someone to do it."
Lin Chaoxu laughed, "You three have been working on VR games for so long, and have overlooked mobile games this entire time."
The man handed the phone back to Lin Chaoxu, "Don't expect me to do this kind of dirty work."
Lin Chaoxu nodded, "I've alright assigned this to Qiu Bin, we should see the results in two months."
The man nodded in response, "Alright."
Lin Chaoxu asked, "What are your thoughts on 'World of Azeroth', have you seen it?"
The man nodded, "Yeah. I think Chen Mo has more plans for that. There's more content in it than your normal mobile game and animation."
Lin Chaoxu said, "Yep, it's good that you noticed. What do you think about it?"
The man shook his head, "It's useless, we can't copy it. Don't even think about it."
Lin Chaoxu laughed, "Don't be so quick to make that decision. Discuss this with the others. Also, you three will have to host the coming meeting. I won't make it."
The man lifted his eyebrow, "Why?"
Lin Chaoxu laughed, "It's now the time for young people like you guys to shine. As for me, I'll still make some calls when the time comes, but I'm struggling to keep up with how the young people think. Me going will just limit your ideas."
The man stood up, "Alright, I understand. Don't worry about it too much. 'Genius designers' like these appear once every so often, it's barely worth mentioning."
Lin Chaoxu laughed, "Of course."
The man left Lin Chaoxu's office to the meeting room on the same floor.
The man is named Qin Xiao, one of the three S-grade video game designers who is most trusted by Lin Chaoxu within Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
The video game designers working under Emperor Dynasty Entertainment usually spend most of their time in their experience store, and usually aren't at Emperor Dynasty Entertainment HQ, except under special circumstances such as work reports or important meetings despite belonging to the Emperor Dynasty Entertainment entity.
And this meeting was proposed by Lin Chaoxu, hoping that the three S-grade video game designers can band together with a few A-grade video game designers to delve deeper into I Am MT, as well as the fictional world of Azeroth.
Afterall, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment came out from this with a loss, there was no way they would give up this opportunity to learn something from it.
As Qin Xiao walked into the meeting room, most of the others had already arrived.
Of the three key seats in the meeting room, the left belonged to Qin Xiao, the middle one was occupied by a man in their thirties, the right seat was a beautiful woman aged about twenty-seven.
Yan Zhenyuan, Qiu Jiang.
The three of them were S-grade video game designers working under Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, and would meet only a few times in a year, only during special occasions like these.
The meeting room table was surrounded by ten or so A-grade designer, all sitting tight in their seats.
Qiu Xiao leaned his seat backwards and spun around, finally setting his feet on the meeting room table, "Alright, let's start. Lin Chaoxu can't make it."
Yan Zhenyuan was quite bothered by that, "He's not coming again? That old man is always pushing these matters to us three."
Qiu Jiang put out the feminine cigarette[1] in an ashtray, "It wasn't the first time he's done that. You guys go ahead, I won't be participating."
Yan Zhenyuan felt a headache as he looked at Qin Xiao to his left who was on his phone, and Qiu Jiang to the right who was redoing her makeup.
"Alright, let's start."
Yan Zhenyuan ordered the report material on the table that was prepared by the assistant, filled with analysis of I Am MT the animation, the game, as well as some of the content for the World of Azeroth.
"This meeting is quite simple, we are just discussing three problems."
"First, can the success of the mobile game I Am MT be replicated.
"Second, why is Chen Mo doing 'The World of Azeroth', why would he spend so much effort developing the world of I Am MT?
"Third, can we discover something useful from this.
"First question, Mr. Lin had already sent someone to address that, and I also think that I Am MT's model can be replicated, so not much else to discuss there.
"The main topic of today are the two questions after that, and are also the things we don't have a clear idea of, regarding 'World of Azeroth'
"Alright, please voice your thoughts.
As Yan Zhenyuan finished speaking, he looked at the other A-grade video game designers.
The A-grade video game designer looked at one another. They have made some preparations, but there was still some pressure speaking in front of these three S-grade video game designers.
Finally a videogame designer in their thirty cleared their throats and said, "I'll start."
Yan Zhenyuan nodded, suggesting that they should go on.
This videogame designer was named Tang Dagang, and was an older videogame designer within Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, but his thoughts were falling behind, and haven't had any spectacular works. He was also one of the 'dirty work' video game designers.
Tang Dagang said, "I think Chen Mo made 'World of Azeroth' with two aims in mind, one being a gimmick for I Am MT. The other is that he's being greedy and wants to turn it into an IP, preparing for his future games.
Yan Zhenyuan nodded, "Sure, could you go into more detail?"
TL note: [1] Apparently that's a thing, cigarette targeted at women, citing milder flavour with pink packaging. Search 女士烟 in Google images.
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Chapter 76: Chapter 75 Copy or Not to Copy?
Tang Dagang said "Alright, I'll provide more detail. Obviously I Am MT is an original series, but by itself, it doesn't generate enough hype to bring players into the game. Moreover, the lifetime of the series is limited, and cannot fully convey the setting of the world.
"Therefore, Chen Mo released 'World of Azeroth' as a supplement for the animation, in order to give the mobile game something to latch onto, as well as giving everyone an easier time of understanding some content within the animations.
"As for me saying that Chen Mo has more plans for it, the reasoning behind that is simple. It's because I think that he already had plans for his next moves when he was taking the bet! If he took the bet out of impulse, why would he be so cool headed after welling? This obviously means that he already planned something out from the start, and all he wanted was the promotional spot. Qiu Bin obviously walked straight into his trap!
"Since Chen Mo's desires are so strong, his plans are entirely obvious. The world of Azeroth is expansive and complete, even down to the last rune. This obviously means that Chen Mo wants to turn this world into a massive game.
"And there's no way it would attract that many players on initial release, which is why he's trying to hype it up early, and work towards representing the world step by step, until when he thinks the players' interest in the world peaks while having sufficient capabilities, he'll release the game in mention!"
Yan Zhenyuan nodded, "Yep, makes sense."
Qin Xiao who had their eyes on their phone the entire time said, "So? What do you have in mind?"
Tang Dagang was a bit hysterical, and completely missed the sarcasm in Qin Xiao's eyes, "So I think that it's good news for us! Chen Mo's only a C-grade videogame designer now, and there's no way for him to create a massive game like that. Therefore, we must send someone..."
Qin Xiao waved his hand, "Alright, we're all allies here, you don't need to hide it. You want to copy Azeroth right?"
Tang Dagang felt attacked by that sentence, replying after a few moments with a nod, "Yes."
Qin Xiao got his feet off the table, starting at Tang Dagang, "Let me ask you this: How can we copy? The entire world of Azeroth was made by Chen Mo. We are a large company, if we really do pull something like that, and based on the current intellectual property rights, we'd be paying huge sums in lawsuits!"
Tang Dagang tried to fight back, "Of course i know that, but we don't have to make a carbon copy. We'll just change some bits and it should be fine."
Qiu Xiao replied, "How can we change some bits? The playstyle of games can be copied like that, but how can we do that for an entire fantasy world and its story? In this day and age, fans get super aggressive if the stories are in any way slightly similar, and previously there was a well known author who nearly went bankrupt from a lawsuit. What's the difference between you copying the world and then copying a book? Do you think lawyers and judges are stupid?"
Tang Dagang refused to back down, "We have so many writers in Emperor Dynasty, with so many designers who excel in screenwriting, making some modifications in the world can't be impossible right?"
Qiu Xiao was speechless, "How much do we need to change? If we don't change enough, it'll be easy to tell, then what's the point? Aren't we digging our own graves? If we changed a lot, aren't we just writing from scratch? If we're putting that effort in, why should we copy others? Can't we just write a western fantasy world from scratch?"
Tang Dagang was shocked, trying hard to find a rebuttal.
Qin Xiao continued, "Moreover, don't we all know the potential of western fantasy within China? Hmm? There was this game released last year using the overseas IP called 'Heavenly Ring', and ended up a complete failure which still hasn't cooled off yet. Have you guys forgotten that already?"
Tang Dagang said, "Alright, even if we exclude the idea of western fantasy, there are many mechanics that we can reference from the world of Azeroth, such as running back to the corpse, using runes to teleport, pop-up achievements, and so on."
Qiu Xiao rolled his eyes and hit the table as he couldn't take it anymore, "Can you use your brain before making suggestions like these?
"First, your design suggestions are all exclusive to western fantasy worlds, if it's not a western fantasy world, do these mechanics make sense?
"Second, even if we tacked these on, then what? Can we make a massive game just based on these mechanics?"
Tang Dagang was completely overwhelmed by these questions. Still unwilling to back down, he replied after a few moments of thinking, "But, if this thing has no future, why would Chen Mo spend so much effort..."
Qiu Xiao said, "That's Chen Mo. Chen Mo has the entire design of Azeroth thought out, the intellectual property belongs to him. What do we have? Hmm? To us, the world of Azeroth seems really good, but we can't use that.
"How about this, if you can give me a world idea that is comparable to Azeroth, I'll make a VR for it right now. Do you have one?"
Tang Dagang argued, "We... We can base it on the World of Azeroth and make modifications!"
Qin Xiao predicted the question, "Can something that has been modified be the same as the original? Do you think that after modifications, it'll be better than Heavenly Ring?"
Tang Dagang was speechless.
After noticing that Tang Dagang had nothing to add, Yan Zhenyuan decided to mediate the situation, "Alright, we all have our own views, and sometimes we get a bit too excited, let's not take any of this personally."
Tang Dagang had nothing to say. He wouldn't dare take it personally, Qin Xiao was an S-grade videogame designer afterall, someone who his own boss would give special exceptions to, how dare he have anything else in mind?
However, Tang Dagang was still unsatisfied, why can't they copy? Why could they copy I Am MT, but not Azeroth? One's a game, and the other is just a large scale show!
Yan Zhenyuan looked at Qiu Jiang who had been quiet this whole time, "What do you think?"
Qiu Jiang glanched back, "Are you pretending? You can only copy the playstyle, but not the story, Qiu Xiao had made that abundantly clear. Is there anyone who still doesn't understand that?
"Chen Mo is indeed able to make a bunch of significant characters, but there's no way the characters he has now will be able to support a large scale game. From what I can tell, he's still saving the good stuff. Everything he has released so far is either too dangerous to copy or completely useless."
Yan Zhenyuan felt helpless. He thought that Qiu Jiang would say something to mediate the situation, but what she said was more blunt than Qin Xiao.
Yang Zhenyuan let out another sigh, "I think... It can't be that simple right? Tang Dagang, you're a A-grade video game designer. If you're really interested in your idea, you should make a PC game. And if it has potential, request to make a VR game with Mr. Lin."
Tang Dagang happily nodded, "Alright, I'll make sure to do a good job!"
Yan Zhenyuan said, "We can't budget too much financially and in terms of resources, so just make it as per RPGs[1]."
Tang Dagang nodded, "Sure, no problem!"
Yan Zhenyuan looked at the others, "Does anyone else have any other ideas?"
The other video game designers voiced their opinions, but were unable to reach anything decisive.
At the end, they weren't able to reach a unanimous decision, but many of the designers agreed with Qiu Xiao that the world of Azeroth was a good idea, but nothing can be used.
However, just in case, Yan Zhenyuan didn't exclude any possibility, assigning Tang Dagang as head to make a game that mimics the world of Azeroth just to test the waters.
If it turns out well, a VR game might be considered.
Qin Xiao couldn't help but mutter, "Waste of time."
TL note: [1] Role-playing games
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Chapter 77: Chapter 76: "Love" From the Fans
Of course Chen Mo didn't know what happened within Emperor Dynasty Entertainment. Even if he knew, he wouldn't pay too much attention to it, as he had bigger fish to try.
–In the experience store–
Chen Mo walked into the experience store wearing sunglasses and a mask, only relaxing after making sure there wasn't anyone following.
Su Jinyu was disdained, "Manager, do you really have to do this?"
Chen Mo took off his sunglasses and mask, and grabbed a can of drink from the fridge, "Geez, what do you mean if I have to do this. I'm just worried about my safety."
Wen Lingwei said while playing I Am MT, "Alright, you think you're someone famous now?"
Chen Mo replied, "What do you mean I'm famous. I'm basically a public enemy."
Chan Xiuya laughed, "Manager, stop being a drama queen. You're a videogame designer, there can't be that many people thinking about you every day."
Chen Mo said, "I don't want to hear that. I Am MT has nearly three million players, my Weibo now has more than two hundred thousand followers. I'm at least a little bit famous by any metric right?"
Wen Lingwei facepalmed, "You still think you're famous?"
Chen Mo said, "What do you mean, think. I am famous. Just look at my Weibo, there are hundreds of people tagging me expressing their love towards me."
Wen Lingwei had a "you're kidding me" expression on her face, "Those are the ones asking for your address to send razor blades!"
Chen Mo said, "These players can't help but send me gifts, if that isn't love, what is it?"
Wen Lingwei was shocked, but three seconds later, she decided to ignore this shameless person and continued grinding in game."
Su Jinyu said, "By the way, manager, some did send you a razor blade. I placed it at your bedside table."
Chen Mo was shocked, "What! And you put it by my bed? Take it away, and give it to the garbage collectors."
Su Jinyu said, "No kidding, if we gather up all these razor blades we could probably get a few ice-creams worth of money."
Chen Mo said, "That's why I'm taking extra precautions for my own safety. What if I get ganked by a bunch of my fans?"
Su Jinyu shocked, "Ganked? What's that?"
Chen Mo was also shocked, and replied, "Oh that's a word in my dialect. It has a similar meaning to 'caught'."
Jia Peng said, "But I Am MT is quite popular right now, I saw five other people playing when I was on the train yesterday."
Chang Xiuya saidm "There are also many other students playing in school."
Wen Lingwei said, "Just take a look at the Weibo and see how many others are flaming the manager to get a sense of how popular the game is."
Jia Peng said, "That trending topic is quite funny, something along the lines of 'Refund my hard-earned money Chen Mo'"
Chang Xiuya snicked, "Yeah, there aren't many other video game designers who have a trending topic flaming them."
Chen Mo let out another sigh, "I haven't been on Weibo for a few days now. Everytime I log in I get greeted with so many messages, all of them tagging me or are comments on my Weibo, I can't go through it at all."
Jia Peng said, "And you're not happy? There are so many video game designers who dream of having the popularity you have."
Su Jinyu shook her head, "I think the manager doesn't wish to be popular like this. If it were me, I hope that I'd be trending because of love from the fans. To be honest I still think the game is weird, although the manager did prove that it's quite profitable."
Chen Mo said, "You're thinking too deep into it. I don't care about all this attention, all that matters is making money. The best would be making money without any attention."
"...We overestimated your morality!"
Su Jinyu asked, "By the way, what's the next game going to be? I'm going to quit if you make another I Am MT."
"Yeah, I think that the animation is worth pursuing, but you should probably avoid games like these," added Jia Peng.
Wen Lingwei said, "Someone as unlucky as you doesn't fair well with games like these after all."
Jia Peng was speechless.
Chen Mo waved his hand, "The next game won't be like this. I need some time to recover. I'll die young if I keep making these types of games."
Wen Lingwei said, "Huh? I couldn't tell that you'd be superstitious?"
Chen Mo sighed, "I'm not superstitious. If I make another game like this and angered a few unlucky people, and they send someone after me, aren't I going to die young?"
Wen Lingwei was speechless, "Of course you'd think that way!"
Su Jinyu asked, "So what are you planning?"
Chen Mo said, "Oh, I'm taking a week off."
Everyone was shocked.
Chen Mo was surprised by the reaction, "What's wrong. I just made a game that brings in twenty million RMB every month. Isn't it normal and reasonable to take a week off?"
Weng Lingwei said, "You're not working hard enough!"
Su Jinyu added, "No aspirations!"
Jia Peng also added, "Stop bein
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Chapter 78: Chapter 77: Who Said I'm Promoting MT?
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Although he might have told a tall tale, Chen Mo didn't plan to honour that.
His daily routine consisted of playing I Am MT, looking at player reviews, watching movies or catching up on drama.
There were comments from haters on his Weibo everyday, but he disregarded them.
Living the life of a salted fish with no aspirations.
What disappointed him the most was the fact that he spent money to get himself to V12 to do whatever he wanted in game.
Su Jinyu was speechless, "Manager, can't you just give yourself the credits? Why did you spend actual money on that?"
Chen Mo shook his head, "You wouldn't understand. If I gave myself the credits, I'd be cheating myself. But if I pay for it, I'm a player. It's difficult to explain."
Su Jinyu facepalmed, "I don't understand why you're being so stubborn. Aren't you taking out money from your left pocket and putting it in your right..."
Chen Mo replied, "You wouldn't understand."
Su Jinyu was speechless.
Jia Peng was checking out the official appstore on his phone, "Manager, there's now three games that are based on Plants vs Zombies this month. You really plan on doing nothing?"
Wen Lingwei was speechless, "What? His new game is already live, why are there people out there still copying Plants vs Zombies?"
Su Jinyu said, "It's because Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's Guardian of the Holy Spring generated another hype wave."
Chen Mo gave it a quick look, "Oh, are there any large companies?"
Jia Peng shook his head, "Nope, just some small ones."
Chen Mo replied, "Oh, then it doesn't matter."
"Why do you care about Emperor Dynasty Entertainment but not these ones?" asked Jia Peng.
Chen Mo replied, "What promotional spaces can these companies offer me in return? Arguing with them is just a waste of my time."
Jia Peng was speechless, "Huh? The whole fiasco with Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was just for a promotional space?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yeah, why would I go through all that if it weren't for the promotional space?"
Jia Peng had nothing to say.
Chen Mo reassured, "Don't worry, just keep your eyes on it. Let me know if you discover a company such as Zen Entertainment copying Plants vs Zombies, and I'll head straight to Weibo for extortion. Promotional spaces is something I can't have enough of."
"...Manager, I've once again overestimated your morality," replied Jia Peng.
Chen Mo replied with a smile, "Don't worry, you'll get used to it."
Su Jinyu said, "Give it up, manager. All the chairmen and CEOs have an eye on you on Weibo, would anyone still dare have a bet with you."
Chen Mo sighed, "All of these guys are more wary than the last, making my trapping efforts so troublesome."
Wen Lingwei laughed, "You just destroyed Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, along with a promotional space for a month. You're still trying to use this trick on other companies? You must be dreaming! The CEOs of the other comapnies aren't stupid."
Chen Mo let out another sigh, "How unfortunate to have no one willing to go against me. Being the best sure is lonely."
"Alright, you're now known in the industry as someone who's willing to hustle Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, it's no surprise nobody is willing to chance getting into a scuffle with you," replied Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo said, "That can't be. Let me try."
Chen Mo logged into Weibo on his account, and randomly got to Liu Yuanfeng, the chairman of Zen Entertainment's Weibo account, commenting: "You interested in a bet?"
It didn't take long before Liu Yuanfeng replied with three hand waving emojis.
Chen Mo then reached out to the chairman of Fantasy Gaming Platform, Ding Xing, "You interested in a bet?"
It didn't take long for Ding Xing to reply either, "We have no beef, please let us be!"
Chen Mo then got to the Weibo of chairman of , Qiu Hengyang, "How about we make a bet, old Qiu."
Qiu Hengyang replied, "What the! I'm your ally!"
Chen Mo went through a list of chairmen of different companies big and small, not one of them were willing to make a bet.
Chen Mo sighed, "Why are they so careful? I'm just trying to get a promotional spot or two. Sigh, human emotions are difficult."
Su Jinyu and Wen Lingwei were completely shocked. How should there be someone so shameless? Did you think it was easy profiting from promotional spaces?
"I was planning to get a few more promotional spaces. Whatever, I guess it just wasn't meant to be. This one I got from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment is quite big anyways, able to bring in many players," Chen Mo muttered.
Su Jinyu said, "Yeah, stop being so greedy. Do you know how many video game designers have turned themselves inside out to try and get promotional spaces and failing to do so? This is a promotional spot that only the A and S-grade videogame designers in Emperor Dynasty Entertainment have access to!"
Wen Lingwei said, "By the way, isn't it kind of a waste to use it to advertise I Am MT... That space is usually reserved for huge VR games."
Jia Peng added, "But in doing that, the manager rakes in so much more money. I'm so jealous..."
As they were chattering along, Chen Mo's phone went off.
Chen Mo took a glance and picked up the phone as he saw an unrecognised number, "Hello?"
A man replied, "Greetings. Is this the chairman of Thunderbolt Entertainment Mr. Chen Mo?"
Chen Mo cleared his throat, "Yep, it is I."
The person on the phone was speechless.
After two seconds of silence, the person on the call replied, "I am a representative of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's advertising department, Xu Xiaojun. I'm calling regarding the promotional spot."
"Yep, that's great," replied Chen Mo.
Xu Xiaojun said, "So Mr. Lin has already ordered that the 'This month's recommended' spot in the front page of the Emperor Dynasty gaming platform will be available to you at any time. We'll advertise I Am MT for a month, anytime you want."
Chen Mo nodded, "I appreciate your work efficiency, however... Who said I was going to promote I Am MT?"
Xu Xiaojun was shocked, "Huh?"
Chen Mo said, "At the time, I said 'Promote my game for a month for free'. I didn't say I was promoting I Am MT."
Xu Xiaojun stayed silent for a bit, then replying, "Could you clarify?"
"Promote my next game. I'll let you know when I'm done with it," replied Chen Mo.
Xu Xiaojun took another few moments to reply, "I'll need to confirm this with Mr. Lin."
Chen Mo nodded, "Alright, I'm not in a hurry."
Upon hearing their conversation, Su Jinyu and Jia Peng were shocked, but also could barely hold back their laughter.
They could only imagine how difficult of a situation the other person from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment was put in after receiving the news.
The manager isn't holding back at all!
Can't you be more honest and less tricky?
Chen Mo received a reply five minutes later.
Xiu Xiaojun said, "Mr. Lin agreed. Then we'll use that spot for other games for now. When you've developed your next game, let me know. Then we'll put your game onto the promotional spot instead."
Chen Mo replied, "Alright! Thanks so much."
Xu Xiaojun replied, "...No problem. Goodbye."
The line was cut before Chen Mo could even mutter the words 'Goodbye', and was left with the beeping of the dial tone.
Jia Peng was laughing hysterically, "Manager, you sure are brave. Aren't you afraid that they'd poach you with five million RMB? Hahahaha!"
Chen Mo said with a stern voice, "What do you mean. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment is a proper, big company. They wouldn't do such a thing."
"Besides, it's just five million, I can do that too!"
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Chapter 79: Chapter 78: Picking Out a Writer
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chen Mo added some more information on World of Azeroth.
"Moonglade: One of the most unique places in Kalimdor. The forest is untouched by corruption and maintains its initial purity and serenity, much different from other locations in Kalimdor. Moonglade is a safezone as damaging to forest or creating confrontation will be met by the wrath of the druids. Moonglade is often the location where the Alliance and Horde hold their meetings for treaties. The tauren often visit Moonglade to learn the way of the druids from the elves.
It didn't take long after the update was posted for discussion among the fans to start.
"Oh man, I didn't think I'd live to see this. Chen Mo posted an update!"
"The previous post forgot to add: So far!"
"You think you'd get away with posting dozens of words to keep us occupied? Why don't you learn from the web novel writers who post tens of thousands of words everyday!"
"This just isn't enough!!!!!!!"
"Hey, are you not updating this because you've made enough money?"
"When are you recreating Azeroth! Don't think you can satisfy us using a card game like I Am MT!"
"I'm gonna send him another razor blade, anyone with me?"
"Previous poster 1!"
"2!"
Chen Mo let out a faint smile and closed the website, after commenting anonymously.
As per usual, Chen Mo opened "National Geographic Azeroth" to check for new posts.
"Hmm? A new artist[1]? Quite popular too."
Chen Mo noticed that there were a few recent threads that reached eight pages. The threat was titled :"Long Story creator[1: Orgrimmar's orphan."
Chen Mo clicked on the thread and was met with a fanfic from the perspective of Orgrimmar's orphan, going through his growth and adventures as a Horde warrior.
Of course, the latter was what Chen Mo guessed, as the story wasn't even at twenty thousand words so the story wasn't too developed.
However, Chen Mo could tell that the author had a thing or two in writing. When the Chinese write western fantasy there would normally be two extremes, too locatised, or using english bastardization for everything. This novel had none of the problems.
Moreover, the story was logical and the progression of the plot was well written. There were points that were left to be discovered down the line, and the foundation of the story seemed well established.
No wonder it was so popular. The quality of this was much better than similar works that seemed to be done by highschoolers.
"This guy's pretty good," exclaimed Chen Mo.
In reality, Chen Mo also had the same thought when starting World of Azeroth. There was too much content in Azeroth, and if he was working alone, making a VR version of World of Warcraft might take a few years. It would wear him down super thin just writing quests and dialogue.
Which is why Chen Mo wanted to make National Geographic Azeroth this early on, to gather the people who are interested in this lore, as the more talented artists and writers would be useful in the future.
Otherwise it would be difficult and time consuming to hire someone that would meet his requirements.
Just like in the previous world, the existence of I Am MT depended heavily on NGA.
But Chen Mo didn't expect to pick one up so quickly.
Chen Mo looked up the details of the author using their Thunderbolt Gaming game pass information, and got ahold of their phone number as they have it tied to their account.
Chen Mo gave the author a call.
After a few moments, the person picked up, "Hello?"
Upon hearing it was a guy, Chen Mo was slightly disappointed.
"Hello, I'm Chen Mo, the designer of I Am MT."
The person on the other side of the phone was shocked, exclaiming, "Huh? Chen Mo? Really? Are you that Chen Mo? You're not a scammer right?"
Chen Mo replied, "I'm probably not famous enough to have people pretending to be me right... I'm the real Chen Mo, what's your name?"
"Oh, I'm Zheng Hongxi or you can call me by my pen name, Phantom Light."
Chen Mo replied, "... They're both quite difficult to remember."
Zheng Hongxi was speechless.
Chen Mo asked, "Well, do you have a job right now?"
Zheng Hongxi said, "Nope, I just quit my job, and am currently looking for one. Since I don't have much to do, and the World of Azeroth seemed quite interesting. So I wrote a bunch of stuff out of boredom."
Chen Mo said, "Hmm, are you interested in working in the Imperial Capital?"
Zheng Hongxi asked, "Huh? Can I work in Thunderbolt Entertainment?"
Chen Mo said, "Yep, I'm quite interested in your work. How about this, where are you living right now?"
"Uhh, Magic City."
"Alright, I'll pay for your tickets for the train as well as your accommodation. Would you like to come over to the Imperial Capital, and we'll talk more in person. And if you could, bring along your past works too," said Chen Mo
Zhen Hongxi replied, "Sure! Well, I'll be packing then, be there in two days!"
Chen Mo nodded, "Sure, I'll send you an address, just head right this way when you get here."
After ending the call, Chen Mo sent the address of the experience store to Zheng Hongxi.
"If this guy works out, all that's left is someone to deal with number balancing."
After releasing I Am MT, Chen Mo now had a stable source of income, and had the capital to make a larger scaled game.
However, Chen Mo's current goal was still to grow his playerbase. When the player base is sufficiently big, his first large scale game could be released with less problems.
During this time, Chen Mo still needed to hire two employees, one in charge of story writing, the other for balancing.
Of course Chen Mo could do all of it, but it would be too time consuming. Moreover, there are many repetitive jobs in these areas, and it wasn't too fulfilling to do those things again and again.
There was no way Chen Mo would attempt larger scale games before hiring reliable writers and balancers. It could take ages without them, not to mention it would be a hassle juggling between all the aspects as well as the potential for poor quality.
In Chen Mo's eyes, Zheng Hongxi had a good foundation, and would have good potential with some training.
At this moment, Chen Mo's phone rang.
Chen Mo was speechless. What was going on, there have been so many phone calls recently. He couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Chen Mo proceeded to pick up the phone, "Hello?"
"Hello, Is this Mr. Chen Mo?" replied a voice of a woman
"Yes, who is this?" replied Chen Mo.
The woman replied, "I'm Han Lu, a journalist from 's gaming channel. I'd like to arrange an interview, would you be interested?"
Chen Mo was shocked, "Huh? Interview?"
Han Lu replied, "Yep, our editor in chief thinks that I Am MT was quite successful and is quite topical. Which is why we would like to have an interview. It wouldn't take up too much time, an hour or two at most. I'd like to talk about the thought process during the designing phase of the game."
Chen Mo replied after a few moments of thinking. "Sure, no problem."
Han Lu said, "Alright, are you free tomorrow morning? I planned to meet you in your experience store."
"I'm free."
Han Lu replied, "Sure, then we'll meet tomorrow morning then. Be there or be square!"
After hanging up, Chen Mo was in shock.
An interview? Have I become someone with that much clout?
TL note[1] The word used here was doujin, which means self-published works (but in english is commonly used to refer to H-manga)
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Chapter 80: Chapter 79: Creating Happiness Mindfully
–The next day.–
Han Lu got to the experience store on time.
She seemed quite ladylike, and from the looks of it, she might only be in her mid-twenties.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Chen Mo." Han Lu reached out to shake hands with Chen Mo.
"Let's go somewhere a bit more quiet." Chen Mo said as he brought her to his office in the second floor.
As the two of them walked up the second floor, Su Jinyu, Jia Peng and the others stared at them as they disappeared upstairs.
"Who's that chick?" asked Jia Peng.
Su Jinyu replied, "I think its a journalist from a video game media who's here to interview the manager."
Jia Peng was shocked, "Interview him? Oh my, has the manager managed to gain that much clout?"
Everyone was shocked, "Oh geez, is the manager going to be hugely popular?"
–Inside the office.–
Chen Mo poured Han Lu a glass of water as the two of them sat on the sofa.
"You're probably quite busy recently, thanks for taking time out for this interview," said Han Lu.
Chen Mo shook his head, "I'm not really that busy, I've been taking a break recently."
Han Lu cleared her throat and said, "Umm, yeah. Alright."
This person doesn't know how to carry on conversations! Han Lu was already struggling in the first exchanges.
Chen Mo reassured her, "Don't be nervous, we're just chatting here."
Han Lu was speechless, are you who's interviewing who here!
"Alright, where should we start..." said Han Lu after some thought.
"Maybe from I Am MT. We call know that the game produced very good results, raking in twenty three million in revenue in the first month. And from this, your name is now very well known in the industry. Well, when you were in the initial planning stages of the game, did you expect it to be so profitable?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep, I knew."
Han Lu was visibly confused.
This was completely different from expectations.
Normally when videogame designers are met with this quetion, they would usually say something along the lines of: "I never expected that". Mainly because the videogame industry was full of unpredictability, and nobody can be sure that their game will be massively popular.
But Chen Mo straight up said that he knew I Am MT would be this profitable?
He must be telling tall tales!
After facing such difficulties in the first question, Han Lu felt a headache coming. She could already tell that Chen Mo's brain functions differently from the average Joe.
"Well, could you talk about how you knew? Or perhaps, how were you so confident in the game?"
This second question was made up on the spot, and she could finally breathe a sigh of relief afterwards. She gave herself a ten out of ten as a professional journalist to be able to deal with problems like that on the spot.
Chen Mo said, "Actually, my motto for designing games is "Creating happiness mindfully". Being able to make a good game stems from three different aspects.
"First, my passion for videogames.
"Second, my sincerity towards players.
"Third, my commitment to my dream.
"If I had to add something else, it might be a little bit of luck.
"Which is why I thought that the game would become popular.
Han Lu widened her eyes in shock. She couldn't believe that these words were coming out of his mouth.
Is this a joke? Passion? Sincerity? Commitment?
Are these words said by the creator of I Am MT?
This were all empty talk. If all you need was passion, sincerity and commitment to make a good game, wouldn't this world be filled to the brim with good games?
Moreover, Han Lu had done her homework. She's played I Am MT, and this game had nothing to do with passion, sincerity and commitment!
Passion by extorting money from fans, and sincerity by scamming them?!
Han Lu felt that there was a big obstacle in front of her upon seeing this seemingly serious Chen Mo blathering on about his morals.
This was directly from Chen Mo's mouth. Does she write about this?
If she didn't write about this, how would she finish the article?
If she did, who would believe her? It felt that if she did release this, the viewers might question the intelligence of the editor as well as the journalist!
Han Lu rubbed her temple to try and regain her composure, "Alright, let's have a change of pace. What do you think about I Am MT's rating of 7 on the official appstore?"
Chen Mo said, "About that, I think it's quite normal. As the game is free to play, it not surpising that my competitors might be behind all the bad reviews. It doesn't take much to download the game and give it a one star review.
"I feel so heartbroken when I think about it. I've worked so hard to make a nice, free game, yet I still have to deal with this sabotage from my competitors. This was a game that would have a score of nine or above, but its now hovering around seven. I mean, this makes me extremely heartbroken!
"I think the official appstore should put a stop to this, and give justice to I Am MT!"
Han Lu was once again struggle to get wrods out of her mouth.
Was that saborage by competitors? It was clearly bad reviews from players!
Does Chen Mo not know? He can't not know! He's blatantly telling lies!
Han Lu rested her hand on her forehead. She planned to have an in depth story with a hot topic, but because of the curveballs Chen Mo had been throwing, her plans were completely foiled!
"Well, there are rumours that there's a card called 'Elder Sister' in I Am MT which costs two thousand RMB. Many players have expressed how much this affects the fairness of the game. What do you think about that?" said Han Lu after some thought.
Chen Mo replied, "Oh, about rare cards. I think its just like collecting stamps, do you know about collecting stamps? There are thousands and thousands of stamps right? I Am MT also has some parallels with collecting. In order to collect all the cards, some players are willing to spend money to do that. I think this is because they approve of the game.
"That means you don't think at all that I Am MT is an unfair game then?" asked Han Lu.
Chen Mo shooked his head, "I don't think the question was well asked. You see, there isn't a truly fair game in this world right? Some games, you're better at it in you spend more time, or if you have good skills you're better, or sometimes if you're lucky you're better, or sometimes if you meet the right people you're better... Games are a small little universe in itself, and its difficult for it to be truly fair from one human to another. Therefore, yes, I think that I Am MT is not a fair game."
"Uhh"
Han Lu was shocked, entraced by Chen Mo's roundabout logic, completely forgetting her follow-up question.
After spending two minutes on the topic and not getting anywhere, Han Lu referred to her notebook to decide on the next topic.
"I've done a bit of homework before I got here. What shocked me was how much players were spending in game. Professionals have estimated that up to ten percent of the playerbase are paying players, and these players would pay on average two hundred RMB.
"Normal games would charge once to be able to play the game, and that would be in the ball park of ten to fifty RMB. However, I Am MT players are spending up to two hundred RMB. Why is that? How is the game able to attract players to spend so much?
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Almighty Video Game Designer #Chapter 81 - Chapter 80: Telling Tall Tales - Read Almighty Video Game Designer Chapter 81 - Chapter 80: Telling Tall Tales Online - All Page - Novel Next
Chapter 81: Chapter 80: Telling Tall Tales
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chen Mo said, "About that, you know that I Am MT is completely free right? You can continue playing without spending a single cent, all the way until the game goes down, right?"
Han Lu nodded after some thought.
"It's a free game, so why would the players spend so much money? In reality, I'm a transmigrator, I can control the minds of the players using this game, making them spend money in the game completely willingly."
Han Lu was visibly confused.
The atmosphere was very thick.
Chen Mo broke the silence with a laugh, "Sorry, that joke was a bit too dry."
Han Lu wiped the sweat of her forehead, "Don't worry, you were a bit too serious when you delivered the joke, so I thought you were being serious."
"Obviously I cannot be a transmigrator, nor can I control the minds of the players right? Therefore there can only be one reason why the players spend so much money.
"That's because they discovered their passion for the game. They felt the sincerity I was trying to communicate through the game, which is why they are so willing to pay for in-app purchases in order to support me. I hope I can make more, better games in the future.
"Therefore, I will never forget the love given to me from the fans and I will not be complacent with this for a single moment. I will make more better games in the future to repay all the love from the fans."
The corner of Han Lu's mouth twitched upon hearing that, "Right, if I remember correctly, you stated that you were taking a break at the start of the interview?"
Chen Mo nodded, "That's right, but I will always remember the love from the fans in my heart.
Han Lu was starting to go crazy. It's crazy how this person can remain so claim telling all these tall tales!
It feels like that nothing productive can come from this!
But since she was already here, Han Lu didn't have any other choice but to continue on.
"In order to hype up I Am MT, you invested some money into making the animated series by the same name, and even introduced a website 'World of Azeroth' to introduce the fans to the rich world.
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"However, there wasn't much of the aforementioned content in the game. Was this because of the limitations from the type of game it was? Or did you plan to use the world view just to draw in the interest of the players."
"That's a secret," said Chen Mo, "You guys will have to wait and see."
"That means that you have plans to continue exploring all that Azeroth has to offer?" asked Han Lu.
Chen Mo replied, "I didn't guarantee that. I said it's a secret that everybody can look forward to."
—
The interview had lasted almost two hours. At the end of it Han Lu felt that her thoughts were completely muddled. Luckily she recorded the entire conversation in addition to making quick notes.
Feeling that there was nothing else to be gained, Han Lu decided to leave.
"Thanks for giving up your time," said Han Lu.
Chen Mo waved his hand, "Don't worry about it. Thanks for helping my thoughts reach the fans, allowing them to feel my passion towards games as well as my sincerity to them."
Han Lu could only manage a "Good bye" after that.
Han Lu felt dizzy as she left Chen Mo's experience store.
What was going on, feels like I was hustled...
Before she got here, the editor-in-chief repeatedly reminded Han Lu to reveal the secrets behind I Am MT, such as secret techniques to profiting from a free game, or Chen Mo's creativity. These were points that would attract the attention of many.
Even if she couldn't reveal these secrets, it would be best to understand Chen Mo's true intent, such as he doesn't really care about the players, only about money, or he's manipulating the desires of the players to reach the top.
With information like these it could also use it to generate hype.
In the end, Han Lu realised that she didn't complete any of the requests she was assigned.
Secret behind I Am MT? Not a tiny bit!
Chen Mo's real thoughts? Nothing!
That guy was basically making stuff up. Passion towards games? Sincerity towards players? Commitment to dreams?
He's not even phased telling those tall tales! Han Lu was even starting to suspect if Chen Mo was mentally ill!
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"Whatever, I can only report according to what Chen Mo said..."
Han Lu got a headache from looking at her notes she made during the interview. This would probably be her most difficult article since the start of the career...
Upon seeing the silhouette of Han Lu leaving, Chen Mo laughed. Trying to get me to reveal something? You're too naive.
Why would I tell you the secrets of I Am MT's profitability? If Chen Mo really exposed his secrets and the interview was released, wouldn't that provide a lesson for all video game designers on how to get players to spend money?
Of course, Chen Mo knew that even if he didn't reveal it, the video game designers of this world would eventually discover his secrets. It wouldn't be surprising if this saw a surge in card games like his previous world.
However, Chen Mo didn't mind. Even if these people were able to figure out the strategy of card games, it would at least take a couple months. By that time, Chen Mo wouldn't bat an eye at low quality cardgames like these.
—
Three days later, Chen Mo's interview was finally released on the gaming channel in . The title was "Interviewing I Am MT's designer, Chen Mo: Creating Happiness Mindfully."
There was a paragraph in the interview as such:
"When the interviewer asked why he had so much confidence in this game? Chen Mo replied :"my motto for designing games is "Creating happiness mindfully". Being able to make a good game stems my passion for video games, my sincerity towards players, and my commitment to my dream."
There were many other paragraphs of similar nature. Han Lu basically reported Chen Mo's answers faithfully.
This interview did get a lot of attention, but not the way Han Lu expected.
Many players were leaving comments upon reading this interview.
"There's nothing that man says that is remotely believable!"
"Creating happiness mindfully? More like creating happiness from money!"
"I thought he was a nice guy when he created Plants vs Zombies, but now I know his true nature! He's a fraud!"
"This is too funny. Who conducted this interview? Are the editor and interviewer stupid?"
"I would've been fine with Chen Mo telling his tales, but the editor writing down everything and publishing it is too much for me!"
"I almost thought I was watching the news..."
"I'm tearing up from how much I was laughing. It's not April fools today right?"
"Chen Mo creating happiness mindfully? This will be the best joke of the year."
"I really underestimated how ridiculous this guy is!"
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Chapter 82: Chapter 81: Interview
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
"That's because they discovered their passion for the game. They felt the sincerity I was trying to communicate through the game, which is why they are so willing to pay for in-app purchases in order to support me. I hope I can make more, better games in the future. Therefore, I will never forget the love given to me from the fans and I will not be complacent with this for a single moment. I will make more better games in the future to repay all the love from the fans."
Wen Lingwei read out Chen Mo's interview inside the experience store.
"I can't believe I'm seeing this," exclaimed Su Jinyu.
Jia Peng said, "Manager, aren't the fans going to kill you for this?"
Wen Lingwei said, "Maybe you should come to the university for a few days until it cools off.
"What's wrong? Isn't it quite well written? Just take a look, every single word they released represents my true feelings towards the fans," said Chen Mo.
"Manager, aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning if you continue talking like that?" asked Su Jinyu.
"Manager, do you have a lightning rod for this building?" asked Jia Peng.
"Alright, that's enough guys. I have an interview today, don't scare the interviewee away," said Chen Mo.
Jia Peng asked, "Interview? You're hiring?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep, I might still need to hire a story writer and a numbers person. Otherwise, it's going to be difficult to make larger games. Goldfish and I won't be able to do everything by overselves."
"Tsk, does that mean there's going to be another cute girl soon?" questioned Wen Lingwei.
"Really?" Jia Peng's interest was piqued.
"What are you guys thinking about? It's a guy," explained Chen Mo.
Wen Lingwei said, "A guy? What's the point of hiring a guy? Get him out of here."
Chen Mo was speechless, "Do you guys plan to turn my experience store into a women only place?"
Wen Lingwei rolled her eyes, "Don't tell me that wasn't what you were planning."
"...Whatever, I'm calling it quits. The interviewee should be here soon, " said Chen Mo.
Not long after, Zheng Hongxi arrived.
He looked quite young. He was tall and skinny, and looked like the quiet, polite type. Chen Mo shook his hand and brought him to the meeting room.
"Yep, I've changed my mind, his handsome guy isn't half bad," said Wen Lingwei to Su Jinyu.
"Can you get yourself together? It still depends if he matches the requirements of the manager right?" said Su Jinyu.
—Inside the meeting room.—
Chen Mo poured Zheng Hongxi a glass of water, "This isn't some large company, so the interview will be more like a chat, don't be nervous."
Zheng Hongxi nodded, "Yeah, I'm not nervous. But I'm kinda surprised, you're much younger than I thought."
Chen Mo laughed, "It's been a year or so since I graduated from university."
Zheng Hongxi replied, "Then you've graduated a year before I did. It hasn't even been a year since I graduated."
Chen Mo had already looked over Zheng Hongxi's resume.
Zheng Hongxi, twenty-four years old. Recently graduated from a certain university from Magic City in languages. Worked in a media company after he graduated and quit because he didn't like the job. Wants to switch careers, but still haven't fully made up their mind.
Chen Mo briefly looked over his previous work as well. Most of them were short stories. Other than western fantasy, he had dealt with Wuxia, Xianxia as well as eastern fantasy.
Although they weren't particularly outstanding, the writing as well as the story logics were good enough. Most importantly no matter what themes they were, there wasn't anything completely out of line which Chen Mo was particularly satisfied with.
Chen Mo asked, "Have you planned which career path you are going for?"
Zheng Hongxi said, "I haven't fully thought it through. I personally don't like the interpersonal relationships in traditional workplaces. I've thought about writing FreeWebNovels full time, but it's still too unstable to commit, it would give my family more pressure too."
"Have you thought about making games?" asked Chen Mo.
"I've thought about it, but from what I can tell, Chinese games don't put too much effort into the story, whereas my interest is in the story."
Chen Mo nodded, "Alright. So I've prepared a test, so just answer these however you like."
As Chen Mo finished his sentence, he took out a set of questions he printed out beforehand.
Zheng Hongxi had a look. There were just five questions.
The first was designing the story and two jobs for an MMORPG Wuxia game, explaining the features of the jobs.
Second was to give the names and descriptions of five Three Kingdoms equipment, from common to rare equipment.
The third question was based on the World of Azeroth, asking for a brief description of the relationship between Draenor and Azeroth.
The fourth question was to pick a small event from the World of Azeroth and briefly outline a quest line for it.
The fifth was to write a complete quest line, including the dialogue between the NPC and the player. The synopsis of the quest is as followed: "Fordring wants you to find him Taelan's hammer." Design the characters according to the settings of World of Azeroth. Changes can be made if the characters were remastered as well.
Chen Mo said, "Don't worry, take your time. One hour should be more than enough."
Zheng Hongxi nodded, "Yep, that's enough."
"Let me know when you're done," said Chen Mo as he left the meeting room.
As Chen Mo walked out, everyone was whispering, "How did it go, manager."
Chen Mo said, "Feels alright. I gave him a few questions to test his skills. If there isn't anything major from that it should be OK."
Su Jinyu asked, "Hmm? What kind of questions."
"Do you guys want to do it too? I'm afraid that you guys won't be able to take it," replied Chen Mo.
Wen Lingwei said, "Goldfish is a monster in school, you're underestimating her."
"Alright, you can try it too if you like. Just do whichever ones you're interested in."
As Chen Mo finished, he brought up the questions on Su Jinyu's computer.
Upon reading the questions, everyone silently walked away before attempting it.
Su Jinyu looked at Chen Mo with a surprised look on her face, "What is this, manager. Aren't these too hard? You might be able to make up some stuff for the first two questions, but what are the ones after?"
"Of course you find it hard, you don't usually pay attention to these things anyways. Alright, now everyone go home, clearly you guys aren't suited for the role of a writer."
"Can we have a moment of silence for the story bro," said Wen Lingwei.
Su Jinyu said, "We don't have to be that negative, what if he managed to answer them?"
The questions Chen Mo decided on were actually on the easy side as he only planned to test some basic qualities of a writer.
Equipment names, equipment descriptions, world setting, jobs, quest line, quest dialogue were all in the job description of a writer.
As a writer, a big part of it is to package the game well, allowing the player to feel that the world they are playing in is a complete world. It should at the very least not leave a bad taste, affecting the quality of the gameplay.
More advanced writing skills would include tying in the setting of the world with the scenes to make the setting and the gameplay as one cohesive entity, possibly even driving players to feel certain emotions through special missions.
Chen Mo only asked the first point of Zheng Hongxi for now, the latter points can be learnt at a later point.
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Chapter 83: Chapter 82: Userbase
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Zheng Hongxi finished the questions in about half an hour.
Chen Mo was pretty happy with the results.
First question, Zheng Hongxi decided to have two different camps – Gods and Demons, with different martial arts separating them further. The two classes requested were monks and priests. One would be a tanky class, the other would be a caster class.
Zheng Hongxi jotten down a few weapons such as Ringed Blade, Scimitar, and Green Dragon Crescent Blade. and sorted them according to their rarity.
The next three questions were relevant to the World of Azeroth. As Zheng Hongxi was quite familiar with Azeroth, there were relatively more being written.
Take the fifth question for example, where Chen Mo intentionally omitted much of the information. Tirion Fordring was a key character in the lore of World of Warcraft, and his son Taelan was a member of the Scarlet Crusade. This questline played a key role in the 'Love and Family' chapter in the Plaguelands.
It was because of Taelan's death that Tirion Fordring decided to restart the order of the Silver Hand, eventually playing a huge role in leading the charge to beating the Scourge.
Chen Mo hadn't given that much detail on "World of Azeroth ", only vaguely going over the relationship between Tirion Fordring and his son Taelan. Although Zheng Hongxi's reimagination of the story was far off from the original, it was still acceptable.
Chen Mo was still quite satisfied after looking at the whole thing.
"Alright, not bad. Let's talk about your salary. How much were you earning in your previous company?" asked Chen Mo.
"Six thousand."
"How about this, I'll give you eight thousand a month, with a month of trialing. If there isn't much development going on, you'll work Monday to Friday ten to seven. Otherwise, you'll work OT on Saturdays, is that alright?" said Chen Mo after some thought.
Zheng Hongxi was very happy, "Yeah that's great! What will I be mainly working on?"
"Mainly the story stuff, such as the main story, quest lines, equipment descriptions. Maybe designing entire worlds in the future, and possibly having you responsible for some story driven games," replied Chen Mo.
Zheng Hongxi agreed, "Sure."
Chen Mo said, "Alright, we'll do the contracts in a bit. You can take this time to go back to the Magic City to pack your stuff. Are you alright to start working in a week?"
"Sure, I don't really have many things back home anyways, shouldn't take too long," said Zheng Hongxi.
—
After sending off Zheng Hongxi, Chen Mo returned to the experience store.
Wen Lingwei said, "So, did you manage to acquire your second partner? I'm getting the feeling that the stubborn manager no longer wants to do this alone."
"Manager, the weekend is around the corner, you said you were taking a week's break before working on the next game," reminded Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo was speechless, "Why are you in such a hurry? You're not taking a good rest if you're thinking of work all the time."
Su Jinyu replied, "Manager, how could you be such a salted fish?"
"Alright, alright. Just hold on, I'll send you a mindmap tomorrow, this time you'll do everything by yourself," said Chen Mo.
Su Jinyu was shocked, "Huh? I'm doing everything? Can I do it?"
Chen Mo reassured Su Jinyu, "Don't worry, you can do it. This game is very simple, if you can't do it, I might need to hire a new assistant."
Su Jinyu was speechless.
"What about you manager? I think you said that you'll be working on a new game yourself too right?" asked Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo nodded, "That's right, I'm also doing one myself. You'll know about it when it's time."
"Manager, please don't make a game that relies on luck, I can't handle that anymore!" pleaded Jia Peng.
"Oh, this game would probably be the most luck relient game ever made. Sorry about that," apologised Chen Mo.
"... You guys go ahead, I'll be leaving." Jia Peng said coldly."
"Tsk tsk. So the manager plans to make another money scamming game?" questioned Wen Lingwei.
Chen Mo shook his head, "I'm not scamming money this time. I told you I'm trying to work back some good karma to avoid an early death. It'll be a very fair game this time."
A visibly excited Jia Peng shouted, "A very fair game?!"
Wen Lingwei refused to believe that.
"Moreover, you guys have probably played it, even if you haven't you've probably at least heard of it," said Chen Mo.
"What is it?" Jia Peng dying to know.
"Alright, you guys will know when the time comes, I'll be working on the mind map for the design document," Chen Mo said asserting himself.
As Chen Mo finished his sentence, he went back upstairs to his office.
—
Ignoring the sounds of some angry fans, I Am MT was doing quite well. The specifications for Chinese card games were well thought out, everything the player does will be checked against the server, making it difficult for players to cheat or tamper with in-game data.
Moreover, these types of games were usually quite long term as mechanics such as acquiring cards and the difficulty of levels were planned and balanced extensively. It was even possible to calculate the time it would take for players to reach the later stages of the game.
Chen Mo wouldn't have to make any changes to I Am MT for at least two months. He will have to release a few new cards and introduce mechanics here and there. These things wouldn't take much time and could be done by setting aside a few hours.
As for even further into the future... It's just a card game after all, and Chen Mo didn't plan to live off it the rest of his life. When he's made enough money from it, he'll move on to the next game.
Chen Mo only received 12.8 million out of the 23 million from I Am MT in the first month.
This was already quite already as Chen Mo didn't have any other platform to publish his games on.
The official app store only took twenty percent, other platforms such as Emperor Dynasty gaming platform or Fantasy Gaming Platform took varying cuts, up to eighty or ninety percent, leaving only ten to twenty percent to the videogame designer.
Moreover, this was only the first month, as the players increased over the next two or three months, the monthly revenue could increase too. As I Am MT is an online game, its profitability is naturally better than paid games.
Because of how profitable I Am MT was, Chen Mo didn't even need to worry about needing the animation to make a profit. It was also quite difficult to have to find sponsors for animations, not to mention thanking said sponsors, so the profitability doesn't come close to the game.
Therefore Chen Mo had no expectation on the profitability of the animated series, nor did he worry about that, only using it for publicity.
Now that he had the money to do so, he could do a few more draws to increase his attributes to the next level.
Within Chen Mo's plans, Plants vs Zombies was to get his feet off the ground, I Am MT was to bring in money, the next game would have to deal with the problem of bringing in players. When all these preparations are done, he can finally make a game that would represent him and his company.
However, some planning was required to solve the problem of bringing in players.
Did Chen Mo have players? Yes, but also no.
There were many players from Plants vs Zombies and I Am MT. Although these players had Thunderbolt Gaming game passes, they weren't considered Chen Mo's players.
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Chapter 84: Chapter 83 Differentiating Oneself
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Take Emperor Dynasty Entertainment for example, Emperor Dynasty gaming platform had tens of millions of active users a month, and times would reach more than two million concurrent active users.
If these players wanted to play a game by Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, they'd have to log into Emperor Dynasty gaming platform, and naturally would see the other games promoted on the platform.
There were many players who only played games by Emperor Dynasty Entertainment, rarely hesitating when buying games or in-app purchases.
Chen Mo did have players like these, but the number was just too low. Most of the players wouldn't care about Chen Mo's next game, and it would be even more unlikely for them to buy or play a game because it was 'Chen Mo's work'.
Deep down, Chen Mo knew that he couldn't just make games, and would eventually have to work on his own distribution channels. In fact Chen Mo would eventually have to make his own gaming platform to gather all his games.
Moreover, many games require a huge player base to be able to profit.
Chen Mo currently had two goals in mind, developing 'Thunderbolt gaming platform', notifying those who own the Thunderbolt game pass about said platform, and get players from other platforms to join this platform.
Just like , Tencent's TGP, and Wechat games from his previous life. Gathering all their players in once place to be able to better promote their games and allow the different communities to mingle.
However, it wasn't enough for Chen Mo to make the Thunderbolt gaming platform as the platform would only have Flappy Bird, Plants vs Zombies, and I Am MT. It was too plain no matter how you looked at it.
Of course Chen Mo could make deals with other companies to get them to put their games onto Thunderbolt gaming platform in order to bulk up the game library.
But Chen Mo didn't favour those games, and the companies didn't favour Chen Mo's new platform either. No amount of discussion could amount to anything.
By releasing two games at once, he would be able to boost the games he would have in the library, as well as increase his playerbase.
Chen Mo opened the design document, writing down the title: "Thunderbolt Tabletop".
—
What games in China had the largest player base?
Cardgames? RPGs? Shooter games?
Nope.
Tabletop games were the most popular.
In his previous life, Tencent Tabletop had more than a shocking two hundred and forty million users, one in five of them were playing tabletop games.
Chen Mo wanted to make tabletop games so he could utilize the promotional spot from Emperor Dynasty Entertainment as well as the inherent quality of tabletop games to draw in more players to Thunderbolt game pass, setting the foundation to future works.
Chen Mo had planned this from the start, and would be the best use of the promotional spot from the previous bet.
However, Chen Mo hadn't made his mind on how to tackle tabletop games.
There were too many tabletop games, such as Dou Dizhu, mahjong, chinese chess, and Go. These were all under tabletop games. But wanting to do all of them wasn't realistic nor was it ideal, so he had to pick and choose.
This world did have tabletop games. Emperor Dynasty Entertainment and Fantasy Gaming Platform both had their own tabletop games featuring a good amount of players.
Chen Mo was thinking about how to differentiate himself, otherwise he would have no chance in making a dent in the tabletop playerbase of these two companies.
Chen Mo looked over the tabletop games on the market in the past few days as market research.
Popular games in his previous life such as Dou Dizhu or Mahjong were quite popular in this world as well, and were essentially identical in playstyle. Chen Mo could make improvements in the user interface or in the rules, but these would only be improvements and wouldn't be enough to take players off the other platforms.
It must be obviously different from the other tabletop games.
Even though they are all tabletop games, they all have very different playstyles. Dou Dizhu and Mahjong are examples of games that are popular regardless of age, with huge playerbases. Games like Chinese chess or Go would also have a decent amount of players, but would have no chance at making money. Games similar to bridge would have even less players.
If Chen Mo wanted to make tabletop games while drawing in players to his platform, Dou Dizhu and Mahjong would both be essential.
However, from Chen Mo's research, other companies that focused on tabletop games did Dou Dizhu and Mahjong as well. They even included regional rules, such as using Jokers in Dou Dizhu, or Blood Mahjong.
Chen Mo thought of three improvements so far, first would be assistance provided to newer players such as tutorials, daily quests, special quests, and daily credits. Many of the other games didn't touch this point or did them horrible, so Chen Mo could spend some time to improve this.
Second would be tournaments. There were very few tournaments for tabletop games in this world, and were mostly public lobbies. Chen Mo felt that tournaments would be a nice gimmick.
Third was an equipment shop and VIP systems. There were only but a few games using a credit system. Improvements could include emojis, profile pictures, clothes, or even use credits to exchange for real life gifts.
However, these were far from enough.
The new player system might make it easier to acquire players and slightly increase player retention, store and VIP system might improve the revenue by a bit, and a tournament mode would be a differentiating point, separating itself from the other games on the market.
For tabletop games, these weren't enough to switch a large number of players over.
Therefore in order to break the loyalty the players have towards their old platform, Chen Mo needed to find something big, something that the other tabletop games didn't have.
Chen Mo started searching for games in the previous world that weren't present in this one.
Dou Dizhu? Sheng ji? Golden Flower? Seven Joker Five Two Three?...
There weren't many differentiating points, the more popular ones were overdone, and the less popular ones had a small player base, failing to achieve the original objective of growing a playerbase.
Chen Mo was depressed. Why did the two worlds have to be so similar in tabletop games?
No way, I'll keep searching, there must be something!
Hong Kong style Mahjong? Szechuan Mahjong? International Mahjong?
No!
Chen Mo felt funny, he felt that there must be something that was present in his previous world but not in this one.
What was it?
Chapter 85: Chapter 84 Poker This World was Missing
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chen Mo was looking around on the internet, and an idea came out of nowhere.
"Right, I don't think they have Texas hold 'em!
"But how could there not be Texas hold 'em? This doesn't make sense!"
Chen Mo had been thinking long about what game was missing. But turns out that this world doesn't have Texas hold 'em? That's nonsense!
Chem Mo continued sourcing the web, even overseas ones, and concluded that there really wasn't Texas hold 'em in this world!
"Indeed, I knew that something was missing, turns out that was Texas hold 'em!
"Alright, Thunderbolt Tabletop's last puzzle piece has been found."
Chen Mo even got a bit emotional upon finishing the tabletop games library.
—
Texas hold 'em weren't considered popular in China. In terms of users, it wasn't on the same level as Dou Dizhu, or mahjong. It wasn't as well known either.
However, Texas hold 'me was quite popular in certain communities, and they have even gotten quite in depth.
IT circles, pioneering communities, adventure capitalists, CEOs all favoured Texas hold 'em. Kai-Fu Lee, Liu Chuanzhi, Jack Ma and many others were all poker fnatics.
Texas hold 'em was also a global phenomena, especially in the US. If someone said they played poker, they most likely are referring to Texas hold 'em.
The poker tournaments by World Series of Poker would reach ten million USD at times. There was once a chef from Sweden who got first place and became a millionaire in a night.
There are many who can't understand the mysterious power that Texas hold 'em?
If asked to use one sentence to summarise the difference between Texas hold 'em to other variations of poker, that would be: "Texas hold 'em is a type of poker where someone could make money reliably."
It may sound unreal, but that was the truth.
Other tabletop games such as Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, or Golden Flower had strong ties to gambling. Skill was important, but luck was even more important. A professional Dou Dizhu or Mahjong player would rely heavily on luck to put food on their plate, and that wouldn't be too different from just gambling.
And one of the key points in gambling was that playing longer guaranteed losses, and nobody could reliably make money from it.
But Texas hold 'em was a game that one could reliably profit from. If you are always losing in Texas hold 'em, that could only mean one thing: You're terrible at the game.
Outside of China, there are many professional Texas hold 'em players, such as Phil Ivey who have been champion twenty four times in many different tournaments, being in the money (ITM) for over a hundred of them. He had made more than twenty million throughout his career in poker winnings.
There were also many professional Texas hold 'em players in China, usually making around one hundred thousand RMB a month. This was due to a multitude of reasons, Texas hold 'em had limited popularity in China, that said, there were around sixty million players.
Why was poker a valid method of making stable income? Because the rules of Texas hold 'em were much more complicated than other poker variations. You can back out anytime, and could go crazy to try and double your chips.
Moreover, you can vary your strategy based on what your opponent did (betting, calling, etc.) in Texas hold 'em.
Poker was different to Golden Flower as Golden Flower was completely reliant on your hand. If you got a good hand, you were almost guaranteed to win. But in Texas hold 'em, winning or losing would be decided by the five community cards. In theory, even if you had the statistically worst hand, deuce seven off-suit, it would have a high chance of beating the best hand, pocket aces.
High amounts of meticulous calculations, controlling your facial expressions, guessing your opponent's hands based on their behaviour, and keeping a good mindset were all crucial parts of Texas hold 'em. One could say that luck factor would be minimised among all these features of the game.
For example, if a pro and a noob played each other, perhaps the noob had the better hand every time, but the pro would utilise psychology to completely annihilate the noob wouldn't be surprising.
Noobs would be able to win a few rounds just by virtue of good luck in games like Dou Dizhu or Mahjong, but in Texas hold 'em , the noobs would never be given that opportunity.
—
After the foundations were laid, Chen Mo started working on the design document.
The rules of tabletop games were really simple and clear cut, and would take much less time to develop than I Am MT. Chen Mo planned to complete most of the Thunderbolt gaming platform and Thunderbolt Tabletop, and then spend another week tweaking before releasing it.
–Morning the next day–
Chen Mo handed over the design document mindmap to Su Jinyu.
"The mindmap is done. You can fill in the gaps in the ruleset. Don't worry about the story related things and let Zheng Hongxi handle that when he gets here. You two will work on the game together, and it'll act as a test for his writing ability too," said Chen Mo.
Su Jinyu opened the document Chen Mo sent over. She was shocked that the design document was very very small, only having around two hundred words.
"Lifeline? Interactive fiction?" Su Jinyu exclaimed.
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep, it's really for you and Zheng Hongxi as practice, I've already made a few points worth paying attention to clear in the design document. It depends on you guys how well this game goes."
"But, manager, this game seems too simple!" asked Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo smiled, "A smile game can also be really good, don't underestimate it. Maybe consider adding new mechanics outside of the basics."
Su Jinyu nodded, "Alright, I understand."
After handing over the design document for Lifeline to Su Jinyu, Chen Mo put all his effort into Thunderbolt gaming platform and Thunderbolt Tabletop.
Lifeline was an interactive fiction, and Chen Mo planned to use it for Zheng Hongxi to practice on and get a better idea of his writing skills.
After Thunderbolt Tabletop and Lifeline are both completed, Chen Mo would start planning his first big game.
—
Chen Mo spent the next two days improving the design document.
The three games on Thunderbolt Tabletop, Happy Dou Dizhu, Happy Mahjong, and Thunderbolt Poker (aka. Texas hold 'em) had basically no overlapping playerbase, which was why he chose them. However, many of the artwork can be reused in these three games, such as avatars, UI, and poker cards.
Chen Mo outsourced these resources as there were many tabletop games in the parallel world, meaning that there were also many of these resources. It would only need small changes to make it usable. As it wasn't a huge part of the game, Chen Mo didn't care too much about how it looked, which was why Chen Mo's only requirement was for it to be quick, and wanted to receive the resources in two weeks.
And Chen Mo paid special attention to two points during the designing process of these tabletop games, one was making improvements to the tutorials, and the other was to add a tournament mode which other tabletop games didn't have.
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Chapter 86: Chapter 85: Story for Interactive Fiction
Many tabletop game designers think that they are very simple, therefore not requiring any new player introductions as most of the players would have played it before in real life.
But this view was incredibly wrong.
There are many local variations in rulesets for tabletop games. For example, mahjong from different areas may have different rules for 'pongs','gongs' or winning. If an international mahjong player wanted to try out blood mahjong, it would be very difficult for the player to find out the rules for himself without the help of new player introductions.
There was also another group of players who rarely have the chance of playing tabletop games, would even fail at playing Dou Dizhu, and despite that they still want to improve their skills. It wouldn't cost them much to play these tabletop games once in a while, and would also hope they can get some newbie tips when they play.
Tecent Tabletop from the previous world had done this very well. As long as a new player knew some of the rules when they start playing, the new player guides would allow them to continue playing, receiving awards on the way as they finish quests.
Chen Mo had already managed to recreate a card game such as I Am MT, so numerical simulation such as these were comparatively peanuts.
The second was the tournament mode.
In truth, the tournament mode was designed for Texas hold 'em in mind, as it was very suited for tournaments. There would even be some who only play tournaments exclusively.
Tournaments would include a sign-up fee and assigning everyone the same amount of starting chips. The players would be spread to different tables, and they would get eliminated as they run out of chips. The winner and finalists would get a chunk of the prize money from the sign-up frees.
Tournament modes like these were similar to survival games as players were required to play in a stable manner. Without the stability, the game would be over for the player, the aim was to get into the money rounds after all. On the other hand, it required players to utilize the opportunities given to increase their chip count and knock off the chips their opponents have.
Players would often lose a lot of chips from irrational moves, making it difficult to control the flow of the game. However, in tournament settings, the players would lose the sign-up fee at most, and if they last till the final table, they have the opportunities to increase their money more than tenfold.
That was why many players preferred to play tournaments. Even though it was theoretically possible for players to lose more money (if they buy-in many times but never reaching the money rounds), the failure the players would feel was relatively small.
In his previous life, Dou Dizhu and Mahjong also had similar tournaments, but they couldn't even compare to the popularity and universality of Texas hold 'em.
As Texas hold 'em didn't exist in this world, tournaments for tabletop games were also lagging behind. Chen Mo had also just finished Tournament mode, and would make it one of the unique gimmicks Thunderbolt Tabletop would have over other platforms.
The Thunderbolt Gaming Platform now had five different games, Flappy Bird, Plants vs Zombies, I Am MT, Lifeline, and Thunderbolt Tabletop (Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, Thunderbolt Poker).
Most of these games were mobile games, and Plants vs Zombies and Thunderbolt Tabletop were both on PC as well as mobile.
Chen Mo planned to prioritise the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform on the PC, intending to release sales and promotions regularly, as well as allowing players to check the status of their friends as well as their achievements in game.
Of course, this didn't need to be finished in one go and could be added periodically. The PC app for the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform was currently around ten MB. However, when more features are added, it might increase beyond 100 MB, but as to not anger the fans, Chen Mo decided to keep it small at this stage.
The Thunderbolt Gaming Platform would be even smaller one the phone, and would function purely as an app-store. Chen Mo wanted it to be under 5MB, and even when more features were to be added in the feature, to never exceed 15MB.
—
Monday, Zheng Hongxi officially joined the company.
Chen Mo decided to have Zheng Hongxi work on the computers in the experience store temporarily as Chen Mo was considering moving to a bigger experience store when he would make more money in the future.
Of course it was still too early to consider this. Although Chen Mo had the funds, he wasn't bothered to go through all the hassle.
Su Jinyu had managed to finish most of the foundations required for Lifeline. As it was an interactive fiction, the specifications were incredibly simple as chat boxes wouldn't take too long to program.
Chen Mo said to Zheng Hongxi, "This is an interactive fiction, and the selling point of the game is the story. I'll need you to design the settings according to these specifications. Do a bit of planning for it and make the story seem more rich."
Zheng Hongxi was shocked upon seeing the draft handed to him by Chen Mo.
"That's it? The whole game is conveyed in essentially a conversation?" asked Zheng Hongxi.
Chen Mo nodded" Yep, so the only reason players would buy this game would be for the story."
"...That's quite a lot of pressure. Is it really fine to take up that much responsibility on my first day?" asked Zheng Hongxi.
"This isn't really an important task, I might need you to work on the World of Azeroth in the future, and maybe even write a novel for it."
"I'll... give it my best," muttered Zheng Hongxi.
Chen Mo patted him on his shoulder, "It's fine, don't worry about it! If you do a bad job you'll have a second chance to do it again."
"That's not comforting at all!" complained Su Jinyu.
After handing over Lifeline to Su Jinyu and Zheng Hongxi, Chen Mo went back to his office to work on the tabletop games.
—
After three days, Zheng Hongxi handed over the first drafts of Lifeline to Chen Mo.
A key part of the first draft was to lay down the foundations, including how many different paths as well as the different endings. There would be a different choice at every step, potentially leading to different endings.
The draft was represented using a flowchart, each node containing a short, broad idea for the scene.
Chen Mo gave a quick look over the draft, there were more than seventy different scenes with four different endings.
"Yep, not bad," said Chen Mo. "But you'll need to redo it."
Zheng Hongxi was speechless.
"First, there must be a build up to the story. The timeline as it is is quite messey. The in game time must be the same as real time, if the game wants the player to wait for eight hours, that means eight hours. This is to make the players feel more connected to the game.
"And evidently you haven't paid attention to this point in your writing process. You didn't consider what this would do to the pacing of the story."
"Second, the story feels about the same no matter the start, the middle or the end, when it should be constantly ramping up, especially when they are trying to escape, that part was especially stale. Maybe you could add some more shocking elements, perhaps...shapeshifting aliens.
"And there's one more thing, the content isn't rich enough. You need to double the amount of choices to more than one hundred and twenty. You should increase the number of endings too, and ninety percent of it should be failures, forcing the players to be more careful. The players must make the right choice every step of the way to reach the best ending."
Listening intently, Zheng Hongxi nodded, "Yep, I understand. I'll make some changes."
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Chapter 87: Chapter 86: Poker
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
–Inside the experience store.–
Su Jinyu and Zheng Hongxi were working hard at Lifeline.
The others were doing their own things, Wen Lingwei was on a massage chair catching up on drama using a tablet.
The experience store was now the place where Wen Lingwei and the others would gather most frequently. They would visit if they had nothing to do, ushering Chen Mo to release new games.
Chen Mo said, "Let's take a break and play a game."
"Hmm?" Su Jinyu was shocked, "Play a game? What kind of game?"
Zheng Hongxi lifted his head up at a loss as he was stuck in the middle of his thought.
Jia Peng replied, "Sure thing, don't have much to do anyways. What type of game is it?"
Chen Mo took out a set of poker cards, "Poker."
"...You guys go ahead, I'll take my leave," said Jia Peng.
Chen Mo laughed, "Don't worry, you can watch or be the dealer."
"Manager, don't tell us you plan to play Dou Dizhu, we have eight people here," Wen Lingwei said lazily.
"Not Dou Dizhu, it's a game that you guys have never played before," explained Chen Mo.
Chang Xiuya was shocked, "A game none of us have played? That can't be possible!"
"Come over here, it's good that we have eight people. If Jia Peng deals, we'll play with a table of seven," said Chen Mo.
Su Jinyu asked, "Is there a requirement with the number of players?"
Chen Mo shook his head, "We can play with two to nine players."
"What about more than nine?" asked Su Jinyu.
"Oh, in theory we can play with more than nine players, but we wouldn't fit at the table," explained Chen Mo.
"...How convenient," said Su Jinyu.
Chen Mo ushered everyone to join, "Come, I'll teach you the rules in the meeting room."
"What can you do with a set of poker cards... Is there a prize for winning? I'm not joining if there isn't," said Wen Lingwei.
"Of course there is, I'll buy anything within five thousand RMB for whatever the winner desires," said Chen Mo.
"Five thousand?"
"Anything?"
"The manager sure is different now that he has money!"
Soon, everyone started making their way into the meeting room.
Zheng Hongxi was speechless.
Everyone was now sat around the table in the meeting room/
Chen Mo took out a set of chips that were custom made.
Su Jinyu exclaimed, "What is that, manager?"
"Chips, it's basically money. But we can't use money because that would be gambling," explained Chen Mo as he distributed the chips.
The chips were tiles slightly bigger than a coin, each of them had a different number of them of different colours.
Everyone was given one five hundred, three one hundreds, six twenty fives, and ten fives.
"Now everyone has one thousand in chips. Whoever gets all the chips in the end wins. There will only be one winner," explained Chen Mo.
Su Jinyu asked as she fiddled with the chips, "Manager, are you sure we won't be arrested for gambling?"
"...No, as long as nobody puts money on the table," said Chen Mo.
Wen Lingwei was also playing with the chips, "Do you need these to play? It's not like Dou Dizhu?"
Chen Mo nodded, "Yep, we need chips to play. Alright, now that everyone's seated, Jia Peng will sit in the middle, yes, right in the middle. You'll be the dealer."
Weng Lingwei raised her hand, "I object, I feel like if he deals, everyone's cards will be terrible."
Jia Peng was speechless, "Senior, you know I have feelings too right?"
"Don't worry, it'll be fair if all our hands are bad," said Chen Mo.
"I don't feel any better!" exclaimed Jia Peng.
Chen Mo spread out the cards on the table face down, "We'll make it simple as we are playing by ourselves. Everyone grab a card, and whoever gets the largest card will be the dealer."
Su Jinyu asked, "What does the dealer do?"
Chen Mo asked, "The dealer has a better position. Pick a card."
Wen Lingwei thought she drew the biggest card with a King, but Zheng Hongxi came out with an Ace.
Jia Peng said, "I'm just from looking at how lucky you guys are."
Chen Mo put a doll in front of Zheng Hongxi, This represents the dealer. The dealer will move clockwise to the next person after every hand."
"We'll do a testing round first."
Chen Mo started explaining the rules of Texas hold 'em.
Texas hold 'em was one of those games that are easy to learn, hard to master. It wouldn't take more than five minutes for someone to understand the rules.
Under the guidance of Chen Mo, everyone started getting a hang of it.
—
After half an hour and observing two rounds, Chen Mo returned upstairs to work on the design document after making sure everyone understood the rules.
In order to understand how the people of this world would understand Texas hold 'em, Chen Mo decided to teach them how to play. It was essentially a preview of how the promotion of the game would go.
The rules of Texas hold 'em were complete as it had been tested thoroughly and withstood the test of time in the previous world. It could even be described as flawless. However, Chen Mo had to consider if he should use its uniqueness to promote Thunderbolt Tabletop.
Texas hold 'em was popular overseas because professional poker players were able to make a living out of it. In the end, it was money that provided the most excitement.
But Chen Mo couldn't do that as it would be considered gambling if money was involved, making it illegal. Moreover, there were societal impacts to gambling, and Chen Mo didn't want to be responsible for making a game that would destroy families.
Therefore Chen Mo wanted to remove as much of the gamlbing aspect from Texas hold 'em as possible, and promote it as a competition. This would give the players a sense of the excitement from player Texas hold 'em.
Just like Dou Dizhu and Mahjong, once the gamlbing aspect is removed, they are all fantastic tabletop games.
Many big players of the tech or investing industry liked to play poker wasn't for the money as every one of them had millions in net worth.
Texas hold 'em were a type of puzzle game to them, and were similar to starting businesses and investing, all requiring them to understand what their competitors would do and changing tactics based on that, as well as knowing when to back out to cut losses.
After confirming that Texas hold 'em also had the same attraction to the people of this world, Chen Mo already had an idea of how to promote this game. This idea would be the best way to acquire the most players, having them taste the fun of Texas hold 'em, and eventually keeping them as players.
—
As the days go by, the development of Lifeline and Thunderbolt Tabletop continues steadily.
Zheng Hongxi won the first Texas hold 'em competition using his amazing luck, beating Wen Lingwei and receiving five thousand RMB in prizes.
Chen Mo even ordered a trophy, with the words: "Champion of the First internal Thunderbolt Poker competition"/
From then on, everyone was interested in playing it, the few who don't have anything would play poker in the meeting room, all trying to win the poker tournament next week to get the prize as well as the trophy.
What surprised everyone was that the more they get into, the more tricks they uncover, precisely the "easy to learn, difficult to master" type of game.
After two weeks, most of them were completely obsessed with poker.
Of course, this was under the driving force of winning prizes.
Their interest would undoubtedly be much lower without the few thousand RMB in prizes.
As for the story for Lifeline, it's been refreshed multiple times, so much that Zheng Hongxi couldn't keep track of how many drafts he had done. But the more changes he made, the more interested and complex the story became.
Chen Mo did a quick once over the dialogues and concluded that the game had about the same pace as the one from the previous world. Of course there were some differences in the content, but it wasn't a problem.
The two games this time were very simple for Chen Mo, including the artworks, it was done in a month's time. The next step would be constantly making changes and improvements, as well as improving the user experience.
In this seemingly quiet month within the mobile community, there was something dark brewing.
Just from rumours Chen Mo heard from different channels, there were at least three or four companies developing card games similar to I Am MT.
And these were the ones that Chen Mo caught wind of, there would be even more than he had never heard of so far. In terms of development it could take two to four months. They would most certainly go live in the first moments they are completed.
There could be waves of new mobile card games just as Chen Mo's previous life, and the players would experience the horror of being overwhelmed by these games.
Perhaps the games would have different art styles and themes, but there was something that had to be the same, their source of revenue and the how the numbers were structured, all undoubtedly taking a page out of I Am MT's book.
However, Chen Mo didn't mind as it wasn't at all a bad news for him.
I Am MT had been strongly holding onto the advantage of being first, and the other games would forever live in the shadows of I Am MT, it would be impossible for any of them to disturb I Am MT's standings.
These games might even expand the card game user base.
Of course, the companies that work faster would earn a lot of money, but it was inevitable. Chen Mo was fine with them earning money as long as he earned more.
Moreover, the waves of card games serve as a good distraction of the gaming community, given Chen Mo more breathing room to set his foundation for future games.
The games that would threaten I Am MT would be games such as Soul Hunters who completely revamp the playstyle, and surpassing the first generation of Chinese card games. Chen Mo estimated that the other videogame designers would take at least a year to reach the level of Soul Hunters.
Due to the nature of card games allowing their designers to earn money easily, most designers lose interest in improving, even staying in their comfort zone, unwilling to make any big changes to the first generation of card games.
Only when the players lose interest and start to hate it will designers try to make improvements, changing the playstyle of the first generation of card games.
And Chen Mo could do so much more with a year.
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Chapter 88: Chapter 87: Rating for Thunderbolt Tabletop
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
The contents of Thunderbolt Tabletop were now complete. It contained three different games, Dou Dizhu, Mahjong, and Thunderbolt Poker (Texas hold 'em)
Thunderbolt Tabletop was on both Pc and mobile as well, and would contain all three games. However, players could choose to install or uninstall the games they didn't play.
Moreover, Chen Mo had added all the existing games to the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform, and after this update, the players who wanted to continue playing Plants vs Zombies or I Am MT were required to log into the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform.
Of course, Chen Mo gave out a bunch of free runes to the players as compensation.
Afterwards, Chen Mo contacted Xu Xiaojun, representative of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment's advertising department regarding promoting Thunderbolt Tabletop.
—
Headquarters of Emperor Dynasty Entertainment.
Xu Xiaojun passed the phone used for testing to Lin Chaoxu, "Mr Lin, this is the game Chen Mo wanted to advertise on our platform."
Lin Chaoxu grabbed the phone and scowled, "Tabletop?"
Xu Xiaojun nodded, "Yep, if it's alright without, we'll start promoting it on the promotional spot on the front page at the start of next week."
Lin Chaoxu replied after a few moments of thinking, "No problem, go ahead. We Emperor Dynasty Entertainment can't break our promise. You can leave the phone here for now, I want to look into the game further."
"Alright." Xu Xiaojun said before leaving the office.
Lin Chaoxu had a lot on his plate, and only managed to free up some time to test out Thunderbolt Tabletop after an hour.
Even though Chen Mo was just a C-grade videogame designer, Lin Chaoxu still felt that he was worth paying attention to after being seen as a potential threat.
–Ten minutes later.–
Lin Chaoxu was deep in thought after experience most Thunderbolt Tabletop had to offer.
Afterwards, Lin Chaoxu made a call, "Hello? Wu Zhao? Could you make your way to my office, I have something to discuss."
Wu Zhao arrived at Lin Chaoxu's office after half an hour.
Wu Zhao was in his thirties, dressed casually, had long hair, and looked like a carefree freelancer.
Wu Zhao was the one responsible for Emperor Dynasty Tabletop who also happened to be an A-grade videogame designer. Emperor Dynasty Tabletop had games such as poker, Mahjong, and other regional tabletop games, all of which required his final approval.
Wu Zhao asked, "Is there something you need Mr Lin?"
Wu Zhao was a bit nervous as Emperor Dynasty Tabletop wasn't a particularly important subject in Emperor Dynasty Entertainment. It also wasn't very profitable, so Lin Chaoxu would rarely even get him to meet in his office.
Lin Chaoxu handed the phone to Wu Zhao, "Try this game out, and tell me your opinions of it.
Wu Zhao grabbed the phone, asking, "Thunderbolt Tabletop?"
Although he didn't understand the meaning behind this, Wu Zhao tapped the icon to launch the game.
First was using Thunderbolt game pass to log in, and then reaching the Thunderbolt Gaming Platform after logging in. The platform had six games so far, Flappy Bird, Plants vs Zombies, I Am MT, Happy Dou Dizhu, Happy Mahjong, and Thunderbolt Poker.
The first three games were greyed out and required downloading to play. The last three games were already downloaded.
Wu Zhao tapped on Happy Dou Dizhu and started playing.
Although entering the game required an extra step, the UI for Thunderbolt Gaming Platform was clean and easy to operate. Although it was a bit of a pain, it was still acceptable.
The game had no other players, but there were a few bots in the lowest level lobby so they could still play the game.
Following orders, Wu Zhao played two hands and concluded that the game was the same as his own Dou Dizhu and had no differentiating factor.
However, Thunderbolt Tabletop had significantly improved the guidance in game, some of which Wu Zhao felt was overly simple and a waste. The more experience players would be very familiar with the rules were also forced into the tutorial.
Moreover, this game provided the players with many Happy Beans, such as being able to go bankrupt three times a day, or special jobs, all of which provided the player with the in-game currency.
The VIP system as well as the store was more rich as well, including emojis or actions that required purchasing. The in game chat and interactions were also quite well done.
Afterwards, Wu Zhao went onto Happy Mahjong.
The playstyle was largely similar to other mahjong games, other more popular alternative playstyles such as Blood Mahjong was also added. It was similar to Happy Dou Dizhu, as Happy mahjong also had really good new player introductions and experience. It was obviously much more polished than other tabletop games.
Lastly, Wu Zhao opened Thunderbolt Poker.
He was shocked that it was a type that he had never seen before.
Wu Zhao could be considered as someone who was really into tabletop games as well as being a tabletop game video game designer. He had looked into countless tabletop games inside and outside of China, even if he hadn't looked into it in depth, he would've seen it before.
However, he had never seen anything resembling Thunderbolt Poker.
The playstyle felt similar to Five-card stud and Golden Flower, but it was also clearly different.
The tutorials were also really well done, and the explanation was also clearly explained every single step of the way, the different hands were also quite easy to remember.
Wu Zhao had understood how the game works after playing for five minutes, but as there were no other players, just bots, Wu Zhao hadn't discovered what would make it so fun.
Wu Zhao felt that it was just a decent tabletop game, and couldn't compare to classic games such as Dou Dizhu or Mahjong.
Wu Zhao said after playing the three games, "Mr Lin, are these the tabletop games made by Thunderbolt Entertainment?"
Lin Chaoxu replied, "Don't worry about who did it for now, let's talk about what you think about this."
Wu Zhao nodded, "Sure, I'll quickly go over my thoughts.
"You understand how the tabletop games industry is in China, there are many users, and it's not that profitable. Big players like us or Fantasy Gaming Platform focused on making tabletop games because we had the large user base in mind in order to try and convert them to fans of our platform.
"Therefore, people would usually default to making tabletop games to expand their player base. It is not the best idea to try and turn a profit using tabletop games.
"The intent of growing the player base is clear from this game. Dou Dizhu and Mahjong made no changes to the rules, but the new player guide as well as daily benefits were clearly revamped and polished. This is probably an attempt at trying to gain players from other tabletop platforms who aren't brand loyal.
"For us, there are a bunch of players who aren't willing to spend money, they could have dozens or hundreds of beans, playing daily just to get the daily benefits and play a few games. These are probably the ones who will change platforms.
"But I don't think it's anything to worry about. First, tabletop games require a set amount of users to gain momentum. The more new players there are, the more there is to experience, the more fun the players will have. Emperor Dynasty Tabletop currently holds the biggest player base, so it would be difficult to make a big dent in us in the short run.
Second, although there are quite a few of the aforementioned players that are likely to switch platforms, it isn't enough for us to worry about. Our loyal fans are the active users, the people who have tons of beans saved up, and are especially brand loyal and are unlikely to change platforms.
"That's why I think that this game isn't a problem for us for now."
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Chapter 89: Chapter 88: Thunderbolt Poker
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Lin Chaoxu nodded, "Right, what do you think about Thunderbolt Poker?"
"That might be a completely original playstyle. I can't tell the potential it has just from playing it for ten minutes, but so far I think we should be wary of it.
"It's playstyle is similar to that of Golden or Five-card stud, but these two card games aren't popular, and don't even come close to Dou Dizhu in China.
"Golden Flower relies heavily on luck as everyone is completely blind to everything else other than their own cards, so it's more like gambling where intelligence does not play a part at all.
"On the other hand, as Five-card stud has a hidden card and a revealed card, there is too much information, ruining any chance for mind games, making it difficult to become popular.
"The design for Thunderbolt Poker probably took inspiration from both of them. The players could use the community cards to determine how good the hands of their opponents are, but still incorporating some elements hidden from the players, making it more competitive.
"However, I think we still need to observe if these changes are successful. Moreover, it's a completely new card game after all, meaning all the players will need to start fresh. Even if it were to become popular, it would take a long time.
"During this time, we could also look into inventing other card games."
Lin Chaoxu asked, "If we make this card game as well, there aren't any legal consequences right?"
Wu Zhao nodded, "There aren't any legal risks. Card games are considered 'rules and methods for mental workouts' and aren't subject to copyright. That means that everybody can do it."
"That means according to your analysis, this came wouldn't be a big problem for Emperor Dynasty during the short term, and would have no chance at converting players from our platform," said Lin Chaoxu
Wu Zhao replied after some thought, "You could put it that way."
"Then what if the game was promoted on the front page of Emperor Dynasty gaming platform?" asked Lin Chaoxu.
Wu Zhao was confused, "Huh?"
"Remember when Qiu Bin and Chen Mo made a bet? This was the game he wanted to put onto the promotional spot for a month," explained Lin Chaoxu.
Wu Zhao scowled, "Mr Lin, aren't we just handing them the advantage we have?"
"That's why I'm asking you how big the effect would be," replied Lin Chaoxu.
Wu Zhao was put in a bad spot, and said after a few moments, "There will probably be some effect, but it shouldn't be too problematic. That was made by Chen Mo? Why doesn't he promote I Am MT? Why would he promote a tabletop game?"
Lin Chaoxu said, "All that matters is that it wouldn't cause too many problems. You'll have to answer the other questions yourself."
Wu Zhao nodded, "Yes, I understand. But Mr Lin, this guy has many ideas, we should probably keep an eye on him to prevent him from gaining anymore."
"Yeah, I understand. Follow the rest of this development. The promotional spot isn't much, but my main concern is him taking too many of our players," acknowledged Lin Chaoxu.
Wu Zhao nodded, "I understand," leaving the office afterwards.
Lin Chaoxu was deep in his thoughts.
This guy wants players instead of money? This kid has quite the ambition.
Lin Chaoxu also thought that Chen Mo would've wanted to promote I Am MT as it had strong profitability. Combined with the support from Emperor Dynasty gambling platform, it shouldn't be a problem to double his monthly income, maybe even pushing the fifty million mark.
By that time Chen Mo would be increasing his net profits by more than ten million a month.
But Chen Mo chose to give up that money, instead choosing to promote tabletop games?
This kind of courage wasn't one an average person would have.
Lin Chaoxu could easily tell Chen Mo's intent.
Tabletop games don't bring in money, and its revenue could never compete with I Am MT, but the main selling point of tabletop games was that it made it cheap to acquire players. Combined with the newly released Thunderbolt Gaming Platform, it was obvious that this play was to drive users to his platform.
However, it didn't matter even if Lin Chaoxu knew what he planned, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment would never use dirty moves just because of Chen Mo's potential threat as there were many spectators waiting for drama.
—
Can tabletop games not make money?
It doesn't exist in the parallel world, but in Chen Mo's previous world, tabletop games were one of the hidden money makers.
The reason was because of the various shady methods the videogame designers of the previous world did that the videogame designers of this world haven't thought of yet.
However, Chen Mo didn't plan to profit from this.
Why were tabletop games not profitable? Because players lacked the drive to continue spending money. The noobs who keep losing wouldn't win from spending money, and would quickly realise how meaningless the money they spent were. Other games might give them an advantage if they pay, but if you were bad at tabletop games and kept spending money, you may as well donate that money.
The players who were good weren't willing to spend money either, as they could earn beans using their skills. Moreover, one the players reach a certain amount of beans, such as tens or hundreds of millions, the beans wouldn't make a difference anymore, they would have no point in spending money, and the players would slowly lose interest.
Therefore, more often than not money goes into tabletop games and nothing comes out, usually resulting in losses. The desire to buy in-app purchases for most players are heavily suppressed.
This meant that it was common knowledge in the industry that tabletop games made no money.
The in game currency for tabletop games, such as Happy Beans were strictly banned against converting into real money. The law states that any tabletop game that allows exchange of currency both ways are considered gambling, making it illegal.
Once convicted, not only would the game need to be taken off the market, the maker might need to face jail time.
And in Chen Mo's previous life, most makers of the game rode on the grey area to evade prosecution to make money.
For example, if the currency exchange was set overseas, and the currency exchanger allowed conversion both ways, the developer would take a cut as profit.
And in game, through the use of private rooms, players would be able to move the currency between accounts. The player would then be able to exchange that for real currency using the overseas currency exchanger.
Many tabletop games companies would profit this way, and some of these companies would make tens of millions this way through tens of thousands of their players.
Texas hold 'em was especially guilty of this. Ninety nine percent of Texas hold 'em games used this model and would rake in scary amounts of profit.
However, Chen Mo decided to keep this secret to himself forever, wishing that this model would never appear in the videogame industry of this world.
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Chapter 90: Chapter 89 Competition with Prizes
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
After a month or so of development, Thunderbolt Tabletop finally entered the official app store as well as Emperor Dynasty Gaming Platform!
The 'Recommended this month' spot on the Emperor Dynasty Gaming Platform now had a banner ad for Thunderbolt Tabletop. Other than the usual art and name of the game, it also had a slogan.
"Who's the poker king? Win virtual game pods in tournaments every week!
There were tens of millions of active users on Emperor Dynasty Gaming Platform, and up to two million concurrent users. The effects of being on the front page of Emperor Dynasty gaming platform for a month could not be understated.
Chen Mo also promoted the game on his Weibo and Thunderbolt Gaming Platform at the same time, essentially promoting the game everywhere he could.
Many fans who paid attention to this matter knew that Chen Mo was about to release a new game. But none of them thought that Chen Mo spent over a month making a tabletop game.
What a waste of the promotional spot!
The players were actively discussing the matter.
"Unbelievable, Chen Mo decided to not continue making games that scam money? That's impossible! Did the old Chen Mo finally return?"
"What, why did you make tabletop games? There's no future in tabletop games! You should've just made more pay-to-win games!"
"What a waste of the promotional spot. That spot was used to promote large VR games in the past, but Chen Mo decided to promote tabletop games! My goodness!"
"This only took a month, could it be any good?"
"Stop wasting your time on things like this! Get back to working on the sequel to Plants vs Zombies alright!"
"There are already so many tabletop games! Emperor Dynasty had already been in the business for too long, you're far too late to the party!"
"A gaming pod every week? He really put down the money for this, but why do I feel that the money isn't going to be well spent..."
"That's three pods every week, they have one for all three games!"
"Fine, I'll go take a look. I'm in need of a gaming pod anyways."
"...previous poster, you still don't understand Thunderbolt gaming's antics? If it's too good to be true, it probably is!"
"But... It's a competition!"
There were various different types of comments.
However, most of them were drawn in by the idea of "free gaming pod every week".
Chen Mo had also posted the rules for the tournament on his Weibo.
Thunderbolt Poker, Dou Dizhu, and Mahjong will have a competition each.
From Monday to Saturday, 10am to 10pm, there will be a competition every two hours, there will be a certain amount of tables decided by the number of players who decide to enter. Each table will have a limit of fifty to sixty people, and the priority will be given to players that haven't played that day.
Of which, 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm are all free to play, free to entire and had registrations in advance. The 6pm and 8pm rounds were paid tournaments and registrations were still available thirty minutes after the start time, and the entry fees were decided via bids using Happy Beans.
The prizes were split among the top three of each tournament, 60% for first place, 30% for second place, and 10% for third.
Free games gave a large amount of Happy Beans and a small amount of credits. The paid tournaments on the other hand would have a large amount of credits as prizes.
And on Sunday, the first fifty players based on the credits for that week will enter the final table, and the first three places of that tournament will receive prizes.
First place: one R gaming pod, valued around eight thousand RMB.
Second place: A high end PC, valued around ten thousand RMB.
Third Place, a flagship smartphone, valued around seven thousand RMB.
There was a competition for all three games, meaning that Chen Mo will be giving out close to three hundred thousand RMB worth of prizes every week.
Moreover, this was different from prize draws as those can be rigged in favour of the company. But as Chen Mo was hosting a competition, there was no refute whoever was better at the game to be able to get first place, and there was no way to fraudulently control the outcome of that.
The VR gaming pods in this world were priced from fifty thousand to two hundred thousand. Chen Mo's pick of one valued around eight thousand RMB was considered mid range, but it was more than enough as there were PCs as well as smartphones as prizes too.
Once the news was out, it spread like wildfire in tabletop games communities. Moreover, with the help of Weibo, more and more players knew about this, and many players who don't usually play tabletop games were also drawn in by the prizes.
As it's not a draw, but a competition, moreover a tabletop game competition.
Many gamers felt that they stood a chance in games like Dou Dizhu which are more luck reliant, and could potentially win the tournament if they had good luck. Moreover, the game was completely free, and the competition was fair, so many players wouldn't mind trying their luck.
Even if they couldn't win a gaming pod, a PC or a smartphone weren't bad either!
—
On the day of release, Thunderbolt Tabletop reached over two hundred thousand downloads, showing no signs of slowing down!
Free game, small size, complete new player guide, advertisement on Emperor Dynasty Gaming Platform, Prizes from the competition... These were all reasons that drove the number of downloads to the sky.
Of course, eighty to ninety percent of players were there to join in on the fun, all hoping they could be the lucky one to win the gaming pod.
"My goodness, there is so much guidance for new players! Luckily you can skip it. Do you need that much guidance for such a simple card game?"
"It treats new players quite nicely. I never quite understood the rules, but at least it's clear to me now..."
"It really does have a tournament mode. You just keep playing until a winner emerges? Seems more fun than playing in public lobbies."
"Thunderbolt Poker? It's a new game?"
"I feel like the competition for Dou Dizhu and Mahjong is too strong. Doesn't the winner of this new poker game get a gaming pod too? I'll try that out."
After looking deeper into it, the players realised they must enter the final table on Sunday to have a chance of winning the prizes, but in order to get into the final table, they must play at the other tables from Monday to Saturday in order to get enough credits.
For example, the evening rounds gave more credits, but they required spending Happy Beans to enter. This meant that players had to choose between entering the normal competitions, or spend their money to purchase Happy Beans.
Moreover, many players noticed that Thunderbolt Poker might be a good way to win prizes.
The more popular games such as Dou Dizhu or Mahjong that had more players would have stronger competition. However, Thunderbolt Poker also had a gaming pod for first place, and all the players had to start fresh, meaning that it was much less competitive.
This meant that there was a large number of players trying out Thunderbolt Poker to try and exploit this new type of card game to win prizes.
Many players tried to play on the first day, resulting in many public lobbies as well as the tournament mode being overloaded, further increasing the popularity of the game.
The popularity of Thunderbolt Tabletop never went down on various gaming leaderboards as well as trending topics. It was more than likely that the amount of users would continue to grow explosively!
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