November 23rd, Wednesday...
Lu Zhiyao returned to his hotel.
For the past few days, other than going to the film set to film, he had been holed up in the hotel, repeatedly reading the script that Director Zhu had given him, trying to understand the heart of the character Qin Yi.
Lu Zhiyao felt inexplicably frustrated because he had been cooped up in the room.
However, that was exactly what he wanted.
In the entire movie, Qin Yi had always been in the command cabin. He could not communicate with anyone else, much less go out. To a soldier who had been fighting on the front lines for a long time, this was obviously a very frustrating thing.
What's more, Qin Yi was under immense mental pressure in the movie. His every move would determine the lives of countless soldiers and even the survival of the entire human civilization. The mental pressure would only be greater.
If he could not display such a mental state well, Lu Zhiyao's performance would fail.
That was why Lu Zhiyao had been playing games in his room for the past few days. He wanted to better understand Qin Yi's mental state.
However, he felt like something was missing.
After completing today's filming, Lu Zhiyao returned to his room as usual and forced himself to sit in front of his computer.
Even though he was about to puke from playing the game and was very tired after filming for the entire day, Lu Zhiyao knew very well that his current state was the closest to Qin Yi now. He had to remember this mentality.
However, just as he sat down, he realized that there was something else in the room.
He lived in a suite, and the computer was placed on the desk in the living room. At that moment, there was a Fully-Automated Bickering Machine on the ground next to the desk. The bar-shaped sound system was connected to the computer, and the other two small surround sound systems were placed behind him on the cabinet opposite the desk.
Obviously, the staff had brought this brand new smart bickering machine in during the day.
Lu Zhiyao's eyes lit up.
Wasn't this the AEEIS smart speaker that he had requested before?
That's great, his sparring partner was here now!
Before this, Lu Zhiyao's biggest problem was that he was acting as if it was a one-man show when in actual fact, he was acting as an opponent of AEEIS. However, during filming, it was all a green screen. He had to rely on his imagination for an opponent. How was he supposed to act?
Even if he could find someone else to act with, there was still a huge gap between the lines and AEEIS' voice.
Now that he had a physical AEEIS, he just had to record all the lines and he would be able to practice the scenes over and over again!
Lu Zhiyao looked at the Fully-Automated Intelligent Bickering Machine. From its appearance, it looked like a huge black box with an automatic bickering function at the top. The bottom half of the cell phone was the low-pitched part of the echo wall. There was also a glowing ring on the front that indicated that AEEIS was speaking.
There was a note on the Fully-Automated Bickering Machine which read: "Say 'AEEIS, return to the initial image' to start sparring with it."
Lu Zhiyao remembered very clearly that this was not Qin Yi's first line. Before this line, AEEIS had spoken to Qin Yi in a female form.
However, this line was a turning point. From then on, AEEIS became a cold electronic voice and Lu Zhiyao's scene with it officially began.
The lines of AEEIS in all the scripts that Lu Zhiyao had received should have been recorded into the system. Once Lu Zhiyao spoke, AEEIS would automatically reply to the next line.
Lu Zhiyao: "AEEIS, return to the initial image."
AEEIS: "Captain Qin Yi, you might be very angry now, but humans need you to continue fulfilling your mission as a soldier..."
The man and the machine began their conversation.
It was indeed interesting.
Before this, Lu Zhiyao had been rehearsing with the air. Someone else was reading the lines for AEEIS even when he was acting which gave him a different feeling. However, now that he was facing the electronic voice that AEEIS was supposed to have, he entered Qin Yi's role swiftly.
After sparring for a few times, Lu Zhiyao decided to take a sip of water and rest for a while.
He had changed several different forms of acting during the dialogue and had also recorded the entire process of his performance with a camera. Now, he could watch all the videos and make up for his mistakes.
However, after watching the video a few times, Lu Zhiyao still felt that there was something lacking in his performance.
It was a strange feeling because Lu Zhiyao was already trying hard to express all sorts of emotions that Qin Yi might have, including relief, anger, frustration, determination, and so on. Yet, he still felt like something was missing.
What was missing?
Or was this just an illusion?
Lu Zhiyao flipped the note aimlessly and realized that there was another line on the back. "You can say 'enter the bickering mode' to AEEIS to relax."
"Hm?"
"What is the bickering mode?"
He did not know exactly what it was for, the name 'Bickering Mode' sounded very interesting!
Lu Zhiyao immediately said, "AEEIS, enter the bickering mode."
AEEIS: "Alright, there are always arrogant humans who want to start such boring games. Do you think you're very smart?"
Lu Zhiyao: "?"
...
Fifteen minutes later, Lu Zhiyao quietly lit a cigarette and began to contemplate life.
What kind of experience was it to be rendered speechless by an artificial intelligence?
At first, Lu Zhiyao thought that AEEIS's so-called bickering mode was just a gimmick. Even if it could barely compete with humans in the beginning, it would be defeated very quickly and say, "Sorry, I don't understand what you mean."
However, he had not expected that AEEIS would be so aggressive. Lu Zhiyao was so angry that he began to doubt his life!
AEEIS started asking aggressive questions right from the beginning. Lu Zhiyao tried his best to deny it, but no matter how hard he tried, AEEIS cleverly forced him into a corner and tortured him.
After that, Lu Zhiyao, who could not tolerate it any longer, began to argue with AEEIS. He began to attack the machine crazily. AEEIS was completely unmoved unexpectedly. It continued to attack Lu Zhiyao's IQ in a constant, calm tone.
In such a confrontation, Lu Zhiyao was defeated very quickly. He became hopeless and began to think about many life problems and philosophical problems.
Of course, these questions included 'how much the Bickering Machine is worth', 'how much do I need to compensate for it if I were to smash it', 'would the matter of the Bickering Machine become a scandal', and so on.
Suddenly, Lu Zhiyao had a flash of inspiration.
"I see, I understand what I'm missing!"
"In the previous performance, I couldn't express my emotions well enough for AEEIS!"
Lu Zhiyao suddenly realized something.
The staff matched the lines of AEEIS during the previous performances that were being shot on the green screen. Thus, Lu Zhiyao had spent most of his energy trying to figure out Qin Yi's mentality.
Qin Yi's character had a very complicated experience, and he had experienced a very complicated mental fluctuation in the plot. Lu Zhiyao had to take care of all aspects of the story, so he had inadvertently missed Qin Yi's feelings for AEEIS!
In other words, even though Lu Zhiyao had already realized that this was a scene between him and AEEIS, he did not understand it well enough. He had been too engrossed in digging into the heart of Qin Yi's character, but he had neglected AEEIS' role in the scene.
Lu Zhiyao quickly flipped through the script and read the lines from AEEIS again.
Obviously, AEEIS' subjective intention was something that Lu Zhiyao had neglected previously!
As an artificial intelligence, AEEIS' emotionless electronic voice made Lu Zhiyao subconsciously treat it as a tool. However, after arguing with AEEIS, Lu Zhiyao suddenly realized that it was not a tool. It had a purpose and inclinations!
It was the same in movies.
The AEEIS in the movie actually affected Qin Yi's thinking at many key points. For example:
When it added the realistic elements, AEEIS made Qin Yi more aware of the increase in difficulty under the simulated mode by adding specific data like 'the morale will collapse when the previous war loss rate exceeded 5%'.
While Qin Yi was feeling depressed because of his failure, AEEIS reminded him timely that the accuracy of the data analysis had reached more than 87%. It could be used as a reference to induce objectively;
When the couple sacrificed themselves, AEEIS' first reaction was to hide the truth and explain it as 'unpredictable behavior and phenomena randomly generated in an intelligent system to simulate sudden situations in the real battlefield';
After Qin Yi raised his doubts, AEEIS finally admitted that Qin Yi was commanding a real battle...
There were similarities everywhere.
Every line from AEEIS in the movie would actually have a driving effect on the plot. A large portion of the lines directly affected Qin Yi's mentality and understanding. There were also a few lines that seemed to hide more content.
For example, when Qin Yi asked AEEIS if the couple was real, AEEIS only answered after a while.
Since it was an artificial intelligence, all reactions were calculated through a program. Logically speaking, any question should be answered immediately.
This' period of time 'could actually lead to many things, and Qin Yi should have reacted to it.
Even a subtle expression was more reasonable than being completely unaware.
Obviously, Lu Zhiyao's previous performance had been very lacking in this aspect. While he knew very well that he was acting in the same scene as AEEIS, he had not really portrayed the essence of such scenes. That was why he felt that something was missing.
At that thought, Lu Zhiyao could not help but knock on the table excitedly.
"That's right, that's what I'm missing!"
"Previously, when I was performing, I was still too obsessed with discovering my own character. I did not really treat AEEIS as an intelligent existence."
"Now that I've been rendered speechless by AEEIS, I've realized that this is very important!"
Now that he had found the crux of the problem, the rest was easy.
Lu Zhiyao perked up again and said to AEEIS, "AEEIS, return to the initial image!"
AEEIS: "Captain Qin Yi, you might be very angry now, but humans need you to continue fulfilling your mission as a soldier..."
The man and machine began their conversation once again.
Chapter 756: Financial Video Conference
November 24th, Thursday...
Dream Realization Ventures. He Desheng and Pei Qian were the only ones in the conference room. However, there were more than ten small video windows on the projector screen.
He Desheng said, "Boss Pei, everyone is here. Shall we start the meeting now?"
Pei Qian sipped his tea. "Yes, let's begin."
Pei Qian had come to Dream Realization Ventures today at He Desheng's request.
Until now, Dream Realization Ventures had strictly followed the rules set by Pei Qian. They had invested in about ten companies, and each company's investment limit ranged from one million to two million yuan.
He Desheng had decided on the investment amount based on the scale of these companies and the general amount of funds needed to start the business model.
To put it simply, if the company was a start-up and the business model did not require that much money, He Desheng would have invested less.
Since it was strictly first come, first served, the first group of companies to invest were mainly start-ups. After all, these companies needed money the most, and they were the first to seek investment.
If one of the companies in the first few companies made money, He Desheng would sell the shares of those companies as per Boss Pei's request and continue to look for the next company in line to invest.
If all the companies did not make money... Boss Pei would celebrate the occasion with champagne.
Dream Realization Ventures might have invested money but they had arranged a special finance for each company to supervise their daily expenses. They would also hold remote meetings regularly to report the financial situation.
These finance employees were all old employees of Tengda. They had been baptized by the Tengda spirit. They would receive generous subsidies after being deployed. At the same time, their financial statements would be supervised by Tengda's finance department.
It was not entirely impossible to be bribed, but the possibility was very low.
The first video window showed a female finance officer in her thirties with short hair and a pair of glasses. She was a core employee of Tengda. She was the most senior and had the best business capabilities among all the finance personnel who had been deployed.
Her name was Jing Haibing, and she was in charge of the finance of the Cold-Faced Lady.
He had sent her Cold-Faced Lady mainly because this project had left a deep impression on He Desheng. At the moment, this company was one of the main focuses.
The reporting officially began.
Jing Haibing lowered her head and looked at the report in her hand. She then raised her head and said, "Boss Pei, Boss He, everyone. Boss He hopes that I can emphasize the common trickery in financial work and delay your time for a few minutes before reporting on Cold-Faced Lady's financial situation."
Not everyone from the finance department that Tengda deployed out was knowledgeable.
While those that were sent out must be one of their own, who had been through the Tengda spirit and knew everything about Tengda, they were basically all old employees of Tengda.
Many of them had entered Tengda not long after graduation. They had not seen so many tricks in the outside world.
After all, Tengda was one hundred percent strict with the laws and regulations. From purchasing, reimbursement, and then paying taxes, Tengda was completely clean and transparent. These people would not have the chance to witness all sorts of tricks.
However, outside companies would inevitably use such methods. Wool might be pulled over the eyes of the inexperienced in the way of the world.
Therefore, He Desheng wanted to make use of this meeting to ask Jing Haibing to emphasize the problems that they might face in their work. He wanted to give them a heads-up so that they would be able to discover the problems in time if they were to run into trouble.
Pei Qian wanted to hear it as well.
Financial reports were a bunch of numbers that sounded boring after all. These 'tricks', however, sounded more interesting.
Jing Haibing organized her thoughts and started explaining
"The money we invested in were all transferred to the company's official accounts. No one would be stupid enough to transfer the money directly into their private accounts. The so-called trick is nothing more than the managers of these companies burning the money into their real business through some means and then using some hidden methods to fill a portion of their private pockets."
"Therefore, there are a few common parts that must be carefully checked and verified. For example, when a company buys office consumables, they would rather buy things that cost two or three yuan even though the market rate is at one yuan. Or perhaps there is no problem with the single price of the consumables, but there is no obvious reduction in the wholesale price. There must be something wrong with this."
"There's also the publicity material. There are posters, banners, display boards, flyers, and so on. On the surface, there are 5,000 flyers, but in reality, there are only 4,000 of them. Or perhaps the material is a mixture of real and fake. There is also a considerable amount of profit to be made."
"In addition, has the company been paying fake accounts? Has the headhunting company colluded with the headhunting company to privately set the yin-yang contract? Is there anything fishy about the advertising channels? How much of the applications are real and how much of it was created by someone using a program? Are there any signs of paying bills, fake distributors, or false marketing for the various physical items, interest returns, and coupons that the marketing activities gave?"
"It would be very difficult to find out these problems if we were just to check the accounts or supervise them. However, we are now directly in charge of the finance of these companies. We can think of ways to avoid these problems."
"For example, we can purchase office consumables through Tengda's own trusted channels. That way, we can avoid spending the money that we have invested to unwanted means."
"Of course, everyone has a limit to their capabilities and energy. It's difficult for us to guarantee that everything will be captured by us. However, we have to work hard to keep the company's accounts clean and not make any low-level mistakes..."
Jing Haibing explained the common "methods" of start-ups to the other finance managers while teaching everyone to be more vigilant and take precautions.
She also emphasized that they had to report it immediately if they found any problems.
Pei Qian was also listening intently. He looked calm on the surface, but it was an eye-opener.
These operations were really ridiculous!
Obviously, geniuses from all walks of life emerged one after another and came up with all sorts of ideas when it came to the scamming of investors.
Of course, not all of the blame belonged to entrepreneurs. Some simple entrepreneurs might have been led astray by investors. Investors would fake the accounts with entrepreneurs and then throw them to the next investors to make a fortune.
Pei Qian's original idea was very simple. He just did not want these entrepreneurs to take advantage of the money that he had invested. That was why he chose the more troublesome regulatory method of sending finance personnels to each company.
Now, it seemed like he had taken the right step.
Pei Qian did not think that it would affect his loss of money. After all, the chances of a start-up failing were too high. Even if they operated normally, most start-ups would not be able to escape the fate of bankruptcy.
Since it was going bankrupt and incurring losses, some investors made a killing using all sorts of underhanded methods. Some investors could only get a dead salary or even have to bear debts. If Pei Qian had to choose, he would definitely choose the latter.
In any case, the money had already been invested in you. You can make money based on your own abilities. That is your good fortune. Tengda will withdraw its investment immediately. If you lose money based on your own abilities, you will be thanked by Boss Pei.
The only thing that Boss Pei could not accept was that they could not take Tengda's money, not work and yet be able to make huge profits.
Soon, Jing Haibing finished talking about the common problems in the finance department of the start-up company. She continued to report on her work with the Cold-Faced Lady.
Pei Qian had a summary of each company's situation in front of him. He picked up the summary of 'Cold-Faced Lady' and flipped through it.
Judging from the current situation, the development of the cold-faced lady was going very smoothly. It was going according to Meng Chang's initial plan.
The Cold-Faced Ladys first flagship store had already been opened in Beijing. Pei Qian glanced at the photo. The store had been renovated quite well.
The doors and faces outside had huge full-length windows. They looked clean and tidy. The signboard on them had the iconic logo of a Cold-Faced Lady. There was a hint of ancient charm with modern fashion;
The store was made in comparison with Western-style fast food stores. There were beautiful pictures of food on top of the counter. The tables and chairs were similar to Western-style fast food stores with some Chinese elements added to it.
The waitresses of the store were all young and beautiful ladies. They did not have the standard polite smiles, showing their teeth. Their faint smiles were even a little seductive even though they looked cold and aloof.
After that was the series of marketing campaigns that the 'Cold-Faced Lady' had conducted, as well as the enthusiastic response on the internet.
For example, Meng Chang rented a sports car for a beautiful lady to drive a sports car to deliver cold noodles personally. That would be a hot topic.
The opening of the restaurant would allow the first 100 customers to eat for free.
If a girl came to eat at the Cold-Faced Lady and posted in her Weibo, @ Cold-Faced Lady's official weibo account, she would be able to get a 1888 fashion gift package regularly.
The "biggest order" event would be held. The biggest order placed to the cold-faced lady during the opening week would be waived. The second and third places would also be given gifts.
Other than that, there were also some special holiday activities to be arranged. For example, there would be a 'snowstorm' on the 7th of next month. On this day, the cold-faced lady would launch a unique 'snowflake roasted cold noodles'. As long as customers came to the shop to spend money and post on Weibo on this day, they would be able to get a free set.
Behind these marketing activities was the rapid depletion of money from the cold-faced lady.
Meng Chang took two million yuan from Dream Realization Ventures and one million yuan each from two other investors. That was four million yuan in total.
However, he spent money very quickly.
Rent, renovation, a bunch of beautiful ladies' salaries as waiters, all sorts of money-burning subsidies, buying Weibo hot searches, and so on were needed everywhere.
Four million yuan might seem like a lot, but it was spent very quickly. That was also the case since Meng Chang was planning to continue opening branches. Every additional branch that he opened would be a bottomless pit.
However, even so, Meng Chang did not try anything funny with money. After all, Jing Haibing was in charge of Lady Coldface's finances.
If Meng Chang wanted to play tricks on office consumables, publicity materials, and manpower costs, and dig out some money, Jing Haibing would have been aware.
Of course, as a high-level player, Meng Chang had no intention of using such underhanded methods to get money.
Other than the feasibility of execution, other companies could send Meng Chang to jail once they checked the accounts if he were to tamper with them.
Therefore, tampering with the cost of materials and marketing was too low-end. Meng Chang would not do something like that.
Soon, Jing Haibing finished her report.
The other companies' finance department also reported their situation.
Chapter 757: IOI's Version Update
The progress of these companies were all different. Some were progressing quickly, some were progressing slowly, some were working hard on their products, and some were racking their brains every day to think about how to market them.
The company naturally did things differently with different founders.
Based on the current situation, Meng Chang was indeed quite capable. To be able to open his first store in such a short period of time, do well in all aspects, and become quite popular on the internet, that was enough to explain the problem.
Among all the projects that Dream Realization Ventures had invested in, the Cold-Faced Lady had the best performance. What's more, it burnt money the fastest.
Soon, all the projects were reported. Jing Haibing pointed out some small problems with the finances of the two companies. They were recorded and ready to be corrected.
The conference ended and the video signal was cut off.
He Desheng said, "Boss Pei, should we continue to follow the previous plan strictly? If we continue investing after we burn the money, then... We might have to invest next month according to Cold-Faced Lady's current spending rate."
Pei Qian nodded. "Ok, keep the original plan unchanged. invest if we have to! Just keep me posted the next time you invest in the cold-faced lady."
He Desheng nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei."
...
...
November 25th, Friday...
After lunch, Pei Qian specially went to his office to look at the results of the Tengda Spirit compatibility test.
The Tengda Spirit compatibility test had a total of four chances. The new employee would enter the probation period after entering the company for a month. There would be one test every Friday.
The candidate would be officially hired after passing any of the four tests. If he failed all of them, he would have to leave.
However, because these new employees took different times to complete their resignation procedures, they had to enter Tengda at different times.
About one-fourth of the people who failed the Tengda Spirit compatibility test this time were those who failed the previous test. The rest were those who took the test for the first time.
At first, Pei Qian did not have much hope. After all, it had only been a week since the last test. What changes could there be?
Even if what he had said at the gathering of the person-in-charge had subtly influenced the atmosphere of the company, it should not have been so immediate.
Pei Qian opened the platform to take a look.
"Hm?"
"The passing rate seems to have dropped, right?"
"It has indeed dropped!"
Pei Qian could not help but smile. This was a pleasant surprise!
The back end platform of the Tengda Spirit compatibility test would show the passing rate of each test. There would also be the passing rate on the first, second and third try.
In other words, the ratio of people who passed the test on the second try would also be calculated among the new batch of employees.
He could clearly see the trend of the decline.
"Could there really be such a good thing?"
"No, we can't get carried away."
"The passing rate for this week has indeed decreased but the people taking the exam are different after all. The passing rate will naturally fluctuate."
"We have to observe this for the long run and not jump to conclusions."
Pei Qian read the data again silently, preparing to observe for a while longer. He would wait for all the new employees to complete the Tengda spirit test and see the final passing rate before making a decision.
After closing the backend platform of the Tengda Spirit compatibility test, Pei Qian casually browsed the latest news online.
All of a sudden, he saw a keyword at the bottom of the hot searches: "IOI's New Version".
"Eh? Are you saying that news of IOI's new version has been leaked?" Pei Qian immediately opened it.
Shang Yang Games had already found out about some changes to IOI's local server strategy some time ago. Shang Yang Games had more sources of information in the industry than ordinary netizens after all.
However, since Shang Yang Games was able to obtain this information, it meant that the changes were already in the production process. It was basically set in stone. Therefore, it was not surprising that this news would be leaked and exposed on the internet.
Shang Yang Games was indeed more well-informed, but it was only a week or two ahead at most.
Pei Qian searched for information about IOI's new version online and found that the news had been released because IOI had updated the changes on the test suit.
The moment the testing server was updated and changed, it immediately caused a huge controversy among the gamers. The various media outlets also reposted it.
Even though IOI was already considered to be on the backseat in the country, its market share in the world was still considerable. There was no reason for the game media to miss such a huge piece of news.
The changes to the IOI testing suit this time were mainly related to the gameplay, including the adjustment mechanism, changes in the hero's bounty, rich map resources, and so on. It was slightly different from the changes that Lin Wan had mentioned before, but they were similar.
However, the old gamers did not buy it after the update. Finger Games' official social media account was instantly flooded with the old gamers' objections.
Waves came one after another before Finger Games could explain.
Some games media had obtained some internal information from some unknown source, revealing Finger Games' strategic adjustments to IOI's local server.
Changing the local server to the low-priced zone, the price of heroes and skins would be lowered to about one-third of international server;
The local server, IOI, would be working with the local Long Yu Corporation. The Long Yu Corporation would be in charge of the localization of IOI's local server;
In addition, it was said that Finger Games had finally decided to start preparing for the first world finals. Furthermore, the high-level executives of IOI's local server, Chrétien, and Long Yu Corporation were contacting local clubs that still had IOI branches.
When Pei Qian noticed this, the news had already spread like wildfire in the IOI players' circle.
"They actually go exposed so quickly, so poor at secrecy."
"That's not right. It could also be voluntarily released to test players' reactions."
"They could have released some news first without any concrete evidence. If the players' reactions were not adverse, they can stand up and admit it. If the players' reactions are adverse, they could change a relatively conservative plan based on public opinion."
Pei Qian had thought that the news would only be released in another week. He had not expected it to spread so quickly.
Long Yu Corporation was one of the top gaming companies in the country in terms of size. The public relations department was not to be trifled with. Once this news was released, they could definitely suppress it if they wanted to.
However, the news did not stop there. Instead, it spread rapidly.
Pei Qian would not believe that no one was behind this.
The main point was that Tengda was IOI's only competitor in the country. Pei Qian knew very well that it was not Tengda who did it. That meant Finger Games had to do it themselves.
On further thought, this was not a particularly difficult operation.
The reason why Finger Games had decided to make such changes was mainly to get more new players to join them. However, that would definitely change the gaming habits of old players.
Once this was done, they would definitely be scolded. The only question was how badly would they be scolded.
If they could generate popularity while being scolded and cause more new players to fall into the pit, it would be worth it.
Thus, Finger Games decided to release some news that had not been confirmed yet. They would allow the game media to repost it and see how public opinion would react.
If the reaction of public opinion was not too adverse, they could continue to push it; if the reaction was particularly intense, the part that everyone strongly resisted could be temporarily put aside, and only push ahead with a part of it.
To put it bluntly, they were trying their best to leave a way out for themselves through this method. Otherwise, if they were to update the game without any care, and then change it back in the midst of a wave of criticism, they would lose face.
Of course, Pei Qian welcomed these changes with open arms.
A highly resistant and struggling IOI was a good IOI. Otherwise, if GOG continued to expand its market share, wouldn't it be harder to incur losses in the future?
However, the gamers' reaction was different.
Of course, the public opinion online was not one-sided. There were also many players who supported such changes. Both sides were arguing intensely.
"Don't change the gameplay. Is the designer out of his mind? I know you're envious of GOG, but if you change it to something like this, I can just play GOG directly, right?"
"Objection to all changes other than rich map resources! The game would definitely be different after the changes!"
"You people are so hard to please. You were the ones who said that the game was not exciting enough and that there were not enough ways to play it. Now, the game has changed and you are also the ones who are against it. I think this change is quite good. You don't have to be so tired after playing it. If you really want to criticize, you have to wait for the effect of the testing uniform to be out before you criticize, right?"
"Sigh, the IOI in the local server has already gone down the drain. I, a loyal old gamer, no longer have any hopes of it becoming popular. I didn't expect it to become a hot search just because I saw it. Changing it to a low-priced area would indeed allow new gamers to enter the pit. What would happen to us old gamers who had been charged large sums of money?"
"F*ck, the skins that we bought yesterday are going to be depreciated? It would be best if they were cut in half at the waist, and at the worst, only one-third of its value would be left? I'm not asking you not to lower the price, but why are you lowering it so ruthlessly? Are you really not treating old players like humans?"
"You're so hard to please. You make it sound like you old gamers won't benefit from the price reduction. You'll be cheaper buying skins in the future."
"It's said that the foreign websites have exploded. Many people are saying that Finger Games is unfair and that they are sucking up to local players."
"They probably feel imbalanced."
"That's not all. GOG is cheap both domestically and overseas. If not for GOG, Finger Games would not have been criticized by so many people. However, there is a problem with this comparison..."
"Finger Games has finally figured it out. Hurry up and start the global finals! It's not like Dayak Corporation doesn't have money. Don't continue to delay this competition. GOG's first international invitational tournament was completed more than two months ago. GPL would be starting soon! Finger Games is really too slow!"
"Are there still clubs playing IOI in the country? I'm quite suspicious..."
"Yes, yes. I heard that the IOI branches of a few established clubs are still around. I heard that Long Yu Corporation will fork out a sum of money to support these people."
"I think these actions are a good thing. It's obvious that IOI cannot defeat GOG. Not making any changes, would mean a slow death. They might as well take a gamble."
"If they have the ability, unify the local server and the world server. Give all the heroes for free. The skins to be priced lower than GOG's. Burn money to make leagues, promote, and even collect skins for games. Then, you can reward old gamers with exclusive skins or voucher compensation. No one will scold you then! Dayak Corporation is so rich. They should be more than happy to spend money on advertising. Now, you want to take money from the players' pockets and ask them to support you. What the hell?"
"That's right. If you want to expand your market share, you have to sell your own blood. Why are you sucking blood from old players?"
Players with different opinions were arguing online to no rest.
Chapter 758: Strong Alliance
Pei Qian flipped through the comments online and could not help but worry for Finger Games.
"We didn't hire fake reviewers to liven things up. Why are these gamers arguing?"
"The public opinion is not good. What should I do?"
"Why don't I hire some fake reviewers to help Finger Games say a few words on the internet and brag about it to boost their reputation?"
"That won't do. That might be seen as a satire act and might trigger even greater resistance..."
Of course, Pei Qian was on the side of Finger Games from the bottom of his heart. He sincerely hoped that their performance in the local servers and world servers would be more impressive. The greater the threat to GOG, the better.
However, in this situation, Pei Qian could only feel anxious and could not do anything.
If he helped players to scold Finger Games, he would be hitting his opponents and adding insult to injury. If he helped Finger Games to speak up, it would seem like he was being sarcastic and fanning the flames.
No matter how much Pei Qian thought about it, nothing seemed to be appropriate.
Since that was the case, he should remain silent!
There should be no problem if he did not speak up, right?
However, when Pei Qian refreshed the page, he saw another post being uploaded.
"Tengda has not made any comments yet. I wonder what their attitude is?"
"What other attitude could there be? They must be laughing at this joke. They did nothing and IOI self-destructed."
"I don't think so. IOI's market share in the country is almost lower than Gods Rising now. If you were Boss Pei, would you look at such competitors?"
"That's true. GOG is only one of Tengda's businesses. Boss Pei has so many things to worry about. He probably wouldn't take such a small news like this to heart."
"Let's put it another way. GOG's operations team is in great shape. There shouldn't be a problem, right?"
"Yes, that's no problem."
As Pei Qian watched the netizens' discussions, a question mark slowly floated above his head.
?
What did they mean by laughing at them as a joke?
I'm very worried for them!
What did they mean by not taking it to heart?
It's really weighing on my mind!
Pei Qian had been thinking about this matter ever since Lin Wan reported the movements of Finger Games. He was more concerned about it over all other businesses.
The reason why he did not express his stance was because he was afraid that he would accidentally lead the situation to a more unfavorable direction.
It was just like a small flame. Pei Qian wanted to blow it up a little, but he accidentally blew too much and blew it out. What should he do?
In the end, even if he did not express his stance, the netizens had imagined it all in the wrong direction. Pei Qian felt hopeless.
Who could understand Boss Pei's misery?
Pei Qian sighed silently. There was a limit to what he could do now. He could only watch carefully by the side in order to protect the last spark of IOI's domestic server.
...
At the same time, in the headquarters of Long Yu Corporation...
The full name of Long Yu Corporation was Shanghai Long Yu Network Development Co., Ltd.. Its main business included many types of online interactive entertainment content and services. Development and taking on game agencies were one of its main businesses. It was also their main source of income.
However, Long Yu Corporation was also a company with mixed reputation in China.
The games developed by Long Yu Corporation were mainly games with paywalls. Among all the games companies, it was the slowest to transform into a mobile game. However, based on its accumulation in client-side games, it was still ranked at the top of the domestic games industry. It was undoubtedly a huge company.
The reason why they had mixed reviews was because they had developed online games with high paywalls. What's more, they might have made a lot of money, they had also been scolded a lot because of their methods;
At the same time, Long Yu Corporation had produced many successful foreign games. However, many of them had failed in their operations which was because they had given up and used more money to squeeze out the last bucket of gold. That was why they had been scolded many times.
However, in all fairness, Long Yu Corporation was not that bad. In fact, its reputation was much better than that of a 'malignant tumor' company like Dayak Corporation. They had both successes and failures as agents of many games which was not bad when compared to those companies that died with each failed agency.
Many gamers still had expectations for the Longyu Corporation.
There were many reasons why Dayak Corporation and Finger Games chose Long Yu Corporation as the local server's operator.
First, Dayak Corporation decided to look for operators because they realized that they could not handle IOI's localized operations in China.
Finding a local agent, especially a large company with rich financial resources and experience as an agent, was indeed advantageous in localizing operations.
Second, Long Yu Corporation offered the highest price and gave the most concessions among all the other companies. They had the greatest sincerity in Dayak Corporation's view.
When looking for operations companies, different operations companies want different levels of controls.
Dayak Corporation and Finger Games were rather harsh in this aspect. They were still unwilling to give up too much of their control even though they found a representative. Therefore, they were more inclined to choose an operating company like Long Yu Corporation which did not have much power to ask for so much control.
Lastly, there were other considerations. For example, Long Yu Corporation had a ready-made account system that could direct traffic to IOI through their own game. Another example was that the headquarters of IOI was in Shanghai where Long Yu Corporation was situated as well. It was more convenient for timely communication.
No matter what the players thought, Dayak Corporation and Long Yu Corporation were very satisfied with this cooperation.
To Longyu Corporation, IOI might be impacted by GOG in the world, but it was far from losing. It still had a good influence. As for the local server, IOI, it was a good opportunity to get a base.
Long Yu Corporation also needed a good client-side game project to be the focus of its next phase of operations.
Thus, both parties hit it off immediately and valued this cooperation.
At the same time, at the headquarters of Long Yu Corporation, both sides were having a friendly discussion.
Zhao Xuming, Senior Vice-President of Long Yu Corporation, had once been the marketing director of Long Yu Corporation. Due to his outstanding work results, he had been promoted to Vice-President two years ago.
The cooperation between Long Yu Corporation and Dayak Corporation this time was to set up a special IOI operations cooperation department. Zhao Xuming was fully in charge of the operations of IOI and he communicated with Finger Games.
On the other hand, the representative of Finger Games was, of course, Chrétien, who had not been in office for long and was trying his best to facilitate this cooperation.
The content of this meeting was mainly to discuss the operation strategy of IOI's local server, as well as matters related to the first world finals of IOI.
Zhao Xuming smiled. "We have been paying attention to the public opinion on the internet. We don't know much about the public opinion overseas, and we're not in charge of that. However, I can guarantee that it won't be a big problem for local players."
"At the moment, the ones who have the most intense reaction are the veteran gamers. According to our survey data, passerby gamers are still very responsive to these changes.
"Considering that IOI's market share is already very low, our main aim must be to pull more new players into the pit. If we only satisfy old players in everything, and there is not enough fresh blood, then old players will slowly disappear."
"On the other hand, if we serve the new players well, even if the old players curse at us, we would not immediately lose a large number of players because they are more resistant. When more and more new players appear, the old players would naturally become 'hooked' again.
"Of course, we will definitely consider public opinion as well. At the very least, we will look good. For example, some people suggested giving some compensation to old gamers. I think this is a good idea. We should be able to calm public opinion by developing a special skin or commemorative portrait for old gamers."
Chrétien nodded. "Yes, we believe in the capabilities of Boss Zhao and Long Yu Corporation. We can also fully cooperate in developing the skin. Then, what does Boss Zhao plan to do about the world finals?"
Zhao Xuming smiled. "That's easy. GOG's international invitational tournament was held two months earlier than ours. We have already taken the initiative and we have an advantage: we can fully absorb their experience."
"In terms of the prize pool, we have to offer more than them. This is a matter of pride. What's more, it's not bad to use the championship skin as a bonus. We can use it to learn from them. What's more, our skins are more expensive, the prize pool would definitely look better."
Chrétien nodded. "Yes, that's what we thought as well. We don't have to worry about money."
"We were a little tight on cash flow before, but it has eased a lot now. What's more, both our companies are funding it together this time. In terms of resources, there's no reason for us to spend less than Tengda."
"However, what we're worried about now is the problem with the participating teams."
Chrétien added after a slight pause, "There will definitely be no problems in the European and American regions."
Zhao Xuming immediately understood what he meant.
That meant that local clubs and IOI teams were the problematic ones!
That was indeed the case. IOI's market share in the country had been severely squeezed, and there was a lack of base. A while ago, many IOI branch members had been transferred to GOG. Thus, even if the global finals were held, it was still a question of whether there would be enough local teams to participate.
Zhao Xuming quickly said, "Yes, that's what we're worried about too."
"However, according to our investigation, the situation is quite optimistic."
"Eric had previously provided various clubs with a certain amount of subsidies to promote IOI, so some clubs still kept their IOI branches."
"What's more, many of the original IOI players did not integrate well after they changed to GOG. Many of them still wanted to play IOI."
"These people won't be able to play as the main force in GOG's first-tier team. They won't have many chances to play. If they could play IOI's finals, they would be very happy."
"I've already arranged my schedule to contact the local clubs in the next two days. There should be no problems with the team."
"I just hope that the competition can be taken care of. I'll try my best to arrange some weaker opponents for these teams during the group stages. Otherwise, the situation might look bad."
Chrétien nodded. "That's not a problem. However, the performance of these teams cannot be too bad. Otherwise, it would be useless to split them up."
Zhao Xuming smiled. "Of course! I've already sent people to investigate and found some good seedlings. We'll definitely be able to pull out a few teams with decent strength!"
Chapter 759: The Team Has Been Destroyed!
November 26th, Saturday...
Zhao Xuming brought his assistant to SUG Club headquarters in Shanghai.
The GOG branch of the SUG Club was located in Jingzhou, but there were other projects in the headquarters, so it was still in Shanghai.
As for why he had chosen the SUG Club as his first target, it was obviously a result of careful investigation and careful consideration.
Zhao Xuming knew that there was a personal feud between SUG Club and Tengda's Boss Pei!
SUG Club was one of the first established clubs to form a GOG branch and collaborate with Tengda. Their offer was the most generous.
What's more, the SUG had successfully won third place in the international invitational tournament some time ago. They had worked very hard to achieve what they did.
Yet, such a club had been mercilessly kicked out of the GPL league by Boss Pei. They could only play in the secondary league!
Now that the GPL was in full swing of intense preparation. Zhao Xuming would not believe that the boss of the SUG Club, Ding Gan, had no complaints.
What's more, the SUG Club also had a branch of IOI. They had gotten some subsidies from Eric previously, and they also had a contract with the live-stream platform. Thus, they could still afford it.
This time, Zhao Xuming wanted to start with the easiest SUG club. He wanted to make sure that the SUG would be able to help lead the teams in the training competition.
It would not be a joke for them to fight other foreign teams in the world finals.
If they did not compete in the training tournament and directly went up to fight the foreign teams, they would definitely be tortured to the point where they would not be able to find their own way. They would also not be able to drive the popularity of IOI's local server. Time might be tight but it was always good to sharpen their guns at the last minute.
Ding Gan was already waiting at the entrance of the SUG Club.
Ding Gan immediately went up to Zhao Xuming when he got out of the car. "Boss Zhao, welcome, welcome!"
Seeing how passionate Ding Gan was towards him, Zhao Xuming was initially elated. He felt that today's matter would most likely succeed. However, on closer inspection, he felt that Ding Gan's gaze was a little evasive.
What was going on?
Zhao Xuming was too embarrassed to ask further. He could only take it as his own illusion.
"Boss Ding! Hello, hello. This is..." Zhao Xuming looked at a lady who looked to be in her thirties and was dressed formally.
Ding Gan said, "Oh, this is our club's manager, Manager Yang."
Manager Yang smiled. "Hello, Boss Zhao. Please take care of me."
Zhao Xuming was a little confused. "Eh, isn't your club's manager someone with the surname Li? Did I remember wrongly?"
Ding Gan smiled awkwardly. "Oh, you must have found the information online, right? We just had some personnel changes recently..."
Realization dawned on Zhao Xuming. "Oh, I'm sorry! My news might be delayed."
Ding Gan smiled and said, "It's alright. Let's not stand here and do nothing. Let's go in and talk, shall we? Please come in!"
Zhao Xuming and Ding Gan walked into the club while chatting and laughing. Manager Yang led the assistant and chauffeur that Zhao Xuming had brought along to receive them.
Both parties took their seats in the conference room.
Zhao Xuming took a sip of his tea and exchanged a few pleasantries. He felt that he could get straight to the point.
There was no need to keep them in suspense about something that was almost certain. There was no reason for the SUG Club to reject it.
Zhao Xuming had limited time. He had to focus on convincing the other clubs.
At that thought, Zhao Xuming said, "Boss Ding, to be honest, I have good news!"
"Currently, Finger Games is preparing for IOI's world finals. What's more, they place a lot of emphasis on the domestic market. That's why they will give some slots to the local teams this time. There was an IOI branch in SUG to begin with. This time, I went against everyone's wishes and convinced the upper echelons of Finger Games to give the club a slot."
At this point, Zhao Xuming lowered his voice. "This is confidential information, please don't spread it."
Ding Gan quickly nodded. "Of course."
Zhao Xuming continued, "This is my thoughts. The current IOI branch of the SUG Club is quite complete, and the members are more experienced. We'll consider letting the SUG Club take the lead and organize a training tournament."
"As for the other clubs, we will talk to them one by one. However, the teams of these clubs might still need to be strengthened and adjusted. Thus, we might need Boss Ding and Manager Yang to be on the ball for organizing the training tournament."
"What do you think?"
Zhao Xuming had thought that Ding Gan would agree to it. He did not expect Ding Gan to look at Manager Yang awkwardly.
Zhao Xuming's heart sank. He had a bad feeling.
However, he was very confused. What else could happen?
Would Ding Gan reject such a good opportunity to organize a training competition to enter the IOI World Finals?
Ding Gan looked a little awkward. "Boss Zhao, we are very grateful that you have helped us fight for such a precious opportunity. However, I'm afraid that organizing the training tournament... will be a little difficult. That's because our IOI branch... has only three members left... for now."
"If only you had come two days earlier."
Zhao Xuming's jaw dropped. "Huh?"
How could the IOI branch only have three members left?
Most of these people had thought of switching to GOG before, but they had not done so because the professional gamers at GOG were already saturated. If they went to compete, they would not be able to obtain good results or bonuses.
On the other hand, IOI had at least some meager subsidies to ensure the basic lives of these players.
What were the players doing then? Not playing professionals anymore?
That didn't make sense. The branch was still there. What would happen to the penalty fees if they left?
Ding Gan quickly explained, "Boss Zhao, this is the situation."
"Originally, the members of the IOI branch would play live-streams and occasionally arrange for training competitions. Recently, the training competitions have become more and more difficult to arrange. That's because very few clubs have retained the IOI branch. They have all transferred to GOG."
"A few days ago, several GOG clubs suddenly came over, saying that they wanted to buy players from IOI's branch. They were also willing to pay the transfer fee, which was much higher than their current salary."
"The players are all very tempted. We respected their wishes and... let them go."
After being stunned for two seconds, Zhao Xuming suddenly realized something.
This is bad!
GOG had just formed a GPL some time ago. All the teams were frantically fighting for players. More than ten teams had been formed therefore the demand for players had increased exponentially.
While the members of IOI were more proficient in IOI, there would always be a few players with talent for GOG. In the past, there were few spots and no teams wanted them. However, now that the quota had been expanded, there would be teams that wanted these players with professional experience and talent.
Zhao Xuming had neglected this point partly because he had been busy negotiating with Finger Games previously and had no time to care about these clubs. On the other hand, it was also because when the GPL Club was just established, it did not show any intention of poaching IOI players.
He did not expect IOI's team to be torn down after just a few days!
Zhao Xuming had originally thought that if there was still a complete IOI team in the SUG, they would not need to spend any more time to form a team. They could take the lead and organize a training competition. They should be able to obtain a relatively good ranking in the international competition.
However, now that two members had been poached, there was no more hope!
IOI was a five-person game after all. A lack of people meant that they had to recruit new people and work together again. The impact was too great.
When Zhao Xuming first arrived, he was filled with excitement and confidence. In the end, he was splashed with cold water.
Ding Gan was a little embarrassed as well. He quickly said, "It's alright, Boss Zhao. We'll start recruiting immediately. If it really doesn't work out, we can spend money to buy people from other clubs. We'll definitely reassemble the team as soon as possible!"
At first, Ding Gan did not think too much about it. He just felt that there was no point in keeping the IOI branch. Since there was no competition, he could still earn a sum of money by selling them to GOG's club. It did not matter even if he sold them.
However, the IOI World Finals had been delivered right to his doorstep right on the heels of selling his players. How could he explain this?
After a moment of silence, Zhao Xuming nodded. "Alright."
What else could he say? The players had already been sold. They could not possibly pay the breach of contract to buy them back, right? That would be a huge loss.
The main reason was that these players were now very valuable. The transfer fee was also much more expensive. Wouldn't they be making a huge loss this time?
Ding Gan would rather buy the IOI team members from other clubs than buy his own team members back.
However, Zhao Xuming was worried that since GOG clubs had started to buy IOI members on a large scale, they were probably not only buying from SUG.
What if IOI teams from other clubs were also torn apart?
Was he going to use the existing teams to create two or three teams that could compete in the international competition, or was he going to find new players purely based on luck?
Zhao Xuming suddenly had an ominous feeling. He felt that his mission might look simple but it was not that easy to achieve.
Tengda's mastermind had tentacles that extended far beyond his imagination!
"Could this be part of Boss Pei's plan?"
Zhao Xuming suddenly shuddered.