Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian felt a little faint.

What did 'empty spaces' mean? Wasn't it an ordinary interview? Why were they playing so many tricks?

He quickly scrolled down.

The documentary's feature displayed various scenes around Jingzhou first.

"This was the author's first time in Jingzhou. The author never had much of an impression of the city. He knew that this was the provincial capital of Handong Province.

"He thought that as an ordinary second-tier city, Jingzhou would not have many booming businesses, famous and reputable historical sites, or large-scale enterprises. However, once he got to know Jingzhou's local environment and people, the author's view of the city took a 180-degree turn.

"Simply put, tradition and creativity coexist beautifully in Jingzhou.

"Like a sprout growing out of an old tree, the city makes one appreciate rich history coupled with modern innovations at the same time. The city contains several historical sites that hint at its long history. At the same time, it contains up and coming companies that display thriving vitality.

"These historical sites are neither famous nor reputable, and these up and coming companies are not huge. However, they are both new and old, stable and risky, conservative and innovative—all at once. They've found a place for themselves in the heart of the city.

"As the saying goes, each place has its way of supporting its inhabitants.

"One can easily see Jingzhou's shadow in Tengda.

"Sometimes, it appears conservative and steady. It has invested in many traditional industries like the physical and logistics industries. It remains humble and continually changes people's lives, starting from the smallest details.

"Other times, it appears extreme and innovative. It has created bold and imaginative games that do not fit the mold, never failing to shock players.

"The Jingzhou spirit has given birth to a unique business like Tengda. In a little over a year, the business has developed and expanded rapidly, leaving other companies that have been resting on their laurels far behind."

Immediately after this, pictures of Tengda's business appeared. This included the office, employees, work, meal times, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, and the like.

"The thing that sets Tengda apart from most other companies in Jingzhou is the assurance of the best work environment and remuneration. In fact, people might begin to question if the employees are being overpaid.

"However, the facts have shown that these generous working conditions have inspired the employees to work hard and be creative. This contributed to Tengda's rapid development and success."

One could say that this introduction had completely bound Tengda and Jingzhou together. On the surface, the author seemed to be praising Jingzhou. However, he was in fact praising Tengda.

Pei Qian had to admit that Chief Editor Xia had not toured Jingzhou in vain when they landed!

A lot of the footage showed Jingzhou's landmarks. Although the video's introduction was not long, it almost completely covered Jingzhou's conditions and customs. If someone had taken the same footage and made it into an advertisement for the city, nobody would have suspected a thing.

Pei Qian remained calm even after watching this because he had already expected such praise.

The only thing that worried him was that the video had exposed Tengda's treatment of its employees.

Of course, Pei Qian knew that he could not keep this hidden for long. Jingzhou's working-class circle was only so big, and Tengda had so many employees. He could not possibly stop everyone from showing off their benefits and remuneration to others.

However, no matter how word got out in the past, the information was kept within Jingzhou.

With this video from the official platform, Pei Qian feared that hoards of talents from other cities would fly to Jingzhou and apply for a job at Tengda.

Yet, Pei Qian maintained the same response. He would leave the next cycle's problems until then to resolve.

He scrolled down some more.

The next segment contained interviews with Tengda's employees.

Before the interviews started, there was a brief introduction of Huang Sibo and his resume. He had once worked as an administrative planner in another game company in Jingzhou City;

Once he joined Tengda Games, an exception was made for him; and he was immediately given the position of chief planner. He was put in charge of the research and development of Ocean Stronghold.

He later established Fei Huang Workspace and worked together with Director Zhu Xiaoce to shoot a short film entitled 'Boss Pei's Daily Life', a documentary entitled 'Coming Out of the Cocoon as a Butterfly', and a show entitled 'A Day in a Great Inventor's Life'.

This resume looked very colorful and impressive.

One had to understand that ordinary game designers would boast endlessly after creating just one popular game. Some might even earn truckloads of money from that one game, enough to last them a lifetime.

Yet, not only had Huang Sibo researched and developed Ocean Stronghold—a classic, domestically-produced FPS game; but he also founded Fei Huang Workspace and produced many short videos that were universally appreciated and became hot topics of discussion.

He had achieved so much success after crossing over. Anyone would be able to tell that he was a desirable talent!

What's more, all his achievements on his resume had been accomplished in a little over a year. That was even more shocking.

After scanning Huang Sibo's resume, Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief.

That's not bad. They've made Huang Sibo and his achievements the focus of the interview.

This was completely within Boss Pei's expectations!

There was an interview video under the resume. Pei Qian clicked on it.

The video showed Huang Sibo and Xia Jiang seated at two ends of a couch. Xia Jiang asked questions, and Huang Sibo answered them in turn.

"We all know that you're an old employee of Tengda. The company had probably not been established for long before you joined. Can you tell us why you joined a company like that back then?" Xia Jiang asked, smiling.

Huang Sibo pondered for a second, and then answered, "Very early on, I did odd jobs at another game company in Jingzhou…"

Huang Sibo briefly explained how he ended up working at Tengda.

Xia Jiang then asked a few more targeted questions. One of these was why Tengda chose Huang Sibo over Old Liu, who used to be the chief planner at Huang Sibo's previous workplace. Apart from that, Xia Jiang also asked why Tengda's work environment was so good for a new company, why Tengda initiated Huang Sibo's pay raise and gave him double of what he earned before…

Pei Qian did not have any problems as he listened to the interview.

After all, Huang Sibo was telling the truth!

However, Pei Qian realized that there was a crafty look in Xia Jiang's eyes and that he looked triumphant every time Huang Sibo answered his questions. For some reason, Pei Qian felt like something was amiss.

He continued watching, and Xia Jiang's problem became more obvious. The latter asked about the inspiration and thought process behind Ocean Stronghold, their advertising methods, why Huang Sibo left Tengda after Ocean Stronghold achieved success, and so on…

Huang Sibo answered all of these questions truthfully.

"Actually, before we started working on Ocean Stronghold, we had a general framework for it. From the beginning, we decided that this would be an FPS game with a heavy focus on the story mode, would take care of new gamers' feelings, and would sell epic weapons for 888 yuan.

"In fact, in the beginning, I thought that this wouldn't work out."

Xia Jiang egged Huang Sibo on at the right moment. "Why not?"

Huang Sibo smiled and explained, "From a more traditional perspective, all three of these things looked risky.

"No local FPS game had ever created a story mode. A few overseas FPS games had story modes, but they could not acclimatize to the local market once they were imported.

"What's more, many local designers saw creating story modes as an arduous and unrewarding task. It involved high investments and low returns, and it would turn out inefficient and unimpressive.

"At the time, FPS games were seen as competitive games. Developers wanted to make them as hardcore as possible and appeal to veteran gamers as much as possible. They ran the risk of players despising the game if they lowered the difficulty.

"As for selling the epic weapon at 888 yuan… many people must have thought that we were just dying to earn money, hahaha."

Huang Sibo sniggered. "Honestly, I thought so as well. After all, my mindset was deeply influenced by traditional ways of game design."

Xia Jiang nodded, expressing his agreement with Huang Sibo's words. "Indeed. However, Ocean Stronghold turned out to be a success. It proved that the general direction was correct."

Huang Sibo nodded as well. "That's right."

At that point, the conversation ended. Neither of them revealed who came up with the game's framework. Instead, they began to talk about another topic.

"The game's advertising method… you weren't sure about it at first, right?"

…

The more Pei Qian watched, the more uncomfortable he felt.

Xia Jiang's questions were deviating from the main point!

You should be asking about Huang Sibo's responsibilities as an administrative planner, the difficulties that he faced, and how he managed to overcome obstacles by discussing and cooperating with his colleagues!

Why do you keep asking Huang Sibo about things he was not even in charge of?

Pei Qian continued watching.

…

"After Ocean Stronghold was completed, you left Tengda Games. Can you briefly tell us about that?" Xia Jiang asked again.

Huang Sibo smiled, embarrassed. "Honestly, I didn't leave of my own accord."

Xia Jiang responded, "Hmm?"

Huang Sibo became emotional. "When Ocean Stronghold was released, I was over the moon. You could say that I became filled with lofty ambitions.

"After all, I went from being an administrative planner who did odd jobs in one games company, straight to being a chief planner. I even managed to produce such a popular game. In such a short period, I achieved so much. All the success got to my head.

"At the time, I was prepared to give my entire life to creating games.

"If I was in another game company, I probably would have been given more heavy responsibilities and put in charge of research and development of another game."

Xia Jiang nodded subtly. "But none of these happened at Tengda."

Huang Sibo smiled. "That's right. Even now, as I look back on that day, it feels like a dream to me. At the time, the entire project team was celebrating the success of Ocean Stronghold. I was also fulfilling my daily responsibilities as I was used to.

"All of a sudden, I was notified that there was going to be a selection for the most outstanding employee in the company. It was a blur, but I was selected."

"It was then that I realized what the prizes for the most outstanding employee were. I was rewarded with a trophy, a certificate, and a Dream Fund of a million yuan!

"I could use the Dream Fund of a million yuan to chase my dreams and visit any country I wanted!"