Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

April 27th, Wednesday…

At Shang Yang Games…

Pei Qian made a special trip to Shang Yang Games with the intention to learn a little about the current situation in the promotion of the IOI domestic server. Pei Qian had handed over this task to Lin Wan at the beginning of the month with full confidence.

The current momentum of IOI abroad could be said to be advancing by leaps and bounds. It would only be a matter of time before the domestic server and international servers become the masters of games.

Pei Qian had been helping Lin Wan in the dark as well.

Hu Xianbin anxiously sought Boss Pei out, in hopes to increase their manpower as a countermeasure to IOI's crazy update plan. It was declined by Boss Pei.

"It should be enough to help them out just a little with the ability of Shang Yang Games and Lin Wan, right?"

Pei Qian was fully aware of the principle of 'in the world of kung fu, speed defines the winner.' In his memory, Finger Games had embarked on this path, and the effect would definitely be immediate.

Pei Qian could not be said to be pleased. He would make profits no matter whether it was GOG or IOI gaining popularity. He only felt that this world was now operating in the right way and was developing in the direction that he wanted. He was secretly happy about that.

The staff realized that he was here immediately when he reached the office.

"Boss Pei!"

"Boss Pei, what are you doing here?"

"Please take a seat."

"Apologies, we are busy publishing new heroes."

The office seemed to be pretty busy. Ye Zhizhou, Wang Xiaobin, and the others were busy with their own affairs. They only took the time to greet Pei Qian before continuing typing away at their computers.

Pei Qian did not take it to heart. "I just came over to take a look. Continue your work."

Lin Wan came out of her office with a document in her hand. She seemed to be on fire. "Rewrite the official announcement again. I've circled out a few places that I feel uncomfortable with.

"Also, I must emphasize that this is the first time the domestic server and international server would be synchronized. We are no longer playing with the old version of the world server. That is very important!

"…Boss Pei, what are you doing here?"

Lin Wan looked a little surprised since Boss Pei did not frequent Shang Yang Games.

Boss Pei might have guided Shang Yang Games often, but it was usually when they encountered some huge difficulties and were asking for advice. Boss Pei would only say a few words and give hints. Whether one could understand or not would depend on his own ability to comprehend.

It was rare for him to come personally like how he did today.

Pei Qian could not help but smile looking at Lin Wan's current posture. He was very satisfied. Yes, she had matured quickly from the newbie who knew nothing to someone who could run a department. An excellent designer!

Lin Wan should be able to prove her own ability and return to Shenhua to inherit the family business when IOI became a global hit, right?

There might be a serious deviation from the script he had in mind, but the results were the same.

With that being said, Lin Wan should be one of the rare ones in the company whose hard work did not cause any discomfort to Boss Pei.

"No problem, I'm just here to understand the current situation with IOI's domestic server," Pei Qian said.

Lin Wan nodded. "Okay, Boss Pei, please follow me to the guest room. I'll give you a brief update."

Pei Qian: "Do your work first."

Lin Wan smiled. "No problem. The work has been arranged. Moreover, the reporting will only take a few minutes."

Pei Qian nodded and followed Lin Wan to the guest room.

"Boss Pei, we have found the trump card of our rival, GOG, shortly after receiving the task of operating the IOI domestic server. That is their update speed.

"Therefore, our operation model is mainly to cooperate with Finger Games to integrate the promotion of new heroes and the game.

"Take this promotion for example. Finger Games gave a new hero, 'Bloodthirsty Lonely Shadow Sharag', a two-form werewolf.

"Finger Games provided a promotional animation for this hero. We have updated it to the client of the domestic server login. We've also bought some video and website advertising space to promote this new hero.

"The publicity offensive for the new hero will be held every two weeks. That could ensure the popularity of IOI could always maintain a higher position.

"At the same time, we are competing with Finger Games, asking them to seriously consider the situation of the domestic server.

"We'll have the same version for both the domestic and international servers once the domestic server vetting is done. A major shortcoming of IOI would be filled up this way!

"GOG will probably not be able to come out with new heroes if there are no accidents. That means there will definitely be more people who would switch to IOI due to the new updates.

"Boss Pei, you said that we have to go all out so we had absolutely no mercy for GOG!"

Pei Qian could not help but nod after the briefing.

Good, reliable!

It was really the most effective for the staff in Shang Yang Games, especially Lin Wan, to stab GOG—which had been stabbing me in the back!

Pei Qian did not have a deep understanding of IOI's domestic server situation before. He discovered that Shang Yang Games had done a lot of work in less than a month after listening to Lin Wan's report!

Not only did they complete the most basic server launch, maintenance, and version update; they also facilitated the synchronization of the versions of the domestic and international servers. They had also seized the upper hand due to the slow update of GOG heroes.

Perfect!

Pei Qian could not help but nod slightly. "Good job. However, you must not let your guard down. Guard against arrogance and rashness, understood?"

It was not like he thought of some way for GOG to counter this. He simply felt, from experience, that things would not be so simple.

He had too much experience fighting with these people after all. He knew that they were best at counterattacks when pushed to the wall. They always suddenly turned the tables over when Boss Pei thought everything was 'set'.

Lin Wan nodded. "Of course! Boss Pei, I feel that the battle with GOG will be a long-drawn one. I only have 50% confidence until now."

Pei Qian was a little speechless. "50% confidence?"

It should not be so low even in prudency, right? It should be at least 70%.

Lin Wan was stunned for a moment. "Why, Boss Pei, am I overestimating it? Do you think that we do not even have a 50% chance?"

"Uh…" Pei Qian was speechless. They were not on the same frequency again.

Why was there no tacit understanding between my staff and me?

Pei Qian was about to explain when an urgent knock came from outside the guest room.

Lin Wan was taken aback for a moment before looking at Pei Qian. Pei Qian nodded, signaling she could open the door. Lin Wan walked hurriedly to the door and found Ye Zhizhou on the opposite side of it.

"Not good, GOG has updated their official website!" Ye Zhizhou's face was solemn as if he was facing a huge enemy.

Pei Qian's mind was filled with question marks.

?

Updated their official website?

It was just an update on the official website, not the game itself; what was all the fuss about?

A simple update on the official website could not possibly overwhelm the popularity of new heroes on IOI, right?

It couldn't be.

Lin Wan and Pei Qian came to the office with doubts and looked at Ye Zhizhou's computer.

That was where they saw the title of the event written in huge artistic characters in an eye-catching position. "GOG online creative community, every player is a hero designer!"

There was also a small line of text at the bottom. "If the idea is adopted, you will be able to get 5% of the profits of the skin of the hero as an indefinite cash reward!"

There were many rules for the event, including the opening of special sections on the official website. Players could contribute and participants could vote for the submissions, so that the website would have regular traction.

Ye Zhizhou apparently just discovered it. His face was serious. "Min Jingchao really has his ideas! I did not expect him to use this method to dip into the creativity of the players!

"They would be able to save a lot of creative work this way and directly choose according to the players' preferences. The design team will only work on the production which will save a lot of time!

"That's not all. This event seems to have caused an uproar among the GOG players because the rewards are so generous!

"You will be able to get rewards as long as you participate in this forum regardless of whether your idea was adopted or not! Even an enthusiastic onlooker would be able to benefit!

"GOG might not have launched any new heroes, but the attention of the players had been completely taken away by this event!

"I'm afraid it would be difficult to grab the players' attention away from this situation even if our new hero, 'Bloodthirsty Lonely Shadow' is published…"

Lin Wan's expression became serious as well.

"I see… what a wonderful counterattack. As expected, our greatest enemies are our own people.

"This way, they would be able to fully use the players' wisdom to speed up the production of new heroes; they could also use a portion of the profit to tie the players to the GOG game to prevent them from rebelling.

"Most importantly, this method will only work if you have a large enough player base. The GOG occupied the dominant position in terms of numbers in the previous competition.

"They did not launch any new heroes, simply made an event page, and announced it on mobile and PC clients. It immediately aroused the players' emotions…

"Can we also…?" Ye Zhizhou asked a little indignantly.

Lin Wan shook her head. "We cannot. We cannot intervene in the research and development of Finger Games. Finger Games will probably not adopt it even if we solicit enough opinion.

"What's more, we are only operating it. The pricing strategy has to be about the same as the international server. It is difficult to give players such generous rewards. Naturally, there will be no way to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of the players.

"We thought we found GOG's Achilles' heel, but I didn't expect them to have found IOI's Achilles' heel instead…

"I heard that Li Yada abdicated; Hu Xianbin was busy making new games. I never thought that Min Jingchao would be so difficult to deal with.

"It seemed like we underestimated the enemy. Everyone in the Tengda Games could face the enemy alone. No newcomer being promoted to a designer should be underestimated…

"Boss Pei, no wonder you think that my current chances are less than 50%." Lin Wan looked at Pei Qian and said with emotion.

"Indeed, GOG's move reduced our odds of winning to about 40%. Sure enough, any wrong step in the exchange of blows with masters meant that it would be very difficult to catch up from behind later on."

Boss Pei simply blinked without any additional expression.

Lin Wan could not help but show a dazing expression. "Boss Pei, were you mentally prepared since you expected that they would adopt such a strategy?"

Pei Qian: "…"

Question marks started floating above Pei Qian's head after reacting a few seconds later.

"???"

What the heck was this!

Pei Qian did not have much expression, not because he was calm, but because everything happened so suddenly that his brain did not have the capacity to keep up.

So…

Tengda Games figured out a way to let players create their heroes because I did not let them recruit more people?

Shameless!

Not using their own brains to design the heroes but siphoning creativity from players. Was there still any law and order?

Finger Games were seriously designing heroes while you guys just decided to copy!

Shameless!

Pei Qian almost trembled with anger. It felt as though he was warming up for a marathon when the athlete beside him suddenly hopped on a motorcycle to speed off.

They might be giving players some profits, but that was just a portion of the profits and would be of no help in making losses!

Wait, giving players profits?

Pei Qian suddenly realized that he seemed to have overlooked the most crucial piece of information.

"Wait, what did you say the highest reward for the adoption of the hero was?"