He was caught in a fix.
Pei Qian pondered over it for a long time, before deciding to price the game slightly lower than average.
This was because the special characteristic of Game Designer was that gamers could achieve “Cloud Clearance”1!
As long as content creators recorded themselves playing this game, the Cloud Players1 would fully experience the game on these video websites. Then, they would not have such a great urge to buy the game.
In other words, the main group of people who would buy the games would be hardcore gamers.
These would be people like video UP Masters, anchorwomen, and gamers who were passionate for domestically-produced standalone games. This group of people would not be price-sensitive. Whether a game was priced at thirty yuan or ninety yuan would make no real difference to them. If they wanted to play it, they would buy it.
As for people like Cloud Players who were used to getting the gaming experience for free—no matter how low the price was, it would not be lower than zero yuan.
Thus, after taking everything into consideration, pricing the game at twenty-eight yuan was best. That was the lowest price the System would allow Pei Qian to set.
Given that the target audience was more or less set, the low price would ensure that Pei Qian earned less!
This price caused some people in the company to worry. They were afraid that they would not be able to recover their capital. However, after Pei Qian shot down all of their suggestions, he finalized the price.
Pei Qian hoped that this game’s descriptors would be: huge investment, cool backgrounds, vastly popular, and dismal sales!
Until now, Game Designer’s main investment was in its art resources. They poured more than two million yuan in the art resources. Together with all the other expenses, they spent a total of about three million yuan on creating the game.
Ruan Guangjian gave them discounts, but he was only in charge of the animation design. Tengda still had to pay other people to create the actual animations, backgrounds, and models.
After adding in all the other expenses for the game, they had to sell more than three hundred thousand copies of it before they would be able to profit!
Pei Qian was quite confident that they would not be able to reach that volume of sales.
He could accept the fact that a small group of people among the gamers were masochists. However, there could not possibly be three hundred thousand masochists among them, right?
…
At the same time that the game was published, Qiao Liang uploaded his video.
After he finished, Qiao Liang immediately logged off the Potato Web platform. He switched off notifications on his fans’ chatting platforms and set his cell phone to silent mode. In a single breath, he had gone into isolation mode!
At once, he sent the link to the video to Lu Mingliang. A while later, they sent the money over. Now that the money was in his account, Qiao Liang heaved a long sigh of relief.
Perfect!
He was now in full ostrich-mode. He did not care that chaos was going to follow. Since the money was in his account, he could play for two months before paying attention to any of this! Even if he got scolded upside down, everything will blow over in two months. He would act as if nothing had happened. Teacher Qiao was still a good man.
…
Not long after Qiao Liang posted his video, his fans received a notification recommending it. In just ten minutes, the fans’ moods were vastly overturned. They were very hurt!
At first, when they saw that Teacher Qiao had just uploaded a new video, they were overjoyed. When they saw that it was posted under New Recommended Games of the Month, their excitement halved. That was because they knew that this was the segment he used for sponsored partnerships; the videos there were not very interesting. A portion of the fans felt bored so they clicked the notification to watch the video.
Then, their three points-of-views [3. This is a Chinese, online slang representing one’s values, life philosophy, and worldview.] were shredded to bits! The entire video contained only recordings of a certain game. The game looked very beautiful; there was nothing worth criticizing.
However, the voice-over and contents of the narration could only be described with four words: intolerable to the ears!
“My dear daddies, greetings. I’m the same old Godfather of Games you guys know me as—Teacher Qiao. Before I begin this video, would you—dear daddies—please allow me to calm myself down? Slurp, slurp, slurp… ah…
“Everyone, the game that you are looking at now… do you see its creator? Tengda! Tengda Games has published a new game. Now, I want to start by showing all of you the images from this game…
“Sorry, everyone, I’m a little incoherent. Uh-oh, ladies and gentlemen, the very first time1…
“I haven’t felt this way in a couple of years. I’ve waited for this game for so long. At 3:11 AM, Tengda Games’ research and development team sent these video materials to me online. Its name is Game Designer. G-A-M-E, game, game designer!
“Awesome!”
…
Many fans of Teacher Qiao were stunned. Their mouths were stuck in an ‘O’ shape until they finished the video. The video was not long; it lasted ten minutes at most. However, the style of the video was very different from the rest of Teacher Qiao’s videos. It looked like it was made by a completely different person!
In the past, although the videos under the New Recommended Games of the Month were all done for sponsors, Teacher Qiao still put in effort for them. He did an introduction that matched the style of each game. He spoke coherently and smoothly in the videos. He did these videos for sponsors so he emphasized the games’ good points and skimmed through their bad points. However, the videos were still full of content and interesting.
What the hell was this video all about?
Strangely, he was using English words mixed with Mandarin. He was even using a tone that disgusted the viewers. He was praising this game to no end, and not mentioning a single bad point about it. What’s more, he was saying useless things. It was almost as if he could not find anything good to say about the game in reality.
The most important thing was that even after watching the entire video, they could not find anything of value. Everything was pointless. It was a pure waste of time! Apart from disgusting people to the core, this video served no purpose.
After watching the video, many fans could not accept the cruel reality.
“Teacher Qiao, if you were kidnapped, blink! Oh, you’re not showing your face. That’s alright.”
“What is this? It’s fine if you’re being sarcastic, but how awful can this be?!”
“Turn away, turn away!”
“Suck-ups deserve to die!”
“I shouldn’t have clicked this video after seeing that it was posted under New Recommended Games of the Month.”
“What’s the meaning of this? Is this an April Fool’s joke? En, it’s April 1st. I guess that’s it!”
“I cannot tell from his tone whether he is being sarcastic or for real…”
“If you cannot tell whether he is being sarcastic or just stupid, always take it that he’s being stupid!”
“I counted. In this ten-minute video, you said ‘uh-oh’ more than thirty times. I’m very bored, and you’re a suck-up!”
“Uh-oh, awesome. This is my own moment!”
“It’s hard to believe the amount of money this Teacher Qiao—who has played countless games before—received before he agreed to make a sponsored video like that…”
“I’m beginning to doubt that he is getting paid for this video at all. Wouldn’t the big client get disgusted, seeing him suck up to this extent?”
“The key thing was… he was publicizing Tengda Games! From The Lonely Desert Road to the current Game Designer… I’m stunned. What happened between Tengda and Teacher Qiao…?”
“Was the game-dissing UP Master defeated with the evil games company’s money? I can’t he
lp but picture what happened between them in my head!”
“Tengda seemed to have really published a new game today… called Game Designer. There’s a 99.99% chance that Teacher Qiao was paid to do this!”
“Is it really Tengda’s game? Is it the same company that published Ghost General and Ocean Stronghold? This… why is their marketing strategy so lousy? Or was Teacher Qiao sucking up on his own?”
“After watching this video, I was determined never to touch this rubbish game. However, after seeing that it’s Tengda’s game, I feel the urge to try it out. What should I do?”
“Don’t do it! You know that it’s sh*t; why would you eat it? Why do you hate yourself so much?!”
“I’m the exact opposite. I really want to see what kind of game could make my son suck up to this extent!”
Chapter 115 - A Very Unhappy Teacher Qiao
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Teacher Qiao’s fans were all stunned; they couldn’t believe this video! However, they had no choice but to accept; they could not find Teacher Qiao anymore.
They couldn’t tag Teacher Qiao in their fans’ chatting platforms while Teacher Qiao did not reply to any private messages. The individuals who managed Teacher Qiao and had his number tried to call it but realized the call could not be connected.
Evidently, this was akin to beating a fast retreat and becoming a scaredy-cat.
All the fans were flummoxed to the point of anger, from anger to disappointment, and from disappointment to becoming calm again… where they suddenly became quiet. Teacher Qiao’s bizarre act was indeed worth praising; it had given this April’s Fools Day an additional color.
However, everyone soon realized that this wasn’t the end!
On the various established video websites, many content creators all started to do recommendation videos for Game Designer! Furthermore, these videos were rather disgusting. There was a difference in them. However, this difference was only restricted to the caption of the video, the editing technique, and artistic resources used… as well as the content creator’s voice.
All the videos’ wording was the same: it was a mixture of Chinese and English; even slurping and gulping sounds could be heard!
All the fans who watched these videos broke down.
What the heck was this?!
Although these were content creators with a certain amount of influence, they had actually traversed gaming, otomad, lifestyle, digital, technological; all various areas. It covered a huge array of aspects. Furthermore, their captions were all different; one might accidentally click on one of these videos!
Once players clicked and saw the familiar starting picture, their hearts would instantly skip a beat, having a premonition about what was going to happen.
Indeed, after each content creator’s standard opening line, the sponsored partnership advertisement would start in-your-face!
“Its name is Game Designer. G-A-M-E, game, game designer!”
“Awesome1!”
After seeing two or three consecutive videos of the same thing, many people realized that they had been brainwashed. Their brains were filled with ‘Uh-oh, awesome, slurp, gulp’…
All these content creators also—without exception—chose to disappear immediately and act dead. Of course, they would! Once this video was out—knowing that they were going to be scolded bloody, who dared to stand out and withstand the fury of their fans?
They could only let their fans vent in the comments section and wait for things to subside; they would then act as if nothing had happened.
Indeed, just as Pei Qian had predicted, all these sponsored partnership videos had been criticized badly!
All these sponsored partnerships had very low viewership while the comments sections could not be looked at. Once many people clicked into the advertisements and saw how badly things were going in the comments section, they would not bother to watch it anymore!
…
In the office…
Pei Qian was scrolling through the sponsored partnerships videos as he checked on the response from viewers and viewership.
En, everything was according to his plan!
He had spent so much money finding so many content creators. These advertising videos had been cast aside by the viewers, and viewership couldn’t increase by much. It didn’t even achieve any positive publicity at all.
This was great!
Restricting the content of what all these creators could say had been a good idea! Pei Qian knew that all these content creators were very talented. If he allowed them to use their brain juices freely, what would happen if another The Lonely Desert Road success came along?
Hence, he had decided that everyone would use the same script; he was not going to let them bring any positive feelings to gamers. Pei Qian was very pleased; half of his plan was already a success!
Next would be to see the response from gamers!
…
In a rented apartment…
Qiao Liang lay on his bed as he looked at the tens of missed calls on his cell phone; he felt a little lost, and that life held no meaning. Ah, it was indeed hard to make black-hearted money1!
He didn’t even dare to open his fans chatting platform. Even if he used his legs to think, he knew what the situation would be like in them. The more he thought about it, the more he felt he had suffered a loss and the angrier he became.
Ah! He regretted it so badly!
Ten thousand yuan was indeed a very generous offer; it had actually blinded him. He had thought that earning this ten thousand yuan from a sponsored video would make himself happy. However, after Qiao Liang lay in bed for a long time, he did not feel that way at all.
Even when he played games, those felt meaningless; also, cup noodles no longer smelled that good.
Could this be… the unsettling feeling from taking on this lousy job just for commission?
After considering it for a long while, Qiao Liang got up from his bed as he switched on his computer and downloaded Game Designer.
“I need to know clearly today what I have done! My reputation as Teacher Qiao has been ruined; I need to at least know clearly who the murderer was, right?”
He spent twenty-eight yuan and bought Game Designer. Although he had accepted Game Designer’s beautiful artistic style and material, Tengda had never sent out this game’s demo.
Pei Qian did not want to send the demo to the content creators.
He had already written the script for the video; as long as the content creators had a few pictures and clips, they could more or less piece together a video. Why did they need a demo?
If they gave a demo and started to play the game themselves, it would be very awkward if they used their superior editing techniques to dilute the ‘sponsored partnerships’ feeling of the videos!
Hence, Teacher Qiao actually didn’t know himself what the game was like. With a burning desire to find out, Teacher Qiao entered the game and started to play it.
…
…
As it was his first time entering the game, he had not entered the main selection page but had immediately entered the game itself. Rather surprisingly, before the game had even appeared on the screen, a voice-over had rung out first.
“This is a story about a game designer. You are an up-and-coming game designer; you have the ambition of rescuing the domestic game industry.
“Your tasks are simple: rack your brains to think of an idea, make it into a game that would stun laymen, and be the envy of your peers in the industry—a game that would be praised by the media and which sales would skyrocket. You would then use your earnings to develop the next game; this will be the cycle.
“Until you become a star game designer—a publicly funded star, winning Best Game of the Year awards year after year, becoming the cover of Times weekly magazine, and making your company have a market valuation of one hundred billion… reaching the pinnacle of human life.
“Alright, wipe away yo
ur drool first, please.
“These are very distant dreams for you.
“Now, you only have one objective: to successfully create a game that could survive in this harsh market.”
Accompanying this voice-over, the game scenes also changed.
This was a first-person game. While the voice-over narrated, the player would also start to advance along a corridor.
When it came to the ‘stun laymen, and be the envy of your peers in the industry—a game that would be praised by the media and which sales would skyrocket’ part—along the corridor, passionate fans would appear, envious game design masters would look on during an award ceremony, and news reports of record-breaking sales would be shown.
All these scenes looked like sketches… or perhaps they were more like pages in a 3D book that were turning as the voice-over revealed something new. While walking along this corridor, one felt as if he was really occupying that space. At times, one would be surrounded by passionate fans while, at other times, one seemed to be accosted by reported clicking away.
However, Qiao Liang ultimately still felt as if he wasn’t completely immersed in the game. He felt a little surprised.
The information that he had received regarding this game and what he was supposed to create had not mentioned the voice-over at all. Furthermore, the movements in the game couldn’t be controlled by the player; and it looked rather confusing.
However, after playing the game itself, it felt completely different.
The first-person perspective, as well as the independence to explore, had given players a good sense of immersion and an adventurous feel. The sketches that surface also excellently made one feel as if he was really in that space.
On the other hand, this voice-over was also very unique. This was a very special male voice that was slightly screechy, and his voice was nasal and thin. It also had a tinge of huskiness to it.
If Qiao Liang listened intently, he might feel a little vexed and an urge to hit that person. However, if he didn’t mind it that much, he might actually easily ignore and neglect this voice and just solely focus on the words the voice-over was saying.
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