Pei Qian sighed sorrowfully. He couldn’t do anything now and could only leave it up to fate.
If the numbers were just like the previous time, Pei Qian definitely could organize another shopping spree and bonus splurge.
However, with the situation being such now…
He could only take one step at a time.
Pei Qian felt a little anxious and worried.
Didn’t I have a triple-layer insurance plan…?
How did things end up like this…?
Chapter 124 - Inheriting the Flaws of the Game!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
April 15th, noon…
Pei Qian was in his office as he was deep in thought.
At eight, last night, Boss Pei’s Daily Life’s third season was exclusively broadcasted on Aili Island. From yesterday to now, Aili Island’s main page’s most prominent spot had hung a huge publicity banner used to promote Boss Pei’s Daily Life.
Many viewers had been attracted by fame as they vied to send their messages on the bullet screen. The only one-odd minute long short video was evidently very boisterous as the huge amounts of bullet messages on the screen attracted many viewers from traditional websites such as Potato Web. These viewers all witnessed the uniqueness of this new interactive method called ‘bullet screen’!
Pei Qian did not look at the premiere but waited till the second day, today, to look at the viewership of the video. It had already reached six hundred thousand! From the looks of it, this video’s final viewership could possibly hit one million.
While not all of these would be unique clicks—no matter how he counted, he would at the very least be getting two hundred thousand from Aili Island incentives for this video. Furthermore, as the popularity of this video series compounded, future videos could even get more views than previous ones.
A full season of ten episodes would result in an inflow of more than two million three hundred thousand in total. That meant that Aili Island had used more than two million to buy the exclusive rights to Boss Pei’s Daily Life’s third season.
This price wasn’t actually considered that high. In comparison to some popular drama series and variety shows that could easily command tens of millions in rights fee, that was not a huge amount of money.
However, to Pei Qian, this was even worse than the worst-case scenario he had estimated; it was sufficient to make him break down!
This was probably what they meant by trouble never came alone.
A knock rang out on the door. It was Assistant Xin. “Boss Pei, this is the new company benefits scheme that had been previously decided. I need to verify it with you one more time. If there are no issues, I’ll send this out accordingly.”
Pei Qian took it over and looked at it. This document was the new company benefits and treatment scheme that had been decided around a month ago.
After Ocean Stronghold’s development had been completed, Pei Qian had made a series of recommendations to changes in company benefits. For example, this included an across-board pay raise, project bonuses, shopping gift cards, as well as forced expenses limit, etc.
Also, Pei Qian had decided on a new benefit: employee physical examination!
He had chosen a more high specification physical examination. It was to be done in the best hospital in Jingzhou City, Triple A Hospital. This higher-end physical examination would cost three thousand two hundred per person.
As Tengda, Fei Huang Workspace, and Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had more than fifty employees in total; this would cost a hundred and sixty thousand in total!
Besides this, the normal benefits scheme had been kept as per normal. The shopping gift cards’ limit had been raised to three thousand while other innovation benefits had been created as an excuse to spend money as well. All these would cost five hundred thousand in total.
Initially, this had been Pei Qian’s last resort at incurring an overall loss for the month. If he could reduce the System Funds to below seven hundred thousand and he spent this additional five hundred thousand, wouldn’t that be perfect?
However, things were a little awkward now.
According to Pei Qian’s new calculation—even after spending this five hundred thousand, the System Funds would still remain in the black!
Based on the conversion rate for profits, this amount of money could have been changed into five thousand in Personal Wealth for Pei Qian. Now that he had spent this, Pei Qian would have five thousand less in his own pocket.
Pei Qian did not consider further as he said, “Let’s work according to this; leave the document for me to take a closer look.”
“Alright, Boss Pei.” Assistant Xin flipped her small notebook as she recorded the contents of this meeting. “One more thing: a journalist from Amusement Times called Hu wants to arrange an interview. This is the third journalist calling this week. Should I reject this request like the previous ones?”
Pei Qian nodded, “En, please reject it. The principles are the same: no one is to reveal my surname and real identity while no one can divulge in detail our salary packages and company benefits scheme. Please emphasize this to everyone once again.”
“Alright, Boss Pei.” Assistant Xin turned and left.
To date, Tengda as a company was still a mystery to the games media and players. Many people knew that this company existed. However, as for who the boss was, how the company benefits were like, what actually went on in the company; they knew nothing.
As for why Pei Qian wanted to keep things this way, there were two reasons:
One, if Tengda’s benefit scheme numbers were leaked and everyone saw how well Tengda’s employees were being remunerated, all the talented people in Jingzhou City would definitely flock to try and enter; many might even come from other cities after catching wind of this!
If many of these talented people were willing to even lower their own salaries, Pei Qian still had to think of logical reasons to reject them. If the reasons were not logical, the system would not agree; and he would be forced to hire some talented people.
At present, he couldn’t even think of anyone to fire; if more people came, wouldn’t that make things worse?
Second, Pei Qian couldn’t let his parents know his true identity yet. If he could hide it a day longer, so be it. Pei Qian also didn’t want to be famous. After all, famous people always set tongues wagging. If he became famous and caught the attention of many people, things might become inconvenient for him.
The system had a rule: Pei Qian could not reveal or hint at the existence of it to anyone. Pei Qian did not want to bring additional trouble to himself.
Hence, Pei Qian was not going to accept any media interviews.
Many media outlets had called Tengda’s front desk asking for an interview; they had all been rejected, and this time was not going to be an exception.
…
Pei Qian looked at the five hundred thousand benefits document in front of him. “Don’t take this so hard; just take it as using five thousand of your own money to give benefits to the employees.
“Come to think of it, this is rather a good value for money…
“Aye, I am such a good boss.”
To give his employees five hundred thousand less in benefits just for five thousand more in Personal Wealth, Pei Qian was not someone who could do something like that. Regardless, these employees were really earnestly working for him. Although Huang Sibo, Bao Xu, and the others consistently did things to thwart his plans, these people were indeed loyal to him.
Furthermore, from the employees’ point of view, they were really contributing to the company wholeheartedly!
However, it was just that from Pei Qian’s perspective, they were all being unhelpful and detrimental to his plans…
“Forget it; I’m resigned to fate. The benefits scheme will be as per normal. I’ll continue to add on the previously agreed scheme as well.”
“I can’t shortchange my brothers. Since I didn’t manage to ma
ke a loss this time, I’ll continue working hard the next round…”
Pei Qian was a little melancholic. Taking one’s painful experience to heart. He was going to reflect on his experience and learn from his mistakes. He was going to find out how Game Designer had become a success! Maybe, he wanted to find out if Game Designer had any stark flaws that he could use and adopt.
It had been two weeks since this game was released. On the net, many players and professional games critics had done an in-depth analysis of this game.
This time, Pei Qian did not need to ask the design team to summarize their experiences anymore. He just had to skim through some discussions online, and he would be able to roughly know where he had failed!
First, he looked at the more authoritative games media sites:
“Game Designer is a very successful interactive, narrative experience. It has completely overtaken the traditional game narration methodology.”
“In this game, one becomes a game designer while his objective is to surmount all obstacles and choose the most viable way to design a game. Would one become a superstar game designer, or would one quietly go bankrupt? The decision is in the player’s hands.”
“This game’s triumph lies in allowing players to experience tough decision-making choices and the feeling of being conflicted; this is exactly how game designers feel in real life!”
“However, if that was only the case, this game would at most be considered a rather good outstanding simulation game. Compared to traditional simulation games—besides its exquisite art style, it would not stand out.”
“What makes this game a masterpiece is the voice-over that accompanies the players in the game. That was the master stroke to this game!”
“A beginner player might feel that the voice-over is annoying and be angered by its mocking. However, after taking time to think, players would realize that the voice-over is what makes the game interesting!’
“The voice-over could be seen as the greed within every game designer; or perhaps the people that give all sorts of advice (sometimes unsolicited). For a content creator, difficulties don’t lie in finding ideas but in making the right choices. Content creators have to persistently maintain his own stance and not forget his passion amidst the criticism and unhelpful comments; he would then be able to achieve success in the end!”
“All in all, this is a game that is rich in content, leaves a deep impression, has novel gameplay; it is different from other games. Not only does it convey the difficulties that game designers face to us, but it also discloses the true reasons behind the seemingly chaotic games industry. It is also encouraging all content creators to not forget their passion and to press on!”
Rating: 9.0
Conclusion: Uses dark humor to dissect the entire game industry, giving players a new interactive playing experience!
Pros:
Dark humor;
Multiple conclusions that leave people wanting more;
Incredible voice-over;
Shines a light on the gaming industry and invokes deep thinking.
Cons:
The game would sometimes purposely restrict players; however, this is also a part of the gameplay.
Chapter 125 - Physical Examination
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Pei Qian closed this games media’s rainbow fart1. It had even dared to say the only flaw was ‘part of the gameplay’.
If you guys do reviews like this, people would start to think I’ve paid you guys to write this! Aren’t you guys professional game reviewers? Don’t you guys know how to nit-pick problems!
Pei Qian felt very tired.
Forget it; let’s take a look at players’ reviews.
Players were very nit-picky; they must have pointed out many problems, right?
Pei Qian once again opened a players’ review page. However, all the latest reviews had been five-star excellent ratings!
One-star ratings had been squashed to the bottom.
“The artistic style is really incredible. All these rather abstract elements had been portrayed in a very concrete manner; such a boring theme had actually become so live-like and interesting!”
“I had been directed over by Teacher Qiao; this is a dark humor classic!”
“I have to give this a five-star rating! Those who don’t give five-star ratings don’t understand this game.”
“This voice-over is so amusing. I actually don’t want to play this game but want to flirt with the voice-over dude!”
“To be honest, it has been a while since I managed to play a game that moved me. Games nowadays either focus on creating paywalls or only cater to the masses. Games such as this that have depth and do not cater to the masses; this is very rare!”
“This is a game that takes a long while to warm-up to. Initially, I felt like quitting it. However, after persevering till the second try, I started to feel that this game is more and more interesting; I couldn’t stop! Now, I am prepared to make my eighteenth attempt!”
“It is so nice of the company to sell this game at only twenty-eight yuan; can they really recoup their costs? They seemed to have invested heavily in this game! I have bought three copies, two for my friends. However, I hope that this game does not incur a loss!”
Scrolling through players’ reviews Pei Qian became deep in thought.
The person that bought three copies; could you give me your address so that I can send you some local specialties?
This was ridiculous…
I wrecked my brain to think of ways to force players to quit; these had actually become the selling points?
Someone even said he or she wanted to flirt with the voice-over person? Alright, I’ll satisfy you guys and make Lu Mingliang appear publicly tomorrow; he can go and become your idol!
Pei Qian was really breaking down. He had wanted to see the reviews of the games and see what the bad points of the game he could adopt were or avoid the positive aspects of it next time.
However… everyone seemed to like all aspects of this game? The artistic style was not bad, and the gameplay was not bad; even that detesting voice-over had become a selling point!
What could Pei Qian gain from this?!
I have actually made a game that is perfect and flawless?
What dark humor is this?!
Pei Qian leaned into his chair as he felt that he had become a salted fish; one that he would never be given a new lease of life.
…
…
April 19th, Monday…
Jingzhou City Triple A Hospital…
Tengda’s employees had already finished their physical examination and were now eating breakfast together. Huang Sibo and Bao Xu sat at one table as they ate some buns and drank some soy milk and discussed their physical examination.
“Brother Bao, how did yours go?”
“It was alright; my intestine has some minor issues. The doctor said that’s because of the all-nighters I pull and irregular eating habits. How about you, Brother Huang?”
“I have a slightly fatty liver problem while my blood pressure is borderline high; however, these are not big issues.”
“I heard that we are going to have a physical examination every half a year? We also can’t not-come…” Bao Xu was a little lost for words. To him, life only had two things: games and others. Things such as physical examinations evidently fell under the ‘others’ column. It was something that would eat up his gaming time, and he wanted to reduce it as much as possible.
Ordinary companies would only ask employees to do a physical examination once when they started work; better companies might do so once a year. However, Tengda had actually mandated twice-yearly physical examinations; they also couldn’t reject them. This made Bao Xu feel a little pained.
Huang Sibo drank his soy milk. “Aye, Brother Bao, you can’t think like this. Physical examinations are a good thing for us. If it wasn’t for this physical examination, I wouldn’t even know that I have
a fatty liver problem and have to be more mindful of what I eat in the future. Yiqun, how about you?”
Ma Yiqun, who sat next to them, said, “I’m still okay. I have a minor chronic superficial gastritis problem; it is also an intestinal problem same as Brother Bao.”
Huang Sibo nodded, “En, these are all expected. When you were with Shang Yang Games, you constantly worked overtime; and your eating habits were rather irregular while you also ate takeouts. Having this problem is rather normal actually. We just have to watch our food and drinks intake from now on and adjust accordingly.”
Ma Yiqun sighed emotionally, “Tengda is so good; the benefits are good, and we even get to go for physical examinations. Boss Pei is really a good boss!”
Huang Sibo smiled slightly, “The truth speaks for itself.”
Everyone finished eating and got prepared to leave. As the physical examination had taken up the morning while everyone had the afternoon off, everyone could take their own cabs home and claim them as expenses.
“Eh? I seem to have left my umbrella in the hospital. You guys can go first; I’ll go and take it.”
Ma Yiqun realized his umbrella had been left on a seat in the hospital during the physical examination, and he had forgotten to take it as he turned and went back.
After taking his umbrella and when he was prepared to leave, someone shouted from behind, “Please wait a while!”
Ma Yiqun turned and looked. A bespectacled young lady with short hair was running over; she was looking for him.
“Hello, are you a Tengda employee?” The lady was a little out of breath from running as she huffed and puffed. However, as this was a career habit, she could still form her words and enunciate clearly.
Ma Yiqun was a little wary as he nodded.
“Nice to meet you! I am Amusement Times’ Jingzhou City division journalist, Hu Yue. Recently, I want to write a piece regarding Tengda Games; would you be willing to be interviewed?” Hu Yue tugged at her short hair as she tried her best to stabilize her breathing.
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