This was also why systems designers enjoyed such a high position in the country; it was only second to the chief planner. System designs would often determine the gaming experience of games with paywalls.
To change the purchase options would be akin to changing the system design. It meant that differentiating between players by the amount they paid needed to be done using a different method.
Changing a way of differentiation-if done wrongly, it could lead to the entire system design’s collapse. No one would be able to repair the system then.
Just like the Bloody Battle Song before. After it had been scolded bloody, its revenue had fallen significantly. Old Liu had set the price of that saber too high and a simple system design problem had brought such an extremely negative effect.
Ye Zhizhou thought for a long time and still felt that this seemed beyond his means. Although he had some ideas, he couldn’t be sure if he could really actualize them. As such, he printed out the document and went to look for Wang Xiaobin to discuss it.
Wang Xiaobin was an experienced systems designer. After hearing Ye Zhizhou’s idea, he couldn’t help but frown. Such a change could not be done at a whim.
If it was before-putting aside Old Liu or Wang Xiaobin, any experienced planner would feel that changes could not be done like this. They would have immediately shot down Ye Zhizhou’s proposal.
However, Ye Zhizhou was now the chief planner, and no one could do so. Furthermore, Boss Pei was the one who had suggested this! Since that was the case, they had to think of all ways to complete this. They had to do this no matter what!
Wang Xiaobin said dejectedly, “I seem to feel that this is a rather ridiculous thing to do. However, since Boss Pei had suggested this, he must have his reasons. I’ll do my best to finish this.”
Just by removing all the purchase options, that was akin to redoing the majority of the game’s content. This was different from an FPS like Ocean Stronghold.
Although Ocean Stronghold had the Red Kilin, it was a competitive game where one went up against one other. No matter how rich a baller was, it was not possible for him to fight two other enemies of the same caliber.
However, Bloody Battle Song was a classic game with paywalls. Ballers could fight twenty at once, what more two. This was an absolute unbalance. Bloody Battle Song’s entire game content was built on this kind of unbalanced gameplay.
If all the purchase options were removed, there must still be a way to differentiate between players. If it wasn’t money, then it could only be time or luck.
To change the entire game to one solely based on the length of playing? The game would then become a Liver Emperor’s heaven.
Of course, changing it into a refill card game would also be possible. However, it would not be compatible with Bloody Battle Song’s original design. If it was really turned into a refill card game, it would be no different from remaking a new game. It was evidently not realistic and would not fulfill Boss Pei’s requirements.
To change the game into one based on luck? That would become the Gambling Emperor’s heaven.
If such changes were made, it might actually still be similar to the current game style. It would still be unbalanced while most players’ gaming experience would not be changed for the better.
Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin were really racking their brains over this.
This was a problem that no one in the domestic gaming industry had managed to solve.
Of course, no one was willing to solve this as well. After all, cutting out purchase options would mean people no longer coveted money. Even if some crazed chief planner wanted to do this, his boss would definitely slap him awake.
Games with paywalls were doing rather well and earning much money; who was so free and would want to try and look for an alternative?
However, the more Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin contemplated this, the more they felt this was very meaningful.
If they could come up with a doable solution -even if it was a half-baked one, it would also be the only one in the entire country!
Indeed, a comment by Boss Pei could actually encompass such a profound theory!
Ye Zhizhou raised a few suggestions but were all rejected from Wang Xiaobin from an XXX point of view.
However, Ye Zhizhou didn’t feel dejected. Finally, he smacked his head. “Brother Wang, I have another new idea. What if we give everyone the chance to ‘act’ as a baller? What do you think?”
Wang Xiaobin was stunned for a moment, “Act as a baller? How does that work?”
Ye Zhizhou was very excited as he wrote on a piece of paper and explained, “Actually, the problem we have been grappling with is but one to do with game experience.
“Our game experience can be simply split into three types.
“One would be as ballers; they have the most amount of charged up money and have the most powerful battle powers. They can enjoy the satisfaction of one fighting ten in battle.
“Another would be organizers. They have a lot of time and are very active; they are responsible for managing guilds and to attract new members. They have the satisfaction of being in command and directing others.
“The third would be the ordinary players. They don’t have the means to fight ten at once, and they aren’t managers as well. However, these people can slowly be converted into one or the other; or they could also follow ballers and after winning the war, they could bask in the ballers’ glory as well and gain rewards.
“These three gaming experiences are now differentiated by ‘money’ and ‘time’.
“There is no need to change ‘time’; in that case, organizers and ordinary players’ identities do not need to change. The only one to change would be the ballers. We have taken away the purchase options, and they don’t have something to spend their money on.
“In that case, let’s directly choose a few players during war to be boosted and have high battle strengths to experience what it feels like to be a baller. Wouldn’t that solve our problem?”
Wang Xiaobin was still a little confused.
Ye Zhizhou continued, “After we remove all the purchase options—all in all, players’ battle strength would more or less be the same. The players with more time and better luck would be slightly more powerful than other ordinary players, though this won’t be that much higher as well.
“However, during wartime, we will randomly choose some players to act as ballers. These players would directly gain battle strength that only ballers would possess.
“To guarantee that every player has a chance to be chosen, we will give every player an individual ‘Chosen One’ system. Everyone’s probability of being chosen will start from zero and accumulate from there, with the system randomly making its selection.
“Those who didn’t get chosen will have a higher chance the next round; when they were finally chosen, this value would go back to zero and restart again.
“As for the rate of increase in the chance of being chosen would be dependent on one’s degree of activeness and contribution to the game. We can use this as a way to encourage our players to go online and participate in more events.
“This way, we would be able to ensure the original gameplay doesn’t change while a majority of players could take turns to experience how ballers used to feel. We can also fulfill Boss Pei’s request and get rid of almost all the purchase options!
“Killing three birds with one stone!”
Wang Xiaobin went deep into thought.
Ye Zhizhou’s concept theoretically could be realized. However, it was very risky and unorthodox; it was akin to setting the present gaming industry on fire!
Nevertheless, to fulfill Boss Pei’s requirements of getting rid of the purchase options without causing the complete collapse of the entire game’s system design and gameplay… this was actually a viable solution.
Wang Xiaobin nodded. “Alright, let’s try this out. I’ll come out with a system design model, and you can try to figure out more of the speci
fics when it came to the rules and conditions. Oh, why not we hold a meeting first and simply explain this idea to everyone?”
Ye Zhizhou nodded as he reorganized his thoughts properly as he stood up.
“Everyone, head to the conference room. We’ll discuss the changes to our game.”
For some reason, Ye Zhizhou felt rather confident at this time. It seemed as if he had gotten used to being the chief planner!
Chapter 149 - Let Them Do as They Pleased
In the rental home…
Pei Qian-who had just woken up from a noon nap-turned in his bed as he grabbed his cell phone and took a look. There was an unread message:
“Boss Pei, sorry to disturb you so abruptly. We have encountered a problem that we wanted to consult you. The conclusion from our current discussion is that getting rid of the purchase options of the game would make the ballers unhappy; could we ask how to resolve this issue?”
Pei Qian rubbed his eyes gently as he murmured, “Who’s this from?”
After taking a closer look, Pei Qian realized it was Ye Zhizhou who he had just promoted to be the chief planner at Shang Yang Games.
Pei Qian had given him an ‘imperial sword’, allowing him to rat out his employees or immediately fire people. Pei Qian naturally had to befriend him so that it was easier to keep in contact.
In the end, Ye Zhizhou had not contacted him to talk about firing others but had asked him a question regarding one of the games.
Pei Qian reread the question once again.
Question: Getting rid of the purchase options of the game would make the ballers unhappy; how could we resolve this issue?
This was understandable. Bloody Battle Song was a game with paywalls, and ballers might have spent thousands or ten thousand on this game to suppress all others when it came to battle power.
If ‘plonk’ and the purchase options in the game were removed and they were no longer going to experience the satisfaction of killing people at whim, wouldn’t they rage and ask for a refund and quit playing this game?
Of course, Pei Qian was never going to allow for a refund.
Every debt has a debt collector. This money had been collected by Du Ruijie; you guys should look for him for the money.
As for quitting the game…
That would be fantastic; please do so!
Boss Pei didn’t care about such people who threw money at him and his company. He still maintained the same stance: People wanted to donate money to Tengda? Dream on!
You ballers can either be obedient and become players who didn’t pay a cent or stop playing this game.
Yes, that would be perfect!
Pei Qian held his phone and typed groggily, “Let them do as they please.”
He then tossed his cell phone next to his pillow as he continued to nap.
In Shang Yang Games’ conference room, everyone was waiting for Boss Pei’s message. Ye Zhizhou sat at the head of the conference table as he stared at his phone screen, waiting for Boss Pei’s reply uneasily.
Boss Pei did not reply immediately; he must be busy working
After all, Shang Yang Games was but one of Boss Pei’s many endeavors. It also wasn’t one very close to Boss Pei’s heart and was probably on the bottom of the priority list.
As for everyone else, they all had differing opinions.
Some had heard Ye Zhizhou’s plans to change the game and felt that it was rather interesting; they were raring to go. Others were still not very happy with Ye Zhizhou but didn’t dare to voice their comments out loud.
After all, the design team veteran Wang Xiaobin had decided to work with Ye Zhizhou on this; even if the rest wanted to pull a stunt, they wouldn’t be able to achieve much. Furthermore, Ye Zhizhou actually had a direct line to Boss Pei; that was a huge deterrent.
Some people even suspected that Ye Zhizhou had purposely asked Boss Pei this question during the meeting so that he could establish his authority! He was hinting to everyone he could directly contact Boss Pei and for everyone to behave themselves.
Hence, the atmosphere in the conference room was rather serious, and the new boss Ye Zhizhou could still hold the fort.
Ding
A notification sound rang as Ye Zhizhou hurriedly read Boss Pei’s reply. There were only a few words: ‘Let them do as they please.
That… was it?
Ye Zhizhou was a little stunned.
Wang Xiaobin was sitting next to Ye Zhizhou and leaned in as he asked attentively, “Has Boss Pei replied?”
Ye Zhizhou turned his cell phone screen to Wang Xiaobin, “He only said this. Brother Wang, this…”
Ye Zhizhou was a little lost for a moment. By right, he should faithfully execute orders from Boss Pei. However, to completely ignore the ballers; wasn’t that courting death?
In a war game like Bloody Battle Song, the amount that ballers spent was around eighty percent of all the top-ups that players did. To disregard the ballers would be losing eighty percent of income.
This wasn’t cutting off an infected limb to save the entire body; this was suicide!
This was precisely why the discussion had gone on for so long without finding a perfect solution. Getting rid of the purchase options would definitely affect the interests of ballers. If ballers were not happy, the game’s income would drop drastically.
That meant that no matter how they looked at it, Boss Pei’s way would lead to a huge fall in gaming income; the two games that were already tanking would suffer even more.
As he was out of options, Ye Zhizhou had finally decided to consult Boss Pei.
In the end, Boss Pei had only replied with these few words. The final solution was actually… to not care? To completely abandon these ballers?
How…
Daring was this?!
Wang Xiaobin’s knitted brows steadily grew wide. “Boss Pei is indeed a courageous person; I’m impressed! These words actually contain such wisdom!”
Wang Xiaobin sighed with emotion.
Although he didn’t really understand, Ye Zhizhou felt that this was something awesome. Indeed, a seasoned veteran was valuable for his experience and insights. Such a deep matter could only be deciphered by someone of Wang Xiaobin’s experience and wealth of knowledge!
Wang Xiaobin cleared his throat and said, “There is no need to discuss this anymore. Boss Pei had sent us a solution: ‘Let them do as they pleased’! That also means that we do not need to consider the impact of our changes on ballers.
“After the new edition goes online, the stats of the ballers in the old server would remain as such. However, no more purchasing options would be available, and they would no longer be able to elevate their battle powers using money.
“As for the new players in the new server; they would all be at the same starting point and will follow the rules of our new edition.”
Everyone exchanged confused looks. This was it? Didn’t the problem still remain? If the ballers stopped playing and no more top-ups were done, what was going to happen?
Wang Xiaobin smiled, “Boss Pei has already helped us to solve this problem. Removing purchase options would definitely affect the interests of the ballers; that is a given. We have tried our best to think of a solution to this; however, there is actually no possible way to resolve this!
“This is a revolution from the bottom-up; since we are attacking the interests of ballers, why do we still need to consider how they feel? This is not necessary. Boss Pei’s intention is very clear; for them to stew in their own juice!
“We have been so conflicted for a long time; a word from Boss Pei had cut the Gordian knot and given us a solution; this is the difference between us and him!”
Everyone was enlightened.
Just like a complicated knot that was cut into pieces, this seemingly unsolvable problem had been so easily resolved by Boss Pei!
However, while it was easy to say this, it was rather hard to do this. Who would have the courage to directly cut off eight percent of one’s in
come?
Boss Pei!
Thinking of this, everyone started to admire Boss Pei even more. He was willing to let go when need be, without hesitation. Indeed, this was the level of attainment of a true master!
Ye Zhizhou was also emotional as he rapped the table, “Alright, our last problem has been solved. Let’s… get to work! We must follow through with Boss Pei’s thinking and revive these two games!”
Chapter 150 - Resident Singer
At night…
In Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store…
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan were seated against the window. As they sipped their cocktails, they watched the few customers in the shop. Somehow, this atmosphere was making them feel sorrowful.
There were still very few customers!
Now, two more Fish-Catching Internet Cafes were under renovation. They should be opening for business soon enough.
However, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store was still steadily incurring losses.
The volume of business had more or less stabilized. A few loyal customers already made friends with the employees in the shop. However, no matter how they calculated, these few people would not be able to sustain the maintenance of the cafe’s business.
Between Ma Zhang and Zhang Yuan, one was the manager of Fish-Catching Internet Cafes; and one was the regional manager of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe in Jingzhou.
Zhang Yuan finished his cocktail in one gulp and said, “I’m going to sing two more songs.”
Ma Yang reached out and stopped him. “Forget it. No matter how much you sing, nobody will come and listen…”
Including the two of them, there were a total of just eight people sitting at the coffee area drinking alcohol.
Zhang Yuan stood up anyway and said, “It doesn’t matter. I’ll sing my heart out to get it out of my system.”
When he got to the stage, Zhang Yuan began strumming on his guitar just like he did before. He began to think about what he should sing today. The people who were seated in front of him drinking alcohol were all familiar customers. They were not shocked to see him on stage at all.
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