Pei Qian had no other choice. He could only say that gamers were now too strong in terms of reverse psychology. Attempting to persuade them to refund a game once they had made a purchase would only make them more adamant in keeping it.
Now, Pei Qian had a better plan: to turn gamers away before they even made the purchase!
Do you want to buy the game? I’m sorry, I won’t even sell it to you! Who says that games should be made available for anyone to purchase?
The fact that it was a common practice didn’t make it reasonable! He would only allow people to purchase Be Quiet once they had proven that they were worthy.
The game was not meant for ordinary people!
Pei Qian would cuss at anyone with objections.
Pei Qian decided to set multiple difficult questions during the marketing period. Only gamers who passed the various tests would be allowed to purchase the game!
That way, ordinary gamers would not be able to buy the game even if they had money. They had to earn the rights first. It would not be that easy to obtain the rights. They would have to pass various tests.
Everyone experienced laziness. Once people discovered that they would have to pass several tests before they would be allowed to purchase the game, most would just give up.
What’s more, the riddles would be very complicated. If everyone took at least a month to solve them, Pei Qian would not earn any revenue during this cycle.
The worst-case scenario would be that he would start generating more revenue during the next cycle. However, that would still be better than earning money during this cycle! That would be Tengda’s advertising strategy for the new-age: repulsive advertising.
Of course, Pei Qian could not explain all of these things to Lin Wan. He had to think of a way to bluff her.
Pei Qian gently tapped the table and said in a low voice, “There’s no big problem with your proposal, but it’s too conservative.”
Lin Wan’s eyes lit up at once.
Indeed, Boss Pei had a better plan!
She listened intently.
Pei Qian continued, “I’ll personally take charge of the marketing this time. None of you can interfere. We’ll still buy advertising spaces, but I’ll decide what kind of advertisements to display.
“I want to play a simple alternate reality game with all of Be Quiet’s players.”
Lin Wan was stunned. “Huh?”
She had been ready to take down Boss Pei’s suggestion, so that she could execute it later.
However, Boss Pei had ended up deciding to take over the advertising work himself. What’s more, he was not planning to tell her about it. Still, on the bright side, it meant that Boss Pei was going all out with the advertising this time!
Lin Wan was overjoyed. “Alright, Boss Pei. I’ll stay tuned!”
After sending Lin Wan off, Pei Qian checked how much time he had left before knocking off. Then, he immediately started planning for Be Quiet’s repulsive advertising.
Pei Qian had not revealed anything to Lin Wan at all. That was because his advertising strategy would be a riddle event. He had to keep it under wraps.
Pei Qian found the programmer from TPDb, who had been in charge of the Tengda Spirit compatibility test, and put him in charge of creating the program for the riddle event.
Until now, none of the questions or answers in the Tengda Spirit compatibility test had been leaked. Obviously, the programmer was quite reliable. That was why Pei Qian entrusted this task to him as well.
There wasn’t much work involved. All he had to do was edit the website and minor details in the game.
“Er… it seems like this invitation letter lacks an inscription from the host. I think it’s too late to find someone to design a logo now.
“I’ll use a ready-made one.”
Pei Qian searched his computer and found a logo that had been created for the Thriller Hostel.
Be Quiet was officially released on March 3rd, Thursday!
Teacher Qiao waited in front of his computer early in the morning, with snacks and drinks prepared. He had been waiting to play the game the second it was released and then create a video on it immediately!
This time, he had not been invited to try the game in advance like he had been for Repent and be Saved.
Still, it did not matter. Even if Boss Pei had not invited him, Boss Lin had; it was almost the same!
Before marketing began for the game, Lin Wan contacted Teacher Qiao, asking him to create a video to market the game once it was released.
As a close friend of Boss Pei’s, Teacher Qiao obviously obliged! Be Quiet was a product of Shang Yang Games, but it was clearly written on TPDb that Shang Yang Games was now a subsidiary company of Tengda Games.
What’s more, the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song had been a game with a conscience and had been recommended by the official games platform. Teacher Qiao had reason to believe that Boss Pei had been overseeing research and development of all games released by Shang Yang Games. Their quality and originality must be up to standard.
All in all, they would be worth Teacher Qiao’s time!
Many gamers were on the same page as Teacher Qiao. This as much was obvious from his fans’ responses. Everyone had been discussing the game, waiting to purchase it the moment that it was released.
At 2 PM, the game was released for sale!
Qiao Liang reacted as quickly as his twenty-odd-year-old body could and clicked on the game!
However, the discount that he had expected did not appear.
Qiao Liang was stunned.
“What’s the matter? I’m experiencing a bug the moment the game was put up for sale?
“That can’t be. How could Tengda make such a low-class mistake?”
Qiao Liang was puzzled. He had realized that the ‘purchase’ button had turned gray once he entered the webpage.
Initially, there had been a terrifying concept art of the game on the game’s details page. However, when Qiao Liang clicked on it, a line of words appeared below.
“The invitation letter was left on the previous journey.”
There was a bloody fingerprint behind it and a red logo. The top half of the red logo was an obtuse, triangular steeple. Underneath were the words ‘Thriller Hostel’. It seemed to be the logo for a hotel.
However, the English words had a blood-dripping effect. Anyone who looked at it would feel their hair stand.
Qiao Liang was confused. What are you doing?
He looked closely at the concept art and guessed that this was a scene in Be Quiet. Perhaps this was a hotel in the wilderness.
Under the pitch-black night sky, the rundown hotel looked hidden in the darkness. It looked like a demon with its bloody mouth wide open, waiting to devour any prey that walked into its trap.
After studying it for a long while, Qiao Liang realized that there was no useful information contained in the concept art.
The real clue seemed to lie in the words ‘the invitation letter was left on the previous journey’.
Of course, Qiao Liang could not rule out the possibility that he would find a special, hidden message if he downloaded the image and reopened it in other formats.
Qiao Liang checked in on his own fans. Obviously, he was no exception. Others had all run into the same problem.
They could not buy a game that had already been released!
After some time of being confused, Qiao Liang became excited. They had to solve a riddle before they could purchase this game!
ss Pei, Boss Pei… how do you always think about such new gimmicks? It’s such a pleasant surprise!”
Although Qiao Liang did not get to play the new game that he had been looking forward to, he did not feel angry. Instead, he felt quite intrigued. Many people were already discussing this in the group.
“What does this mean? Is there a mysterious principle hidden in the picture?”
“I’m not sure. I tried clicking it, but nothing happened!”
“I saw
this picture in the online advertisement. I think this is a riddle!”
“You can download the image from the website. I tried opening it in various formats, but I couldn’t find any useful clues.”
“I think all of you are thinking too much. The clue should be in the sentence.”
“Does ‘invitation letter’ refer to the rights to purchase the game? What does ‘the previous journey’ mean?” “Is it referring to a place that exists in real life? Does anyone in this group live in Jingzhou? Go and take a look!”
” ‘The Previous Journey’ is a unique game that’s available on the official platform. Is this a combined event?”
“Stop messing around. Have you seen Tengda run combined events with other games? This must be a coincidence!”
There were so many people in Qiao Liang’s fan group to begin with. Now, everyone was giving their own updates. Qiao Liang could not keep up with everything. On top of that, Qiao Liang noticed that many people were discussing the riddle in other gaming groups as well.
After scanning those discussions, Qiao Liang felt that everyone obviously could not understand Boss Pei.
Only a close friend of Boss Pei, like me, would be able to solve the riddle!
Qiao Liang did not think the riddle was that complicated at all. When a game designer talked about ‘the previous journey’, he was obviously referring to games that he had created before.
After some thought, Qiao Liang opened Repent and be Saved and searched for clues within.
After that, he would look through Ocean Stronghold.
This was what Qiao Liang thought: if Boss Pei wanted to collaborate with another game, he would definitely do so with his own games. Repent and be Saved and Ocean Stronghold were the two most popular games released by Tengda at the moment. Collaborating with both of those games would improve Tengda Games’ reputation and brand value. At the same time, he would be able to increase sales of both of those games. Why wouldn’t he do that?
Chapter 437 - A Series of Codes
Chapter 437 A Series of Codes
Two hours later, Qiao Liang exited Ocean Stronghold, feeling confused.
He had wasted his time!
He had first looked through the famous locations in Repent and be Saved. After that, he had created an alternate account to look around the newbie village. Finally, he had entered Ocean Stronghold and finished several stages in story mode.
Still, he had achieved nothing.
Qiao Liang was not one to give up easily. He had only exited because he thought that he was deviating from the right path.
What if the clue was not in either of those games?
Qiao Liang looked at his fan group once again. Many people had already thought about what he had thought about. They had all gone into games they were familiar with, but two hours had already passed. Nobody had found any useful clues. Qiao Liang looked through the chat records and then started to analyze the games that his fans had looked through. Ghost General, Game Designer, Ocean Stronghold…
All of a sudden, Qiao Liang’s eyes lit up.
The Lonely Desert Road!
The letter was ‘left on the previous journey’. That game matched the description perfectly! What’s more, most people had neglected to look through this game
The messed-up game had been popular in the beginning but that quickly faded away. Compared to Tengda’s other games, The Lonely Desert Road was much less known!
What’s more, the game was especially boring. Most people who bought it probably did not finish it. Even if they did, they had probably chucked the game in the back of their games library to collect dust. They could not still be playing it.
Wouldn’t that be the perfect game if Boss Pei had intended to play hide-and-seek?
Qiao Liang became excited at once. He opened The Lonely Desert Road and prepared to drive.
He had once played this game for eight whole hours. He knew that it would be a long and slow journey. Thus, before he started, he ate his snacks, placed his water in a position that was easy to reach, and made a trip to the toilet.
An hour later, Qiao Liang began to feel sleepy. However, at that moment, he saw a letter float across the screen.
The car was driving too quickly. The letter only appeared in front of Qiao Liang for half of a second before it disappeared again. “Sh*t!”
Qiao Liang did not see it clearly. He faintly saw a round alphabet, but he did not know if it was a C or a G.
However, he was very sure that no such letter had appeared in the game before. Thus, he re-started the game and opened the screen-recording software.
Three hours later, Qiao Liang exited the game and made another trip to the toilet.
When he got back to his seat, Qiao Liang opened the screen-recording software and moved to an hour after the recording started, to check the alphabet that appeared first.
Indeed, it was a G!
After that, an alphabet floated across the screen every five minutes. Sometimes, it appeared on the left. Sometimes, it appeared on the right. There were twenty alphabets in total, and it was a whole hour before they disappeared completely.
After that, no more alphabets appeared. However, just in case, Qiao Liang continued driving for half an hour more and then exited the game.
He checked the video and carefully wrote down all the alphabets.
GAICCCCCCACBIADBHCEA.
It was a series of codes.
In other words, other players did not even need to play The Lonely Desert Road to find out the code.
However, knowing the code was only the start of the solution.
At Shang Yang Games…
Lin Family, Ye Zhizhou, and Wang Xiaobin read various forums and Weibo in order to track the gamers’ reactions. There were many more gamers who were unhappy than they had imagined
There were many comments like ‘are they sick in the head to not allow people to purchase the game with money’ or ‘you’re acting like a big-shot, and I won’t have it’.
Still, there were even more gamers who had become intrigued.
A few hours had passed since they released the game. Until now, gamers had already found the code that Boss Pei had placed in The Lonely Desert Road. However, work obviously still had to be done on the string of letters before they would be able to find the real message.
Ye Zhizhou was working on the clue as well. He had written many symbols in his notebook, and his monitor displayed a search engine. Still, he could not find any useful information.
“I don’t know how Boss Pei came up with an advertising method like that. He’s really a genius! However… it might have been a better idea to release the question a month before we released the game.
“The game’s already on the shelf now, but nobody can buy it. Of course, gamers would get angry. “I wonder if there’s a deeper meaning behind this move.”
After some thought, Wang Xiaobin said, “Hasn’t Boss Pei always been this willful? He already tried to turn gamers away repeatedly when we were working on Repent and be Saved. This may be a unique method of doing business.
“He’s intentionally using reverse psychology on gamers, so that they would try to solve the riddle more enthusiastically.”
Lin Wan nodded. “Yes, I think that’s highly likely!
“Many gamers have already started playing Tengda’s older games to solve this riddle. I think Repent and be Saved and Game Designer have seen an increase in sales volume during this period.
“It’s a pity that it would only be a short-term boost. People like Teacher Qiao, who understand Boss Pei extremely well, could locate the clue in just a few hours.
“If we had hidden the clue more deeply, perhaps the other games would have seen a boost in sales volume, too.”
Ye Zhizhou rubbed his temples. “I don’t think Boss Pei wanted to hide the clue that deep. “The word ‘journey’ already hinted at The Lonely Desert Road. People only had to drive for three hours to find the first letter.
“I don’t
think Boss Pei wanted to torture gamers for too long…
“Was he afraid that gamers would fly into a craze and buy Tengda’s old games if he hid the clue too well?
“Hahaha, how can that be? I’m overthinking things.”
Ye Zhizhou laughed inwardly at himself.
Lin Wan looked at the string of English alphabets on the screen. “No one has solved this code yet. Maybe this ‘game’ only officially began when people found this code.
“Maybe there aren’t enough people participating.” While they had been researching and developing Be Quiet, Shang Yang Games had indeed kept news about the game under wraps. That was mainly because the game had not been complete, and the staff had been afraid that gamers would develop high hopes for it. At the same time, Boss Pei had never mentioned publicity.
Thus, not many gamers were trying to solve the riddle for now. Even fewer gamers were racking their brains, trying to crack the code.
The lack of numbers meant that the riddle could not be solved any quicker.
Many gamers who were only interested in playing horror games were being blocked. Not one person had purchased the game—this was a real problem.
Wang Xiaobin was slightly worried. “What if nobody can solve the riddle? What would we do? We’ve worked so hard to release this game. If nobody gets to play it, wouldn’t it be
-?!
“You’re thinking too much,” scoffed Lin Wan. “There are many talented gamers out there. It’s only a matter of time that someone cracks the code.
“What’s more, the more difficult the riddle, the more participants there would be. Wouldn’t the advertising prove more effective, then?”
At Otto Technologies…
Chang You was still worrying about the slideshow. Although he had already gotten clear instructions from Boss Pei, he still had no idea how to execute the instructions.
The thing was that Boss Pei’s instructions had completely overturned the way he used to think about news conferences…
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