“In fact, these clubs are also watching our every moment and looking forward to playing mock competitions with us. They want to see the effect of us buying the player and changing the training methods before they follow.”
“That’s good. We can take advantage of this time for mock competitions and widen the gap between us. The gap between us will be so big that they would be shocked!”
…
…
August 28th, Sunday…
In a coffee shop near Handong University, in Qiu Hong’s last lesson…
“Boss Ma, I have basically taught my experience of failure. Uh… there is one last one.”
Qiu Hong paused, seemingly thinking that ‘taught’ was not very appropriate. However, for the lack of a better-fitting word, he still used it.
“This last one might not be right, but it is definitely the last item I can mention.”
Pei Qian nodded. “Please continue.”
Qiu Hong was silent for a moment and said, “Pursue your dreams.”
Pei Qian froze for a moment. “Is this… a failure experience?”
Qiu Hong nodded, his voice a little sad. “Yes.”
“Has Boss Ma ever seen my resume? You should be able to find it online. I had been a systems designer as early as 2001 in a fairy-themed game with paywalls.
“Boss Ma, don’t you find it strange that I can be a chief systems designer of a large-scale client-side game when I just entered the industry?”
Pei Qian gave it a thought and did find it a little strange.
That was because Tengda had always promoted people in an exceptional way, be it systems designers or chief planners. They were always newcomers from the bottom-most staff. Pei Qian, therefore, did not think there were any problems with Qiu Hong’s resume at the beginning.
However, now that Qiu Hong took the initiative to bring it up, Pei Qian realized that it was really quite strange for an ordinary game company to make a newcomer a systems designer when he first joined the industry.
The systems designer was only secondary to the chief systems designer in domestically-produced games with paywalls. That was because the most important part of the game was the combat system, paywall system, game experience, etc… they were all closely related to each other.
The systems designer could be regarded as the right-hand man of the chief systems designer. Many chief planners were promoted from systems designers.
Generally speaking, even a graduate from a top university could only start out as an ordinary administrative planner. Such a person would only be promoted to a systems designer after one to two years.
Such a situation would only be more obvious in large companies and projects.
He was a systems designer for large companies and projects when he first entered the industry. He was fully responsible for the system of the game. Disregarding the possibility that he might be related to the boss of the company, the second most likely situation would be that he had actually had experience previously.
Even if the previous work experience was not successful enough, but as long as he was outstanding enough, he would be able to obtain the position of the chief systems designer.
Pei Qian thought for a while. “So you actually did not enter the industry in 2001, but earlier?”
Qiu Hong nodded. “Yes, I entered two years earlier.”
“It was the golden age of domestically-produced standalone games when I entered. ‘Magical Swords, Deity Fate’ sold 300,000 sets with an income of 10 million yuan; the popular ‘Dark Age 2’ was introduced to China and sold for about the same amount of money.
“It might not be comparable to their performance overseas, but it was a record-breaking figure. ‘The Heroes’ was also selling well.
“The people who entered the industry at the same time as I had dreams. We all thought we should sell domestically-produced standalone games internationally. We’ll be able to stand on the international stage one day and win awards.
“However, everything changed in a mere two years.
“I was fortunate to meet the President of a standalone game company then. He told me that standalone games had no hope and that I had to quickly transit into online games. I did not listen; neither did the producer of our project.”
“Then, in 2001, all the standalone games could not be sold. The first game we worked so hard to develop was not even published at all.
“The company did not pay wages. Our company hung on for two months before our producer gave up.
“Therefore, I submitted my resume everywhere. Many companies called me up for an interview because I’m in systems. Their first question would always be: do you have experience in internet game development?
“Why did that happen? Why did domestically-produced standalone games die out in just two years?”
Pei Qian was a little confused. “Die out? Not so bad, right? Aren’t the standalone games doing alright now?”
He was a little pissed off. If the standalone games really died out, then there was no reason why the standalone games he made became so popular, right?
Qiu Hong smiled. “Boss Ma, you are still young. You might not be even 10 years old by then so you wouldn’t know about it. Domestically-produced standalone games did die out during that time.
“The reason why domestically-produced standalone games are doing well now because the official ESRO platform was established in 2006. Piracy was strictly prohibited in various fields so domestically-produced games slowly regained traction.
“However, even so, there was a vacuum of about five to six years. That opened a huge gap between our domestic game industry and the international industry. We have not been able to catch up even now.
“Then, why did the golden age of domestically-produced standalone games die out in just two years?”
Pei Qian thought for a while. “At that time, it should be the rapid popularity of online games. It seized the market for standalone games and a large number of games companies transited.”
Qiu Hong nodded. “Yes, the transformation of numerous standalone game manufacturers to online games was a direct cause of the demise of domestically-produced standalone games. Then, the question was ‘why didn’t international standalone games die under the impact of online games?’
“Moreover, even if online games made more money than standalone games, they would not lead to the death of standalone games because not all companies were good at making them.
“There would always be companies making standalone games as long as there was money to make.
“In fact, it was a very complicated problem. It was definitely not caused by a single thing. It was just like the death of a dynasty would not be solely because of a flood, a plague, or a war.
“All disasters would always happen together.
“That era happened to be the time when overseas game system units were booming. We did not have system units locally, only personal computers. The computer is a platform that is easy to write and modify so it quickly entered the era of piracy.”
Chapter 633 - What Would Boss Pei Do?
August 29th, Monday…
In the butler’s house in the Dawn of the Prosperous City, Song Kai busied himself with his daily chores. Ever since the entire building filled up, he became very busy.
However, none of the investors lived there often. They only stayed here about once every three or four days. Song Kai had already confirmed that with Boss Li.
As for the investors’ actions… Song Kai didn’t understand them at first, but he gradually did.
Renting the apartments was akin to a friendly gesture. If a friend started a restaurant, one would spend money there to show his support. That was to be expected of friendships. On the other hand, the investors stayed here every three or four days, probably to build a closer relationship with Boss Pei.
That was understandable as well. Why would rich people buy villas in designated neighborhoods? Why would parents spend so much time and effort looking
for good schools for their children?
A huge part of it was that they had higher chances of bumping into other high-class people if they stayed in expensive bungalows. If one interacted with those people long enough, they would all stand to benefit from the friendship.
If spending a little more money could allow them to become neighbors with a wealthy man, countless people would fight for the opportunity.
Jingzhou was exactly the same.
The concept of ‘investors’ sounded high and mighty, but they were not that godly in reality. Outsiders would also think ‘financial advisors’ sounded impressive, but insiders would know that only a minority really knew what they were doing. Most of them were just ordinary workers who had accumulated some finance knowledge.
It was the same for investors. The ones at the top who had the capital of tens of billions of yuan wielded the most power, but they were also the minority. Most other investors were not much smarter than ordinary people. Why else would investors throw money into scams that even ordinary people could identify and then lose everything that they had?
Venture capitalists fit in with the 80-20 principle as well. Only twenty percent of projects would succeed, and those twenty percent of projects would generate eighty percent of returns.
Some venture capitalists boasted by saying that there was only a ten percent chance of the project collapsing. However, that was just a play on semantics.
‘Not collapsing’ was not equivalent to success. One did not need much to know that a ninety percent success rate was a lie.
To most investors, failure was the norm.
Thus, Boss Pei, who succeeded in every investment he made, was considered a mini legend. What’s more, as Tengda Corporation grew rapidly, the legend was getting increasingly huge.
On top of that, the investors who had not believed in Boss Pei had already been eliminated. The remaining investors were those who had tasted the sweet rewards of sticking with him. Naturally, they were more determined and stubborn.
Perhaps that was also the reason why they had no plans to tell the outside world that Boss Pei lived here.
After all, they could keep the good things to themselves without having to share with outsiders.
To Song Kai—as a butler, his job was to enforce the Sloth Apartments’ regulations and satisfy the tenants as far as possible. They had to have peace of mind while living here and enjoy the best service.
All the apartments in the Dawn of Prosperous City had been rented out. On the surface, it looked like Sloth Apartments had been validated.
However, Song Kai knew that it was not Sloth Apartments’ success, but Boss Pei’s.
The other three buildings were still empty. Zhu Jia Corporation’s bad review of the Sloth Apartments was still traveling around the Internet and covering all corners.
As the first butler of the Sloth Apartments, Song Kai felt like he was one of the people in charge of the project. He and Liang Qingfan had clear job scopes: Liang Qingfan was in charge of planning and building while Song Kai was in charge of sales and managing.
Song Kai had held back for several days, but he finally felt like he had to do something. He could no longer stand by and watch!
Thus, after Boss Pei left, he made several calls.
…
Half an hour later, Liang Qingfan, Zhu Xiaoce, and Teacher Qiao arrived on the first floor of Dawn of Prosperous City.
“Hello, everyone! Please, take a seat.” Song Kai gestured for the three men to find a place to sit down.
Song Kai had contacted Zhu Xiaoce through Liang Qingfan, and Zhu Xiaoce had contacted Teacher Qiao through Lin Wan.
After experiencing Thriller Hostel the last time, Teacher Qiao had remained in Jingzhou.
He felt like the episode on Thriller Hostel didn’t meet his expectations, and so he wanted to make up for it. He had to think carefully about what that episode was missing, so that he could plug in the gaps!
Boss Pei had only asked him to give up on Products of the Gods’ analysis of Tengda’s new games, but Boss Pei had not given him any other clues. That made Teacher Qiao directionless.
All in all, it was a mess.
Today, upon receiving Zhu Xiaoce’s call about one of Boss Pei’s projects, Qiao Liang agreed to come down without hesitation. He did not have to accept a role, but he had to at least listen.
As for why Huang Sibo wasn’t here… it was mainly because he was overseas with Bao Xu.
Until now, nobody knew why Song Kai had gathered all of them here.
Song Kai closed the door, looking very somber.
“All of you know about Sloth Apartments’ situation, right? I’ve been keeping a close eye on it over the past few days and found out that Zhu Jia Corporation is spreading bad reviews and slandering Sloth Apartments online!”
Liang Qingfan nodded. “Yes, I know about that. You want to fight back?”
Song Kai nodded. “Yes!”
Zhu Xiaoce hesitated and then said, “Er… let me cut in here. Tengda, or Boss Pei, rarely engages in a war of words with others. In terms of market competition… I believe that, as long as Sloth Apartments offers the best service, customers would be won over.”
Qiao Liang nodded and said, “Boss Pei doesn’t get involved in these things.
“Those companies like resorting to cheap and underhanded methods like hiring fake reviewers, slandering, and confusing others. What should we do? Should we hire fake reviewers and slander them in response?
“Tengda would be just like all the other companies that have no bottom line, wouldn’t it? We can’t do that.”
Song Kai shook his head. “Not slander, but expose.
“I worked in Home Corporation before, and so I know what their ‘Safe House’ is all about. Home Corporation claims online that Safe House’s renovations and furniture are all sourced from their own team and that they can be trusted, but that’s not true!
“They have saved as much as they could on furniture, wooden flooring, and paint on the walls. After renovations were done, they lost a month’s worth of deposits for every month the apartments were left empty. Thus, they rented it out as soon as possible to recover their capital.
“Most apartments in there still have excessive formaldehyde.
“In fact, Home Corporation’s intermediaries would say this when they’re trying to bluff the landlord into signing the contract: If you hand the apartments to us, we will renovate them and make the tenants absorb one to two years’ worth of formaldehyde. Then, you could have rent and renovation, with no more formaldehyde in the house. How worth is that?!
“Just listen—does that sound humane to you?”
Liang Qingfan was shocked. “Is there such a thing? Isn’t Home Corporation a chain company?”
Song Kai nodded. “It’s absolutely true. It’s not exposed because most people aren’t that sensitive to formaldehyde in houses unless they’re so intense that they trigger a reaction.
“Even if the tenants react, intermediaries would just employ companies to deal with the formaldehyde as a formality, instruct tenants to allow better circulation in their apartments, and then give them a discount on their rent. Then, tenants would have no choice but to accept it.
“Still, everyone knows that you can’t remove formaldehyde. It’s constantly being emitted, and there’s no way to get rid of them in a single attempt!
“Tenants and employees alike have no power. These things don’t get much attention online either. I created a post about this online before, but no one read it or paid attention. I could only let it go.
“That was why I quit working at Home Corporation. I’m disgusted by them!
“However, Fei Huang Workspace and Teacher Qiao are now highly influential online. If you could expose this problem, many people would pay attention!
“We just have to hire a few professional organizations that specialize in formaldehyde and randomly invite a few tenants from Safe House for checks. We’ll definitely find that they’ve been
overexposed to formaldehyde. We won’t be slandering Home Corporation; we’ll be telling the truth!”
Everyone exchanged confused looks.
Obviously, apart from Song Kai who had worked at Home Corporation before, no one else had thought that Home Corporation’s Safe House would be anything but safe.
Long-term overexposure to formaldehyde? That could kill!
However, Zhu Xiaoce hesitated. “We are influential online, but… we are directly interested in Tengda and Sloth Apartments.
“If we expose this matter, wouldn’t people think that we’re slandering our competitors on purpose? We will probably look very unreliable to the audience.
“If you hand this over to an independent third-party, it might be more effective.”
Zhu Xiaoce’s worries made sense. Any exposure done by interested parties could easily be viewed as business tactics to slander or attack competitors.
After a moment of silence, Song Kai said, “I haven’t worked in Tengda for long, and I don’t understand Boss Pei that well. Do you think… if Boss Pei knew about this, he would sit back, act like he didn’t know anything, and do nothing?”
Everyone exchanged knowing looks. It was obvious that none of them thought Boss Pei would do that.
Song Kai continued speaking. “If we don’t do anything just because we have interests in the matter, then what would become of those tenants living in apartments filled with formaldehyde and whose health is declining every day? Who would expose this truth?
“I think that Boss Pei wouldn’t think so much. He would do it at once because it’s the right thing to do.
“If Home Corporation wasn’t problematic, we could ignore their slandering of Sloth Apartments and treat them as flies buzzing around our heads. However, if they are hurting ordinary people’s health and we have the power to say something and save those people’s lives, how could we remain silent?”
The other three men looked at one another once again, finding the answer in one another’s eyes.
After a moment, Qiao Liang said, “Given my understanding of Boss Pei… his attitude towards this matter would be to do the right thing without asking so many questions.
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