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    ## Chapter 77: Let the Players Make Our Game

    Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy.

    In her eyes, Lao Gu always presented a calm and composed demeanor, like the midday sun, like the gentle breeze of early spring.

    A gentle strength resided within him.

    It seemed as though nothing in the game development industry could ever pose a challenge for him.

    He could handle any bizarre request or opinion with ease.

    With his extraordinary inspiration and ideas, he weaved together one fantastical game world after another, offering them to the world.

    However,

    This individual, a supernova destined for the game industry,

    was now dejected because his game’s promotion couldn’t match the others.

    He wore the air of a lost soul, muttering about “fate and the limitations of human capability.”

    And the culprit behind all this was her, Shen Miao Miao!

    It was she who had been suppressing the game’s promotion!

    It was she who had been avoiding publicity!

    It was she who had caused this once-proud supernova to be filled with worry and drown his sorrows in cigarettes!

    I’m so guilty!

    The more Shen Miao Miao thought about it, the more guilt she felt. The more she thought about it, the more unbearable it became. The more she thought about it, the more she felt she had gone too far!

    What am I doing?

    I’m practically killing a sapling that could have grown into a towering tree!

    I’m a monster!!!

    At that moment,

    Shen Miao Miao steeled her heart, gritting her teeth and stamping her feet, completely forgetting the system and the hundredfold cards!

    Even if I don’t get any rebates, even if I lose those ten billion yuan, I won’t let you wallow in misery like this!

    Tell me!

    Do we still have a chance to make up for our mistakes?

    The next second,

    Gu Sheng, without a moment’s hesitation, flicked some ash off his cigarette and said:

    “We do. I’ve already made preparations.”

    What the…???

    Shen Miao Miao was nearly knocked off her feet by his sudden sincerity.

    No… uh…?

    Wait, wait, wait!

    What the hell, I feel like something’s not right!

    Shen Miao Miao scratched her head, feeling like her brain was overloaded.

    She looked at Gu Sheng, but saw that his face was now devoid of any trace of melancholy.

    Something is wrong! It’s definitely wrong!

    “Um…?”

    Shen Miao Miao’s face changed, a touch of uncertainty in her voice as she asked:

    “What do you mean you’ve already made preparations?”

    “Fearless Sniper is going to affect our sales, you know,”

    Gu Sheng pointed at the game footage still playing on the screen, shrugging.

    “Two months ago, right after the Huayun Digital Exhibition, Fearless Sniper announced their postponement. Isn’t that obvious? It’s definitely targeting our second-generation FPS concept, you can’t have missed that, right?”

    He then

    patted his forehead, looking understanding.

    “Oh, right, you probably didn’t think of that. After all, you were busy going out to play with Chu Da Mi.”

    What the…?

    Shen Miao Miao frowned.

    Is he implying that I’m neglecting my duties? Is he taking a dig at me? Is he?

    Shen Miao Miao felt her blood pressure rising.

    Then,

    she realized that she was still young after all, and her blood pressure was rising too soon.

    Because what followed was Gu Sheng explaining the entire situation at the Huayun Digital Exhibition to help Shen Miao Miao understand –

    including how their competitors swarmed him as soon as she left… the Shark streamers visiting his booth… his MFGA slogan… the cheers from the crowd and the numerous media outlets vying for interviews.

    “…Oh, right, speaking of which, I’ve always had a question for you,”

    Gu Sheng extinguished his cigarette, his eyes filled with curiosity as he looked at Shen Miao Miao.

    “Why did you comfort me at the exhibition hall that day? Did someone tell you something? I was so tired that day, I didn’t have the energy to ask you…”

    Shen Miao Miao: …

    “…You wait, I need to take my medicine.”

    She said, then shakily stood up, supporting herself against the wall as she walked out of Gu Sheng’s office.

    Seeing this, Gu Sheng stood up in concern: “What’s… wrong with you?”

    Bang.

    Shen Miao Miao stumbled and almost fell to the ground.

    She fumbled her hand back, shaking, “…I’m brain-dead.”

    After she left the office,

    Shen Miao Miao’s face was pale green!

    She felt her temples throbbing, her forehead veins bulging, and her blood pressure skyrocketing!

    So that day… Gu Sheng wasn’t sad at all!

    And he wasn’t a dejected soul, losing his dreams!

    He was just exhausted and lying like a dead dog on the floor because he was too tired to get up!

    And that’s why!

    The three of them ate like they hadn’t eaten in eight hundred years that day!

    It wasn’t “turning grief into appetite”!

    Gu Sheng, you…

    Thinking about it, Shen Miao Miao couldn’t help but let out a mournful sigh of indignation!

    You jerk, you really deserve to die!!!

    She spent ten minutes calming down in her office,

    before returning to Gu Sheng’s office with a steaming cup of medicine.

    “What’s that?” Gu Sheng glanced at the medicine in Shen Miao Miao’s hand.

    “益母草冲剂 (Yi Mu Cao Chong Ji) (a Chinese herbal remedy for women’s health),” Shen Miao Miao rolled her eyes and held the cup up to Gu Sheng, “Want some?”

    “No thanks…”

    Gu Sheng waved his hands repeatedly.

    “I don’t have that function.”

    Pfft –

    Gu Sheng’s dry humor finally made Shen Miao Miao burst into laughter.

    Then, she blew on the herbal concoction and asked:

    “So, you knew that Fearless Sniper was going to be released after us, and you were already prepared?!”

    “Ah, yeah,” Gu Sheng nodded matter-of-factly. “If I didn’t have that level of foresight, I’d be a terrible supervisor.”

    “Then why did you make such a melancholic expression while watching the livestream?”

    Shen Miao Miao was astounded, even suspecting that Gu Sheng was playing her.

    “Oh hey, you mean that? Hehe,”

    Gu Sheng laughed, “I just thought that they copied our second-generation FPS in such a lame way, it was an insult to our game’s creativity and disrespectful to the game’s level of craft. It’s like –”

    “A shit bucket with a gold rim.”

    Shen Miao Miao: …

    Okay, I’m an idiot, I actually believed your crap.

    She finished the Yi Mu Cao in one gulp.

    A warm current flowed from top to bottom, clearing her chest and stomach, finally giving Shen Miao Miao some relief.

    She then asked, “So what’s your strategy?”

    Seeing that Gu Sheng had regained his usual confidence, Shen Miao Miao knew that this investment was likely to end badly.

    But she wanted to die knowing the truth.

    Gu Sheng pondered for a moment before saying, “Let the players make our game.”

    “What? Players… make the game?”

    Shen Miao Miao didn’t understand: “What do you mean?”

    “Exactly what it sounds like,” Gu Sheng said, “We’ll hire players, let them add their own bricks and tiles to Survival Road, enrich the game content.”

    Shen Miao Miao seemed to understand: “Like hiring an outsourced team from a game factory?”

    “Pretty much,”

    Gu Sheng nodded.

    “The only difference is that we need to pay an outsourced team, but for players… ” “We won’t pay.”

    What the hell?!

    Shen Miao Miao felt her scalp tingle, and she pushed off with her feet, sliding back in her chair to maintain a safe distance from Gu Sheng.

    Here we go! Capitalist! My god!

    Shen Miao Miao felt that Gu Sheng deserved to die even more.

    Then, she stood up and looked out the window.

    Seeing Shen Miao Miao’s reaction, Gu Sheng couldn’t help but ask, “What are you doing?”

    “I’m looking for a lamppost,”

    Shen Miao Miao turned back, her eyes filled with the righteousness of the working class.

    “Are you a Zhou Ba Pi (周扒皮) (a greedy landlord in Chinese folklore)? Making players work for free?”

    “Ah, right,”

    To her surprise, Gu Sheng showed no shame and even admitted it:

    “Actually, in Survival Road, we could have introduced more immersive technologies, added smells, or enhanced tactile perception.”

    “But we didn’t.”

    “We saved that money and collaborated with ArtJoy’s technology department to create a separate module in the game.”

    “Thanks to the support of the sensory pod data encryption technology and ArtJoy’s technology department’s hard work,”

    “We can, without releasing the source code, let everyone participate in the secondary creation of the game, write mods.”

    “Including replacing gun models, character models, item models, music effects, creating new custom maps, even adding new game modes.”

    “We’ll ensure the safety of our exclusive hand feel tuning data, and let players use their imagination to customize everything they want in this game.”

    “You can think of it as custom tailoring, but usually, we call this module –”

    “【Creative Workshop】”

    Wow –

    Even though Gu Sheng’s description sounded exciting, with its boundless imagination and creativity, making “customization” sound really cool,

    even if, as he said, the Creative Workshop mode is one day fully formed,

    the entire game might see even higher popularity.

    But!

    Beneath that sugar-coated talk, Shen Miao Miao could still see two words –

    Free labor!

    Shen Miao Miao had zero faith in players being willing to work for love.

    You have to understand, making games isn’t like playing games!

    Writing code, building models, fixing bugs.

    Every single one of those tasks is mind-numbingly tedious!

    How could any player be so bored that they’d be willing to work for free for a game?

    This kind of game add-on has never existed in the world before.

    So Shen Miao Miao simply couldn’t imagine how anyone could be so free, willing to add resources to a game without compensation.

    However!

    Isn’t this good news for me?

    Shen Miao Miao’s lips couldn’t help but curl up into a smile again.

    Originally, she thought Lao Gu would come up with some amazing high-end solution, a miracle cure, and somehow manage to defeat Fearless Sniper, which had massive promotion funds, without enough budget.

    But in the end,

    it’s just a wishful thinking plan!

    Thinking about it, Shen Miao Miao felt a lot more at ease.

    “Hmm—”

    Shen Miao Miao nodded, affirming Gu Sheng’s self-indulgent attitude.

    “If you say so, this mode seems pretty promising. When will it officially go live?”

    “Based on current progress…”

    Gu Sheng smacked his lips.

    “Probably tomorrow night.”

    In fact, Survival Road’s Creative Workshop module had already passed testing and could technically go live.

    But before launching it, Gu Sheng and his team had to put some mods in as demonstrations.

    Like adding skins for weapons, changing the explosion effect of homemade grenades, changing the clothes of the four main characters, etc.

    Overall, the changes aren’t huge, they’re mainly for demonstration purposes.

    As for what players will do with this thing…

    Gu Sheng, who had once witnessed Miku models, holding Fire麒麟 (Fire Qilin, a mythical creature in Chinese mythology), wielding a鎏金哇凯呀库裂莽 (Liu Jin Wa Kai Ya Ku Lie Mang, a mythical weapon), obliterating the zombie tide and taking down Thomas the Tank Engine, said –

    I have no idea. It all depends on the players’ mental state.

    《Four Million Copies Sold on the First Day! Fearless Sniper Deserves to Be Called the Light of Domestic Games!》

    《The True King Has Arrived! Guangyao Games Leads the Single-Day Sales Rankings!》

    《Perfect Shooting Mode! Fearless Sniper’s Innovative Gameplay Redefines FPS!》

    《MFGA is Being Realized, Just Not in the Golden Wind Way》

    《Fearless Sniper Makes a Crushing Debut, Survival Road Shows Clear Signs of Weakness》

    《…》

    Shenzhou, Guangyao Game Studio Headquarters.

    Ding Kai looked at all the media reports and couldn’t help but grin.

    As he had said before, as long as the advertising money was in place, no one could withstand Xun Teng’s offensive.

    Whether it’s a supernova or a genius designer,

    in the face of real capital, you’re just a stepping stone, a stepping stone for Guangyao Games to step on.

    Sales of four million copies on the first day!

    Absolutely crushing Survival Road by nearly ten thousand copies!

    This impressive sales figure is well-deserved given the game’s size and investment!

    Watching his boss’s satisfied laughter, Fang Hongwei was overjoyed. He poured tea for Ding Kai and said,

    “Next, we’ll further deepen our advertising efforts, continue to eat away at Golden Wind’s market share, and increase our advertising efforts to solidify the market penetration of our 1+2 shooting mode, gradually replacing the so-called second-generation FPS definition, and renaming it – RFPS (Reality First-person shooting game).”

    This is Xun Teng Games’ classic tactic.

    First, they borrow the core concept of a game, adapt it for their own use, and then localize it.

    Then, they infiltrate the market with a barrage of advertising, suppressing the original work while gradually twisting and distorting the name of the original game’s gameplay, creating a new term to name their copied core gameplay.

    This way, day after day, year after year.

    Gradually, the original game will be completely eaten away by them, losing its space to survive and being forgotten by most players.

    Then, they can legitimately bring this “Xun Teng self-developed original game type,” which has been given a new name, to the forefront, whitewashing it and taking its place.

    “Good,”

    After listening to Fang Hongwei’s skillful arrangements, Ding Kai nodded with satisfaction.

    “Just do it. Also, keep an eye on the poaching thing, the sooner we get it done, the better.”

    “Don’t worry,”

    Fang Hongwei said as he picked up his teacup and drank with Ding Kai, “The situation is already under control. Everything else will go smoothly, haha…”

    Yes.

    Even though it’s only the second day since Fearless Sniper’s release, and the two games’ weekly sales haven’t come out yet,

    they are already daring to pop open the champagne.

    Because throughout history!

    Every game that has been suppressed by them in this way has never been able to recover!

    And this time is no exception!

    The crushing sales on the first day will definitely mean that the gap between the two games will only widen, and Survival Road is only waiting to fade into obscurity!

    This is Guangyao Studio’s confidence, and the confidence of Xun Teng Games as a whole!

    Next…

    The two of them finished their tea, raised their glasses in a toast.

    Let’s just wait and see Survival Road die a slow death…

    (End of Chapter)

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