EBE Chapter 7 The Root of All Evil
Chapter 7 The Root of All Evil
After turning off the video, which had already garnered over 200,000 views, Tang She felt like he was about to explode.
"Wait, wasn't this game rated 2.3? How come its popularity suddenly exploded?"
He chose this game purely because of its low payout ratio, not because of any cashback feature that allowed him to win money.
If he can use this game to safely send the young lady away, he can get 1000 million.
Now that the game is finished, the 1000 million that was once within easy reach is now nowhere in sight.
This is not an exaggeration by Tang She. Before creating the Three Kingdoms Kill game, everyone in the company had doubts about themselves.
Just like when Tang She presented the proposal before, even though others didn't know what the problems were, they still had to find some issues in the details to boost their confidence.
If "Three Kingdoms Kill" really flops, they will realize that they are not cut out for making games and thus give up on the game industry.
The game's current popularity has restored the confidence that had been lost among the company's employees.
It's not so easy to destroy this spirit and energy again.
Even if some of the games they made later flopped, they would think it was just a lapse in performance, rather than thinking about disbanding the team.
Last night before going to bed, Tang She was already thinking about how to spend the ten million, but when he woke up this morning, this whole mess happened.
I'm so tired, so very tired.
However, there is some good news: the game is currently completely free, so even if players want to spend money, there's nowhere to do so.
Once the game enters the paid phase, players' enthusiasm drops, and fewer people play, especially with that outrageous payment method.
You won't make much money at all.
As for what payment method Tang She developed?
This story goes back to before the game's release.
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Two months before the release of "Three Kingdoms Kill", in the conference room of Tangren Games.
The three starter Pokémon are Ren Wei, Xiao Li, and Wu Yu, plus trainer Tang She.
The four people gathered again in the meeting room to discuss the direction of the game.
Since the project proposal mentioned the issue of spending money in-game purchases, it's impossible not to discuss this matter.
Only Tang She was surprised that the three of them would take it so seriously. In addition, time was of the essence, otherwise he would have revised the plan before showing it to them.
The meeting was convened by Ren Wei, who presented a PowerPoint presentation on the screen detailing the most common payment methods currently available on the market.
Several people looked at the screen, each lost in thought, when Ren Wei spoke up:
"Let me briefly explain my thoughts. If you have any objections, please feel free to raise them."
Seeing that all three nodded and had no other opinions, Ren Wei also nodded and said on the screen while controlling the mouse:
"Let's start by talking about the two oldest payment systems: buy-to-play and subscription-based systems. The advantage of the former is that all players can experience the same game content, while the advantage of the latter is that the company can have a relatively stable cash flow. However, both of these payment methods contradict our game development philosophy."
We went all out to develop this Three Kingdoms Kill game in order to retain more curious players. However, the buy-to-play and monthly subscription payment methods are the most discouraging for players who download and install the game out of curiosity.
They might play a free game out of curiosity, but they're unlikely to play a paid game out of curiosity.
Therefore, I rejected both of these options outright.
The second option is a free-to-play base game with paid DLC. Here, DLC refers to characters and skins. The advantage of this paid model is its suitability for long-term operation; each new character or skin release generates revenue. However, the downside is that some low-spending or even free-to-play players may not be able to acquire the characters they want.
The last type is a common monetization model in mobile games, where players use materials obtained daily to draw generals. Rich players who want to acquire them sooner simply spend real money. The advantage is that both high-spending and low-spending players can ultimately enjoy the game's content, and we, as the game company, can also make money, while the game's online time won't be too bad.
This payment method has a similar problem to the one mentioned in the project plan: the generals you want to acquire are too expensive.
After finally accumulating enough materials to exchange for a new general, a new powerful general appeared just two days later; and after accumulating new materials for several months to exchange for a new general, it was discovered that the new general was weaker than expected.
Various small problems can accumulate into a big problem, eventually causing players to lose interest.
The lack of a large number of free players will inevitably negatively impact the experience of paying players, thus creating a vicious cycle.
We now need to choose one of these four payment methods, which will likely determine whether our game can operate in the long term.
I fully agree with Tang She's previous proposal. Making all generals free for the first week after the server launch will allow players who are just curious to try our game to experience its true depth.
However, this may not necessarily be a good thing. After the seven-day free period ends, many powerful generals that were previously available will no longer be playable, which will cause them a huge sense of loss.
If the payment mechanism fails to meet their expectations, it will lead to a significant loss of players.
But don't feel pressured, after all, we didn't even have the chance to get players to consider paying in the past! So this is a rare step forward.
Ren Wei's words elicited a few soft laughs in the office, but this did not alleviate the pressure on everyone.
Wu Yu and Xiao Li's eyes swept across the four payment options displayed on the projector screen, their brows furrowed. They still hadn't decided which payment method to choose, as each option seemed like the wrong answer.
At that moment, Tang She had a flash of inspiration. Looking at the shortcomings of the four payment methods, he suddenly came up with a brilliant idea:
Combining the drawbacks of all four methods would surely lead to a complete disaster!
The base game is a monthly subscription with a limited duration. To continue playing, you need to purchase DLC, and the way to unlock the DLC content is to spend even more money.
It's no wonder players can't help but curse.
Tang She genuinely wanted to put this idea into practice, but the others wouldn't agree, so he coughed twice, giving his idea a superficial, plausible explanation:
"I wonder if any of you have ever bought a gym membership for a year? I think we could do something like that in the game, with a paid event that lasts for several months, which players can only participate in after purchasing the DLC."
In this DLC, players need to play the game to earn DLC levels, and higher DLC levels unlock better rewards. Players who want to unlock rewards sooner will need to spend more money. Free-to-play players can also accumulate DLC levels by playing the game regularly, but they won't receive the rewards. Perhaps after seeing these rewards for a long enough time, they'll also decide to pay.
After all, our basic DLC is set very cheaply, say around 30 to 50 yuan. Each event can last for 2 to 3 months, so spending 50 yuan daily for 2 to 3 months will allow players to obtain all the general rewards. Higher-level DLCs, which require more money, will offer rewards that don't affect the game content, such as skins, avatar frames, and emoticons.
The more they listened, the brighter their eyes became, and they unanimously agreed to the proposal.
Tang She's ideas were completely different from theirs.
Free players need to pay, and paying players need to pay even more. Even if they spend money, they are not guaranteed to get all the rewards and need to log in to play the game every day.
Isn't this all the drawbacks of the four payment methods mentioned above?
It's amazing that players can hold back their complaints!