A week later, on May 18th, Tuesday…
Shang Yang Games…
The edits on the earliest version of the games were already completed, but Ye Zhizhou still could not bring himself to submit them and update the game. Just the thought of changing Shang Yang Games’ fate and moving it towards an entirely new direction with just a single command from him made Ye Zhizhou’s hands tremble.
A full week after the meeting, what had to be edited was already edited.
According to Boss Pei’s instructions, all the purchase options in Romantic Taoist and Bloody Battle Song were wiped clean. Each of those games only had one purchase option left.
Romantic Taoist was an RPG[1]. There was no competition between players. That was why it was much easier to edit the game. Ye Zhizhou kept the most basic accelerator card as the only purchase option. After all, this game could be withdrawn at any time. It was no longer the company’s main focus.
The main focus was Bloody Battle Song.
After much consideration, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin decided on the only purchase option to retain in the game: the strength potion. They increased the price of the strength potion. Each person would only be able to spend a maximum of a hundred ingots every day. That was equivalent to ten yuan.
In order to achieve the aim of retaining only one purchase option, Wang Xiaobin practically redid the entire game’s level design. The other plans were edited according to these changes as well. They also introduced new functions as substitutes, such as the ‘Chosen One system’, which Ye Zhizhou suggested a while ago.
After making the changes, the game still appeared the same on the outside, but it was completely different at its core.
Wang Xiaobin sat down next to Ye Zhizhou and asked, “Are there any other problems?”
Ye Zhizhou shook his head and said, “No other problem. I am… just worried.
“We made huge changes. What’s more, we don’t have any successful games to refer to. We’re completely dependent on ideas that we thought of. I don’t know what the outcome will be like. I am putting myself out there completely.”
In the old Shang Yang Games—if a new idea was raised at a meeting, Old Liu would always ask, ‘Are there other games that have done this successfully?’ If the answer was no, the idea would be thrown out most of the time. Ye Zhizhou was already used to this way of thinking. That was why he was completely lost now.
“Brother Wang, you have a lot of experience. Do you think we’ll succeed?”
Wang Xiaobin sighed softly and addressed Ye Zhizhou seriously. “Little Ye, you are the chief planner now. You have to make these decisions. You cannot ask others anymore. Whether these changes succeed or not, the glory and responsibility will both be yours. As the chief planner, these are things that you have to be prepared for.
“Do you remember Game Designer? Everybody else’s opinions are just voice-overs in the game. Apart from throwing you off, they have not much effect.” Ye Zhizhou nodded slightly and sighed. “That’s right.”
Game Designer was a game that Ye Zhizhou played many times before. He already knew many options and outcomes like the back of his hand.
He could ignore the voice-overs completely in the game and choose all the right answers. However, although he understood all of these principles, he could not confidently ignore all the comments in reality.
Wang Xiaobin stood up and added, “It’s normal to feel confused. You just have to remember that you are doing the job that Boss Pei asked you to do.”
Ye Zhizhou’s eyes brightened.
That’s right. No matter what anyone else says, this was what Boss Pei asked him to do! Whether he succeeded or failed, it would be alright as long as he was following Boss Pei’s instructions, right?
At that thought, Ye Zhizhou hesitated no more. He quickly checked the games once more and sent a message to the group.
“Update the games.”
A few hours later…
Bloody Battle Song became a large-scale chat room for people.
Huge groups of gamers on various servers gathered in the city plaza of the main city to discuss the latest announcement about the update.
Ever since Bloody Battle Song was published, it had been updated tens of times. Each time, they would make an announcement about the updates. However, the announcements had never drawn a reaction such as this one before.
Gamers were no longer interested in fighting or leveling up. All of them were discussing the latest update.
“Which big boss can explain to us what the announcement means? The shop is only going to have the basic strength potion from now on? The others… are not going to be up for sale?”
“I think they said that they’re giving the others away.”
“Giving… away? Is this game going to be withdrawn? Is this the final revelry?”
“The moment that 888-yuan sword was put up for sale the last time, many people quit the game. I guess the game is going to be withdrawn sooner or later. We’ll play as long as it remains.”
“I feel like something is amiss. Are they making this ruthless move while there are few in the game? Why are they giving away all the good stuff? Are they retarded? Are they trying to push all the whales out of the game?”
“They can still spend money if they want to. They can buy the strength potion again and again. They are limited to ten a day. The more they buy, the more expensive it becomes. If they buy the maximum number each day, they can spend a hundred ingots.”
“Don’t be silly. A hundred ingots is only equal to ten dollars! The whales aside, this is a petty sum to even poor people like me.”
“I am absolutely confused by this huge move by the officials.”
“Our club president has gone to recharge his currencies. He says he wants to buy all the equipment before the update. Otherwise, he would not be able to buy anymore!”
“It’s too late. The changes have been made. Nobody is allowed to recharge their currencies anymore.”
“…I can’t recharge money even if I wanted to. That’s really something!”
“This reminds me of Ghost General.”
“I have a question. According to the way things are going-once the server is open, would we all start from zero again? Will we have to spend ten yuan each day to reach the peak of our battle power?”
“According to the official release by the company, that’s it.”
“That’s not right. How will we fight wars, then? If everyone has the same battle power, wouldn’t it become a numbers game?”
“No, I think there’s going to be a ‘Chosen One’ system. Based on the number of people each side has, they will strike a balance in terms of their skills. They’ll also select players on each side according to chances to have better skills.”
“You mean if I get chosen, then I will be able to experience taking on multiple enemies at a time?”
“Then, what are we still doing in this old server? Sell it, sell it! Sell it all! I’m going to the new server!”
Since the system first made the public announcement until the update was complete, gamers did not stop discussing the updates.
The normally silent official platform was suddenly filled with huge batches of new posts as well. People were discussing it very passionately!
Ye Zhizhou knew that gamers would not be able to understand the changes to the game that quickly. It was normal for so many people to be engaged in the discussion. In fact, it was a good thing that so many people were discussing the update. He had been afraid that people would remain silent even after such a big update. That would be terrifying
Ye Zhizhou started an alternate account to observe gamers’ reactions.
Unexpectedly, people were not opposing aggressively!
Ye Zhizhou thought that the whales would be cursing non-stop. However, after entering the game, he realized that many unsatisfied comments were quickly shot down. Nobody echoed these negative comments.
Everyone was discussing how the new changes would affect the wars or when the new server would be open.
“Everyone is interested in playing the new version. Are they really that excited?”
Ye Zhizhou looked at Wang Xiaobin and said, “Brother Wang, how about we open the server and allow people to test waters?”
[1] This is an acronym for Role-Playing Game.
