Chapter 397: Touching on porcelain marketing
Will the Chinese version of "Plants vs. Zombies" be given away for free?
Hong Fei's first reaction was that Mr. Qin was not joking with me. Later he found that Mr. Qin seemed to be very serious and he was shocked.
Mr. Qin, are you crazy? !
"Free delivery? Wouldn't that be a waste of money?" Hong Fei couldn't help but said, "Mr. Qin, why?"
The game "Plants vs. Zombies" is of extraordinary significance to Hong Fei.
When China's stand-alone games are on the decline, the emergence of "Plants vs. Zombies" gave the industry a shot in the arm.
It is the first domestic stand-alone game to win the International Game Award, and it is the first stand-alone game to win the world's annual sales crown.
It is no exaggeration to say that Hong Fei feels that it is worthwhile for him to participate in the production of such a game in his life.
Moreover, "Plants vs. Zombies" is the gold mine where Qin Shaoyan started. Without this game, there would be no campus network, Facebook network, YouTube, or Qvod.com.
So Hong Fei couldn't understand why Mr. Qin wanted to create a Chinese version and give it away for free.
"The main reason is to retaliate against domestic piracy. Since piracy cannot be banned, I might as well just distribute the free version." Qin Shaoyan replied matter-of-factly, "Anyway, there are not many Steam users in China, and there is no channel to sell genuine discs."
Hong Fei was shocked and stunned, and quickly persuaded: "Mr. Qin, there is no need to be angry, there are still distribution channels if you want."
"Ogilvy & Mather Electronics has run away." Qin Shaoyan replied calmly, "The largest PC game publisher in the country can't do it anymore. How can there be channels."
"Ah, have you run away already?" Not only Hong Fei was stunned, but Zhang Pingyi was also surprised.
"The Shanghai branch ran away at the beginning of the year. I just got the news that all the senior executives of the Beijing branch have run away, and they still owe employees unpaid wages." Qin Shaoyan said with an indescribable weird smile, "Domestic stand-alone games are considered complete. It’s over.”
"Then..." Hong Fei was a little confused, "Isn't there still steam? We can sell it to foreigners on steam."
"Forget it, let's talk about it later." Qin Shaoyan said casually, "Strictly speaking, our thing is not the orthodox DLC of "Plants vs. Zombies", but a magically modified version, which is equivalent to a skin change."
It is indeed a magical modified version. Qin Shaoyan completely used the hybrid version of domestic enthusiasts as inspiration, added some new plants, improved the values, and mainly focused on making players enjoy the game.
"We are putting this on the market as a trial version. Let's see how the feedback goes before making a formal version." Qin Shaoyan smiled, "And the greatest value of this thing is not to make money, it has its unique function."
Zhang Pingyi explained at this time: "Mr. Qin asked me to add a hidden applet into this magical version. When the game is started, a web page will pop up, and this web page is the official website of our online game."
"This magically modified version is equivalent to a tool for external publicity and advertising."
Qin Shaoyan said with a smile: "When the campus network's local promoters conducted research in Internet cafes, they found that the game "Plants vs. Zombies" is very popular. Basically, 80 to 90% of the computers in Internet cafes have this game."
"..." Hong Fei's whole body went numb. He looked at Qin Shaoyan's silence for a long time and gave a thumbs up, "It has to be Mr. Qin. Most people really can't think of such a damaging move."
This is really the first time I have seen this kind of marketing method.
But after a while, Hong Fei found that he still underestimated Mr. Qin's marketing methods.
When he heard the magical advertising slogan, he no longer knew what to say.
Not only Hong Fei, but also the surrounding employees who were watching the game promotion video looked at each other in confusion.
What is this?
What is the new version of the ship? Can’t you straighten your tongue and say it?
And what are the Taoist fifteen dogs?
What is the fire sword explosion?
Everyone was looking at Qin Shaoyan with strange eyes. With their rank, they really couldn't understand Mr. Qin's tricks.
But Qin Shaoyan didn't care about other people's opinions at all, and was still enthusiastically giving instructions on how to record a game promotion video.
"This angle is not good. Find a better place to show off the strength of our art and the excellent performance of our engine."
"This doesn't feel right. It's about numerical planning. Come on, come on, configure a temporary monster for me. I'll get all the drops from this monster, including high-end weapons, high-end equipment, potions, and gold coins."
"What I want is the kind of monster that immediately explodes with one strike. The screen is filled with dropped items and the ground is filled with luxurious equipment."
"If the monster's blood volume is low, all I need is a single blow, and I can increase the experience of killing monsters."
"What I want is the feeling of one sword reaching ninety-nine levels!"
"Teacher Hong, this upgraded special effect is not good. I want it to be very cool, with a golden dragon coiling up and rising into the sky!"
"Why is there only one summoned baby? We agreed that the Taoist priest would have fifteen dogs. You have to show everyone if there are fifteen dogs first, and then adjust it back when the game is online."
"Yes, yes, that's how one person pulls a group of babies and goes up to fight the BOSS."
Hong Fei couldn't help it anymore, "Mr. Qin, isn't this false propaganda?"
"Yes, it just needs to be false!" Qin Shaoyan said confidently, "Ours is an advertisement! How can we attract people without some exciting content."
"Add real-life in-game recordings to the video! At worst, you can mark it with small characters at the bottom. Please refer to the actual version of the game. Use the smallest font size possible and mark it in the corner."
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Although Hong Fei didn't agree with Mr. Qin's statement, he had to admit it after seeing the effect of adjustments made after his suggestions.
This gameplay video looks really cool.
Especially the scene where top-quality equipment is falling all over the screen is full of shock and impact.
There is also the one that can be upgraded several levels in a row, which is much more enjoyable than the legendary one that cannot be upgraded after a month of slashing.
"Mr. Qin." Hong Fei said cautiously, "This video is indeed very popular, but please think again about your advertising slogan."
"What's there to think about?" Qin Shaoyan retorted, "I wrote this myself. You are not allowed to change it, so just use this one."
"What I want is grounding, magical brainwashing, and at the same time, I can touch the porcelain legend."
Yes, the legend of touching porcelain is Qin Shaoyan's main goal.
Unlike those legendary web games more than ten years later, those games are full of emotions.
And Qin Shaoyan really wanted to steal players from the Legend game. Until 2006, the Legend game represented by Shanda still had huge influence.
According to statistics, the total revenue of China's online game market operators in 2006 reached 7.82 billion yuan, of which Shanda ranked second and occupied 20% of the market share.
Ranking first is NetEase, with a 24% share.
This shows how incredible the revenue-generating ability of the game "Fantasy Westward Journey" is. NetEase has occupied nearly a quarter of the market share with just one online game.
Although Qin Shaoyan has set his main competitive product target for online games on "Zhengtu", suppressing competing products is one thing, and gathering the wool of "Legend" is more important.
Hong Fei sighed, Qin Shaoyan's marketing model has always been unconventional, and he has always liked to play against common sense since the beginning of the campus network.
Since Mr. Qin said this thing was effective, Hong Fei believed that this thing would most likely be successful.
"Mr. Qin, since the promotional video is about to be released, you can give our game a name." Hong Fei suggested.
Yes, this online game still doesn’t have a name, and it’s also called by a codename within the company.
This kind of thing is very common, usually people wait until they go online to apply for a version number before giving a name.
"Let's decide on a name." Qin Shaoyan thought for a while and said casually, "Call it Warring States." "Warring States..." Hong Fei muttered it once, and then repeated it again, "Warring States!"
Qin Shaoyan sighed with emotion: "The online game market in 2006 will be the era of the Warring States Period. I hope our game can become one of the overlords."
The online game market in 2006 was indeed a year where all the heroes came together, and it was also the year when Chinese online games rose.
In addition to "Zhengtu", the game that ushered in the era of free online games, there is also "Perfect World", the first 3D large-scale online game in China.
"Perfect World" was developed by Perfect World using its self-developed 3D game engine. It pioneered many novel gameplay elements and was also the first Chinese online game to be exported overseas.
This game has also become the most glorious achievement of Perfect World. In 2010, the game company Perfect World changed its name to Perfect World, which shows the significance of this game to the company.
In addition, domestic online games such as "Ao Shi Online", "Magic Realm" and "Wenwen" are available.
Games such as "Audition", "Kart Runner" and "World of Warcraft" introduced from abroad will also become strong competitors.
Wanting to take a bite of the big pie in the online game market is not as easy as imagined.
Although Qin Shaoyan has always been confident and frantically making cakes and boasting with others, he still feels a little unsure in his heart.
No matter what the results of those online games are later, when the games first come out, they will always attract some players to try them.
Although there are a large number of new player groups every year, the constant emergence of new games will also divert players away. How to win more players in the market has become the primary task of online games.
During this period, the performance of online games was announced by announcing the number of people online. The more people online, the more popular the game would be and the better the revenue would be.
The method of comparing the number of people online in a game was still used until the emergence of free online games. It took several years before it gradually became a way to promote online game revenue data.
Even in the era of free online games, the number of online players is still a very important data for a game.
It doesn’t matter if it’s paid or not.
After the game is launched, the first thing that game manufacturers need to care about is player retention data. After all, there must be a sufficient player base to have more paying players.
Planners have tried every means to attract more players online and keep players sticky with the game.
For example, filling in various gameplays 24 hours a day, giving out prop rewards when idle, etc.
Of course these are just the icing on the cake.
What really attracts and retains players, in the final analysis, is that the quality of the game is good enough and the gameplay is interesting enough.
Qin Shaoyan called the planner into the conference room again and taught them a lesson again.
From game plot polishing to growth system design.
From sorting out daily gameplay to investing in the economic system.
"The excellence of a good game must be reflected in the details." Qin Shaoyan said seriously, "Compared with the already established framework, you have done a very rough job on various details, and some of them have not even considered the details."
"For example, you have made a mess of several relationships in the UI. Which UIs are parent-child relationships, which UIs are parallel relationships, and which UIs are mutually exclusive relationships? You haven't sorted these out clearly, and the UI is arranged in a mess."
"There are also various prompt messages that are not in place. For example, there are not enough weapon enhancement items, there is no response when clicking the enhancement button, and there is not even a prompt. Players thought there was a bug."
"Also, there is no scrolling message when the arena is opened. At least add a countdown message to remind players."
"Think about it from the player's perspective, try it out, and see what shortcomings your design has and what aspects of your thinking are not in place."
"Don't always expect the test team to give you feedback. They have more important tasks to do. Then there are a lot of bugs that haven't been tested yet. There is no time to pick out these small problems for you, so you have to solve them yourself."
"Optimization is a detailed and tedious task. Even if you improve a little every day, it will be a great improvement if you accumulate it slowly."
"Don't immerse yourself in gameplay design every day." Qin Shaoyan said seriously, "From today on, I will make a request. Every planner must spare two hours to play our games."
"How can it be okay if you don't play the game you designed?"
"When you look at the game from the perspective of a player, you will have a different experience."
Don't think Qin Shaoyan is joking. This phenomenon of game developers not playing their own games is not an isolated case.
Many planned and even designed things are thrown into the game without even looking at them.
Therefore, it is not surprising at all that there are incredible gameplay and crazy designs in the game.
The planning meeting lasted until late at night, and the exhausted Qin Shaoyan left the game company's secret research and development base.
After taking a nap in the car for a while, he opened his eyes again and found that the driver Hao Dashan had dropped him off downstairs where he lived.
"You sent me home yourself. Go back to the company first." Qin Shaoyan was a little surprised.
Hao Dashan hesitated, "Mr. Qin, I think you are a little tired, so I sent it back to you. It's so late, you still want to go back to the company?"
Qin Shaoyan thought for a while, "Forget it, let's talk about it tomorrow if you have anything to do. You go back to rest first and pick me up at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
"Okay." Hao Dashan agreed, "The car is parked for you. If you have any emergency, you can call me."
"If anything happens, I'll take care of it myself. Just rest and have a good rest." Qin Shaoyan smiled and said, "You can take a taxi back by yourself and the company will reimburse the fare."
Qin Shaoyan locked the car and wandered upstairs.
As soon as he entered the door, he turned on the computer casually. This was a habit he had developed over the years.
No matter how tired he is at work or how late he comes home, he will turn on his computer as soon as he comes in and look around, as if he can't fall asleep if he doesn't look at it.
After logging into his QQ account, he scanned the friend list as usual, and then he saw Mingyue with her avatar still on.
Honest and upright young man: "Hey, I'm still up so late."
Mingyue: "I haven't finished some work yet. I'm going to sleep for a while. Why do you, a busy person, have time to go to QQ?"
Honest and upright young man: "The driver forced me to take him home today, so I came back early."
Mingyue: "Hey, the boss has become rich and has a driver."
Honest and upright young man: "When you get a new car, you need a driver, otherwise it won't show the quality of the car."
Mingyue: "It seems that you are really rich. What kind of car is it?"
Honest and upright young man: "It's just a Mercedes-Benz. The car is not mine. The ownership belongs to the company. I only have the right to use it."
Mingyue: "Wow! Mercedes-Benz, please take care of me, boss."
Honest and upright young man: "I happen to have something to ask you. Are you free tomorrow? Let's meet."
(End of chapter)