Chapter 264 I am still too kind
Chinese people are born with the gene for growing vegetables, which is something rooted in the blood of farming civilization. Whether in the city or in the countryside, the Chinese can always make clever use of every inch of land, including balconies, roofs, courtyards, and fields. Even if they only have a flower pot, they still have to plant two crops of leeks.
Therefore, food games like Happy Farm have an inherent appeal to the Chinese.
If you were a Westerner, you would probably have no interest in this kind of game where you play farmers. What they like is to play pirates and steal food, money and women. This is in line with their values.
It is a pity that the protagonist team of "One Piece" only cares about blood, neither killing nor looting. Otherwise, this comic should have gained more European and American fans.
However, fighting for a parking space is a serious game imported from the United States.
Grabbing for parking spaces first appeared on Facebook, and soon became popular on major social networking sites and many forums. Although the interfaces for grabbing parking spaces on each website are different, the gameplay is basically the same.
Weiguang Technology has developed complex web games after all. It is naturally easy to make simple web games like Happy Farm and Grab a Parking Space.
In a few days, two mini-games, Happy Farm and Grab a Parking Space, appeared in front of Zhang Wei.
After Zhang Wei tried it for a while, he began to put forward suggestions for modifications.
"Let's talk about Happy Farm first. There is no problem with the gameplay settings, but the art needs to be modified. The higher-level crops should look better. Look at what you have done. Level 6 tomatoes are better than level 15 tomatoes. All the loofahs look good. Then I can just keep growing tomatoes. Why should I upgrade to grow loofahs? "You have more experience in growing loofahs!" The programmer is obviously a straight man. Silly programmer.
Zhang Wei sighed helplessly: "What if the player is a good-looking person? He doesn't care about experience, he only cares about looking good."
"When playing games, you only pursue looking good, and there are other things like this Player?" The programmer had a puzzled expression on his face.
Zhang Wei glared at the programmer and couldn't help but ask: "Liu Gong, do you have a girlfriend? The kind that doesn't leak!"
The programmer shook his head: "Mr. Zhang, silicone is quite expensive, and it still smells after a long time."
"We all know that it smells after a long time. This is a purebred programmer." Zhang Wei sighed and then asked:
"Then you always use QQ, right? There is a QQ show, you know? There are a lot of beautiful clothes in the QQ show, you have to spend money to buy them. There is also QQ space , have you opened it? If you want to make QQ space look good, you have to spend money on decorations."
"I know this. Are you saying these people are stupid? This thing can't be eaten. Just to look good, it costs a few dollars. With that money, I’ll buy two bottles of iced 7-Up!” the programmer said.
“We really have no common language.” Zhang Wei shook his head helplessly, and then asked: “Why is it Seven Up and not Sprite?”
"Sprite is too sweet. I prefer to drink it iced. It's full of energy, has a spicy taste, and is a little bitter. It's very refreshing and makes me feel a little heady."
"Well, what are your procedures for drinking carbonated drinks? The clerk must have experience, I will give it a try later." Zhang Wei said, turning to look at Yao Xiaoguang, and then said: "Brother Xiaoyao, remember, if we build our own office building in the future, we must have a gym, like Liu Gong. If you can't live without drinking Feizhai Happy Water, you will be forced to exercise for one hour every day, and your bonus will be deducted if you don't finish it!" "What? Mr. Zhang, you can't bully me!" Du suddenly burst into tears.
Zhang Weize then said: "Remember to hire a fitness trainer when the time comes. If you want a female, just look like the figure in Jin Hengtai's comics!"
"Mr. Zhang, let's talk. You can count!" Liu Gong's mouth almost watered.
"Otaku programmers are indeed old perverts! The ancients have never deceived me." Zhang Wei cursed in his heart.
At this time, the artist next to him raised his hand, indicating that he wanted to speak.
“Mr. Zhang, you said that high-level crops are more beautiful than low-level crops. I can understand this, but you asked us to make loofah look better than tomatoes. This is indeed a bit difficult!
The tomatoes are red and the surface is very smooth, and the loofah is wrinkled. This loofah is not as good-looking as a tomato! It is impossible for me to draw Pan Changjiang as Yao Ming! If you ask our artists to modify it, why not do it on the game side? Adjust, change the loofah to level 6 and the tomato to level 15. "What a brain! Don't you know how to add special effects to the loofah?" Does the loofah P look better?
For example, you can add a sparkle effect to a loofah, and the grown loofah will sparkle. Wouldn’t that look good?
For another example, you can add small animal decorations to the loofah, such as butterflies, scarabs, etc., and let the butterflies flash their wings twice. Wouldn't it look good? "
"Change it as Mr. Zhang said! "Yao Xiaoguang glared at the artist, who retreated weakly.
Zhang Wei continued; "In addition, you need to design more settings for this watchdog. What kind of Chinese garden dogs, German shepherds, huskies, labradors, golden retrievers, Samoyeds, pugs, how many more types can you get? "
"The latter ones shouldn't be housekeeping, right? With the physiques of huskies and labradors, they might be able to frighten people, and if Pug can guarantee that he won't be stolen, thank God. "Yao Xiaoguang said.
"We are making social games, and social attributes are the first priority. Since we want to socialize, we must experience differentiation, so that we can be social. If you raise huskies, I also raise huskies, and everyone is the same, so what else are you doing? Social!
And when designing, we can set different attributes for each type of watchdog. For example, Labrador eats more, poops more, and can produce fertilizer; for example, Husky can help For example, Bago will only hide when he sees a thief.”
“The dog needs to be interesting, so take note of it!” Yao Xiaoguang continued! commanded.
“Let’s talk about the competition for parking spaces. What about ordinary private cars, high-end private cars, ordinary luxury cars, high-end luxury cars, exquisite luxury cars, and super sports cars? Is your level system designed to be so casual? In reality There are so many cars, why not use them?”
“Mr. Zhang, we originally wanted to use real cars, but we are afraid of infringement. What should we do if those car companies sue us?” Ape asked.
"If we sue, just remove their cars from the game! If their cars don't appear in our game, it doesn't count as infringement!"
Zhang Wei snorted, and then said: "We didn't follow them If you ask for advertising fees, they are already giving them an advantage. If anyone dares to sue us, we will issue an announcement saying that this car is blocked on the road and there is no parking space!”
Back then! Actor Liang said, "If you ride a Mazda, no wonder you are stuck in a traffic jam." From then on, Mazda owners couldn't hold their heads up. Therefore, the traffic jam trope is still very powerful.
And once the parking space game is widely promoted, car companies may actually place advertisements. The arrogant joint venture brand should not be able to pull off this face, but the popularity of domestic car brands is low. I will definitely seize every opportunity for advertising and marketing.
"In addition, both games will add another feature, which is to invite friends to join the game. If you invite friends, you can give some items as rewards." Zhang Wei continued.
"Understood, something like a game invitation code." The programmer next to him nodded.
“There is a difference from the invitation code. Don’t forget, what we are doing this time is a social game. Players have already been friends before, so new players do not need to enter an invitation code, they only need to click to agree. Invite and receive item rewards," Zhang Wei continued to explain.
......
In the conference room of the school network, Zhang Wei stood in front of the projection screen and began to introduce the Happy Farm game.
"Mr. Zhang, the social game you mentioned seems very simple. It involves clearing land, planting vegetables, watering, fertilizing, etc. It's a bit like the electronic pets we used to play." Someone said.
"The vegetable planting part is quite similar to electronic pets, but the core gameplay of this game is not to grow vegetables, but to steal vegetables that I will talk about next." Zhang Wei introduced how to steal vegetables.
"Junior brother, this is the food stealing you mentioned to me before, right? It feels easy to get started!" Wang Xing said first.
“I know that the gameplay of stealing food is relatively simple, but the social attributes of this game are very good and can increase communication and interaction between friends. After all, Xiaonei.com is not a game platform, but a social network Platform, I think this kind of social game is needed to expand the content of the platform," Zhang Wei said.
Wang Xing nodded: "We generally understand the gameplay and characteristics of this game, but Xiaonei.com is a social platform after all, and we have never played games before. So whether we want to launch it on Xiaonei.com We need to hold a meeting to discuss this game first.”
"Okay, then I won't bother you anymore. I'll go back today and look forward to good news from you." Zhang Wei did not continue to persuade, but nodded directly and agreed.
Zhang Wei knows very well that Wang Xing alone does not have the final say on the current school network. Several other partners also have a say. They need to launch Happy Farm on the school network. Discuss carefully.
In fact, in the division of labor of Xiaonei.com’s team, Wang Xing is responsible for product design and marketing, while other partners are responsible for technical aspects, mainly because Wang Xing’s coding skills are so poor.
Wang Xing studied electronic engineering at Tsinghua University and electronic and computer engineering in the United States. Both majors teach not programming, but electrical applications, such as digital analog circuits, embedded system design, large-scale integrated circuits, etc.
An Internet company does not master technology and is not an investor, which affects Wang Xing’s decision-making power within the school network.
And this kind of team is actually very prone to problems. Historically, when the Xiaonei Network was unable to raise funds and its servers and broadband were about to run out, serious internal disagreements arose.
Some people think that the debt pressure is high and they should sell it; some people think that such a good project has a high probability of success and should be persisted; while some people are neutral and feel that they can persist if they continue and sell it. It's not bad to make a profit.
Due to the lack of a decisive voice, the entire Xiaonei.com team collapsed at that time. A collapsed team had no choice but to sell the company. The final result was that Xiaonei.com sold itself to Thousand Oaks at a bargain price.
Later, when Wang Xing started his own business again, he obviously learned this lesson. When he founded Meituan, although he still attracted the start-up team of Xiaonei.com to join the company, and also attracted a wide range of talents, even though After multiple rounds of financing and even its final listing, he has always held the actual control of Meituan.
In Meituan’s board of directors, Wang Xing has 55% of the voting rights, and has also signed a “Concerted Acting Persons Agreement” with Tencent, the largest shareholder, stipulating that Tencent must support unconditionally when the board of directors votes. King's decision.
If a ship wants to ride the wind and waves, it must first ensure that it obeys the captain's command.
......
After Zhang Wei left, the founding team of Xiaonei.com continued to stay in the conference room to discuss whether to launch Happy Farm.
Wang Xing was the first to speak: "Everyone, let's talk about whether we should launch this Happy Farm. Let's start from a technical point of view. Is it technically difficult to launch this Happy Farm?"
The director in charge of technology immediately replied: "Technically it is not difficult. This is a developed web game. There is no need to download the client. It only needs to load the web page to run. So we have to do Yes, just add a hyperlink to this game as an entrance.”
"What about the operation of the game? Will it take up more servers and bandwidth?" Wang Xing asked again.
“Yes, our current servers and broadband are already relatively tight, and the school network is about to be fully opened for registration, and the pressure on servers and broadband will also increase dramatically. If we add such a game, our Will the website crash?" Another person asked.
The technical director immediately replied: "In fact, there is no need to worry about this aspect. We can only provide the connection between the game entrance and user data, and leave the operation of the game to Weiguang Technology. Simply put, the server is Weiguang Technology, ours is just a port to enter the game.
Players enter the game through us, and they are connected to Weiguang Technology's server, which does not put any pressure on our server. I have experience in running web games. I have also played their "Three Kingdoms", and the content is much more complicated than this Happy Farm."
"In this way, from a technical perspective, the online version of Happy Farm is. No problem. Then the next thing we have to discuss is whether to launch this happy farm." Wang Xing glanced at everyone.
Everyone looked at each other, and finally someone took the lead and said: "I object! We are a social platform, not a game platform. What kind of games are we playing? We should focus on social networking! If you look at Facebook in the United States, they don't play games either. Let’s go!”
“I think you can give it a try. Nowadays, the profitability of WEB2.0 is generally questioned. Even Facebook in the United States does not have the ability to make profits. Profitability is still unknown. Maybe games are a way for social platforms to make money?”
“We can make money through advertising. Facebook started accepting advertising in 2005, but we don’t now. How much money can we make from those advertisements? We can’t even make a profit from advertisements alone! br>"That's because our number of users is still too small. When the number of users increases, the advertising fees will naturally increase, and more people will come to advertise. Then we will naturally make profits. But how to increase the number of users? ? Of course it depends on the product. As long as we build the school network well, we won’t be able to attract users!”
"I also think we shouldn't launch games, at least not at this stage. Our school network has been established for less than a year, and the users are not stable. Now we should attract new users on the basis of maintaining old users. If we Launching games will cause old users to be attracted to the games and reduce the time they spend using the website, which is not worth the loss!”
“Yes, launching new games will also violate our original intention of building a school network. What we want to do is a campus social platform, which should focus on the university market segment. Opening registration to the whole society is already contrary to our original idea, and now we want to make a game? "That's even more the opposite." He spoke.
“And now there are many online mini-game platforms. If you want to play such a simple mini-game, just go directly to the mini-game website. There are a lot of them. Why come to us? So even if you are playing games, We don’t have any advantage, so we might as well make social content more down-to-earth,” the person from before continued.
Everyone expressed their opinions. Most people were opposed to the launch of the game, while those who agreed only wanted to give it a try, and their support was not firm.
Wang Xing sighed lightly. In this team, he did not have enough voice and could only obey the majority.
......
The next day, Zhang Wei received a call from Wang Xing.
"Junior brother, I'm really sorry. In fact, you and I, senior brother Huiwen, both support the launch of Happy Farm. After all, we both graduated from Tsinghua University. If not, who do you support? What are the internal opinions? There is no unity and there is a lot of resistance!" Wang Xing explained.
"I understand, it seems that the time has not come yet! It doesn't matter, maybe after a while, everyone will figure it out!" Zhang Wei's tone seemed very relaxed.
"Junior brother, don't be anxious. I'll go back and do other people's work, and try to get your happy farm online as soon as possible!" Wang Xing paused, then asked: "By the way, about The opening of registration on the school network is ready. Will it still be carried out according to the original time?
"Brother, are you worried that the funds from my side won't arrive? Don't worry. I've already contacted the Swiss Bank. However, cross-border remittances are more cumbersome. I also wanted to save some handling fees, so the funds were bypassed. It’s a circle. But your first batch of funds will definitely arrive this week!” Zhang Wei said.
"Then I'll rest assured. I've already negotiated with the server and broadband provider, and I'm just waiting for the funds to arrive!" Wang Xing said.
The two exchanged pleasantries for a few more words before hanging up the phone.
After putting down the phone, Zhang Wei's face gradually became gloomy.
The Xiaonei.com team actually rejected me. Do they really not take the sponsor’s father seriously?
"It seems that I am still too kind!"
(End of this chapter)