my return 2002

Chapter 338 League of Legends
The transaction involving 1.75 million US dollars and 6.5 acres of land cannot be completed in a short period of time. It also needs to apply to the Texas government and report to the environmental protection department and animal protection department.

Fortunately, Shen Lang is not in a hurry. Bridgewater Fund is closing positions one after another, and it will take half a month.

During this period of time, Shen Lang was not idle either, he and Liu Tianxian visited the entire state of California, and while they were having fun, Li Xuelin also sent a piece of good news.

[League of Legends], produced by Yangdao Studio for two years, has completed the preliminary beta testing.

Shen Lang immediately returned to Los Angeles and came to Yangdao Studio.

"BOSS." Yangdao saw Shen Lang standing up with difficulty. In the past two years, he had gained a lot of weight, and he was almost stuck in the chair and couldn't get up.

Shen Lang warmly hugged Yangdao, patted him on the back, and joked: "It seems that I need to give you a treadmill as a gift."

The other members of the studio couldn't help but gloated, but Yangdao patted his stomach calmly and winked.

"Oh, then you have to arrange an ambulance to be at the door of the company at any time."

After a burst of laughter, Yangdao asked someone to connect the computer to the screen, and then started the presentation. The lights in the meeting room were also turned off so that Shen Lang could have a better visual experience.

Shen Lang is not an early player of League of Legends, so he doesn't know what the early version of League of Legends is like, but now Yangdao is made with the same game engine as DOTA2, and the image quality has been greatly improved.

"Boss, we have produced a total of 17 heroes so far, and another 23 heroes are under production." Yangdao began to explain the mechanism and gameplay of the game eloquently.

Although Shen Lang has a certain understanding of MOBA games, he did not interrupt Yang Dao and listened patiently.

"I understand the mechanism of the game. My question is, what kind of business model do you plan to use to operate the game?"

One sentence made Yangdao, who was talking vigorously, a little dumbfounded. After half a minute of silence, he said to Shen Lang cautiously.

"Boss, my opinion is to adopt the model of free games and item charging to recover the cost."

In fact, there is no concept of MOBA games at this time. Since all the gameplay comes from DOTA, all similar games are called DOTA-like games.

And DOTA is a map in Warcraft. In the case that Blizzard does not share the benefits with the map creators, let alone profit, whether it can recover the cost is a problem. This is the main reason why Yang Dao and Ice Frog left one after another. There is also a limit to generating electricity for love.

At the beginning, Yangdao originally thought of doing a buyout system like Warcraft, where players pay for buyouts, and then they provide servers for players to play against. Compared with other buyout games, it’s really fun to play. Players who stay offline for a long time will lead to high server and bandwidth costs, and the buyout system alone can’t support operating costs at all.

Therefore, Yangdao has added a rune system to the game. Players who buy runes can obtain a certain initial attribute enhancement, and at the same time, it will not affect the game balance too much. After all, there are many attributes added to equipment in the game. It's useless.

This is already the best solution that Yangdao can think of without disrupting the game balance. Of course, all of this needs to be approved by Shen Lang.

Shen Lang looked at the bare mall, with no interface for value-added services other than runes, and frowned. What are you kidding, how can you make money with these crap?What about game skins?

But after thinking about it, the business model of MOBA games in this period is still in the exploratory stage, and many gameplays are gradually added in later. Who would have thought that it is just some game skins without any attribute bonuses at all. Can so many players flock to it?

Shen Lang shared his thoughts with Yangdao, and the Yangdao team also raised questions about the new business model of selling heroes and game skins.

"However, will limiting the number of heroes used by players cause dissatisfaction among players?"

Shen Lang looked at Yangdao and the others with a smile, who knows how the League of Legends team thought of the bad move, and actually sold the heroes, but this business model is still very successful.

"Perhaps we can think of the problem in a different way. Don't think of League of Legends as a DOTA-like game, but as an MMO game. Although players will restart every game, their accounts are not. There is growth potential, upgrades can get more rune holes, and you can get gold coins, and gold coins can buy any goods they need in the mall."

"When a player is tired of archer heroes, he can also try to use assassin or mage heroes. At this time, he needs to buy heroes and runes again until the player reaches the full level. , full skin, like a collector, this will give players a sense of accomplishment!"

After hearing Shen Lang's words, the members of the Yangdao team were dumbfounded. The game can still be operated like this?

But after thinking about it carefully, what Shen Lang said is quite reasonable. If they are allowed to take the role of players, I am afraid that they will also want to obtain a perfect game account, just like the graduation equipment in World of Warcraft. There is a pimple.

The Yangdao team began to modify the game non-stop according to Shen Lang's ideas. During this period, Shen Lang also stayed in the Yangdao studio and put forward some of his own opinions from time to time.

Liu Tianxian also comes here often. Although she doesn't understand game production at all, she is a proper house girl. When Shen Lang is not around, she basically stays at home, and occasionally plays games when she is bored.

Ever since Shen Lang taught her how to play League of Legends, Liu Tianxian started the journey of being abused. However, she was so addicted to food that she was abused to such an extent that she always wanted revenge. Shen Lang had no choice but to let her know how powerful she was.

However, Liu Tianxian's level has also improved very quickly. This is also due to the easy-to-learn mechanism of League of Legends. If it is like DOTA, each hero's skill keys are different, and Liu Tianxian probably won't be interested in playing it once.

By October, the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States had already swept the world. On October 10, Iceland basically froze its foreign exchange assets due to the subprime mortgage crisis and nationalized the three major banks. Basically, it meant playing a rogue: I don’t play anymore , what do you like!

Amidst the wailing of global finance, a guy named John Paulson suddenly became famous. The reason is very simple. During the subprime mortgage crisis, he personally made $37 billion. A movie "The Big Short" was made to record his deeds.

For a while, John Paulson attracted the attention of the whole world. He also became the famous "God of Making Money" and "Hedge Fund No. 1" from an unknown little man at the beginning.

Countless media have focused the spotlight on John Paulson, and countless people in the United States and even people all over the world regard his deeds as a miracle.

John Paulson has also appeared in front of the media many times to talk about his investment philosophy, gave lecture tours in the world's top universities, and the ratings of TV programs where he appeared are also high, as if just seeing him can Learn how to make money.

And at this time, there was news that financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs and Bridgewater Fund were making profits in the subprime mortgage crisis. Everything seemed to be such a coincidence, but it was just right. It was hard not to doubt that John Paulson It is just a wayfinding stone released to test the public's reaction.

Before the nerves of the American people could relax, the New York Post, a subsidiary of News Corporation, suddenly published a piece of news that a mysterious oriental investor made more profits than John Paulson in the subprime mortgage crisis.

Although the news did not disclose specific information about Shen Lang, this did not prevent some media from looking for the mysterious Eastern investor in the report through their power on Wall Street.

During this period of time, Bridgewater Fund also finally reached the final income to Shen Lang's account in the United States, a total of 50.3 billion US dollars, excluding the cost of 7.5 million US dollars, Shen Lang earned a full 42.8 billion US dollars in the subprime mortgage crisis , indeed surpassed John Paulson's $37 billion.

And just when some media were getting closer to Shen Lang's true thoughts, the New York Post once again broke the news about a big piece of news.

Mysterious Eastern investors have bought oil tycoon Pickens' Mesa Vista ranch in Texas for $1.75 million.

The article on Wall Street also pointed out that this mysterious oriental investor likes life in Mesa Vista Ranch very much and will stay there for a long time in the future.

The successive breaking news has caused a lot of repercussions in the American society. Some people think that the mysterious oriental investor is stealing the wealth of the American country, and the government should arrest him.

Some think that this Eastern investor is an investment genius, and the United States should welcome him to join.

At this time, the New York Post finally published an official interview about Shen Lang.

In this interview, it tells how Shen Lang grew from a child in a difficult family to the boss of China's first Internet company, as well as some small stories that have been polished.

The New York Post report portrayed Shen Lang as an image of a winner who relies entirely on his own struggle and becomes a winner in life through high-tech entrepreneurship. This is in line with the basic requirements of the "American Dream", and it is also the spirit that has always been talked about by Americans.

Soon, relevant reports began to be reposted by some media, and even Facebook and Twitter began to discuss related events.

Americans have divided views on Shen Lang. If Shen Lang was an American, they wouldn't be so entangled. They would even look after him like John Paulson. However, he is a Chinese.

The people of the United States have suffered too much losses in the subprime mortgage crisis this time. Many people have instantly become paupers from the middle class and live on the streets. These people will not find reasons on themselves. People who made money in the mortgage crisis think they stole their wealth.

For a while, there were many comments unfavorable to Shen Lang in the American society, and some people even threatened to make him unable or leave the American country.

Regarding these radical remarks, the attitude of the American people is also very tangled.

On the one hand, over the years, American society has always shown freedom and democracy, and private property is sacred and inviolable. On the other hand, they are facing huge losses and are unwilling to let Shen Lang leave the United States with such a large amount of wealth.

At this time, the New York Post once again published an article, which revealed that Shen Lang will invest 30 billion US dollars in the United States in the next three years, which is expected to provide tens of thousands of jobs, and will also be established in Silicon Valley. A dedicated angel investment company to provide more job opportunities.

After this report appeared, the trend of public opinion gradually began to improve, and some more radical remarks gradually disappeared in the mainstream media. Although it is still inevitable that many American people will report ill-will to Shen Lang, they have become a minority after all.

On the one hand, it is the credit of Murdoch's News Corporation. On the other hand, the US government is unwilling to tear itself apart at this critical point. After all, many foreign funds are fleeing the US after the subprime mortgage crisis.

If a similar scandal occurs at this time, it will deal a heavy blow to the reputation of the United States. Of course, the most important thing is that Shen Lang promised to use 30 billion US dollars for investment in the United States. It's worth the risk. If Shen Lang is greedy and wants to take all 20 billion US dollars away, then I'm sorry.

Seeing that the situation was gradually calming down, Shen Lang also breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, he took Liu Tianxian to participate in some charity activities in a high-profile manner, and frequently spent a lot of money to buy expensive collections at high prices.

At the same time, under the recommendation of Murdoch, Dalio, and Sequoia Capital founder Don Valentine, Shen Lang also began to contact some high-level Wall Street officials.

By the end of October, the situation basically calmed down, and Shen Lang finally moved into the Mesa Vista Ranch. Liu Tianxian and Liu's mother also came to live for a few days. It was not until November, when the League of Legends officially launched its internal beta, that Shen Lang came from Come out from Gentle Country.

After the rapid work of the Yangdao team, the internal beta version of League of Legends has 28 heroes. At the same time, thanks to Shen Lang's guidance, the maturity of this version of League of Legends is already quite high.

The game is naturally handed over to Li Xuelin to operate. Star Games has previous experience in operating popular web games such as virtual farms, but it is not considered familiar. In addition, the number of players in the United States is much smaller than that in China.

European and American players generally prefer stand-alone games, and their enthusiasm for online games is actually not high. Even for online battle games like League of Legends, the audience for the closed beta is mostly former DOTA players.

This creates a problem. League of Legends has many operations that are different from DOTA. For example, there is no denying, and there is no mechanism that TP will be interrupted if you touch it when returning to the city.

Many DOTA players thought that as long as the opponent didn't interrupt their skills, they could go back to the city to soak in the spring water, but when they looked back, why did the screen turn gray?
Already accustomed to the scene where millions of players are online at the same time in the virtual farm, seeing that there are only 20 online players in the League of Legends at the same time, Li Xuelin secretly said to Shen Lang.

"Is this game off the street?"

(End of this chapter)