They’re all reborn, what’s wrong with being a little more almighty?

Chapter 225: The Game of Making Quick Money
In the e-sports market, Singapore plays a very special role. There are no local competitions and no local players here, but it is a favorite place for e-sports organizations.

In Singapore, a place as small as a palm, there are hundreds of e-sports organizations. Blizzard, EA, and even Riot later set up their Asian headquarters in Singapore.

Many competitions are also held in Singapore, such as the later DOTA2 International Invitational and Major, the League of Legends Global Championship Cup, the Valorant Championship Tour, all of which were held in Singapore, and even the later Olympic Esports Week was held in Singapore.

International e-sports competitions are keen on Singapore, which is inseparable from Singapore’s special geographical location and infrastructure level.

In terms of geographical location, Singapore controls the Strait of Malacca, so transportation is very convenient. Moreover, whether you are coming from Europe, the Middle East or East Asia, it is not far away, and visas are also easier to obtain.

In terms of infrastructure, Singapore is fully covered by the Internet, and the speed is pretty good. Connecting to a server in Europe from Singapore is much faster than connecting to a server in Korea, for example.

Of course, in 2005, LAN games still dominated the world, and hosting e-sports competitions did not require a very high-speed network.

In November in Singapore, the 11 WCG World Finals was in full swing.

Taking advantage of the interval between the two finals, a DOTA exhibition match was held on the main stage between the Korean team and the Singaporean team.

The result is predictable, the South Korean team easily beat the Singapore team.

Given the small size of Singapore, it is not easy to find five people to play DOTA.

This is indeed the case. The five people representing Singapore are not even amateur players. They are probably just five people who are good at playing DOTA in the university dormitory and formed a team. It is equivalent to the level of playing together in the dormitory.

The five players sent by the South Korean team are not professional DOTA players, but they are professional Warcraft 3 players. Although they are not very famous, they have the skills of professional players. Whether it is the accuracy of operation or AMP, they are much better than the Singapore team.

There was no way the team with the level of playing in the dormitory could beat the professional players. The game lasted only more than 20 minutes and the South Korean team had already defeated the Singaporean team.

Five Korean athletes stood in front of the podium with excitement, wearing the Taegeukgi and shouting "loyalty".

Although it was a performance event, a gold medal was still specially set up. Just because the South Korean team won the championship, the sponsor Samsung Group also had to add this gold medal.

At the same time, in Blizzard's forum, posts discussing DOTA were also extremely hot. During the game, some people used text to do real-time live broadcasts, and after the game, some people posted posts to review the game process.

For all competitive activities, holding competitions is an excellent way to promote the activity. Of course, promotion is one thing, but whether you can continue to promote it is another matter.

Take football in a certain Eastern country for example. No matter how many games are held or how much prize money is given, it is still the same bad sport as before, and in the end it can only be used to balance the country's destiny.

Yao Xiaoguang was sitting in front of the computer, constantly refreshing the discussion posts in the forum, but he was in hesitation deep down.

Just now, he received another job offer. This time, the person who invited him was the vice president of Penguin Group. Penguin hoped that Yao Xiaoguang could join Penguin Games.

The salary offered by Penguin is quite good, and they are also willing to let Yao Xiaoguang be independently responsible for the research and development and operation of a game studio, which is equivalent to giving Yao Xiaoguang a great deal of power and allowing him to play freely.

Moreover, Penguin's scale is there, and it also owns China's number one social platform QQ. If you join Penguin, you can be like leaning on a big tree to enjoy the shade.

To be honest, Yao Xiaoguang was very tempted by Penguin's invitation, but he was also unwilling to give up the DOTA project he was working on.

Not to mention that after Yao Xiaoguang took over DOTA, he has updated several versions and has developed feelings for DOTA.

Just looking at the current popularity and development momentum of DOTA, even a fool can see that it is just around the corner for it to become a global hit game.

If Yao Xiaoguang joins Penguin, it means saying goodbye to the DOTA project.

But apart from Penguin, other companies cannot have such a scale, and it is difficult for them to offer Yao Xiaoguang the same good conditions. If he missed this opportunity, Yao Xiaoguang would not know if he would have the chance to hold such a big thigh again in the future.

On one hand, Yao Xiaoguang had a hard time making a decision: he had to hug Penguin's big legs, and on the other hand, he had to start his own business and continue working on DOTA.

If Yao Xiaoguang knew how popular DOTA would be in the future, he would probably choose the DOTA project without hesitation. However, Yao Xiaoguang is not a reborn person, and what he has before him now is DOTA1 with no profit points. Of course, he will be caught in a dilemma.

That night, Yao Xiaoguang lay in bed, unable to fall asleep for a long time. He tossed and turned, his thoughts tangled like a tangled mess, and the chaos in his heart was as uncalm as the fallen leaves outside the window blown by the wind.

Yao Xiaoguang didn't sleep the whole night. In the early morning, when it was already light outside, he finally made a decision.

"For the sake of my dream, let's fight one last time!" Yao Xiaoguang made up his mind, then got up from the bed and dialed Zhang Wei's number directly.

After dialing the number, Yao Xiaoguang realized that it was only six o'clock in the morning and most people probably hadn't gotten up yet!
Yao Xiaoguang hung up the phone immediately, but more than a minute later, Zhang Wei called again.

"Brother Xiaoyao, you called me? I was about to answer but you hung up. Is there something you want to talk to me about?" Zhang Wei asked.

There was no grumpiness in Zhang Wei's voice. Yao Xiaoguang breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I thought you hadn't gotten up yet, and I was worried about disturbing your sweet dream again."

"The time in Japan is one hour faster than in China. It's already past seven o'clock and I'm ready to have breakfast." Zhang Wei replied.

Yao Xiaoguang then said: "DOTA was a performance event in yesterday's WCG World Finals. Did you know that?"

"I read the news reports. There seems to be a text report of the battle online, but no one has posted a reply mode yet." Zhang Wei replied.

At the end of 2005, video websites were still a new thing. In China, video websites such as Youku had not yet been established. What was popular at that time was online TV, such as Boiling Point Online TV, PPStream, PPLive, etc.

In addition to being able to watch programs from various TV stations, this kind of online TV software also has a special channel that plays movies or TV series in rotation. College students in the 2000s used this thing to skip classes and go to Internet cafes to watch NBA games. Many people born in the 1980s also watched the entire series of Stephen Chow's movies through this kind of online TV software.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, this online TV software even cooperated with CCTV to broadcast the entire Beijing Olympics live. Games that could not be seen on TV channels could be watched on the online TV software.

Later, with the strengthening of copyright protection and the increasing number of resources on video websites, all kinds of videos could be watched directly on demand, and online TV gradually declined. The rise of live streaming completely overwhelmed online TV software.

In 2005, YouTube was just a platform for sharing recorded clips among friends. Most of the videos recorded daily life, such as visiting an amusement park, eating delicious food, etc., similar to today's circle of friends.

Although YouTube already had millions of short videos and hundreds of thousands of views every day, it had no profit point. It was not until it was acquired by Google that it began to operate commercially.

This means that in this era, even if there are video recordings of the games, there is no place to upload them, and there is no website where you can watch the videos of the games.

If you want to watch the replay of the game, there is only one way, which is to download the replay mode of the game and enter the game to replay it.

In order to hide their tactical details, many professional players often keep their reply mode secret. If you don't play a game with him, you won't be able to get his reply mode at all.

The reason why Korean StarCraft was so good back then was because Korean players blocked their own reply mode. Although Korean TV stations broadcast the games live at the time, many details could not be seen in the pictures provided by OB.

In the era of StarCraft II, with the advent of Battle.net, players could check the reply mode of top players on Battle.net, so the details of Korean players could no longer be kept secret, and European players were able to rise. Back to the point, Yao Xiaoguang chatted with Zhang Wei about WCG for a few minutes, and then got to the point: "Zhang Wei, when will you return to China? When you return, let's register a game company!"

"That's great, Brother Xiaoyao, you finally decided to stay and work on the DOTA project!" Zhang Wei immediately smiled happily.

The original agreement between Zhang Wei and Yao Xiaoguang was that Yao Xiaoguang would be in charge of DOTA for a period of time. If Yao Xiaoguang felt that the project had potential, he would stay and start a business with Zhang Wei. If Yao Xiaoguang felt that DOTA was not working, he could leave at any time as he wished.

Now that Yao Xiaoguang has proposed registering a company, it is obvious that he is planning to start a business with Zhang Wei.

Zhang Wei was afraid that Yao Xiaoguang would change his mind, so he immediately said, "Brother Xiaoyao, I'll book a flight ticket and fly back to Beijing this afternoon!"

"There's no rush to register a company. You don't have to come back this afternoon." Yao Xiaoguang said embarrassedly.

"It's okay. I've had enough of Japan anyway! I originally planned to travel here to relax, but who knew that after arriving here, I would have to attend academic conferences every day. It's so annoying!"

Zhang Wei made a monkey face and continued, "Brother Xiaoyao, you are an expert in game development. When the company is established, you will be the CEO. You will also be responsible for recruiting people. As an outsider, I will not participate in the operation of the company."

"That won't work. You provided the funds and I'm just contributing my effort. But you're the boss and you have to make the final decision!" Yao Xiaoguang said immediately.

"Even if I want to make a decision, I don't have the energy! I have to go to school, do research, and attend so many academic conferences. Maybe when I get busy, you won't be able to find me even if you call me! So don't count on me!"

Zhang Wei sighed helplessly and continued, "But I still have two expectations for our company."

"The company hasn't even been registered yet, and the boss is already giving instructions? Tell me, what instructions are there?" Yao Xiaoguang asked with a smile.

"I think after the company is established, we will immediately start the research and development of the DOTA2 project. The DOTA2 we develop will no longer be a map of Warcraft 3, but a game with an independent client." Zhang Wei said.

"Independent client? That means we have to develop a new game engine! That's a big project." Yao Xiaoguang said.

"I remember that when you were at Shanda, you worked on Sandi Games. You have experience in making game engines." Zhang Wei said with a smile.

"The Sandi game I made now seems like a piece of crap, and is far inferior to the Sandi effect in World of Warcraft. Blizzard's products must be high-quality, and this is not nonsense. To be honest, even if you give me five years, I can't produce a Sandi effect of that level." Yao Xiaoguang is not as optimistic as Zhang Wei.

"We are not going to make a 360-degree rotating game like World of Warcraft. We are going to make a fixed-viewing game. Although the terrain, buildings, units and trees in the game are to be presented in three-dimensional models, it is enough to have a bird's-eye view to allow players to feel the three-dimensionality of the game."

"If that's all, then my third brother's modeling is a bit complicated. I can give it a try." Yao Xiaoguang replied.

"That's not enough. We need to strengthen the interactivity between the environment and game characters. For example, the effects of movement, hitting, collision, and explosion can enhance the gaming experience," Zhang Wei continued.

"I understand this. It probably means that when moving in the water, there should be ripples, and when being attacked, there should be special effects of being hit. Is that what you mean?" Yao Xiaoguang asked.

"Yes, that's what I mean. But the most important thing is to ensure the smoothness of the game. We can't sacrifice the smoothness of the game for the sake of visual effects. No one wants to play a game that is lagging!"

"I've made a note of that." Yao Xiaoguang paused, then asked, "Should we discuss the development of DOTA2 with Blizzard first?"

"There's no need for that. Anyway, I've already registered the DOTA trademark. Our development of DOTA2 is completely legal and does not infringe on Blizzard's copyright. What's more, even if we go to Blizzard, they won't have the time to deal with us."

"Why? Isn't DOTA very popular in Europe and the United States? If we develop DOTA2, will Blizzard not respond?" Yao Xiaoguang asked puzzled.

"Blizzard's main focus right now should be on the World of Warcraft expansion pack! In addition to the World of Warcraft expansion pack, the development of StarCraft 2 has also been put on Blizzard's agenda.

StarCraft is Blizzard's flagship product, and they will definitely put more thought into the sequel. I estimate that within five years, Blizzard won't have time to care about DOTA!" Zhang Wei replied.

There is another point that Zhang Wei did not mention, which is that Blizzard is busy suing South Korea's Kespa.

The StarCraft competitions run by Kespa in South Korea have become an industry and brought huge business opportunities. It is said that at its peak, Kespa earned 20 billion won a year from StarCraft competition licensing fees alone. At that time, 20 won could be exchanged for 1600 yuan, and billion won was equivalent to million yuan.

You have to know how small South Korea is and how many people it has. If it were a certain big country in the East, wouldn't the population be twenty times as much?
This is just the licensing fee for the competition, the advertising sponsorship fee during the competition, the TV broadcast fee, and the advertising fee inserted during the TV broadcast. These are all money. The entire industry chain adds up to a huge income.

From Blizzard's perspective, South Korea alone can bring in so much revenue. If the whole world can follow this model, then the profits brought will be astronomical!

Blizzard wanted to take back the game license, but Kespa definitely didn't want to, so Blizzard filed a lawsuit against Kespa.

Blizzard said that StarCraft is a game developed by Blizzard, and Kespa violated Blizzard's intellectual property rights by holding competitions without Blizzard's authorization;

Kespa said that since I bought the genuine version of StarCraft, the product belongs to me and I can use it however I want. Organizing competitions is also a way to use the product and Blizzard has no right to interfere.

The two sides have been arguing for several years, and Blizzard ultimately did not gain an advantage. Blizzard still overestimated the status of the American father. In Korea, it is useless for the American father to sue the Koreans, and it will not win!

The result is that Kespa moved all StarCraft games to the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in Shanghai, and Blizzard could only drool in envy.

Finally, when StarCraft 2 was released, Blizzard directly cancelled the LAN and created Battle.net instead. As a result, Kespa could no longer host StarCraft 2 competitions.

Kespa was also tough. If you don't let me organize StarCraft 2 competitions, I will continue to organize StarCraft 1 competitions. Anyway, the TV broadcasting rights are with me. So I continued to fight with Blizzard for several years.

Blizzard said that even without Zhang the Butcher, they can still eat meat. They cooperated with a Korean online media and organized a StarCraft 2 competition, which was broadcast on the Internet and had a huge prize money.

The Korean market is too small to support two real-time strategy games, so one of them will inevitably fail.

Blizzard won in the end. The audience always gets tired of the old and loves the new. With the release of StarCraft 2, fewer and fewer people will watch StarCraft 1.

After all, StarCraft 1 is a game that came out in 1998. It has been popular for more than ten years, so it can be said that it has come to an end.

But the most annoying thing is that after Blizzard got back the right to host the competition, they didn't do a good job of organizing the competition. They have such good game resources and are not short of money, but they didn't organize a decent competition. It's typical that you don't like others occupying the toilet, but you occupy the toilet but don't shit! It deserves to be declining.

After noting down Zhang Wei's requirements for the development of DOTA2, Yao Xiaoguang asked, "Boss Zhang, what is your second instruction?"

"DOTA2 cannot be developed in a short period of time. During this period, the company has to make money and the employees have to eat. So I think that while developing DOTA2, we can also take some time out to make a few games that can make quick money." said the booth owner.

"A game to make quick money?" Yao Xiaoguang was stunned.

In his opinion, online games are the result of long-term accumulation, building up reputation bit by bit and attracting players. How can there be any such thing as making quick money?

Zhang Wei smiled and asked, "Brother Xiaoyao, do you know about online games? They are a great way to make quick money!"

(End of this chapter)