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

Chapter 235 The Power of Free Games

Since the big boss had spoken, Zhang Wei easily obtained dozens of keywords from Baidu, including the names of several popular games at the time, and at a preferential price.

In later generations, keyword bidding is a process in which customers bid against each other. Customers who have purchased keyword bidding can directly log in to Baidu's honeycomb system, which will display the bidding status of the keywords you are bidding on.

If other customers bid higher than you, you can always pay more to buy back the keyword search ranking. It is also because of this mechanism that Putian hospitals have dedicated personnel to monitor the bidding rankings 24 hours a day.

The bidding between customers will naturally push up the cost of promotion. As the saying goes, the wool comes from the sheep. In order to make the money back, those Putian hospitals participating in the bidding will naturally be ruthless and even force patients to spend money.

Keyword bidding has just been released by Zhang Wei, and Weiguang Technology's Three Kingdoms web game has also been regarded as a pilot by Baidu. There are no competitors bidding with Zhang Wei, and Zhang Wei is not worried that others will compete with Weiguang Technology for keyword rankings.

"The Baidu promotion and hao123 advertising have been negotiated. Now everything is ready and our game can be launched. Come on, let's celebrate!" Yao Xiaoguang said as he handed a can of beer to Zhang Wei and opened one for himself.

The two men clinked their beer cans. Yao Xiaoguang took a big sip, while Zhang Wei just took a sip and then said, "Actually, we still have a job to do."

"Is there any unfinished work? What is it?" Yao Xiaoguang also put down his beer.

“We have to find some players who like to play the game.”

"You mean, we should ask players to test the game?" Yao Xiaoguang thought for a moment and answered, "I don't think it's necessary. Our game mechanism is not complicated, and the gameplay is also very simple. There shouldn't be any obvious bugs. Besides, if we do another round of testing, it will definitely delay the launch of the game and increase our costs."

"When I say looking for game players, I mean not for testing, but to invite them to play our games. Not only do we invite them to play, we also have to pay them." Zhang Wei said with a smile.

"Paying players to play games? What's your trick?" Yao Xiaoguang asked in confusion.

Zhang Wei did not answer directly, but asked: "Do you know the catfish effect?"

"It's just like putting a catfish among a group of fish. These fish will feel the crisis of survival and will swim desperately." Yao Xiaoguang replied.

"We also need such a catfish in our game. Let me give you an analogy. For example, if you play a game and become the strongest player on a server, would you still be interested in playing? But if there is a player who is always better than you, do you want to surpass this player who is better than you?"

"I understand. What you mean is that we find someone to play the role of a master in the server, so that other players will spend money to improve their own strength in order to surpass this master?" Yao Xiaoguang instantly understood Zhang Wei's intention.

"Correct!" Zhang Wei nodded with a smile. "That's why I created a ranking list. There are many RMB players who spend real money to play games just to compete for first place. We just set up a competitor for them, which can stimulate them to keep spending money."

"That's a clever move!" Yao Xiaoguang held up a big finger and continued, "But I always feel like this is cheating the players. After all, they paid real money, and we just need to change the data. It's a bit unfair!"

Zhang Wei nodded: "It's a bit unkind. But it's a way to make money, so it's not shameful!"

……

With the arrival of winter vacation, Weiguang Technology’s web game "Three Kingdoms Generals" is finally launched.

Winter and summer vacations are the peak seasons for online games. Students are the largest group of online game players. Moreover, there were no restrictions on minors playing online games at that time. Once the holidays came, they would have fun.

High school student Liu Tao is one of them. Due to the heavy academic pressure in high school and the need to attend evening self-study classes every day, Liu Tao usually has no chance to play games. Only during the winter and summer vacations can he sit in front of the computer and play for several hours every day.

On the first day of the holiday, at eight o'clock in the morning, when both parents went to work, Liu Tao got up from the bed, took a few bites of the breakfast prepared by his mother, and then sat directly at the computer to play games for a while.

Although the computer in Liu Tao's home is connected to the Internet, Liu Tao does not play online games. In the era of point cards, playing online games requires a lot of time and is not suitable for high school students like Liu Tao who have no time.

So he usually plays some single-player games, and during the holidays, he would play through a few levels, which is also a good pastime.

After turning on the computer, Liu Tao suddenly discovered that the game Heroes of the Three Kingdoms 3 that he had played before had been deleted. Maybe his parents didn't want him to play games!
But this did not bother Liu Tao, as there were many places to download stand-alone games online. So Liu Tao directly opened Baidu, searched for "Three Kingdoms 3", and then directly clicked on the first search term.

A new window opened, and after a brief FLASH loading, an image of a beautiful woman appeared on the screen with a sentence next to it: Take Diao Chan home!
"This is not Heroes of the Three Kingdoms! I was searching for Heroes of the Three Kingdoms, how come this thing came out!"

Liu Tao didn't know that the keywords "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" had been bought by Weiguang Technology.

Not only Heroes of the Three Kingdoms, but also titles like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Records of the Three Kingdoms, Three Kingdoms Warriors, and anything related to the Three Kingdoms, all of which were bought by Weiguang Technology. When searching for these words, the top results are all Weiguang Technology's Three Kingdoms web games.

At this time, Liu Tao had already realized that he had entered an advertising link. He instinctively wanted to click the cross in the upper right corner, but Diao Chan on the screen made him unable to help but stare at her.

This Diao Chan is so beautiful! He has never seen such a beautiful picture of a beauty before! Compared with this picture of Diao Chan, Akagi Haruko in "Slam Dunk" is a scumbag, and Shizuka's bath is not fragrant at all.

At this moment, Liu Tao was actually somewhat at a loss. His eyes were unconsciously staring at Diao Chan on the screen, as if attracted by an invisible force. An inexplicable emotion surged in his heart, which was curiosity, appreciation, and a little shyness. At this moment, Diao Chan on the screen had left an indelible image in his heart.

After all, they are adolescents, and it is inevitable that they will have some ignorant emotions towards the opposite sex. Moreover, this is Diao Chan designed by the greasy godfather Jin Hengtai. The proportion of her figure and the clothes that fit her perfectly gave this young man endless reverie.

As if possessed by magic, he clicked on the button "Bring Diao Chan home" and the webpage jumped to the registration page for the meeting.

After a simple registration, he entered the game, and then a dialog box popped up: "Get the novice gift package and get Diao Chan!"

He clicked the mouse, and a wave of prompts immediately appeared on the screen: "Congratulations on obtaining Diao Chan, congratulations on obtaining five Recruiting Orders, congratulations on obtaining five Military Farming Cards, congratulations on obtaining five Building Acceleration Cards..."

There was a long list of gifts, which dazzled him.

"This game is pretty good. It gives away so many things right at the beginning." Liu Tao said to himself.

Based on the principle of not wasting gifts, Liu Tao followed the game tutorial and started playing.

……

That was also the most glorious era of Internet cafes. During the winter and summer vacations, Internet cafes would be crowded. During the day, children would occupy a large number of machines, and at night, when the children would go home for dinner, office workers would take over the children's positions. Internet cafes were crowded with customers from morning to night, and they made a lot of money.

In an Internet cafe next to a residential area, a few kids found adjacent seats and sat down, then directly clicked on the Fantasy Westward Journey icon.

The reason why my kid likes to play Fantasy Westward Journey is because there is a point card trading system in this game. Players can sell game point cards through this system, and they can also use game coins to purchase point cards sold by other players.

That is to say, if you want to spend money, at least there is a place to exchange RMB for game coins. If you want to make money, you can also exchange game coins for game cards.

For those who want to play games without spending money, especially students with little income, this point card trading system allows them to play games without spending a penny.

People of that era probably couldn't have imagined that Fantasy Westward Journey would become the number one financial product in the gaming industry in the future.

I heard one of the kids say, "Let's go online and do the twenty divisions first, then we'll go catch ghosts!"

"I want to seal monsters. There's a lot of money to be made from sealing monsters." Another person gave a different opinion.

"If someone releases a demon, we will go and seal it. If there is no demon, we will go and catch ghosts."

Several people started to log into their accounts. One of them looked very bitter and said, "Oh no, I owe money for the game."

"Can you still log into the game? If you can, I'll lend you some money so you can buy some game cards first." The companion said.

"Maybe I owe too much, so I can't log in." The kid said as he touched his pocket and found that he only had one dollar left. A NetEase card costs 15 yuan, and even with a discount at the Internet cafe it still costs 14 yuan, which is far from enough.

"Who among you still has money? Please lend me some. I'm going to the counter to buy a game card!" the little boy asked his companions.

The companions pooled their money together and came up with seven dollars and fifty cents, which was still not enough to buy a point card.

"Forget it, I won't play today, you guys play!" The kid sighed helplessly.

But Xiao Haige didn't plan to leave. He had already paid for two hours of internet access. If he just left now, he would be losing money!

So the kid continued to sit in front of the computer, staring at the game icons on the computer screen in boredom. The game icons took up most of the screen, and there were more than a dozen games, all of which were paid and required a card to charge.

"It would be nice if there were free games." The kid sighed.

"Free games are all those small games! They are so stupid, only kindergarteners would play those games." A companion next to him said.

"I'll try searching, maybe I can find it!" The kid said, and he opened Baidu search and typed in the words "free game". "Three Kingdoms Heroes, free game, no need to download, just click to play, new players get Diao Chan for free."

The first page that came up after searching was filled with advertisements for Three Kingdoms Generals.

When he saw the words “free game”, Xiaohaige clicked on it without hesitation.

The kid had no feelings towards Diao Chan shown on the game interface. He just thought the character was pretty. He was not yet old enough to be interested in the opposite sex.

But the fact that it was free really attracted him.

After a moment, he followed the game's instructions and came to the card drawing stage.

"Congratulations, you got Liao Hua! Congratulations, you got Mi Fang! Congratulations, you got Chun Yuqiong! Congratulations, you got Zhang Fei!"

According to the setting that there must be a red card general in the novice gift pack, Xiaohaige drew the red card Zhang Fei.

"The other generals' strength values ​​are all over 70, but Zhang Fei's is 99! So amazing!"

With Zhang Fei, the little brother immediately experienced the thrill of conquering cities.

The enemies faced during the novice period are actually computers disguised as players. They are very weak, and the generals are also weaklings. As soon as Xiaohaige's Zhang Fei appears, he immediately sweeps away the opponents.

The feeling of victory immediately made the little boy indulge in it and he had a lot of fun.

After a while, his companions also noticed the game the kid was playing.

"What are you playing with?" asked his companion.

"Legend of the Three Kingdoms is free and you don't have to download it. You can just click on the webpage to play." The kid said.

"Is it fun?" the companion asked.

"Look, this is my Zhang Fei, with a force of 99. Isn't he awesome?" The little boy showed off Zhang Fei to his companions.

My companion also felt itchy when he saw it, so he asked, "Where did you find this?"

“Just search for free games online and it will appear.”

The companion followed what the kid said, registered an account and entered the game.

"Look, I got Zhao Yun! His martial power is also 99!"

The kid looked at his companion's screen and said sourly, "Your Zhao Yun's explosive power is not as high as my Zhang Fei's!"

"Your Zhang Fei is not as smart as my Zhao Yun!"

"In addition to Zhang Fei, I also have Liao Hua! His force is 75!"

"75 is nothing. Look at my Cao Hong, his force is 78!"

The quarrel between the two immediately attracted other companions.

"What are you playing with?" another curious person asked.

"This game is free, do you want to try it?"

"Free? No need to charge a card? Tell me where it is!"

For children who have no source of income and very limited pocket money, free games can be extremely destructive.

The kids have to work hard to scrape out a little pocket money to go to the Internet cafe. If they can save 40 cents per hour on the internet card, why not do it?

……

Early in the morning, Lao Zhang came to the office, made a cup of tea, turned on the computer and started slacking off.

As the Spring Festival is approaching, there is no new business at this time, which is a perfect time to slack off.

Lao Zhang opened the browser and saw the navigation of hao123 on the homepage. He was going to check the news on the portal website, but a few red words caught his eye.

"Free game, click to play." Lao Zhang hesitated for a moment and thought that since he was just slacking off, he might as well play a game to kill time. After all, it was a free game, no money needed!

After entering the game interface, Lao Zhang was also attracted by the image of Diao Chan. However, Lao Zhang has been married for many years and even has children, so he is immune to this kind of animated character.

When drawing cards from the novice gift package, Lao Zhang drew a red card, Taishi Ci. Then, following the game instructions, Lao Zhang won several battles, but was defeated when facing another player.

The opponent also has only one red card, Xiahou Dun, and the rest are green cards and white cards, but the opponent's building level is higher, the generals have more blessings, and the attributes of those green card generals are better.

Having lost the battle, Lao Zhang felt dissatisfied, and at this moment, a recharge dialogue window popped up on the game interface.

"First deposit of ten yuan, get a gift package!"

Lao Zhang took a look at the gifts in the first-time deposit gift package. There were really a lot of things in it, and the total value of the items was also indicated, which was thirty-eight yuan.

This is equivalent to spending ten dollars to buy a prop worth thirty-eight dollars. It seems like a good deal no matter how you think about it.

"Ten yuan is not a lot. I can just smoke one less pack of cigarettes and that's it." Thinking of this, Lao Zhang clicked the first charge button.

Ten yuan was deducted from the mobile phone, and Lao Zhang received a first-charge gift package. Once the farming card and acceleration card were used, the building level was directly upgraded.

Then Lao Zhang started drawing cards again and drew a blue card Hua Xiong and several green card generals.

After Lao Zhang reorganized his lineup, he once again went to PK with his previous opponent. This time, Lao Zhang easily defeated his opponent, the blue card Hua Xiong, and killed several of the opponent's green card generals.

"I won!" Lao Zhang smiled proudly. At this moment, other players attacked him. Lao Zhang fought back without hesitation and successfully repelled the opponent.

"These ten dollars are really worth it. I couldn't win before, but now I can win!"

Although it is only a recharge of ten yuan, the addition of a blue card general and the attribute improvement brought by the building are enough for Lao Zhang to kill a large group of players who don’t spend money.

After fighting two more battles, Lao Zhang encountered a powerful opponent, who was also a krypton gold player and had two red card generals.

In this battle, the two red card generals directly crushed Lao Zhang's lineup. Hua Xiong, who had a blue card, was no match for Wei Yan, who had a red card.

After losing the battle, another window popped up on the screen, offering a limited-time discount gift package with multiple options.

There is a countdown below these discount gift packages. It seems that when the countdown is over, the discount gift packages will return to their original price.

Looking at the prices of the gift packages again, the cheapest one is the gift package with an original price of 30 yuan, but it is only 15 yuan for a limited time; the most expensive one is the gift package with an original price of 100 yuan, but it is only 40 yuan for a limited time.

Although this is not as cost-effective as the first-time gift package, it is at least half the price. And the 100 yuan gift package is obviously the most cost-effective.

"For 40 yuan, you can get it by smoking a few less packs of cigarettes."

Lao Zhang said with difficulty and pressed the recharge button again.

After the items arrived, Lao Zhang drew a card directly, and a general holding a Fang Tian Hua Ji appeared in front of Lao Zhang.

"Red card Lu Bu, force 100!" Lao Zhang instantly felt that he was going to be invincible!
(End of this chapter)