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

Chapter 263 Stealing Vegetables and Grabbing Parking Spaces
Anyone who has experienced that era knows how popular stealing vegetables on the Internet was back then.

At its peak, the Stealing Vegetables game had hundreds of millions of active players every day, far surpassing any other game in the world.

At that time, many middle-aged and elderly people went online every day, not to find people to chat with, not to read the news or listen to music, but to steal vegetables.

If you have not experienced it personally, it would be difficult to understand why such a simple game could become a phenomenal hit.

For example, even if Zhang Wei explained to Wang Xing what stealing vegetables is, it would not make sense, because people of this era do not understand the meaning of social games at all. It would be better to bring out the product in the future and let Xiaonei.com try it out, and Wang Xing will naturally understand it.

Zhang Wei plans to let Weiguang Technology develop the game of stealing vegetables. Developing web games is already a piece of cake for Weiguang Technology, so it will be easy to make a game of stealing vegetables.

Putting aside the matter of stealing vegetables, Zhang Wei immediately put forward his third request: "Brother, my third request is to add a system friend recommendation function.

The existing friends on the campus network all use the search function to find friends. You need to know the friend's name to search for each other, and then you can add each other as friends. This makes the threshold for adding friends relatively high.

If our system can set a rule to recommend friends to users, then it can lower the threshold for adding friends and increase interaction between users.

This rule can be the same class, the same grade, the same department or the same school. It goes without saying that people in the same class must know each other and should add each other as friends. People in the same grade and department may know each other and generally agree to a friend request.

We can also use the number of common friends as a rule. For example, if two people are not good friends, but they have multiple common friends, we can recommend each other to them. Common friends are the bridge between two people, and it is even possible that the two people already know each other.

"This is a good idea. This way, the circle of user friends will be expanded." Wang Xing nodded in agreement.

Zhang Wei went on to say: "Especially for some newly registered users and users with few friends, we need to increase the strength of friend recommendations, encourage them to add more friends and participate in more interactions, so that they can go online more often. Social platforms not only rely on the number of users, but also on user activity."

"Okay, I've got that in mind. I'll have someone research this function right away." Wang Xing agreed.

“Also, I hope you can develop a one-sided attention feature.”

"Unilateral attention? What does that specifically mean?" Wang Xing asked.

"You don't need to go through the friend request. As long as you follow the other person, you can go directly to their homepage and see the content they post." Zhang Wei replied.

"Similar to a blog? Strangers can directly read other people's diaries?" Wang Xing frowned slightly, obviously not optimistic about this idea.

"This function is not used yet, but it will definitely be useful in the future. Let's develop it first to be prepared!" Zhang Wei replied.

"Okay, I'll let the development department do it!" Although Wang Xing was reluctant, he still agreed.

After all, the person in front of you is a financial sponsor who has provided one million euros, so your financial sponsor's requirements must be met!

……

Zhang Wei came to Weiguang Technology, and Yao Xiaoguang excitedly called Zhang Wei to a computer.

“We have just updated the new version of the DOTA map. This time there are no new heroes or new items, nor new features. We mainly made some data and balance changes to make the game more balanced.

In addition, the initial version of the DOTA2 game engine has just been completed. You can take a look at it first. Although this version is still very simple and there are still many details that need to be enhanced, I am still quite satisfied with it. "

As Yao Xiaoguang spoke, he entered a game simulation trial screen and asked Zhang Wei to give it a try.

"Is the picture a bit dim? Can the brightness be higher?" Zhang Wei asked.

"We imitated the game engine of Warcraft 3. Blizzard's game engine is generally darker, so in terms of brightness, we also set it a little darker, just like Blizzard.

And I plan to make the skills released by the character brighter, so that when the skills are released, they will be more conspicuous and more beautiful, creating a sense of contrast. "Yao Xiaoguang explained.

"Well, you're an expert in this area, I'll listen to you!"

Zhang Wei felt that when it came to the design of the game details, he should listen to the creator of Honor of Kings, as he was the expert.

Yao Xiaoguang puffed out his chest and said, "Don't worry, the final product will definitely be much better than it is now."

"How long do you estimate it will take to develop the game engine for DOTA2?" Zhang Wei asked.

"Give me another half year and I will try to finish it." Yao Xiaoguang said this, but his tone was not very confident.

“Is there enough research and development funding?”

"Don't worry about that. There will definitely be enough money. You don't even plan to ask for this year's dividends, so how can there not be enough money?"

"I gave up the dividend for the sake of the company's development, but the dividend for employee shares cannot be reduced by a penny. Everyone has worked hard for a year, and we can't treat them unfairly. Let's try to distribute the money before New Year's Day. If the employees get the money early, they will have something to look forward to."

Zhang Wei paused, then continued, "One more thing. The WCG World Finals is about to begin again. Have you discussed with the organizers about DOTA being a performance event?"

"I get angry just talking about this. This year's event is held in Monza, Italy, and Italy really thinks it's a bargain. They want a million euros in sponsorship! That's 10 million RMB. With such a price, we can't continue the discussion."

"This is normal. After all, it's Monza, only a dozen kilometers away from Milan. They usually host Formula One races or various luxury goods exhibitions. F1 and luxury goods are toys for the rich. You have to pay a lot for them!"

Zhang Wei smiled indifferently and continued, "Well, it saved us one million euros. With this one million euros, we can directly set up a server in Europe and hold a European server competition. We can offer a prize of 100,000 euros and attract a group of Europeans to participate."

"I'm just a little angry. These Italians are just giving me a cold shoulder. They look down on me too much." Yao Xiaoguang still said indignantly.

"They won't be able to show off for too long, only three to five years," Zhang Wei said nonchalantly.

The subprime mortgage crisis was about to come. Once the United States implemented quantitative easing, it transferred its debts to the whole world in disguise, which directly triggered the European debt crisis. As one of the "PIIGS", Italy suffered a lot.

Then Yao Xiaoguang gave the financial statements of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms" to Zhang Wei.

"The momentum of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms" is very good. The activity of our players has not dropped significantly due to the end of summer vacation. Currently, the activity of the game is still in a stable and rising state." Ms. Yao introduced.

In the past, when there were no restrictions on minors’ Internet access, summer vacation was the peak season for online games. Compared to winter vacation, when people had to visit relatives and friends and had less time to play games, summer vacation provided much more free time.

When parents are not at home during the day due to work, the children can go to the Internet cafe or surf the Internet at home and have a great time!

Many games will also launch special summer vacation activities, with more rewards than usual, targeting students. There are also special summer vacation new areas, which are full when they are opened, but once the summer vacation is over and the children go back to school, they immediately become ghost servers.

At that time, if you are playing games in a new area during the summer vacation, the people who are doing dungeons and tasks with you may be all children. The game coins your master gives you may be the New Year's money that the children have saved up with great difficulty.

If you are in the same city, you can get some summer homework writing jobs in the game.

But as soon as the summer vacation is over, the game activity will drop sharply. August 8st and September 31st are completely two different games.

On August 8st, there were still a lot of people in the game, as students took advantage of the madness of the last day of the holiday. But on September 31st, the server suddenly became quiet, and your friend list was gray.

However, this is not the case with "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms". This is a game aimed at office workers who want to slack off. Although some student players will appear during the summer vacation, the core group is still white-collar workers.

Therefore, the end of summer vacation has little impact on the activity level of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms". On the contrary, on weekends and statutory holidays, when students have time to surf the Internet, office workers do not have to go to work or slack off, so many people will not go online.

It can be said that "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms" has opened up a new track for online games, that is, the game of slacking off at work.

Moreover, in the short term, there are no competitors in this track.

The game setting of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms" is relatively complex. If other game companies want to copy it, they will have to invest a lot in design. The high investment alone can keep many plagiarists out.

Many high-quality games are difficult to copy, and high investment is also an important reason.

If you just copy, without investing money, you won't be able to achieve the quality of the original game. If the quality of your game is not as good as the original, but the gameplay settings are the same as the original, players will definitely play the original. Why play a copycat product!

So you can see copycat versions of "Legend" everywhere making money, but copycat versions of "World of Warcraft" rarely survive.

Because copying Legend does not require too much investment, while copying World of Warcraft requires huge investment.

If the money is not enough, the copycat World of Warcraft is just a bunch of shit, no players will play it. If the money is enough, you can make your own game engine and develop games independently. Who would copy World of Warcraft!
At that time, most of the domestic online game companies were small companies that made quick money, and these small companies did not have the strength to copy big game titles. For any game that was more complex and had a longer development cycle, the capital flow of small companies could not support it.

Therefore, in the field of large-scale strategy web games, Weiguang Technology will have no competitors in the short term.

After putting down the financial report of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms", Zhang Wei asked, "I mentioned to you last time that we are preparing for the development of the next web game project. What stage is it at?"

“After you talked about it last time, I put it on the agenda and held several meetings with the heads of several departments. Everyone submitted their letters of intent, and I collected several good suggestions, but the specific project type has not yet been determined.

The main reason is that the revenue of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms" is not bad. I think the popularity of this game should last for at least a year, so there is no need to start a new project so soon. I want to focus my work on the operation of "Hot Blooded Three Kingdoms"! "

"Yes, the new project can be postponed a little, and it is also necessary to do more market research. In addition, I have a suggestion. Our subject matter can not only be limited to traditional historical stories such as the Three Kingdoms, but also extend to other fields, such as online novels, Japanese comics, etc."

"Does this require copyright, right?" Yao Xiaoguang asked.

"Of course we need copyrights, we have to spend money to buy them! Otherwise, why would we keep the money?" Zhang Wei laughed and continued, "Especially the three comics Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, the domestic game copyrights must be obtained for me!"

The three comics of Death, Fire and Sea are the biggest IPs in the comics industry, and there are many characters. In addition, the comics are similar to the setting of combat power levels, which is very suitable for drawing cards. If they are not used to make games, it would be a waste.

Zhang Wei continued, "As for the online novel game copyright, there is no rush for it. The online novel market needs to be nurtured for another two years."

Although there were many famous works by famous authors in online novels in 2006, there had not yet been any phenomenal IPs. To adapt online novels into games, they must be phenomenal IPs to be meaningful.

After talking about all these random things, Zhang Wei finally started to talk about the main topic.

"Brother Xiaoyao, the reason I came here this time is actually to discuss something with you. I just came from Xiaonei.com and talked with Mr. Wang from Xiaonei.com about the development of social platforms. Then I came up with an idea of ​​making a social game." Zhang Wei said.

"Social game?" It was the first time that Yao Xiaoguang heard of this type of game. He said, "Online games inherently have social attributes. It can be said that social interaction is part of online games.

Without social attributes, online games will become stand-alone games. It can be said that social interaction and online games are inseparable. What do you mean by social games? Are they games that focus on making friends and chatting?

"If you are focused on making friends and chatting, those professional social platforms, such as dating websites, are definitely better than games. There is no need to develop a game specifically!" Zhang Wei said.

"That's true. If you go to a dating website, you might be able to date a girl or something!" Yao Xiaoguang nodded in agreement.

"Brother Xiaoyao, you have a life!"

"Get lost, stop implying that to me! I don't do that kind of thing!"

"So you solved all of them by spending money?" Zhang Wei continued to tease.

"It's illegal to pay to solve it! A fine of two thousand and fifteen days of detention!"

"You even know this, you really have a life..."

"Let's talk business!" Yao Xiaoguang snorted coldly.

"Okay, let's get down to business!" Zhang Wei stopped talking nonsense and continued, "Social games are not games developed for making friends and chatting, but games developed to enhance social interaction between people. Simply put, it is to increase interaction and communication between people you know through a game."

Yao Xiaoguang nodded: "I roughly understand what you mean, but according to your idea, the players of this kind of game must know each other. Isn't this threshold quite high? When promoting, how much effort do you have to put in to get people who know each other to play the same game?"

"Therefore, the promotional medium for social games must be social platforms, and only social platforms. People who use social platforms already have many friends, so it is easier for friends to interact through games," Zhang Wei replied.

"Promoting games through social platforms? That's a good idea."

"Brother Xiaoyao, you still don't understand. Our goal is not to use social platforms to promote games, but to use games to promote social platforms!"

Hearing this, Yao Xiaoguang stared at Zhang Wei blankly, and after a while he asked, "Zhang Wei, you don't have a fever, do you? Using games to promote social platforms? How many players does the game have? How many users does the social platform have?
Two million registrations for an online game is already close to the limit. Even Blizzard's World of Warcraft has less than 10 million monthly active users worldwide, and that's the entire planet!
But what about social platforms? They have tens of millions of registered users, like MSN and QQ, which have hundreds of millions of registered users and tens of millions of daily active users. How can online games compare? Dozens of online games combined cannot compare to a social platform!"

"Well, how should I explain this to you..." Zhang Wei frowned.

There is really no way to explain the power of Stealing Vegetables. Even if you review it afterwards, you still can't explain it clearly. Why is such a simple social game so popular!

Or perhaps there are so many factors that contributed to the sudden popularity of social games, so many that a paper of tens of thousands of words could be written about them, and they simply cannot be explained in just a few sentences.

Zhang Wei thought for a moment and since he couldn't explain it clearly, he might as well just put the blame on the campus Internet cafe!
So Zhang Wei said directly: "Just think of Xiaonei as our client. They have a need for us to develop a social game. The business is coming to them, so they are asking you if you want to take it!"

"Why didn't you say that earlier?" Yao Xiaoguang breathed a sigh of relief and continued, "Tell me, what kind of social game do you want to make?"

"Let's make two first. One is called Happy Farm and the other is called Grab Parking Space."

Yao Xiaoguang took out paper and pen and started taking notes.

Zhang Wei continued, "In the game Happy Farm, users play the role of a farmer, cultivating land and planting various vegetables and fruits in their own farm."

"Is it a business simulation game?" Yao Xiaoguang asked.

"It can be considered a business simulation game, but the core gameplay of this game is to go to a friend's farm and steal his ripe fruits, which is called stealing vegetables in short." Zhang Wei went on to introduce.

"What? Stealing vegetables?" Yao Xiaoguang had a puzzled expression and didn't understand what Zhang Wei was talking about at all.

Zhang Wei continued, "The biggest feature of social games is of course interaction. This interaction can be mutual assistance or mutual trouble. Mutual assistance means watering your friend's vegetables, killing insects and weeding them, while mutual trouble means planting pests and weeds on your friend's vegetables and stealing some fruits. Which way do you think is more interesting?"

"That must be a tripping hazard!" Yao Xiaoguang answered without hesitation.

"That's right. For example, if I steal two cucumbers from your field, then you will have two less cucumbers, so you have to steal them back. You steal from me, I steal from him, and he steals from you. Isn't that interaction between friends?"

"I understand. What next?" Yao Xiaoguang asked.

"There's nothing else!" Zhang Wei answered bluntly.

"That's it? What kind of game is this? The gameplay is too simple, isn't it? Only kindergarten kids would play this, right? Would anyone play this kind of game?"

"Of course it can't be that simple. We can set the level of the farm, and only when the level is reached can a certain type of vegetable be planted. We can set props such as fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, etc., we can add some beautiful decorations to the farm, and even raise a guard dog. Wouldn't this enrich the gameplay a lot?"

"I don't feel enriched. It's still boring." Yao Xiaoguang shook his head honestly.

As the father of Honor of Kings, Yao Xiaoguang's mind is full of various blockbuster games. In his opinion, Candy Crush Saga is something that only preschoolers will play.

Stealing vegetables? It's just a stupid game!

Zhang Wei sighed helplessly: "Forget it, if you think it's boring, then it's not boring. Let's talk about grabbing parking spaces! This game is pretty good, easy to get started, and fun."

Then Zhang Wei introduced the gameplay of grabbing parking spaces.

Yao Xiaoguang's expression was even more confused than before.

After being silent for more than half a minute, Yao Xiaoguang finally couldn't help asking, "You call this a game? And it's fun? How can it be fun!"

"Isn't it fun? Isn't it interesting to steal your friend's parking space and put stickers on his car?"

"What's so interesting about it? Zhang Wei, you are kidding me, right? Where did all those wonderful ideas of yours go when you updated the DOTA map? The card-drawing design of Three Kingdoms Generals and the entire game system of Hot-Blooded Three Kingdoms were all thought up by you! With your understanding of online games, how could you come up with such a stupid game!" Yao Xiaoguang said in surprise.

"Stupid game? Don't say that. It's just that the gameplay is simple and easy to get started." Zhang Wei paused and then explained, "What we are making now is a social game, which means it needs to be simple and easy to get started. You don't need to use your brain and can complete it with a few clicks of the mouse. The focus is on socializing, not games."

Yao Xiaoguang was silent for a few seconds, then sighed helplessly: "I really don't understand you! Okay, since you want me to, I'll have someone make these two games. They're pretty simple anyway, and won't take much time."

Zhang Wei smiled slightly and said nothing more.

Facts speak louder than words. After a while, when stealing vegetables and snatching parking spaces start to show their power, Yao Xiaoguang will be convinced without Zhang Wei’s further explanation.

(End of this chapter)