You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 366 I'll teach you how to make online games
In the closed R&D base, all employees became absent-minded, occasionally stealing a glance in the direction of the meeting room.

Especially those employees who were close to the meeting room, stared at every move intently and kept updating messages on the chat software on the local area network.

Countless messages quickly appeared on the chat software. Almost half of the employees participated in it, and the rest of them also paid close attention to the messages in the group.

The conference room has never attracted as much attention as it does today. Even if a fight broke out in the conference room before, most employees were too lazy to take a look.

Meeting rooms are places for quarrels. If there is no noise, it would be news.

But today is different. A heavyweight has come to the conference room, making all employees nervous and attentive.

This heavyweight guest is the real boss of the game company, Mr. Qin Shaoyan, who has always been elusive.

Mr. Qin is a legend in the gaming industry.

Before graduating from college, he formed a small game production team, and with only three members he created a classic in the history of games, "Plants vs. Zombies".

After becoming a hit in North America, "Plants vs. Zombies" quickly spread to other parts of the world.

In less than half a year, this game was exported and sold domestically, becoming popular all over the country.

It is said that this game has sold 30 million copies, becoming a highly valuable champion in the Chinese gaming industry.

This astonishing record in the field of stand-alone games will probably be difficult to surpass in the future, not to mention the current sluggish market.

The following year, Mr. Qin brought the groundbreaking game "Counter-Strike: Modern Warfare" to the E3 Expo in the United States, shocking the entire global gaming industry and winning a cooperation bonus of million US dollars on the spot.

When they joined the game company, most of the employees came for Mr. Qin, a world-renowned game designer.

But after joining, they found that things were not what they thought. The game company’s key project was no longer stand-alone games, but like other companies in the industry, they began to invest most of their resources in online games.

The employees who dreamed of following Qin Shaoyan to create a world-bestselling stand-alone game felt that their dreams were shattered. What made them even more devastated was that they had never even met Qin Shaoyan after joining the company.

Mr. Qin is not only the boss of a game company, but also the boss of Campus Network and Qvod.com.

Their minds are not on games at all, but they are busy building careers on the Internet.

If it weren't for the fact that President Qin was generous with his money, many people would have wanted to resign.

Compared with the artists and programmers who have a stable mentality, the planners in the company are different.

They are full of resentment and have no place to vent.

These planners had only joined the company for about half a year. They had never experienced the period when President Qin was spending money, nor had they worked on any projects with President Qin. Many of them had never even met this boss.

Although President Qin is not in the company, his legend is everywhere.

As soon as the planner joined the company, he was required to strictly follow the R&D process, such as recording the work content every day, recording every modification of the plan, and providing real-time feedback to the art, programming, and testing departments.

These tedious tasks make some planners unbearable. They feel that this company is doomed. It is a newly established company, but the bureaucracy is so serious that everything has to be done according to procedures.

Everyone was used to a relaxed R&D environment. They didn't even write planning documents before. They just talked to the programmers face to face about anything.

Not to mention recording the details of the modifications. Can't we just talk to the program casually? Why do we have to write them down in detail? It is simply unreasonable.

The cumbersome R&D process specifications make them uncomfortable, and many people are too lazy to comply.

As for the program being modified too frequently?

Come on, isn't that what you programmers do?
We plan the plan and you are responsible for carrying it out. What's there to complain about when it's your job?

What made them most dissatisfied was that the company directly sent them to this remote place, saying it was a closed development area and they were not allowed to contact the outside world. They had to hand in all their cell phones and other devices, and they could only use the local area network.

Isn't this funny?
It's not some national cutting-edge scientific research project, it's just an online game. Why are you conducting such confidential research and development?
Although this project is voluntary, it is voluntary after all, and those who understand will understand.

In order to keep their jobs, some planners gritted their teeth and signed up like everyone else.

It’s just three months, you can get through it if you grit your teeth.

But within less than a week, everyone was almost unable to bear it.

Except for the weekends when everyone can go home, the rest of the time we have to stay in this yard.

This is no different from being in jail.

With such a group of people huddled in the yard, busy all day long, they can endure it if they have something to look forward to.

But as planners, they know best what the online game they have in their hands is like.

At first glance, the graphics are exquisite and gorgeous, and it is a rare 3D online game on the market.

But when it comes to actually playing it, it can only be described as a complete mess.

It feels novel when you first start playing, but you can clearly feel that something is wrong the next day.

All kinds of things are piled together, and no one knows what to play or how to play.

Not to mention their planners, even when doing internal company testing on the LAN, the artists and programmers could tell something was wrong.

There aren’t any major bugs in the gameplay activities, but it’s just not fun.

There was even an art girl who played for three days and still had no idea where to get weapons and equipment.

The planners got together and discussed how to make changes every day, but no one could convince anyone else.

They knew that there was a problem with the entire game framework, but since it involved too many aspects, they didn't dare to make any changes, nor did they know how to make them.

Judging from their experience, this game may not be completed even if it is revised for another year, let alone three months.

The system planners are studying the gameplay and equipment systems every day, but the numerical planners just lie down and say, "Tell me when you have a final conclusion, and I will change the drop rate of items for you."

These people have new ideas every day, and according to their way of modifying the values, you will never be able to complete them even if you work yourself to death.

The monster's drops have to be changed three times a day.

The project has not made any progress, and everyone is very angry. The conflicts between planners, artists, and programmers have been going on for a long time.

Now the big boss has finally shown up, and in the meeting just now the art director criticized the planner.

President Qin called several leaders together separately, obviously there was something very important to discuss.

A planner sighed, "Just wait and see. Maybe they will announce the disbanding of the project and lay us off."

"Not really. Didn't they say that the test will be conducted in three months?"

"What the hell, do you think this thing can be tested? Everything is a mess, and the rules of the game are not even clearly sorted out."

"Our project is just an embroidered pillow, it looks good but is not practical."

"Don't be so pessimistic. I think our game will still be able to make money after it goes online. We can make changes based on player feedback then."

"Why isn't our game fun?" one planner was unhappy. "Those activities are all good. Players like rich activities. They are tired of hacking and slashing to kill monsters. What players need is more activities."

"What players need is PK. You see in Legend, people are just hacking and hacking all the time. That is the process. Their ultimate goal is still PK and hacking people." Another planner retorted.

When several planners were arguing, the tightly closed door of the conference room finally opened.

Liu Kun said seriously, "Anyone who is in the planning position please come in."

The planners were stunned for a moment. Did they want us to go in and be criticized individually?
Then Hong Fei also stuck his head out and shouted to the hall: "All artists with the title of team leader come in, all of them!"

As soon as he finished speaking, several strong men stood up.

The programmers stretched their necks excitedly. Are they going to fight again?
…The employees of the project team walked into the meeting room with different feelings. As soon as they entered, they saw their boss Qin Shaoyan standing in front of the projector with a smile on his face.

"Da Zhuang, are you still working out now?" Qin Shaoyan greeted the artistic strong men when he saw them enter the meeting room.

"I have a lot of work to do now and no time to exercise." Dazhuang showed a simple smile.

"You still have to exercise. You can't ruin your body for work. Your body is the capital of revolution." Qin Shaoyan said with a smile, "You are short of fitness equipment here, right? I'll ask someone to get you some tomorrow."

"Thank you, Mr. Qin." Da Zhuang rubbed his hands excitedly.

Several other strong men also cheered and expressed their gratitude to Mr. Qin.

They are all veterans who followed President Qin to participate in the first ChinaJoy and are absolutely President Qin’s loyal followers.

Qin Shaoyan glanced at the conference room and said, "Everyone is here, right? Let's have a meeting today, mainly to tell everyone about the current situation."

"Our public beta test has been scheduled for mid-April 2006."

"Everyone remember this time point, take it as a goal, and start working backwards. All the work of our project will be based on the time point set now."

Qin Shaoyan wrote down several dates on the whiteboard. "These are the specific dates for technical testing, closed beta testing, internal testing, and public testing. The operations department has already started promoting the product according to these dates."

Everyone present was stunned. This President Qin was very decisive in his actions. He gave orders directly without even looking at the current situation.

Can the current online game really be launched in the current state it is in?
Or is it that the arrow has been put on the string and has to be shot, no matter what it looks like, we will just go for it when the time comes?
Qin Shaoyan looked at the planners present, "The next work focus is on the planning department, comprehensively sorting out various systems in the game, from the basic system, combat system, to the growth system."

"You can open your notebooks now and write down everything I say."

"Today I will tell you how to make an MMORPG online game with free time and paid props."

The planners were all stunned. Is this Mr. Qin going to take action personally?
The boss’s personal involvement means that he has finally lost his patience and is going to start taking action.

However, most of the results when the boss personally takes charge end in dismal failure, and only a very small number of them can succeed, unless the boss is truly a gifted genius.

Although Qin Shaoyan is touted as the top game designer in the industry, that is in the field of stand-alone games.

They are all in the gaming industry, and this won’t scare them tomorrow.

One of Mr. Qin's works is a tower defense game, and the other is a stand-alone FPS, which is completely different from online games.

What’s more, it is an extremely complex MMORPG type game, the design ideas and complexity are completely on a different order of magnitude.

Qin Shaoyan suddenly said that he wanted to give them a lecture, and the planners were very disapproving.

This Mr. Qin has probably never even played Legend, and he dares to say he can give us a lecture?
Does he really think that online games are as easy as stand-alone games?

The planners exchanged glances with each other, remaining calm on the surface, intending to see what this "number one game designer" could say.

"What is the biggest difference between time-free games and time-paid games?" Qin Shaoyan said expressionlessly.

Although this was a question, Qin Shaoyan obviously didn't expect anyone to answer him.

"Online games on the market are almost all time-based games. Their design idea is to attract as many users as possible to stay online and consume their time."

"Their entire system is designed around this idea, such as the slow upgrade rhythm and the equipment drop rate that relies on chance."

"World of Warcraft's vast world view, complex dungeon gameplay and chance of equipment drops, as well as various novel gameplay methods and rich social interactions are all designed to immerse players in the game and allow them to spend more time playing."

"The biggest difference between free games and time-based games can be simply summarized in one sentence: using money to buy time."

"For example, if you want to get a weapon in a time-based game, it may take several months or even half a year depending on the drop rate."

"Free-to-play games are about getting weapons directly as long as you spend money."

"Our idea is to let players spend money to save time."

The planners sitting below were all stunned and a little confused.

This Mr. Qin... seems to have something.

The difference between the two online games he described was so simple and clear that the planners' ideas suddenly became clear, and they suddenly felt that their previous designs seemed to have gone astray.

Because a lot of their stuff is copied from other online games, and the games they borrowed from are all paid-for-game cards, so the design ideas are completely different.

Qin Shaoyan didn't care what the planners thought, and said calmly: "All our design ideas must be designed around the goal of charging for props."

"When writing the planning document, you should first review it yourself and see if your ideas are based on the point of charging for props?"

"For example, our weapon enhancement system."

"According to the design of other online games, strengthening weapons requires the consumption of strengthening stones, and strengthening stones need to be dropped by monsters. There is a chance of failure when strengthening weapons, and the strengthening stones will not be returned after failure."

"In order to ensure that the weapon can be strengthened successfully, the player needs to constantly kill monsters to accumulate more strengthening stones, and strengthen the weapon through large-scale consumption."

"Then why can't we design a prop to increase the chance of strengthening the weapon?"

"Or we can just do it in one step and sell the strengthening stones directly."

"This way, players can just spend money to save the trouble of spawning monsters to get their drops. Players save time, and we gain money, killing two birds with one stone."

The planners were shocked and sold the strengthening stones directly...

Mr. Qin, you are really a bit...

"I just gave a simple example of strengthening weapons. I hope you can learn from it." Qin Shaoyan still had a calm expression. "When we design, we need to consider what our player base is like."

"This way we can design for the target users."

"I simply divided them into three categories. The first category is users who have something to do but no money. These people probably account for 80% to 90% of the entire player group. We can't make money from them."

"The second type is those who have money but no time. This type of users likes the game but doesn't have that much time to kill monsters and get loot. These people are our key users."

"The third type is those who have both money and time."

"So when we design the gameplay, we have to take all three groups into consideration and launch targeted activities."

"For example, what kind of activities are suitable for players who have time but no money, allowing them to spend time to get some props. This is the benefit we provide to players, allowing them to play without spending money."

“The second and third types of customers are our main target groups.”

"For the second type of users who have money but no time, we directly sell them strengthening stones. For the third type of users, we directly sell them guaranteed charms."

"Since the third type of users have both money and time, we can even create a dungeon specifically for them to farm for strengthening stones. The drop rate of monsters in the dungeon is increased, but they will have to pay to enter the dungeon."

“This is about developing different gameplay strategies for different groups.”

Qin Shaoyan started thinking as he spoke, and suddenly he turned to Fan Xiaoqian, "Teacher Fan, could you please make a function for me?"

"That is, you can use GM authority to adjust the failure probability of enhanced weapons for specific users."

"..."Fan Xiaoqian was completely confused.

What the hell is this demand?
This is the first time I have heard of such a request in my life.

Not to mention Fan Xiaoqian, even the planners below went crazy.

Holy shit, there is such a thing?

(End of this chapter)