You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 442 Spy?

He Jinrui stood in front of the whiteboard, exuding a confident temperament from inside out, and explained incessantly the various design ideas of "Warring States OL".

"Please look at the whiteboard. We start by dividing the target user groups into different levels of paying ability and launching different gameplay for them."

"We call players who don't spend money and only earn income by online time free players."

"Those who spend a few thousand dollars on the game are called small R players, medium R players are those who can spend tens of thousands of dollars, and large R players are those who pay from hundreds of thousands to several million dollars. Those who spend more than a million dollars are called super R players!"

“Within a single server, the ecosystems of free players and small, medium and large players are different.”

“…When we design the values, we will consider that at a certain stage, we will start to enter the invisible compulsory payment stage.”

Ji Xuewei suddenly raised his hand and asked, "What does this mandatory payment mean? Does it mean that players must pay to continue playing?"

"No, we are a free game, so we will never have the design you mentioned." He Jinrui replied, "After our players have gone through the novice game stage, which can be as short as two or three days or as long as one month, that is, the free stage, they will encounter a bottleneck period."

"This is what we call invisible compulsory payment. At this stage, the benefits obtained through levels, main quests, etc. are reduced, the benefits of equipment are increased, and the difficulty of obtaining equipment is increased."

"Before this, one or more paid entrances were generally provided during the novice guidance. Players could choose to pay or not, but non-paying players had to spend a lot of time and energy to repeat the work to obtain equipment. And this repetitive work was outrageous. In most games, even if free players played the game 24 hours a day, they could only be compared with the small R players who paid."

Ji Xuewei frowned, thought about it carefully, and suddenly realized: Isn’t this almost the same as our game design?

The so-called free games are nothing but a gimmick. Those early things are just benefits given by game manufacturers, which are the costs to lure players into the game.

After reaching a certain stage, free players will find that their income suddenly decreases, even to an unbearable level, and some even cannot continue playing without spending money.

This stage is where players begin to be screened. Players who cannot tolerate the game will either pay or leave the game.

What about the players who can endure and continue to stay? They are completely reduced to playing companion tools and game atmosphere groups for paying players, providing emotional value for paying players.

Note that emotional value is also value!
The design and gameplay of many games is to provide emotional value rather than simple game values.

For example, items for showing off such as skins and mounts.

Hearing the word emotional value, Lin Haixiao and Ji Xuewei looked at each other and were shocked.

I didn't expect that Qin Shaoyan's research and understanding of free online games had reached such a level, and his thinking was already several steps ahead of theirs.

At this time, He Jinrui was speaking more and more proudly on the stage. He felt a little guilty when he first came on stage, but as soon as he started speaking, the audience became quiet.

Mr. Qin is really an amazing person. What he teaches are all real things!

“The transition from the novice stage to the bottleneck stage is important because the novice stage needs to cultivate the player’s behavior pattern, that is, through the player’s repeated operation-reward-operation-reward cycle, the player enters the Skinner box.

After players develop a psychological dependence on operation-reward, we can guide them to move from the Skinner box of operation-reward to the Skinner box of payment-reward by increasing the difficulty of the game, setting card points, and providing payment-large rewards-payment-reduction of rewards.

In other words, the purpose of the card is to first make players addicted, then let them withdraw, then make them pay to regain their behavioral habits, and then induce players to make continuous small payments, and then continue to increase the payment amount. "

“The lottery mechanism in the game does not provide lottery probability, and the lottery props are generally paid props, or even directly paid to purchase the lottery.

Not only do we not provide probabilities, but we also try every means to prevent players from obtaining such probabilities. We then take advantage of information asymmetry to create the illusion among players that their consumption is cost-effective, further inducing them to pay.

We provide a variety of different equipment development modes, including various probability fuzzy methods, such as equipment damage if development fails, blessing value provided if development fails, high probability of success if development occurs, development experience value, etc., so as to confuse players and make it impossible for players to calculate the final expected value of each equipment development material. "

At this point, He Jinrui suddenly realized that everyone in the audience was looking at Shi Yuzhu who was sitting in the front row with strange expressions on their faces.

He Jinrui was a little confused, but continued talking.

"Boss Qin...Qin Shaoyan proposed a hidden function, which is to adjust the probability of strengthening a player's weapon individually in the background, so as to better serve certain VIP customers..."

Before he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the conference room became increasingly weird, and the faces of the "Zhengtu" R&D personnel all looked particularly strange.

Shi Yuzhu stood up and asked with a stern face, "Wait a minute, what did you just say? Can you adjust the success rate of players' weapon enhancements in the background?"

"Uh, yes." He Jinrui didn't understand why Shi Yuzhu was so excited, but he quickly answered, "This is a design specifically for VIPs. Qin Shaoyan said that some players are unlucky, and we can manually help them improve their success rate of strengthening in the background."

Shi Yuzhu gritted his teeth and asked, "Can it be lowered?"

"Of course, if you can adjust it up, you can adjust it down." He Jinrui laughed, "It's up to the operations department to decide how to use this function."

Shi Yuzhu was so angry that he gnashed his teeth. He now understood why his weapon could never be strengthened.

But this kind of thing cannot be mentioned again. Shi Yuzhu quickly calmed down his expression and looked at the others, "We also need this function. Remember it."

"You should study carefully and see how Qin Shaoyan designed it. You should consider any possible ways to increase the payment. This idea will put you one step ahead of the others."

Lin Haixiao was speechless. What was so good about learning this thing? It was just a competition of who was more shameless.

However, he also admitted that Qin Shaoyan's moral bottom line was lower than they imagined.

He Jinrui didn't know what was going on, so in order to ease the awkward atmosphere he could only continue talking.

"Boss Qin...Qin Shaoyan once said that free online games are essentially numerical games, and we are just selling numerical values."

“So we need to leave as much room as possible in numerical design to avoid investing too much in a certain gameplay and causing a pitfall that is too deep, which can easily cause players to be disgusted.”

"So Qin Shaoyan proposed the method of opening more pits. In addition to strengthening weapons and equipment, there are also refining, inlaying, gem synthesis, and inheritance."

"In terms of attributes, in addition to attack, defense, and health, there are also attributes such as critical strike, toughness, piercing, and firmness."

"Because of the combat formula, when the attack and defense values ​​are stacked to a certain level, the cost-effectiveness of these attribute values ​​is no longer high, and it is difficult for paying players to continue paying for these attributes."

"So we have to introduce new attributes, such as critical strike."

"The advantage of this is that the new attribute is equivalent to leveling out the attribute effects that the player has previously accumulated. After a critical hit, no matter how much defense is added, it will be useless."

“While opening up new ways to play, it also secretly makes players’ previous investments go to waste.”

"After the critical strike attribute is enabled, we will add new critical strike resistance attributes, such as resilience."

"So paying players have to re-enter the attribute arms race. If your opponent stacks up critical strikes, you can't beat him if you don't stack up toughness."

"..."

The more everyone listened, the more shocked they became. On the one hand, they admired Qin Shaoyan's design genius, and on the other hand, they secretly cursed him for being shameless.

But these designs did open up new ideas for them. As long as they lowered their moral bottom line, they found that their ideas became clearer.

They originally thought that the design of "Zhengtu" was dark enough, but they didn't expect that the opponent was even darker than themselves.

Of course, this cannot be blamed on Qin Shaoyan’s design. He was just standing on the shoulders of giants.

Free online games are just starting out in the domestic online game market, and some things have not yet been born.

The things he developed were evolved by domestic online game developers generation after generation. In this early days, when others were still in the exploration stage, he directly came up with a complete version in one go, which naturally formed a dimensionality reduction attack.

After listening to He Jinrui's lecture, Shi Yuzhu was the first to stand up and applaud, praising him: "Mr. He is indeed an elite that Qin Shaoyan values. He has a perfect understanding of the game. With your help, he is even more powerful!"

He Jinrui smiled with a hint of reserve, "Mr. Shi, you are too kind. I just know a little bit."

"From today on, Mr. He will temporarily serve as the executive planner of our ZT project," Shi Yuzhu announced to everyone, "and will be mainly responsible for providing advice for the next version of ZT."

He Jinrui hesitated for a moment, "Mr. Shi, my project is very tight, so I can't stay at ZT all day. How about I come for only half a day?"

Shi Yuzhu thought for a moment and said, "That's fine too. It depends on how you arrange your time. We will fully cooperate with you."

He Jinrui said happily: "Then I'll come after 6:30 in the evening."

"Ah?!" Lin Haixiao was surprised. "Six thirty in the evening? How can this be considered half a day? We are almost off work." "Hey, are you off work so early?" He Jinrui was a little surprised. "I don't know much about your working hours. Anyway, over there, six o'clock in the evening is the time when the office efficiency is very high. We work until 12 o'clock at night."

Shi Yuzhu was shocked. "Are you all going to work until 12 o'clock?"

"What's the big deal? We often work all night long." He Jinrui said proudly, "How can we finish "Warring States" in such a short time without working hard?"

Shi Yuzhu nodded and said, "This spirit is worth promoting."

Lin Haixiao, Ji Xuewei, Yue Tao and others looked bitter, thinking that the revision of "Zhengtu" was already very satisfying, but they didn't expect that even bigger things were yet to come.

However, Lin Haixiao and others found that they still didn't understand enough about the hardships of working like a slave, so He Jinrui taught them a good lesson.

This old man would only appear in the "Zhengtu" R&D project team after six o'clock every evening, and then start opening the game to play a round.

While playing, they drafted revision suggestions and listed a lot of things to be changed immediately, calling it "rapid development and rapid iteration."

Faced with this foreign monk and Shi Yuzhu's personal supervision, Lin Haixiao and others had to bite the bullet and start making revisions.

From then on, we began a rhythm of high-intensity overtime research and development, and it was not until two or three in the morning that everyone started to go home.

He Jinrui was even more ruthless. He simply refused to leave and played "Zhengtu" in the company all night. Then he waited for Shi Yuzhu to come to work and submit a report, and then left.

After just one week, the R&D staff of the "Zhengtu" project team showed signs of collapse.

I start working during the day and work overtime until midnight. Except for sleeping and commuting, the rest of my time is in the company, which is like being in prison.

Lin Haixiao was a little puzzled. Why could He Jinrui work at Ju Rui Company during the day and still be full of energy to come to them for guidance at night? Doesn't this guy ever sleep?
The answer, of course, is that He Jinrui went home to sleep during the day, and then came here to give advice after waking up.

Under He Jinrui's continuous guidance, "Zhengtu" soon changed dramatically!

But Ji Xuewei's face became paler and paler. He was in charge of the numbers and had the highest work intensity. He felt a little dizzy when he walked.

He quietly found Lin Haixiao and asked, "Do you feel that our game is becoming more and more wrong?"

Lin Haixiao thought for a moment and said, "It is indeed a bit messy, but it has not been completely revised yet. It should be much better after the revision."

"I think it's pretty bad." Ji Xuewei frowned, "I always feel that what He Jinrui gave me is not right."

"What?" Lin Haixiao was stunned. "What's wrong?"

"It's the battle formula he gave me, as well as the props and experience input values." Ji Xuewei rubbed his hair, "It seems that our game output was not right on the third day."

"Hmm?" Lin Haixiao also frowned, "What's wrong exactly?"

"It's just... it seems like the numbers have collapsed..." Ji Xuewei was a little uncertain, "The players have gained too many things, and the monster strength and experience output can't keep up with the players' growth. On the seventh day, the players can't beat monsters anymore."

Lin Haixiao was shocked. "Didn't you check it? Did you fill it in wrongly?"

"How is this possible? I have carefully confirmed with He Jinrui, and he said that the value he gave is correct." Ji Xuewei looked a little bitter, "What should I do?"

"Have you talked about this issue with Mr. Shi?" Lin Haixiao asked seriously.

"It's hard to say. There's nothing wrong with the numbers He Jinrui gave for the first and second days." Ji Xuewei was a little helpless. "I can't force Mr. Shi to play this semi-finished version for three days. He always plays for a few hours and leaves when he feels the experience is good."

Lin Haixiao suddenly had a bad premonition, but he quickly suppressed the feeling in his heart, "Explain this matter clearly to He Jinrui and make him give an explanation."

Ji Xuewei quickly went to make a phone call. After a long while, he came back with a strange look on his face. "He Jinrui insisted that the numbers he gave were correct. He said that there was something wrong with our game and it had not been completely fixed. Once the revision is completed, the numbers will match."

Lin Haixiao's expression changed. "Then to what extent is it considered a good change?"

"He said it would be better to change it to something like "Warring States OL." Ji Xuewei replied.

"Fuck!" Lin Haixiao couldn't help but swear, "Then why the hell are we still making "Zhengtu"? Why not just make "Warring States"?"

"Could this idiot be a spy sent by Qin Shaoyan, deliberately causing trouble for us?"

"No way, this won't do him any good." Ji Xuewei shook his head, "What should we do now? Should we continue with the changes?"

"What a trivial change." Lin Haixiao was furious, but he was just saying it in anger. Now that "Zhengtu" has been changed to a weird state, he could only bite the bullet and continue with the changes.

As for going back to the version before He Jinrui came, it is no longer possible. The current situation makes it difficult to change back, so we can only move forward.

……

While the "Zhengtu" project team was struggling with intensive overtime work, Shi Yuzhu was in a good mood.

Wu Lian reported to him happily, "There are already five plug-ins for Warring States Online on the market, including acceleration plug-ins and auxiliary plug-ins. They have begun to distribute them in large quantities."

"That's too unfortunate." Shi Yuzhu showed no sympathy on his face. "Doesn't that mean that cheats for Warring States will soon be everywhere?"

"In another month, all players of Warring States will be using cheats." Wu Lian agreed with a smile, "Now the management of Warring States has announced that they will start banning cheats, but I don't think it will have much effect. Nowadays, every game has cheats."

"The plug-in is still too slow to take effect." Shi Yuzhu suddenly asked, "Where is the expert I asked you to contact?"

"He has already started working on it. He just paralyzed a server today." Wu Lian said quickly, "He has now found a vulnerability in the server."

"Then what are you waiting for?" Shi Yuzhu frowned.

"He said this job is too risky and he wants more money." Wu Lian carefully looked at Shi Yuzhu's expression, "He said it would cost $150 to paralyze a server."

"Okay, promise him." Shi Yuzhu said without hesitation.

Wu Lian was overjoyed. He turned around and went out to make a phone call.

……

Campus network.

Fan Xiaoqian was showing Qin Shaoyan several plug-ins on the computer. "Most of them are auxiliary plug-ins. These are not threatening at all. They are just automatic plug-ins to kill monsters."

"The few so-called offline plug-ins we found have been confirmed to be account-stealing Trojans and are completely unusable." Fan Xiaoqian smiled helplessly, "I was even cheated out of several hundred dollars."

Qin Shaoyan smiled and said, "Now those who sell cheats are even more evil than us."

"We are still checking the acceleration plug-in." Fan Xiaoqian continued, "But we don't see anything abnormal now. Their so-called acceleration plug-in only shows acceleration locally, but it can't pass the server verification at all. I have added protection measures to the server. If this kind of acceleration plug-in appears, the account will be kicked offline directly."

"So, in fact, only auxiliary plug-ins can be used?" Qin Shaoyan asked back.

"That's what it looks like at the moment." Fan Xiaoqian casually opened an auxiliary plug-in, "But this thing also has a Trojan horse that steals accounts, and it's crudely made and not as functional as ours."

"Then there's nothing to say. For the safety of player accounts, this kind of auxiliary plug-in must also be banned." Qin Shaoyan said directly, "Issue a notice. From today on, all players who use plug-ins will be banned, regardless of whether they are paying players or not."

"If they have any questions, ask them to contact customer service. Don't be lenient."

"We can launch our internal plugin now."

Fan Xiaoqian nodded, "We have already prepared a new version, and we are just waiting for it to take effect after the update."

"Thank you for your hard work, Mr. Fan." Qin Shaoyan patted Fan Xiaoqian on the shoulder, "It's up to you to deal with the hackers who attacked the server."

"I borrowed two security experts from NetEase, and they are working on a solution." Fan Xiaoqian said with a bitter face, "But their endless harassment is too annoying."

"It will pass if you hold on." Qin Shaoyan glanced at the calendar, "Give me two more days, and I'll make him completely quiet."

(End of this chapter)