You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 460

Qin Shaoyan's words seemed to carry magic, constantly tempting those with weak wills.

George chimed in, saying sincerely, "Icefrog, you know, we can definitely offer better conditions than Blizzard."

"As the person in charge of the DOTA project, you are in charge of the entire project, and the company's management will never interfere."

"At this point, there is no way Blizzard will agree to you."

Icefrog thought for a moment, "I need to think about this."

At this time, he has not completely given up his fantasy about Blizzard.

Qin Shaoyan added, "You have three days to think about it. After all, we have already established the project and will not delay the progress for you."

Icefrog frowned and thought for a moment, "Have you looked for anyone else?"

Qin Shaoyan answered casually: "I have consulted Steve Guinsoo."

Ice Frog was stunned for a moment when he heard the name, and couldn't help asking, "Did he agree?"

Qin Shaoyan smiled and didn't answer, but added, "You have three days."

Gabe Newell sat next to him and smiled, then stretched out his broad hand and patted IceFrog on the shoulder, "Think about it carefully, Valve is your best choice."

Icefrog nodded, but his mind was still on Ghostaw.

The founder of DOTA is called Eul, who designed a 5V5 MOD and called it Defense of the Ancient, or DOTA for short.

However, he only designed the prototype of DOTA, and Guisoo later perfected the entire DOTA mode, turning it into a 5V5 confrontation, becoming the true DOTA today.

To commemorate these two creators, two weapon items in the DOTA game are named after them, namely "Eul's Holy Scepter (Wind Staff)" and "Guinsoo's Unholy Scythe (Sheep Knife)".

In 2005, Guisoo left the DOTA production team and joined Riot Games to develop the later "League of Legends".

There is also a weapon in "League of Legends" named after him, called "Gunsoo's Rageblade".

IceFrog knew that Ghostsoo had joined a gaming company, but the two hadn't been in touch for half a year and he didn't know the other person's current situation.

Guisuo has long been aware of the fatal flaws of DOTA, so he left the DOTA maintenance team and prepared to start a new DOTA.

George stood up and sent IceFrog away. Gabe looked at Qin Shaoyan, "Will he agree?"

"He will definitely agree. Blizzard is greedy and lacks strategic vision. It is arrogant and stupid and can't accomplish anything. In the future, it can only live on leftovers." Qin Shaoyan sneered, "Only we can give DOTA a new life. Now it's not us who need Icefrog, but Icefrog who needs us."

Blizzard is currently at the peak of its popularity, with success in both stand-alone and online game fields.

Qin Shaoyan bluntly criticized the current gaming giants for all their shortcomings, which really raised eyebrows. Even Gabe Newell was a little stunned when he heard this.

The DOTA project was initiated by Qin Shaoyan. He contributed part of the money and provided the game engine to develop the game in cooperation with Valve. Gabe Newell agreed to do it out of Qin Shaoyan's consideration, otherwise he would not have thought of doing it.

Otherwise, Gabe Newell would have to wait until "League of Legends" became popular all over the world before starting the project of "DOTA2", but by then it would be too late.

Qin Shaoyan turned around and smiled, and began to make arrangements, "Is there anyone who plays DOTA? Let's hold an internal company competition today. The winning team will receive rewards."

This proposal quickly received a positive response, and soon Valve had six teams together to start the round-robin tournament.

Qin Shaoyan is a long-time DOTA player. He hasn't played it since he returned to this era, but today he feels itchy and ready to play to his heart's content.

After selecting four teammates, Qin Shaoyan directly chose Dragon Knight and started his personal show.

"First Blood!"

"Dominating!"

"Unstoppable!"

"Monster Kill!"

"God Like!"

"Holy Shit!"

The voice of the Great Killing echoed throughout Valve, and cheers and applause broke out from time to time.

Looking at the record of 32 kills, Qin Shaoyan said with emotion: "I haven't played for a long time, my hands are rusty."

Although Mingyue didn't know DOTA, she watched with great interest, "Can you teach me how to play?"

"Okay, okay, let's play together when we have time." Qin Shaoyan agreed hurriedly.

When the two were chatting happily, Qin Shaoyan's cell phone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Edward's number.

Qin Shaoyan picked up the phone and asked, "What's the matter?"

"Riot Games has agreed to our investment terms." Edward reported directly, "Should we proceed as planned?"

"Don't worry." Qin Shaoyan smiled, "Play with them for a while."

"They are the ones who are anxious now, not us. Leave them alone for a few more days."

Edward understood immediately, and then asked, "Do you want to bargain again?"

"It's okay to cut a little, don't worry too much." Qin Shaoyan said casually, "Our main purpose is not investment anyway."

Edward agreed and said he would do his best.

After Qin Shaoyan hung up the phone, he continued to engage in the intense game. After playing for a while, he said goodbye to Valve.

On the way back, Zhang Pingyi, who was sitting in the passenger seat, asked, "Since you invested in Riot Games, why did you cooperate with Valve to develop DOTA?"

"Only children do multiple-choice questions, but I want them all." Qin Shaoyan laughed.

"Oh, I understand." Zhang Pingyi suddenly realized.

"No, what do you understand?" Qin Shaoyan was a little surprised. How come Zhang Tianshi suddenly got it?

"This is your investment logic. Don't put all your eggs in one basket." Zhang Pingyi replied, "Investing in two DOTAs has a higher success rate."

Qin Shaoyan didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "If you understand it this way, you can't be wrong."

Zhang Pingyi didn't turn on the perspective, so he naturally didn't know that Riot Games and Valve were not making the same thing.

LOL and DOTA2 are both MOBA games, but there are still huge differences between them, especially in terms of difficulty of getting started. LOL is much simpler than DOTA2 and can easily attract more players to join.

Zhang Pingyi thought for a moment and asked, "If IceFrog hadn't accepted the invitation, would you have tried to recruit Ghost to work on DOTA2?"

"Icefrog will most likely not refuse, because we offer too much." Qin Shaoyan answered with a relaxed expression, "Guinsoo has his uses. If he is asked to make DOTA2, it will not be DOTA anymore."

"What is that?" Zhang Pingyi asked curiously.

"No matter what it is, two people have different design ideas, and the games they make will be very different." Qin Shaoyan said with emotion, "Wait until the two projects are completed, and then let the market test which one is better."

"But what is certain is that there is no such thing as Tryndamere and Ryze here."

"Who are Tryndamere and Ryze?" Zhang Pingyi was very puzzled. He also played DOTA and knew all the producers of DOTA. He didn't remember any Tryndamere and Ryze. "Two insignificant people." Qin Shaoyan replied, "But there is another key person who needs to be dealt with next."

"who is it?"

"Pencil Dragon."

"Who is Pencil Dragon?" Zhang Pingyi was even more stunned. "Isn't this person in the DOTA production team?"

"Indeed, not really, but this person has a very close relationship with DOTA." Qin Shaoyan laughed, "He is the key to breaking the game."

……

At this moment, Pencil Dragon is maintaining the website backend carefully, as carefully and attentively as if he were taking care of a treasure.

dota allstars.com, the core forum for DOTA players, is Pencil Dragon’s most precious treasure.

On October 2004, , Pencil Dragon founded this game forum mainly for DOTA players. Under his operation and maintenance, more and more DOTA players gathered here.

A year later, this small forum with 3 members has become a large forum with millions of visitors per month and maintained by hundreds of volunteers.

What did a million users mean in 2005? It was enough to attract an investment of tens of millions of dollars.

Countless players discuss the game in the forum, thousands of creative ideas and thoughts are gathered and collided here, and DOTA also absorbs a lot of ideas and creativity from them.

It can be said that the growth of DOTA is inseparable from the active construction of players, and the DOTA forum has also become an inseparable part of the game DOTA.

As the founder of the forum, Pencil Dragon is very ambitious. As the forum continues to expand, his ambition is also expanding.

He is different from other members of the DOTA game production team. Dota was established by a group of enthusiasts from the very beginning. There are no commercial factors and they all work for free.

From the original Eul, Ghost to Icefrog, they all worked with love and never thought about asking for compensation.

Pencil Dragon is different. He keenly sensed the huge business opportunities in this game, so he joined the production team as a volunteer at the beginning, thinking about how to use this game for commercialization.

The DOTA forum grew rapidly, greatly increasing the chances of success for his commercial ambitions.

The forum with millions of users in his hands is his greatest capital, and of course how to use this capital is crucial.

But he currently has a very big trouble, or the biggest obstacle to making money, that is the DOTA production team members.

That’s right, Pencil Dragon really wants to kill these DOTA production members.

Although Pencil Dragon would not have the opportunity he has now without the selfless dedication of these DOTA production members, they also hindered his commercial ambitions.

Pencil Dragon is not the developer of the forum website, he is only the operator of the website. So he used the excuse that the operation of the website requires a lot of funds and proposed an idea to the production team.

He hoped that the production team member Neichus would change the name of the razor from Razor to Razer so that he could get commercial sponsorship, but Neichus refused without hesitation.

DOTA is the result of everyone's wisdom. If you use commercialization to make money, you are tarnishing this game.

Not only neichus has this idea, IceFrog also has the same concept.

Pencil Dragon was very angry and thought that these idiots were simply sick. Can enthusiasm be used to make a living?

If you don't want to make money, don't hinder me from making money!

From the operation of this matter, it can be seen that Pencil Dragon is a very smart businessman, but his businessman seems incompatible with the selfless dedication of these developers.

Pencil Dragon's idea of ​​commercializing it was frustrated, but he still did not give up and he has been actively looking for any opportunity.

Soon, he got an opportunity.

When maintaining the forum, Pencil Dragon often communicates with some player users. Recently, he met a user with very creative ideas.

The user ID is "Homelander". He often comes up with some amazing ideas, which soon attracted the attention of Pencil Dragon, and the two of them often communicated through emails.

Homelander: "Hi, bro, I recently got an inside message, it involves some trade secrets about DOTA, I am hesitant whether to tell it out."

Pencil Dragon: "It's okay, you can tell me and I will keep it a secret for you."

Homelander: "Really? I don't believe it unless you swear."

Pencil Dragon: "Okay, I swear, can you tell me now?"

Homelander: "Do you know where DOTA's second designer, Guisou, went after he left the production team?"

Pencil Dragon felt a little disdainful in his heart, of course he knew where Guisuo had gone.

Guisuo knew at the time that he couldn't make much money from DOTA, so he voluntarily withdrew and found a job at a game company, intending to make money while making new games that would be more in line with his concept of DOTA games.

Pencil Dragon: "I don't know."

Homelander: "He went to a company called Riot Games, which recently raised a $30 million investment. You know, Guinsoo owns % of the shares in that company."

Pencil Dragon: “Oh my god!”

The news shocked him, a $10 million investment!
By this calculation, wouldn't Guisuo have three million dollars?

No, $10 million is just an investment, it doesn’t mean the company is valued at $10 million, which means that Guisuo is worth more.

When Pencil Dragon heard the news, his eyes turned red with jealousy. Who is Guisuo? He is just a game designer with some creativity and ideas. How can he get so much money just by relying on his creativity?

I have a website with millions of users, so I should get more money.

Homelander: "Gunsoo isn't the only one who got rich, Icefrog, you know that?"

Pencil Dragon: "What happened to Icefrog?"

Homelander: "He received an offer from Blizzard. Blizzard is going to give him a designer position to maintain and develop DOTA. I heard there will be a bonus."

Pencil Dragon: "Fuck!"

Homelander: “Not only that, I heard that Valve also extended an olive branch to IceFrog, asking him to set up a DOTA game project on his own, with sufficient funds and resources, and generous bonuses and shares.”

Pencil Dragon: "Holy Shit!"

Damn it, you all talk about being noble and pretend to be chaste and heroic women, but in reality, you sell out faster than each other.

Pencil Dragon's face was almost distorted with jealousy, and he wanted to smash the computer in front of him.

At first, I asked you to get sponsorship, but you all refused. Then you turned around and sold DOTA yourselves.

You can sell it, but I can’t?

Homelander: "In fact, you are also the creator of DOTA and a core team member. You can also raise some investment to establish the DOTA project."

Pencil Dragon felt a little embarrassed when he saw this suggestion. He also wanted to do it, but he didn't understand technology and had never participated in the production and development of DOTA. He was just a website operator.

Homelander: "They all went to work on projects at game companies. I'm afraid no one will maintain DOTA in the future. I'm afraid this forum will lose its function. What a pity."

Pencil Dragon's eyes lit up, yes.

I still have this forum. I can sell it for a good price while it still has value!
(End of this chapter)