Actor: Thank you.

Zhang Yuan, a professional actor, has conducted detailed research on how people react when they are surprised.

General responses can be categorized into two types: verbal and physical.

The speech is incoherent, and the communication has lost its basic logic.

Or the body trembles and the limbs become uncontrollable.

In horror movies, the scene where a girl collapses to the ground and screams is not just a fictional depiction, but a real-life occurrence.

Furthermore, people who have experienced extreme emotional stimulation may exhibit physical symptoms similar to those of severe intoxication, such as loss of control and even weakness in the ankles.

Of course, there is another extreme, where the body suddenly becomes extremely strong, such as when catching someone in the act of adultery.

In principle, the brain is impacted, causing poor electrical signal transmission, coupled with the rapid secretion of adrenaline, leading to dysfunction of the body's systems.

Many race car drivers are usually very polite and well-mannered, but once they get on the track, they become as reckless as bandits, and that's why.

Upon meeting Zhang Yuan, a passionate player he had long admired, Liu Wei, the founder of miHoYo and the person in charge of external relations, showed a standard look of astonishment.

His lips trembled slightly, as did his fingers.

His tongue slipped, making even a simple greeting extremely difficult for him, who was usually quite eloquent.

Zhang Yuan, who came directly from the airport and was even dragging a suitcase, took off his hat and mask, casually tousled his hair a few times to loosen the hair on the top of his head.

"You must be Brother Dawei. Nice to meet you."

"Ah...it's me." The person made a tremor in their pupils.

It wasn't until Zhang Yuan extended his right hand that this person remembered to shake hands and greet him.

He even stretched it out the wrong way, raising his left arm, which met Zhang Yuan's gaze.

As a result, he switched, and the other person switched too. They went back and forth for a long time without being able to shake hands.

"Don't be nervous." Zhang Yuan simply raised his hand and patted his shoulder.

"sit down."

He was a guest, but he acted like the host.

"The place you found is nice. I've never been here before. It's quite high-class."

The other party found a chain restaurant in Shanghai called Xiao Nan Guo.

This company's entrepreneurial experience is similar to that of Zhang Lan and South Beauty; both involve women who went abroad to work, returned to China to open stores, and had similar positioning.

Later, it too disappeared into the long river of history.

It wasn't until Zhang Yuan poured him some tea that the other person realized what was happening and asked a question.

"You're from far away?"

Zhang Yuan nodded: "It is indeed I, Zhang Yuan."

Looking at the person so close to him, Liu Wei thought to himself that the saying on the internet was really true!
You never know if the other end of the internet cable is a person or a dog.

My goodness, there was an unexpected bonus!

I was under a lot of pressure because I was hosting a dinner party today.

I'm short on cash, but I have no choice but to entertain them.

The things they did for me before must have been worth several thousand.

Moreover, human relationships cannot be measured in money.

Many of the early internet users in China were highly educated and had a strong sense of social responsibility. They helped each other and were able to connect despite being thousands of miles apart.

When Jun'er first started working on MIUI, it was supported by a group of truly passionate geek fans.

Many of them were recruited into the company's team by Jun'er.

Many startups use online forums and message boards to make friends and attract talent.

If the game hadn't sold poorly, miHoYo would have already extended a job offer to this netizen's "far away" brother who is fluent in Japanese.

But now that he is starving, he has no interest in recruiting.

I just never expected this!

Judging from the username, I thought it was an old friend from the "Light Dance Flying" era.

In my imagination, he should be short, with thin hair, a homebody look, wearing a plaid shirt and leather sandals.

It's basically like Yu Minhong in his early days.

After all, that's how otaku are all over the world.

They all looked pretty much the same.

Who knew that such a person with thick eyebrows and big eyes would suddenly appear.

They seem completely out of place in our line of work.

These days, people who stay at home are often considered to be poor at speaking, unable to socialize, and not good at sports.

Unlike later on, when everyone stayed at home and it became a lifestyle choice.

There are also groups like "dried fish girls" who are serious at work but become otaku after get off work—a group of "two-faced people."

Many artists in later generations stayed at home.

Actually, Xiaolongnu (Little Dragon Girl) is a homebody when she's not filming, but most people don't know that.

Only the older generation, like Liu Xiaoqing, are super high-energy people, excited when working and excited when resting!
This perfectly reflects the profile of tourists in later generations: the elderly marching briskly, while young people stroll leisurely.

Because the discrepancy between the actual situation and the group profile was too great, the other party could not believe it.

But once you accept this premise, everything becomes interesting.

"Welcome!"

"We never expected that a big star would play games."

“How can you say that? Being a celebrity is just my job. In essence, I’m just an ordinary person like you all,” Zhang Yuan said politely.

Do you usually drink alcohol?

"If you're not used to it, we can drink beer, or cola is fine too."

"That's fine, I'll go with the guests." He had returned to his usual self.

My heart is just pounding.

A mix of tension and excitement!

Sure enough, I drank some cola; after all, it's the ultimate comfort drink for couch potatoes.

"Are you used to Shanghai cuisine?"

"The food here is on the sweeter side, which people from the north usually don't like."

"It's alright." Zhang Yuan picked up a piece of "fried fish," a famous dish from the Jiangnan region. The fish pieces, cut into chunks and with the bones, are deep-fried over high heat until golden brown, then soaked in a sauce made with soy sauce, sugar, and other seasonings. After a while, the fish pieces are taken out and become crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, coated with sauce. It is a hot dish served cold.

Zhang Yuan took a bite; it was a little sweet.

But I've been to Wuxi, where the food is purely sweet; Shanghai cuisine is nothing compared to that.

He just wasn't used to the fact that the dishes in Shanghai were always dark and overly oily and soy-sauce-heavy, which he didn't like.

"That's good... We also have a few key employees in our company who are in a meeting right now, they'll be here shortly."

"It's alright, everyone's busy." Zhang Yuan didn't expose the other person.

He just saw this person's fingers jumping around under the table, clearly sending messages.

I reckon the remaining few didn't plan to come.

Upon seeing them, the other party quickly called for reinforcements.

As he guessed, those people were indeed busy, holding a meeting to discuss the company's future, and had no time to entertain him.

I was thinking that I'd have some time to grab a snack and meet up tomorrow.

Liu Wei was shouting like crazy.

"Hurry up and come!"

"Sons, come quick! You'll never guess who I've met!"

"You'll regret it for the rest of your life if you don't come!"

"Who is it?" someone replied in the executives' group.

"Is it really necessary to shout like that? Are you saying you didn't bring enough money and want us to pay the bill?"

"roll!"

"Do you think I'd lie to a bunch of you bastards?"

"That person is a huge star, the really famous kind!"

"Hurry up and come."

"Who?"

Who is it? +1

"Zhang Yuan!"

"He's the guy who acted with Stallone and the others in 'The Expendables,' which we watched a few days ago!"

"Holy crap, I'm coming right now!"

"Me too!"

"Add an extra serving of braised pork, I'm craving it."

They didn't even think about not having money right now, and rushed over without a second thought.

They really came running.

He rushed into the private room with a thud.

It was originally a main hall seating area, but Zhang Yuan told the waiter to change to a private room.

Zhang Yuan was startled and almost spilled the soda in his hand.

"It's an honor to meet you all."

"Hello everyone."

"Okay, okay, okay..."

"Thank you, thank you..."

Several more people who couldn't speak came over, shook hands with him, and thanked him repeatedly.

They were all panting heavily, their sneakers were probably practically sparking from their workouts.

After sitting down and chatting for a while, the group finally calmed down.

"How embarrassing!" Liu Wei, who arrived first, lectured his two brothers. Little did he know that he hadn't been as good as his buddies before.

"Hello, please bring the dishes." A short while later, the waiter knocked on the door and entered.

The leader was a middle-aged man with slicked-back hair and wearing a business suit.

Upon seeing the cart and the large fish, more than half a meter long, Liu Wei quickly spoke up.

"We don't think we ordered this dish?"

"Hello Mr. Zhang, it's an honor to have you here at our restaurant," the lobby manager said with a smile.

However, although Liu Wei asked the question, the other party looked at Zhang Yuan when replying.

"This is our signature steamed wild yellow croaker, a dish we brought to thank you for coming."

"Thank you," Zhang Yuan replied, standing up.

"Would it be convenient to take a photo together later?"

"No problem, can we wait until we finish eating?"

"Of course, please use it first."

The other party immediately left.

Although it's called steamed, it actually contains a lot of Jinhua ham and uses first-pressed broth as a base. It's not simmered or boiled, but rather the fish is repeatedly drizzled with high-quality broth and cooked with hot soup, which makes it tender and fragrant.

Because if we didn't go through such a complicated process, we would be doing a disservice to the fish.

Although they don't eat at fancy restaurants very often, the group understood that this fish would cost at least several thousand yuan.

Look at them, that's what you call status!

When he arrived, the dishes served were more expensive than all the other dishes on the table combined.

"Can we take photos too?" A little while later, while they were eating and drinking, one of them asked.

"No problem, we're friends, feel free to do as you please."

Seeing that he was easygoing and had no airs, the other party relaxed a lot and brought it up.

"We just watched your movie, The Expendables 2."

"how do you feel?"

"It looks good and has a strong visual impact."

Liking anime doesn't prevent these straight men from having good taste.

"How much do you pay for movie tickets? Do you buy them offline or online?" Zhang Yuan asked, remembering Maoyan Movies on Meituan.

But these words made the group somewhat embarrassed.

I watched it using a pirated copy...

"It's okay, whether you spend money or not, we're still friends."

"We'll definitely buy tickets to see your movies in the future!"

"Thank you." Zhang Yuan didn't care about the ticket price; these days, it wasn't just one or two people watching pirated copies.

Not to mention now, even ten years from now, the domestic piracy market will still be rampant, only slightly better.

That's perfect, he can use this as an excuse to make a big deal out of it.

"I've noticed that quite a few people are playing the hacked version of Honkai Impact 3rd."

"Damn it!" Liu Wei cursed angrily, "These people won't even pay 6 yuan."

"It's one thing to play with hacking, but to come to the forum and criticize us for not doing a good job is another."

"You haven't even spent a penny and you're already cursing? You have no shame!"

“Yes, playing pirated versions is bad. In China, not only the film and television industry, but also the game industry has a very poor awareness of copyright,” Zhang Yuan continued.

"Therefore, the buy-to-play model is not advisable. Just like single-player games, it is extremely easy for cracking groups to succeed, and then the commercial value will plummet."

Regardless of the era, single-player gamers are among the most proud of all gamers.

Therefore, single-player games have always been considered the most "advanced" form of gaming.

From a certain perspective, the consumption model of buy-to-play games is similar to that of single-player games; both are one-off transactions.

Paying money allows you to experience the full game content.

The fact that there aren't as many in-app purchases and DLC paid content as there are now isn't because the game companies are being generous; it's simply because they haven't invented them yet.

In short, one-time buy-out games face a very difficult and unfavorable environment in the domestic consumer market!
How bad is it?
The game "Honkai Impact 3rd" was released as a hacked version just two months after its launch, allowing players to play it without spending money.

There's also a group of pirate groups that are quite proud of it.

more than this.

There is one company that can represent just how egregious China's attitude is towards game copyright issues.

This company may be unheard of by children in later generations, but it was a household name in the 00s.

Aomei Electronics!

A top-tier company with an incredibly powerful background, which held a leading position in game publishing during the early days of the Chinese internet era.

Back in 03, they were already making over 5000 million RMB in revenue through game publishing in China!
StarCraft, Warcraft, Diablo, and Counter-Strike are all games distributed by this company.

In addition, this company also distributes most of the single-player games available in the domestic market.

They also organize many domestic StarCraft and Counter-Strike tournaments.

Then, this company pulled a crazy stunt.

Many early single-player games had CD keys to prevent piracy and cracking.

Especially for games like StarCraft and Warcraft, which can be played on LAN and Battle.net, you can't log in to Blizzard's official battle platform without a CD key.

However, as Aomei Electronics continued selling the games, they discovered that many domestic players did not use CD keys after purchasing genuine games.

Because of the domestic internet ecosystem, it's impossible to access international platforms anyway.

There are domestic gaming platforms like Haofang that you can use.

Then came the shady move: Aomei Electronics had a brilliant idea. They "reclaimed" the CD keys that had been sold but not registered, and then sold them again!
It turns out that selling one unit requires cost, but doing it this way is equivalent to selling two units at zero cost.

This is called a win-win situation!

It's worth noting that Aomei Electronics was a pioneer of genuine products in China at the time, repeatedly criticizing and lamenting the serious piracy situation in the country.

At its peak, it was regarded as a sacred place for genuine games by players across the country, receiving thousands of job applications every day. Many people said they would do it without pay, just to promote genuine games in China.

As a result, you, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, mistook the players for Japanese devils!
Many people have found that after purchasing a legitimate game, logging in with their CD key results in a message indicating that it has already been used.

The truth was quickly exposed, and the reputation of this once-legendary company was completely ruined!

At the same time, this incident also caused another very serious impact.

Many players, especially those from the early days who were highly educated, sent emails entirely in English to Blizzard's headquarters to complain about the matter.

Blizzard was furious when they found out. "You've poached my customers and ruined my reputation!"
The original long-term cooperation was severed.

In the same year, the distribution rights for World of Warcraft fell to The9, who made a fortune!
If this hadn't happened, Aomei Electronics would likely have secured the agency rights based on years of cooperation.

He played a winning hand terribly.

He ruined himself for a tiny bit of profit!
It was acquired and went bankrupt within a few years.

Such companies are as numerous as hairs on a cow in China.

At the same time, this event marks the complete defeat of legitimate paid games in China!

China has made a name for itself in the global gaming industry.

It also gave domestic manufacturers a lesson: our country is not suitable for developing single-player games.

Even paid games are not suitable.

Our people just want to get something for nothing.

Zhang Yuan deliberately brought up the matter of Ogilvy's downfall.

"in the country, at least for now, there is no market basis for the buyout system."

"Mobile games, online games, and web games all have the same principle: only by offering free-to-play options to attract customers and then generating revenue through internal fees can they survive."

"Even selling prepaid cards is outdated; only in-app purchases can make money."

He shared his understanding, which drew nods of agreement from the others.

I didn't expect you to be so knowledgeable!

Just as we expected.

"What's free is often the most expensive; that's the current state of the Chinese gaming industry," Zhang Yuan concluded.

Chinese people can only visit for free now; there are paid attractions.

However, I cannot accept charging for the actual product.

Even if they eventually find that the money they spend on buying characters and skins is enough to play a bunch of buy-to-play games, they will still enjoy it immensely.

This is not just a problem for the Chinese people, but also a problem of human nature.

Later, foreign markets were "counter-attacked," and in turn, we exported many "advanced" built-in payment models to them.

Capitalists all over the world find it hard to learn to be good, but they can learn to be bad in an instant.

"I don't think whether Honkai Impact 3rd is rough or not is a big problem; the foundation is pretty good."

"The main problem is that the profit philosophy is not in line with the Chinese market."

"If we reform, there might be a chance to save us." He guided the discussion step by step.

“We won’t hide anything from you, we’ll tell you the truth.” Liu Wei put down his chopsticks helplessly: “We’re also aware of this problem.”

"We're thinking the same thing."

"But restructuring carries risks and also faces huge production costs."

"Our company is now..." The other party didn't finish their sentence.

shy.

"Oh, I was wrong." Zhang Yuan deliberately changed the subject again and stopped talking.

"We're meeting to have fun, not to talk about such serious things."

"How about we go out for some entertainment after we finish eating?"

What's the rush?

Now that I'm here, how could they possibly run away? (End of Chapter)