The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 611 UFO Promotion Plan, Global Developer Creative Competition! (Seeking monthly votes)

"Boss, calm down."

Knight Walker took a deep breath, realizing for the first time how much of a headache his new boss was.

Before this, Xu Meng had always been a god-like boss in his eyes.

He made a big promise on the very first meeting.

Even after defeating Xinli, they still fulfilled their promises without fail.

They have everything: money, respect, technology, and creative freedom.

Knight Walker and his team members have privately wondered more than once: Is there really such a perfect boss in the world?
How could he be without any flaws?
Now he understood: Xu Meng was not without flaws.

His "flaw" is that he's too good at causing trouble!

However, since Lost Ship and Deep Space Echo were both in development, Xu Meng was busy with something else and that's why she didn't show it.

Now that he has some free time, he immediately starts causing trouble!
"Nuclear weapons are far too likely to cause panic."

Knight Walker explained to Xu Meng: "Human fear of nuclear weapons has been exaggerated in recent years by various movies and TV shows, even exceeding the actual power of nuclear weapons."

"Especially since you, boss, want to use holographic equipment to create a realistic nuclear explosion image..."

"Something terrible is going to happen!"

“City governments in various countries would not agree to this either.”

"Even if someone agrees, once this is actually done, the media and players will easily associate [Dream Building] with [Military], which would be a losing proposition, boss!"

Knight Walker rattled off every reason he could think of, truly speaking with great earnestness.

Xu Meng was still a little unwilling.

But knowing that what he said was true, she nodded and said, "I understand what you mean."

"Then let's settle for second best and stage a real-life alien spaceship crash. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Knight Walker blinked, trying to keep up with Xu Meng's erratic train of thought.

Xu Meng, however, found it increasingly interesting—

"Placing a large number of holographic devices and causing holographic spaceships to crash into cities will definitely cause a huge sensation around the world!"

"Not only is the propaganda effect incredibly strong, but it's also not as frightening as a nuclear bomb and won't cause panic."

"After all, there are no aliens in reality."

Xu Meng nodded as she spoke, but then paused unconsciously at this point.

“Wait a minute…” He looked at Knight Walker uncertainly: “The Americans aren’t really serious, are they?”

He tapped his head, searching for his memories.

"I vaguely remember that, on Halloween some year, a radio station in the United States played a prank on a live broadcast, saying that aliens were invading, which caused chaos throughout the city and panicked millions of people?"

Knight Walker nodded with a sigh: "Yes, that's true. It was something CBS did in 1938."

"This..." Xu Meng was speechless. "So, you're saying that if I smash a spaceship, it might scare people?"

"Yes, after all, there's always been a market for things about aliens, UFOs, and conspiracy theories here, and a lot of people believe in these things."

After thinking for a few seconds, Xu Meng decided to give up and said, "Forget it, let's just leave it at that."

"What does '凉拌' mean?" Knight Walker didn't understand the translation.

It means: Let them be.

Xu Meng decided not to worry about these trivial details.

"There are definitely more calm and normal people than those who believe in conspiracy theories and are afraid of aliens and UFOs. Let them calm themselves down."

"I believe in the wisdom of American netizens."

Knight Walker could only nod and say, "Alright then."

As he spoke, he was already thinking to himself that he needed to discuss this matter with the team and then contact the department in charge of distribution at Zhumeng.

After confirming this, Xu Meng's mind immediately opened up—

“Speaking of using holograms for advertising, I have another good idea.”

Knight Walker looked nervously at Xu Meng, fearing he might come up with some other outrageous trick.

Fortunately, Xu Meng quickly dispelled his concerns:

"Isn't 'Under the Rock' also going to be released?"

“Let’s rent the world’s deepest open-pit mine, create a real-world ‘abyss’ using holography, and then hide some treasure chests of all sizes inside.”

"Finally, we'll recruit players worldwide, equip them with holographic belts, and send them on a real-life 'Abyss Exploration Journey'!"

"So, what do you think? Doesn't it look promising?"

Knight Walker's eyelids twitched violently as he listened.

Boss, are you really not afraid of people dying?

What kind of place is a mine pit?!

That's a dangerous work area, not a scenic spot for leisure!

Fortunately, this is not my problem.

Knight Walker shook his head and said, "About this... I don't know much about it. Why don't you go talk to Richard about this, boss?"

Xu Meng thought about it and agreed.

"Under the Deep Rock" is Richard Moreno's project, and we should definitely discuss it with him.

After praising "Echoes of the Deep Space," he turned and left.

After seeing Xu Meng off, Knight Walker wiped the sweat from his forehead and finally breathed a sigh of relief.
-

After leaving Knight Walker's office, Xu Meng immediately went to Richard Moreno to discuss her ideas.

Fifteen minutes later, they returned home dejected.

Without saying a word, Richard strongly dissuaded Xu Meng from giving up the idea, citing "too high risk".

If the existing kilometer-deep mine pit is abandoned and a site is artificially constructed, the risk can be effectively reduced.

But that would be too costly and too time-consuming.

Xu Meng had no choice but to give up and turn to do two other things—

The opening of Genesis Engine and its tutorials, as well as a game developer creative competition.

The former is very easy to solve.

There are already mature examples of commercial rules for engine development on the market.

To realize your dreams, simply follow the most successful commercial rules for engine development:
[Game developers can use the engine for free until their product's total revenue exceeds 600 million Xia Yuan, after which they will pay a 5% revenue share on any amount exceeding that.]
The tutorial doesn't take much effort.

The engine development team led by Li Xingyun had already compiled a "Genesis Engine User Guide" for Zhumeng's internal employees to familiarize themselves with the new engine.

Xu Meng now plans to make this tutorial available for other developers to learn and use; it only requires some modifications.

The only problem is-

When employees use Genesis Engine, in addition to the engine itself, there is another major help: the intelligent office partner.

The employees' own AI partner, working in conjunction with the intelligent processing module built into the Genesis Engine, has improved work efficiency beyond what outsiders could have imagined.

However, Xu Meng does not intend to open up the smart office partner to the world.

No matter how powerful the Genesis Engine is, it is still a tool for "creation," and what is created must rely on the virtual world of Dream Building to be presented.

Although it will impact some existing industries, the overall risk is manageable.

But AI tools are a different story!
In the internet age, the potential for AI to go out of control is truly astonishing.

Xu Meng didn't want to take that risk.

Therefore, Li Xingyun and his team need to adjust this tutorial and delete all the content related to AI partners.

After explaining all that, the rest is naturally the [Game Developer Creative Competition].

The routine procedures, systems, and rewards for the competition were handled without much trouble.

He only needs to open his mouth, and his assistant Chen Mengling will take care of everything for him.

The only thing Xu Meng needed to think about was [choosing a topic].

He must first set a topic so that participating developers can compete in the same field and showcase their creativity and abilities.

This topic selection must be approached with utmost care.

A scope that is too broad is not conducive to comparison. A scope that is too narrow will limit the scope for many people to participate.

Xu Meng thought about it for a while, but couldn't make up her mind, so she looked down and asked Xiao Meng, "Xiao Meng, do you have any ideas?"

Xiaomeng answered without hesitation:

"animal!"

Xu Meng paused for a second, then raised her hand and patted her little head: "Go play in 'Animal Kingdom' first."

Xiao Meng went off happily.

Xu Meng then brought together Li Xingyun, Song Zhicheng, Lu Jiahe, Chen Junyi, and other leaders in charge of engine development, platform operation, game promotion, and other related fields to discuss this topic.

Less than 10 minutes later, Zhang Baiquan, Xu Fang, Zu Rongyao, Lu Ming, Zhang Zhen, Wu Xiaoyang and others were also brought into the meeting.

At this stage, it's no longer a matter of simply choosing a topic and calling it a day.

Everyone felt that the results of this competition—the virtual assets created by all the participants—should be put to use.

Given the influence of Dream Building and the virtual world, once this competition begins, the number of participating developers will inevitably be enormous!

The quality of the games they develop may vary, but the quantity will definitely exceed expectations!

It would be a waste to discard these techniques after using them only once in a competition.

Therefore, they unanimously believed that:
The outstanding works produced during the competition should be utilized and incorporated into the virtual world to enrich this seemingly vibrant but somewhat barren digital planet in the eyes of developers.

With this restriction added, everyone immediately became more cautious and hesitant in choosing topics.

The discussion continued until the afternoon, but no consensus could be reached.

—On the contrary, they discussed everything else in the competition, except for the topic selection, in great detail.

How could Xu Meng stand this?

He immediately waved his hand dismissively: "Why don't we just let the players decide?"

Everyone looked at each other.

But Xu Meng had already urged everyone to go about their business and not to be late for getting off work.

He simply picked up his phone, wrote a post, and published it.

Dear players:

Hi everyone!

I've been thinking about the global game developer plight that everyone has been discussing for a whole day.

I can't help everyone, but maybe I can help some of them.

Therefore, I decided to open up the use of [Genesis Engine] to everyone and organize a creative competition for all game developers.

Trophies, prize money, honors, support, cooperation...

Rewards like these will be available.

But more importantly, all outstanding works can gain a place on the digital planet and receive corresponding benefits.

I hope this competition can help more outstanding developers persevere, transition from traditional game developers to virtual game developers, and achieve better development and greater rewards in the era of virtual games.

But now, we've encountered a small problem.

I have always believed that most questions related to games can be answered by the players themselves.

So, I'm asking for your help—

What kind of topic do you think should be chosen for this competition?
Please feel free to speak your mind!

Afterwards, we will extract the most frequently mentioned and most popular topics based on everyone's comments and conduct a public vote.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the voting results will determine the topic for this competition.
-

After posting, Xu Meng waited for about ten seconds.

After refreshing the page, I saw a series of replies popping up below:

"Developers! Your savior has arrived!"

"Boss Xu! I knew you wouldn't abandon these people. You really are an incredibly kind person!"

"Great! We'll have endless games to play soon!"

"The Genesis Engine... it's just been made public like that!? Awesome!!"

……

The netizens who immediately responded didn't have time to think about the topic of the competition.

They were simply marveling: Xu Meng had once again lived up to their expectations!
In the morning, everyone began to worry about the survival of developers, and in the afternoon, Xu Meng had already prepared a plan to change the predicament faced by developers!
Such efficiency is truly astonishing.

It even took less than half a day!
He said he 'thought about it all day,' which is clearly nonsense—he was clearly streaming himself playing games that morning!

Of course, this is harmless.

At that moment, no one cared about his little bit of embellishment.

After the valiant sniper forwarded this post to his fan group, he made no attempt to hide his admiration:
"Look! This is what it means to value players."

"Make a wish in the morning, and it comes true in the afternoon! That's what it means to value our players!"

Some fans disagreed:
"Isn't this because the developers are facing difficulties and are about to collapse?"

"This isn't about valuing the players, it's about valuing the developers, isn't it?"

The valiant sniper immediately shook his head:
"It may not sound nice to say it, but... is this the first time the developers have encountered difficulties?"

"They've been in trouble for over half a year, why didn't Boss Xu do anything about it before?"

"Now, when players voice their grievances, Mr. Xu immediately comes up with a solution!"

"One has been neglected for more than half a year, while the other has a plan that comes out on the same day. Tell me, who does Boss Xu really value?"

The fans were speechless.

After a few seconds of silence, he replied, "Boss Xu is awesome!"

……

Qi Huahua also immediately forwarded Xu Meng's post to her fan group, urging everyone to comment and leave their opinions.

He added, "If everyone's favorite genre happens to be [simulation management], that would be great! I love that the most."

This scheming tactic was immediately seen through by the fans:

"Get away from me, you scheming woman! Stop trying to bewitch people here!"

"A real man plays Gala Game!"

……

Other streamers are also taking action.

Today, Zhumeng is the bread and butter of most game streamers worldwide, and they are the first to know about any moves Xu Meng makes.

After seeing Xu Meng's post, they overwhelmingly supported her.

While informing fans, I also wanted to subtly express my own opinion, hoping everyone would support the topics I like—that's only natural.

Orange Juice hopes for more anime-style bishoujo games.

Huan Yue hopes everyone will vote for [Action Game].

Zhang Siming urged fans to vote for [team-based competitive game].

Edison, the electronic music producer, supported [technology construction].

The lewd king, Penguin Goose, made no attempt to hide his urge for votes in the group: "Vote for 'butter'! If you don't vote for 'butter,' you'll be banned for two days!"

……

While the streamers were sharing and commenting, the developers remained silent.

They were certainly not indifferent to this match.

—On the contrary!
They were incredibly excited!

They just can't focus on social media right now.

At this moment, countless small and medium-sized development teams, struggling to stay afloat, threw their papers into the air.

The somber and oppressive office was suddenly filled with deafening cheers!

(End of this chapter)