Restart life

Chapter 402, page 0392: [My graduation thesis is finally almost finished!]

After visiting the two companies, Lei Jun said he wanted to go to the HarmonyOS mobile phone R&D center.

Chen Guiliang refused, explaining that the research and development had entered a critical stage and it was inconvenient to disturb the employees who were working day and night.

I treated Lei Jun to lunch at noon, and then politely sent him away.

Chen Guiliang returned to Youke in the afternoon, took a walk around the company, and asked the employee who had been responsible for monitoring and analyzing competitors' games: "Is 'Legend of the Immortals' still experiencing server overload?"

This is a position specially created by Chen Guiliang, called "Competitive Analysis Specialist".

Each month, employees from Youke's marketing, operations, and R&D departments each send one person to serve as a specialist responsible for observing and analyzing games from other companies.

With a job rotation system, anyone could be assigned to a position.

During my time as a specialist, my main task was playing games, while also browsing various game news. At the end of my rotation, I was also required to write a game analysis report. There was no penalty for poorly written reports, but there were rewards for well-written ones.

Chen Guiliang created this position not primarily to observe competitors, but to allow employees to play games!

It's a very serious thing for employees of a game company to not play games for an extended period of time.

Don't find this funny; this situation is quite common.

Especially in the marketing departments of game companies, from the department director to the employees, many may have never actually played a game. Yet, they are responsible for promoting the game!

In some small and medium-sized game companies, the marketing department has even taken over the role of game designer. Although they don't play games, they can lead the early planning stages of new games because they are familiar with the market and know which types of games are more profitable and more likely to become hits.

The three rotating specialists from the marketing, operations, and R&D departments immediately put down their mice and stood up.

Chen Guiliang raised his hand and pressed down: "Just sit down."

The specialist from the marketing department said, "Legend of the Immortals is extremely popular, and we keep adding more servers."

The specialist from the operations department said, "I estimate it won't last long. This game is too similar to 'Fantasy Westward Journey,' they're practically identical. Once the novelty wears off and it's no longer free to play, the number of online players will probably plummet."

The specialist from the R&D department said, "This game is suspected of plagiarism, not the kind of 'borderline borrowing' that Tencent does, but plagiarism in a legal sense!"

Xu Shoufu has released a new game, which started its open beta test half a month ago.

The three servers were full on the first day, and then new servers were added continuously. Now the peak number of online players is over 10, and the number of registered players is estimated to be close to one million.

From the graphics to the gameplay, it's exactly the same as "Fantasy Westward Journey".

NetEase reacted immediately, first by claiming that "Xiaoyao Legend" plagiarized, and then by announcing that it had filed a lawsuit in court.

It's difficult to determine whether a game is plagiarized, but "Legend of the Wanderer" was later indeed found to be plagiarized by the court!
Just outrageous.

This indicates that some content from "Fantasy Westward Journey" was directly copied by Xu Shoufu into "Legend of the Wanderer".

Xu Shoufu also had his own explanation: "I was the one who planned 'Fantasy Westward Journey,' so it's perfectly normal for the content to be similar."

Chen Guiliang asked, "Do you think there are problems with the operation of 'Legend of the Wanderer'?"

An operations specialist stated, "To attract players, 'Legend of the Wanderer,' a game that uses a subscription fee, allows players to play for free up to level 30 if they register with three friends' email addresses. Duoyi Company then manually contacts three of the player's friends through these emails. If all three friends register game accounts and their characters reach a certain level, the player can play for free permanently. This promotion... has a huge loophole."

“No, there are no loopholes.” Chen Guiliang shook his head.

An operations specialist said, "How could there be no loopholes? I have countless ways to exploit them and play 'Legend of the Immortal' permanently for free."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Is it possible? That Mr. Xu did it on purpose. He deliberately created a public beta event full of loopholes, making potential players think there were loopholes to exploit, and causing them to rush to register with their friends. If this game can become a big success, what does such a small group of permanently free players matter?"

The marketing specialist said, "Mr. Chen is right. Duoyi Company probably did it on purpose. The bigger the loophole, the better, and the easier it is to spot, the better. This will make players ecstatic. It's like... the criminal thrill of seeing someone's door open and rushing in to steal a few things."

A research and development specialist said, "This is a crooked approach. I have a lot of contempt for 'Legend of the Wanderer'. They don't even bother to touch on the edges; they just reskin 'Fantasy Westward Journey'."

A marketing specialist said, "If NetEase loses this lawsuit, Duoyi will make a fortune. If 'Legend of the Immortals' becomes a hit, even if Duoyi loses the case, as long as they aren't forced to shut down their servers, they can still make a profit despite the huge financial loss. This is because their game development costs are extremely low!"

"You can't just look at money when making games!" a development department specialist said irritably.

"The purpose of making games is to make money. How can the company survive if it doesn't make money?"

"Of course we need to make money. But it depends on how we make money! These crooked tricks might make money once or twice, but if they happen a few more times, the company will be finished."

"The more you come, the more you'll earn."

"I mean the company atmosphere and the morale of the employees have all been ruined!"

"But it's very profitable."

"..."

The rotating specialists from the marketing and R&D departments started arguing in front of Chen Guiliang.

There was even a tendency for them to argue.

Chen Guiliang and the operations department specialist stood by and watched the commotion for a while before finally speaking up: "Alright, stop arguing, or we'll start fighting."

The marketing specialist said, "Mr. Chen, I know what Xiao Yang means, but he doesn't understand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that our Youke should do the same; I'm just discussing Duoyi's approach objectively. Duoyi Company is guaranteed to make a profit!"

The R&D specialist also said, "I know you're just stating the facts. What I mean is, if Duoyi continues to do this, no matter how much money this company makes, it will never grow big!" Chen Guiliang commented, "That's good. You should each write a report on this topic at the end of your rotations."

Chen Guiliang personally reads the analysis reports from the three rotating specialists each month. If a report is particularly well-written, he will have all employees read it.

Chen Guiliang also went to write something.

Graduation thesis.

If he doesn't hurry up and start writing, he'll have to continue his sixth year of university.

……

A few days later, Chen Guiliang finished his thesis and went to see his two advisors for a review.

The paper was very well completed; the two teachers only pointed out some minor errors.

Bored, Chen Guiliang took a few photos of the thesis with his phone and posted them on his personal account: "Is anyone else revising their graduation thesis at this time?"

A bunch of netizens responded instantly:
"Huh, I remember Chen Shiyi graduated last year. Did he repeat a year? It's so hard to guess."

"Don't even mention it, I'm revising my thesis, and I'm almost in tears."

"What is the content of Mr. Chen's thesis? I still don't understand Mr. Chen's professional field."

"What the heck is this paper title? 'The Reproductive Paradox of Modernity: Subjective Alienation and Population Reproduction Crisis in Industrial Civilization—An Interdisciplinary Study Based on Weber's Theory of Rationalization and the Theory of the Second Population Transition'? I recognize every single word, but I just can't understand it when put together."

"Is there any expert who can explain this?"

"This is an interdisciplinary paper that combines philosophy and sociology. To be honest, it's a bit odd. But judging from the title, this combination seems to make a lot of sense."

"Why isn't this a paper on business management or economic research? Dude, you're the company owner!"

"Given Chen Shiyi's personality, it wouldn't be surprising if he wrote a paper on the history of the Ming Dynasty."

"So, what did this guy study?"

"..."

Chen Guiliang ignored the comments section and focused intently on revising his thesis.

But this topic unexpectedly went viral; the photos he took with his phone were posted by fans on online forums and message boards. Even major portal websites reported on it on their culture and entertainment channels.

The reason it spread so quickly and widely is twofold: firstly, it stems from Chen Guiliang's multiple identities, and secondly, the title of the paper is indeed eye-catching.

"You've made such a big fuss over writing a paper?" Bian Guanyue said, both amused and exasperated.

Chen Guiliang said, "It's intentional. I need to periodically make myself known; I need to maintain my exposure so it'll be easier to promote the HarmonyOS phone later. What about you? When are you taking your postgraduate entrance exam interview?"

"Next week," Bian Guanyue said.

Neither of them took the re-examination seriously; they had already passed the written test and met their advisors. The chances of being eliminated were practically zero.

After dinner, they cuddled on the sofa, chatting and watching TV to pass the time.

A talk show-like program.

Although Liu Yiwei's "Oriental Night Tales" has long been canceled, many similar programs have emerged. For example, "One Week with Li Bo" is a copy of "Oriental Night Tales".

"Hey, the identity of the buyer who sold the Yuanmingyuan rat and rabbit heads for a record price last week has finally been revealed. It's the well-known collector, Mr. Cai Mingchao. But Mr. Cai said he won't pay. His meaning is very clear: auctioning Yuanmingyuan artifacts is an insult to the Chinese people. He's determined to sabotage the auction..."

The host's tone was indignant, yet tinged with a hint of sarcasm.

Bian Guanyue asked curiously, "Isn't it true that you have to pay a deposit when bidding? If he wins the bid but doesn't pay, isn't he just giving away his deposit for nothing?"

Chen Guiliang said, "If you are a regular customer, you don't need to pay a deposit. Of course, if Mr. Cai does this, he will be blacklisted by the auction house."

“I feel it’s pointless. He ruined this one, and they can just auction it off again,” Bian Guanyue said.

Chen Guiliang said, "If there is a lot of public opinion and the seller cares about their reputation, then it will make sense."

These two items were later returned to China.

What Mr. Cai did was meaningful.

However, many people also criticized Mr. Cai, saying that he lacked integrity and that he used the guise of patriotism to embarrass China abroad.

What constitutes shame is subjective and varies from person to person.

People have different opinions on what makes something meaningful.

Just like the argument between two specialists from the marketing and R&D departments a few days ago.

Their values ​​and perspectives on issues are clearly different.

This world needs more people with aspirations and unwavering commitment.

(End of this chapter)