Restart life

Chapter 404 0394 [You Ke's Home Base is Raided by Baidu]

Shanda headquarters.

Chen Tianqiao was so angry he was cursing: "Haven't the people from NCSoft (the Korean developer) arrived yet? Damn it, when are they going to stop?"

On the very first day of Aion's release in China, leveling scripts appeared. These scripts could automatically kill monsters and complete repetitive tasks.

Such a rapid pace couldn't have been achieved domestically.

The auto-leveling scripts for Aion mostly appeared in South Korea. Some people in China bought them in advance, just waiting for the game to be launched in China so they could immediately sell them to Chinese players for profit.

In just one week, the "flying cheat" reappeared, directly destroying the game's core selling point—the flight system.

As the distributor, Shanda has no right to modify the core code and cannot solve the problem of cheating at its root.

Meanwhile, the South Korean developer has been slow to send anyone to handle the situation.

Chen Tianqiao's anger was understandable!

Tan Qunzhao, former CEO of Shanda Group and current chairman of Shanda Games, felt immense pressure when facing Chen Tianqiao's anger: "It will arrive next month."

Chen Tianqiao was even angrier: "Sending people to China to deal with the cheat software is such a small matter, why are they dragging it out until next month? Do they not have money for plane tickets? If they don't have money, I can reimburse them!"

Tan Qunzhao explained, "Automatic leveling scripts are relatively easy to handle, but the Korean side has never encountered flying cheats. After hearing the description, they believe that it may not be possible to handle it in the short term, and they would need to apply for work visas to stay in China permanently."

Chen Tianqiao looked at his veteran subordinate in disbelief: "Didn't you make any preparations beforehand?"

Tan Qunzhao lowered his head and said, "I didn't expect the cheat to come so quickly, and I also didn't expect the South Korean side to require a work visa."

Chen Tianqiao laughed in extreme anger: "You...very good, very good!"

In South Korea, it usually takes about a week to process a regular passport and visa, but expedited service can shorten the process to within three days.

However, the South Korean staff sent to handle the cheating software needed work visas for long-term work. Obtaining such visas was extremely complicated and time-consuming in 2009.

Shanda needs to apply for a "Foreigner Employment Permit" for its Korean employees, and then apply for an "Authorized Unit Visa Notification Form".

Only then can the South Korean side apply for work visas for the employees.

Even if both sides are pouring money into the process and all procedures are expedited, it will still take at least three weeks.

Three weeks later, the daylilies were almost cold.

Because the flying cheat started to become rampant in the second week after the game was launched.

Although Chen Tianqiao is stubborn and self-willed, he rarely scolds people at the company, except when he scolds his younger brother.

Even though Tan Qunzhao made such a big mistake, Chen Tianqiao was able to suppress the urge to curse. He tried his best to calm down and said, "Suppress the account."

"We've been blocking them, but the flying cheat is spreading too fast," Tan Qunzhao said. "If we permanently ban accounts, we'll lose a lot of players. So, we can only ban them for 3 to 7 days."

Chen Tianqiao said, "Banning for such a short time is tantamount to condoning cheating."

Tan Qunzhao said, "Now that the new game has just been launched, the few days are precious, so it still has a strong deterrent effect on players."

Chen Tianqiao remained silent.

He knew Tan Qunzhao was talking nonsense, but he didn't know what to do.

Too many players are using the flying cheat. If cheaters are found to be permanently banned, no one knows what the consequences will be.

Because Shanda's anti-cheat system is terrible, and if some players make random reports, there is a high possibility of widespread false bans.

Players whose accounts were banned all claimed that they were wrongly banned, and their daily appeals were driving Shanda's customer service department to the brink of collapse, causing the department to lose its ability to handle the issues.

When Tencent massively banned DNF accounts, the game's customer service was overwhelmed and unable to do anything for a month or two.

But Tencent has the courage, while Shanda clearly doesn't.

Chen Tianqiao and Tan Qunzhao were both afraid that Aion would be doomed because of this. This game was far too important to Shanda, and no one dared to take a gamble.

……

Although Tan Qunzhao wasn't scolded by his boss, he felt even worse than if he had been.

This was the first major game he personally introduced after becoming chairman of Shanda Games, and it was regarded within the company as a project to turn the company around.

Problems occurred as soon as it went live!
He returned to his office and called his assistant to assign tasks.

There's really not much to assign; we've done what we were supposed to do, and now we can only see how things go.

Not long after, the marketing director came to see me: "Chairman Tan, other game companies have jumped in, all making sarcastic and mocking remarks about Aion. This kind of instigation is making players even angrier, and now our reputation is plummeting. We can't do any public relations at all; we must deal with the cheating problem immediately!"

At that time, Shanda did not have a dedicated public relations department.

General public relations and brand promotion are handled by the marketing department.

However, the marketing department cannot bear the responsibility for such a big matter; it requires collaboration from multiple departments.

Tan Qunzhao asked, "Is it HaiNei.com again?"

The marketing director said, "Hainian.com has the greatest influence, but other forums and online communities are also making a fuss."

Chen Guiliang likes to post updates on Haiwainet and also likes to get celebrities to register accounts on Haiwainet.

What are the consequences of this?
A large number of IT company chairmen and CEOs have accounts on HaiNei.com and, like Chen Guiliang, post a few messages every now and then.

Tan Qunzhao himself has a HaiNei.com account.

He turned on his computer and logged into Haiwainet, only to find that he had been bombarded with mentions from netizens.

Looking at the accounts of other company CEOs or executives, I got angrier and angrier, almost to the point of internal injury.

Ding Sanshi, CEO of NetEase: "NetEase games are committed to cracking down on cheating. In order to maintain the player experience, once we discover cheating that affects the game balance, we will permanently ban the cheater's account."

No mention was made of Shanda or Aion, but everyone knows that Ding Lei is subtly criticizing someone.

Zhang Chaoyang hadn't registered a Haiwainet account before; he usually posted on his Sohu blog. Now, he'd actually come to Haiwainet to join the fun: "If I were Chen Tianqiao, I would have resolved this matter long ago. Dragging it out until now is simply outrageous."

Even Chen Xiaowei, who never speaks ill of others, couldn't help but chime in this time: "When distributing foreign games, it's essential to do thorough preparation beforehand to handle any unexpected situations. The9 maintains healthy communication with Blizzard at all times, and they quickly resolved the cheating issues in World of Warcraft."

Executives from game companies, as if having a team-building event on HaiNei.com, came to kick Shanda while it was down.

Who made Shanda the industry leader?

When the boss is in trouble, people from all sides come to attack.

HaiNei.com happened to provide the platform for the "Beat Up" campaign, thanks to Chen Guiliang's willingness to invite everyone he met. On other platforms, the game company's top executives weren't as readily available.

Chen Guiliang had just finished revising his graduation thesis when he saw how lively his website was, so he went to complain: "Shanda's payment channels are really impressive. Shanda Innovation Institute is even developing cloud technology. Shouldn't they allocate some manpower to improve Shanda Games' cheat detection system?" This complaint hit Shanda right where it hurts.

Even Chen Tianqiao probably couldn't hold back his emotions after seeing this.

Shanda started developing its game automatic monitoring system in 2006, and introduced BI (Business Intelligence) technology last year.

However, its real-time monitoring capabilities are poor, and it mainly focuses on in-game economic systems, retention rates, payment rates, average revenue per user, player churn data, and so on.

To put it bluntly, Shanda's game monitoring system is entirely centered around operational services.

Its original purpose was not to combat cheating!
Under Chen Guiliang's guidance, Youke directly adopted Tencent's game monitoring model.

This means focusing on real-time and detailed monitoring, driving development through products and technology, creating a kernel-level protection system, forming an internal closed loop within IEG, and integrating R&D and operations.

Although Tencent also acts as an agent, it's different from Shanda's approach.

Tencent's self-developed TP system monitors data during protection. If a game it distributes encounters a problem, Tencent immediately researches solutions and submits its requirements, plans, and even patch code to the developer. Once the developer reviews and tests the system and it passes, it can be integrated into the official version.

And what about Shanda?

We can only wait passively and ask the developer to handle it as soon as possible. Whether they handle it, and when they will handle it, depends on the developer's mood.

After venting his frustrations on his personal account, Chen Guiliang summoned all senior management personnel in the game development department for a meeting.

"This massive cheating incident in Aion has served as a wake-up call for us. I think it warrants detailed analysis and discussion..."

"Shanda's game auto-monitoring system is, to be honest, quite technically advanced. But it's all about operations, everything serves operations, which has led it down a wrong path. Operations are important, of course, but no matter how good your operational capabilities are, you can't turn a pile of shit into gold..."

"Our YP (Game Science Real-Time Protection) system should and must be product-centric. Or rather, product and technology-centric. Everything is about making the product content better, not about making the product operation better. To be honest, our YP system is not as good as Tencent's TP system yet..."

Chen Guiliang finished speaking.

Dong Qianqiu was the first to speak: "Tencent's TP system is based on the technology of QQ's hundreds of millions of users and has been honed through years of launching QQ series games. They didn't perform very well last year either, and only upgraded it in response to the rampant cheating in CF. Mr. Chen, there's no need to boost others' morale and diminish our own."

Dong Qianqiu's temper has also grown, and he actually publicly retorted to Chen Guiliang.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "You're right, we shouldn't diminish our own prestige. I've seen your efforts; Youpay and the YP system are constantly being improved."

Meng Zicong, the lead planner of "Future Era", has left the specific project team and taken on the role of R&D manager at Game Science.

Meng Zicong said, "Shanda's problem is that it focuses too much on operations. After all, they came from the distribution business. To put it bluntly, they are compradors in the game industry! I have studied the games that Shanda has developed in recent years, and their game developers seem to have to cater to the whims of operations. Especially the subsequent updates, they are all serving operations, not the game itself."

Operations Manager He Zhichuan pursed his lips and kept his head down without saying a word.

He Zhichuan is also a graduate of Peking University. He worked with Ao Yanchen to promote physical cards of "Three Kingdoms Kill" and was subsequently in charge of the operation of "Three Kingdoms Kill" and "Future Era".

He started out knowing nothing and making all sorts of mistakes, but under Chen Guiliang's patient guidance, he gradually became the head of the operations department at Youke.

He was naturally grateful to Chen Guiliang, but the company focused too much on research and development, and the operations department always seemed to be inferior.

He Zhichuan, a self-proclaimed veteran, is now being suppressed by Meng Zicong.

Meng Zicong is nothing.
Without my management, "Future Era" would have run into problems long ago.

He Zhichuan was quite envious of Shanda's operations manager; he had so much power that he could do whatever he wanted in the company.

Tencent approached him last year with a high annual salary. However, he was reluctant to give up his stock options at Youke and still had feelings for Chen Guiliang, so he ultimately didn't let Tencent poach him.

But to my surprise, Tencent sent someone to poach me again this year, and offered me a pretty high position.

Even more outrageous, Baidu also tried to poach him.

Spurred on by Chen Guiliang last year, Baidu Games officially transformed from a distribution channel into a game company. They are currently developing a game in-house and plan to distribute another game this year. They are in dire need of game operations talent.

He Zhichuan can directly become the Operations Director of Baidu Games (a subsidiary) if he switches jobs to Baidu, and he will also receive stock options in that subsidiary. Baidu will cover the compensation for violating the non-compete agreement.

It is well known that Robin Li is rather cold towards veterans, but he genuinely likes to promote newcomers.

After the meeting ended, He Zhichuan awkwardly went to Chen Guiliang's office: "President Chen, I want to resign..."

Chen Guiliang was taken aback. He already knew that companies were trying to poach his employees; Youke's operations and R&D departments were being targeted. But he didn't expect that it would be He Zhichuan who was willing to switch jobs.

This is a veteran who has been with me since the early days of the business. Although he was only doing part-time work at the time, his seniority is incredibly impressive.

Moreover, these are operations talents I personally trained!
"How much annual salary do they offer you?" Chen Guiliang asked.

He Zhichuan lowered his head in shame: "President Chen, let's not ask about this."

Chen Guiliang said, "Let's just chat."

He Zhichuan said, "Annual salary of 150 million, plus bonuses and stock options. Signing fee of 200 million."

Chen Guiliang shook his head and smiled wryly: "They're really deep down. It must be Baidu, right? Other companies wouldn't offer such a high price. And with this level of annual salary, you'd be an operations director. Only Baidu Games is in dire need of an operations director."

He Zhichuan said, "He's not just the operations director, but also the vice president of Baidu Games."

A forced relationship won't be sweet; you can't keep it forever.

Baidu's offer is outrageous!

He Zhichuan added, "Actually, I didn't agree at first. It was only after they approached me a second time and promised to make me the vice president of Baidu Games that I agreed."

Chen Guiliang said, "Let's part amicably. You can come back anytime. But you can't leave yet; you need to hand over your work properly. Also, make sure Baidu pays your breach of contract penalty obediently."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Chen, I..." He Zhichuan still felt that he was not being very loyal.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "I can understand why people want to climb higher."

Isn't it just poaching people?

I'll go to Baidu and poach a few of their core technical staff!
Operations talent is nothing; if I can train one, I can train a second.

Youke is truly amazing; it can get Robin Li to offer such high compensation to poach its talent—even the annual salary of the operations director at Shanda Games wouldn't exceed 120 million yuan, but Baidu actually offered 150 million yuan directly, plus a one-time signing fee of 200 million yuan!

Moreover, he became the vice president of Baidu Games after switching jobs.

Anyone would be tempted.

Damn it, Chen Guiliang was just mocking Shanda, but he didn't expect Baidu to steal his business so quickly.

Actually, the one who was most annoyed was not Chen Guiliang, but Zhang Chaoyang.

Sohu Changyou was also poached by Baidu, and several of them were poached at once!

Old Zhang is probably going to be furious.

(End of this chapter)