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Chapter 427 0417 [Tenth Anniversary of Chinese Online Games]

This year's ChinaJoy electronics show will last for five days, an unprecedentedly long event.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Chinese online games!

The night before the exhibition, a welcome dinner and awards ceremony for the 10th anniversary of Chinese online games were held at the Sofitel East Jinjiang Hotel.

Awards include "Top Ten Most Influential Figures in China's Online Game Industry Over the Past Decade", "Top Ten Most Valuable Companies in China's Online Game Industry Over the Past Decade", and "Top Ten Original Online Games in China's Online Game Industry Over the Past Decade".

The online voting started several months in advance, with voting sections available on 17173, Sina, Sohu, and NetEase Games channels.

The online voting results were already out, so there was no suspense whatsoever.

Chen Guiliang has been active online for a long time, and now his efforts are finally paying off. He not only ranked first in votes, but also left the second place far behind.

In the hotel's auditorium, tables were set with food.

The leaders and special guests sat at two tables, while the bosses of the top 10 companies in the game market sat at another table. The remaining game company bosses who attended the dinner numbered nearly 200.

Two hosts, a male and a female, from Dragon TV were present to host the awards ceremony.

Chen Xiaowei was absent this time; Zhu Jun represented Nine City because he was going on stage to accept an award. Chen Tianqiao, Shi Yuzhu, and others also did not send their CEOs this time; they attended in person as chairmen of the company.

Enemies are extremely jealous when they meet.

Before Ding Sanshi could even sit down properly, Zhu Jun glared at him a few times with a blank expression.

World of Warcraft was ultimately snatched away by NetEase!

But Ding Sanshi wasn't in a good mood either, because World of Warcraft was being held back by the State Administration of Press and Publication...

The reasons for the card review are extremely complex.

First, it's related to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China; second, the approval process for game licenses is stricter this year; and third, World of Warcraft has too much influence and is not a domestically developed game, so it is the primary target of review.

If NetEase follows the procedures set by the State Administration of Press and Publication, and makes the necessary changes as instructed, they will definitely be able to obtain the publishing license after some time.

However, such a long service outage would be a huge loss for NetEase.

Therefore, Ding Sanshi decided to bypass the State Administration of Press and Publication and go directly through the Ministry of Culture for registration and approval. This news had already leaked, and the State Administration of Press and Publication was furious. What started as a routine procedure had turned into a deliberate obstruction!
"You went swimming in the Yangtze River with the writers these past few days?" Tao Chenggang asked.

Chen Guiliang nodded: "They swam for several days."

Tao Chenggang said, "I also went to see the solar eclipse, it was really awesome."

Zhang Chaoyang laughed and said, "I like hanging out with celebrities, and you like hanging out with writers, right? Hobbies can definitely help pass the time."

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm a writer, it's normal for me to hang out with other writers. You're not a celebrity, you're just there to pick up girls."

"Can't you speak properly? I don't just hang out with female celebrities," Zhang Chaoyang said irritably.

Chen Guiliang exclaimed in surprise, "Wow, you even do it with male celebrities!"

"Get out!" Zhang Chaoyang roared.

Chen Tianqiao and Qiu Bojun arrived together, greeted everyone, and then sat down to whisper among themselves. The two were high school classmates and were now working closely together, their relationship as close as if they were inseparable.

Aion has completely fallen into disuse.

Shanda was in a real bind, expediting all sorts of procedures to get the Koreans to send someone over as soon as possible to fix the cheating issue. For some reason, the Korean developers not only didn't expedite the visa process, but deliberately delayed it for over a month.

Don't ask, it's just company procedure.

By the time the Korean technicians arrived at Shanda to resolve the issue, the game had already been ruined by cheaters.

Shanda Games is clearly going all in, planning to release various paid items that severely impact game balance. Frankly, this game is doomed to fail sooner or later, so they're trying to cash out before shutting down, hoping to recoup their licensing fees.

As for the subsequent revenue sharing with the Korean side, Shanda has no intention of giving them a single penny.

Damn it, we'll just sue them. It's the Korean developer's fault for deliberately dragging things down.

Chen Tianqiao was completely baffled. Why would the Koreans do this? Deliberately dragging out the game and killing it would be detrimental to the Koreans in every way.

Are they not going to make money even if they have the chance?
"Mr. Ma is here, please have a seat!"

"Hello everyone. I'm so sorry I'm late."

Little Ma arrived late and apologized profusely to everyone.

The president of Tencent Games didn't attend either; Pony Ma (Ma Huateng) participated in person this year.

Occasionally, owners of small and medium-sized enterprises would come to this table, and before they even started drinking, they would rush over to try and build rapport with the big boss.

"Hello, Mr. Qiu!"

"Xiao Shang is here too. It's been several years since we last saw each other since you left Kingsoft."

"My self-developed game, 'Genghis Khan,' is scheduled for public beta testing at the end of September this year. I hope Mr. Qiu will take a look at it then."

"sure."

Shang Jing shook hands with Chen Guiliang again: "Mr. Chen, I'm very sorry. You said you wanted to invest in my company last time, but at that time we really didn't need the money."

Chen Guiliang chuckled: "It's alright, we can cooperate again in the future."

Chen Guiliang was actually quite unhappy. Before Shang Jing resigned from Sohu Changyou, Chen Guiliang had said he was willing to invest in his game company. In the end, Shang Jing actually went and started his own business without even informing Chen Guiliang, only accepting angel investment from people like Lei Jun.

Zhang Chaoyang suddenly blurted out, "I've already sued you!"

Shang Jing laughed and said, "Mr. Zhang, I really didn't plagiarize, nor did I use Sohu Changyou's game code."

"Do you think I believe that?" Zhang Chaoyang wanted to curse.

When Shang Jing resigned from Sohu, he also took several core creators with him and ran away.

In recent years, Sohu Changyou has been constantly recruiting top talent with high salaries, but many people have resigned or been poached. The core team has been replaced several times, and there are a lot of messy and chaotic things going on inside the company.

Ding Sanshi seemed to have found common ground, and after Shang Jing left, he began discussing the phenomenon of plagiarism among departing employees with Zhang Chaoyang. Yes, he was referring to Xu Da Shoufu.

"Distinguished leaders, honored guests..." the host began to speak.

Everyone stopped chatting and turned to look at the stage.

Then, several leaders were invited to the stage to give speeches, which mainly reminisced about the ten-year history of Chinese online games, the remarkable achievements made, and looked to the future while also touching on anti-addiction and green gaming.

"Next up are the top ten most influential figures in China's online gaming industry over the past decade..."

Chen Guiliang, Chen Tianqiao, Ding Sanshi, Zhu Jun, Xiao Ma Ge, Shi Yuzhu, Tao Chenggang, Qiu Bojun, Chi Yufeng, and Wang Junbo (Softstar Entertainment) took the stage. Despite Tao Chenggang's low-key demeanor, he actually enjoys considerable online popularity, having initially built his career on a motivational online persona. He ranked eighth in the online poll.

It was somewhat unexpected that Wang Junbo could also win an award.

Softstar Entertainment is a Taiwanese company, and it's estimated that because there are many players of "The Legend of Jin Yong", they managed to get Wang Junbo voted up.

The ten people then gave their acceptance speeches.

When it was Chen Guiliang's turn, he said, "There was a senior executive at ByteDance who was my high school classmate. At the time, I wasn't interested in games, but he skipped class every day to play 'Legend of Mir,' and he would often say that he wanted to work in the game industry in the future. His ambition was to become the next Chen Tianqiao..."

"Hahaha!"

The whole audience burst into laughter.

Chen Tianqiao was also on the stage at this time. He picked up the microphone and said, "Mr. Chen, could you introduce me to that friend? We're sure we'll have something in common."

Chen Guiliang said, "He doesn't play games much anymore; he's busy with work all day. But he still admires President Chen a lot. I'll give you his QQ number later. By the way, he uses a five-digit QQ number, which I extorted from President Ma."

The audience burst into laughter again.

Little Ma picked up the microphone and said, "This gentleman extorted money from me twice and took away 20 five-digit QQ numbers."

Amidst laughter, the female host from Dragon TV said, "I also want to extort someone; it would definitely make me look good in front of my colleagues!"

Chen Guiliang continued, "It was under that classmate's insistence that I first came into contact with online games. I spent the whole night playing 'Legend of Mir,' but I stopped playing the next day..."

"Why? Do you think 'Legend' isn't fun?" the male host asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "I think 'Legend of Mir' is quite fun, but my wallet doesn't think so. My classmates pay for my overnight stays at internet cafes, so where would I get the money to buy game cards for 'Legend of Mir'? So I thought at the time, could we let people play online games for free? Mr. Tao has a lot to say about this."

"Are you going to tell me?" Tao Chenggang asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "Actually, I don't need to tell you. Your underlings in the gold farming studio back then had already leaked the secret online. I was in my senior year of high school and so poor that I couldn't afford meat, so I came up with a free online game design proposal and got tens of thousands of yuan from Boss Tao by selling my ideas. At that time, 'Hot Blood Jianghu' hadn't been launched yet, and I had already made money through free online games."

Both on and off the stage were stunned.

The idea for "The Emperor's Reign" was actually created by Chen Guiliang? And it predates "Hot-Blooded Jianghu"?
As Chen Guiliang said, this matter has already begun to circulate online.

Especially on Tianya (a Chinese online forum), some people have thoroughly investigated the relationship between Chen Guiliang and Tao Chenggang, almost reconstructing the entire course of events. No one thinks there's anything wrong with it; on the contrary, they think Chen Guiliang is even more impressive, treating it as a grassroots anecdote about a wealthy man.

Chen Guiliang continued, "Currently, there are still some misunderstandings about online games in society. It's true that some children are addicted to online games, which is affecting their studies. I personally support green gaming and actively promote anti-addiction systems. The Chinese online gaming industry has already passed through a decade of unregulated growth, and I believe the next ten years will see it enter a mature phase. One day in the future, people will view online games as something like football and basketball—something they can play whenever they want, without interfering with their studies or daily life; it's simply a form of entertainment outside of school..."

"Furthermore, I'd like to add something. I particularly support what the famous children's author Zheng Yuanjie said last year: 'Those who treat internet addiction as a mental illness are the ones who are truly mentally ill!'"

"Hahaha!" The audience burst into laughter again.

At the end of the previous year, the criteria for mental illness in internet addiction were introduced, which sparked heated discussions in society at the beginning of last year.

Even Professor Tao, who has profited from internet addiction treatment, opposes classifying internet addiction as a mental illness. He says internet addiction is a special kind of behavioral disorder that can be gently corrected through education, persuasion, and guidance. He opposes medication and electroconvulsive therapy!

But Teacher Zheng Yuanjie spoke the most directly: People who treat internet addiction as a mental illness are the ones who are truly mentally ill!
According to that standard for mental illness, Zheng Yuanjie, who constantly surfs the internet at a high intensity, would be a very typical patient with internet addiction-related mental illness...

Although Zheng Yuanjie sometimes acts strangely, he resolutely denies that he has a mental illness.

Amid applause, ten game company bosses stepped off the stage with the "Top Ten Most Influential Figures in China's Online Game Industry Over the Past Decade" award.

Then, some of them soon went back on stage to receive their awards.

Chen Guiliang won three trophies in one go.

Hehe, Chen Tianqiao only got two; he didn't get the Top Ten Original Games trophy.

Over the next few days, Chen Guiliang was particularly busy, as he had various forums to attend.

This year's ChinaJoy expo even featured a "China SNS and Social Game Development Forum." SNS websites included sites like HaiNei.com, XiaoNei.com, and QQ Space, while Social Games referred to social games like FarmVille.

At this development forum, Chen Guiliang was the chief guest and engaged in a high-level dialogue with Pony Ma.

The female host sat in the middle, while Chen Guiliang and Xiao Ma sat opposite each other.

"Both of you are leading figures in China's social networking sites," the female host asked. "How many users does QQ Space have now?"

Pony Ma said, "Around 3 million."

The female host exclaimed in surprise, "So many? Does that mean a quarter of all Chinese people use QQ Space?"

Little Ma was a little embarrassed and explained, "There are duplicate QQ accounts."

The female host then asked Chen Guiliang, "How many users does HaiNei.com have now?"

Chen Guiliang said, "There are some duplicate registrations, even though we have just over 1 million users. But our monthly active users are very high, having exceeded 4000 million. That means out of our 1 million users, more than 4000 million log in and use the service for a period of time every month. 51.com claimed to have 2 million users a long time ago, but their monthly active users are less than 2000 million."

The female host asked, "As the pioneer of Chinese social games, what are Mr. Chen's views on current social games? What are your expectations for their future development?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "People have a need for online social interaction, and it's normal to play games while communicating online. It's the same in real life; when a few friends sit down, they can't just chat. They can play cards, truth or dare, and things like that. Going back to ancient times, people even played drinking games. This kind of game originates from social interaction and is more interactive than MMO games. It won't become mainstream, but it will always have its own market."

The female host then asked Mr. Ma, "What's your opinion, Mr. Ma?"

Pony Ma said, "QQ is China's largest online social networking software, and QQ Zone is China's largest SNS website. Everything we do is to improve the user experience, including Social Games. Our goal is to make QQ and QQ Zone users have fun and provide them with a comfortable online social platform."

Pony Ma (Ma Huateng, founder of Tencent) dared not mention specific social games because all of Tencent's social games were copied. Moreover, the biggest victim was sitting right in front of him…

Many people were taking pictures of them. Chen Guiliang and Xiao Ma were sitting together talking about social games. The photos, once posted online, would definitely be considered a famous scene in the gaming industry.

At this very moment, Sina Games Channel is indeed providing live text and image coverage!
Viewers watching the live stream were laughing hysterically.

"Mr. Ma, why don't you dare to make eye contact with Chen Shiyi?"

"Mr. Ma, let's talk about your QQ Farm."

"The host is so mean, dragging the thief along to talk to the victim about theft prevention, right?"

"..."

Tencent's reputation has been particularly bad in the last two years, and it has now caught up with Baidu.

Netizens will not miss any opportunity to ridicule and satirize Tencent.

The comments section was filled with sarcasm and ridicule of Alan Ma, with some even encouraging Chen Guiliang to confront him directly and see how he would respond.

Especially in times like these, Chen Guiliang showed great magnanimity, never mentioning Tencent's rampant imitation of his games.

(End of this chapter)