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Chapter 492 0482 [The Oracle Era is about to launch in Europe]

Tao Xue wasn't very interested in Dublin Castle because it seemed too modern. She visited it for a while, took a few photos, and then left.

Further afield, Blarney Castle offered her a wonderful surprise. Aside from necessary reinforcements to ensure visitor safety, the castle has not undergone modern renovations and retains its weathered, medieval appearance.

Instead of checking their tickets and entering immediately, they went to wander around the perimeter.

Tao Xue strolled along the riverbank, a dilapidated castle in front of her, a small forest behind her. Looking around, she said, "This feels like stepping into a fairytale world. Do you think there are witches in the forest?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "If there are witches in the forest, then there must be vampires in the abandoned castle."

The local guide, unable to understand what they were saying, continued explaining, "Blarney Castle dates back to the 13th century. It was originally a wooden structure built by King Dermot McCarthy of Munster..."

Chen Guiliang didn't know much about medieval European history, and after listening for a long time, he only remembered the name "King Munster".

This is also thanks to the game; anyone who has played Crusader Kings basically starts the beginner phase with Munster.

This place is actually the stronghold of King Munster.

Looking at the castle in front of him, Chen Guiliang felt as if he had returned to his own territory. How many times had he owned this place in the game!
It was especially heartwarming.

After passing through the castle entrance and climbing the narrow, ancient spiral stone steps, the guide led us to the castle hall, the priest's former residence, and other places. They were all dilapidated and empty houses, with moss growing on the walls.

The tour guide told historical stories vividly, and Tao Xue listened with great interest, but she couldn't remember any of the names of the people in the stories.

There are many tourists here, of all skin colors.

Chen Guiliang said, "If there were no other tourists, and it was just the two of us visiting the castle, the travel experience would be absolutely amazing."

“You have to buy the castle and forbid anyone from visiting it,” Tao Xue said with a smile.

Chen Guiliang then asked the tour guide, "Is this castle privately owned?"

The tour guide replied, "It belongs to the McCarthy family. The royal family that originally built the castle was surnamed McCarthy. Later, the castle was abandoned, and a lawyer named McCarthy bought it in 1874. He believed he had redeemed his family's inheritance and claimed to be a descendant of the McCarthy dynasty."

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: I've missed this opportunity. It seems there was only one dynasty with the surname Chen in ancient times—the Southern Chen Dynasty—and it left no relics for us to buy. Even the folk song "Yushu Hou Ting Hua" has been lost; now I can only sing it with my girlfriends.

The two climbed to the observation deck at the top of the castle, where they had a panoramic view of the beautiful scenery all around.

"Ah~~~~"

A woman screamed nearby.

The tour guide explained, "That's the Stone of Wisdom, said to have been brought back from Jerusalem by Crusader knights. It's a sacred stone stained with the blood of Jesus. It's said that kissing it will make you eloquent, and it has been kissed by hundreds of thousands of tourists."

Chen Guiliang was amused.

Tourism companies all over the world are the same; they can make up a story from any broken rock.

Tao Xue said she was going to go and see, and when she got there she understood why a woman was screaming.

To kiss a stone, you must lie on your back with your upper body leaning down, and use a dangerous and contorted position to put your mouth on it.

"Do you kiss me?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Tao Xue shook her head repeatedly: "Hundreds of thousands of people have kissed me. If I go and kiss someone else, wouldn't that be indirectly kissing hundreds of thousands of people?"

“That’s a tricky angle, haha,” Chen Guiliang laughed. “I thought you were going to say it was too dangerous, or that lying down would get your clothes dirty.”

The two took many photos and then strolled away leisurely.

Chen Guiliang asked the tour guide, "Do you offer horseback riding services here? Especially horseback riding services with medieval costumes."

The tour guide shook his head: "No."

Sigh, the Irish still don't know how to do business.

With so many tourists every year, if Chen Guiliang were in charge, he would definitely set up a small horse farm nearby, since the surrounding land has already been bought by the castle owner.

We'll also make some medieval noble costumes, as well as armor, swords, and so on, and have several makeup artists and photographers on standby.

Renting clothes, wigs, weapons, makeup, horseback riding, taking photos... a one-stop service, definitely profitable, much more so than simply selling tickets.

If you're worried about affecting the castle's view, just build the horse farm further away; after all, tourists come by car anyway.

At this moment, Chen Guiliang wanted to put on a suit of armor and cosplay as a medieval knight riding a horse. Taking another set of cool photos would definitely be incredibly exciting.

"Where can I ride a horse locally?" Chen Guiliang asked.

The tour guide said, "Blarney doesn't have them, but other places in Cork do. And you can choose from a variety of experiences, such as country biking and beach biking."

Chen Guiliang smiled and said to Tao Xue, "Let's rent two sets of clothes. I'll play the knight, and you'll play the princess. We'll ride horses to inspect the territory in the countryside."

"Okay, okay!" Tao Xue smiled, her eyes crinkling into two crescent moons. ...

Chen Guiliang and Tao Xue traveled around for several days before returning to Dublin to meet with Sean Bauer, the European president of Youke.

This guy had a big beard, and after a few words, he got straight to the point: "Besides promoting in gaming communities and magazines, my main promotional strategy is to partner with platforms like Facebook..."

“When I was the Operations Director for Zynga in Europe, I always had connections with these platforms. Game accounts could be linked to social media accounts, so players could see which of their friends were also playing. Inviting friends to the game could reward them with in-game currency and skins, which is basically viral marketing…”

"I was on a business trip recently to establish connections with European online gaming networks in order to accurately target MOBA and RTS players..."

"Operators from various countries have reached an agreement on limited joint venture cooperation..."

"OE (Oracle Era) players reach a certain number, I plan to organize a Dublin Invitational. We'll invite esports clubs from all over Europe to form OE teams to participate in offline competitions, and provide them with substantial prize money..."

"The European localization of *OE* is not very good; it lacks the cultural humor specific to different parts of Europe. Further improvement is needed in this area..."

Sean Bauer said a lot, and Chen Guiliang listened attentively, feeling that the high salary he had given was well spent.

This guy truly deserves to be Zynga's European Operations Director!

Zynga is a company that mainly operates browser games. It has developed very rapidly in Europe in recent years, and they are quite good at marketing and promotion.

Web games mainly rely on promotional methods.

Chen Guiliang added, "I will provide you with more funding to strengthen cooperation with European operators, launch exclusive broadband packages for OE (Oracle Era) players, and offer operator points as rewards for playing games, etc..."

"Another option is to collaborate with hardware brands like Intel, Nvidia, and Logitech, offering exclusive in-game skins with the purchase of designated models..."

"Twitch.tv should also pay attention. You can assemble a team, find promising European streamers, and promote 'OE' through live streaming..."

"By the way, are the arrangements for Gamescom all set?"

Sean Bauer nodded and said, "It's all arranged. OE will begin its test operation on June 1st, and will officially launch after Gamescom."

"That's good." Chen Guiliang felt very satisfied.

Sean Bauer asked, "NFA (Future Age) is very popular in Europe, and I think it can be even more popular. I hope to take back the operating rights and give the distributor some compensation."

Chen Guiliang said, "I always abide by commercial contracts. I'll just wait for the European agency agreement with NFA to expire naturally."

“Okay, you’re the boss.” Sean Bauer didn’t insist anymore.

Chen Guiliang then asked, "How has League of Legends been performing in Europe recently?"

Sean Bauer said, "Since Riot Games regained control of the European operations, League of Legends has grown very rapidly in Europe. They haven't released specific figures, but I estimate that the number of registered players for League of Legends in Europe may already be 300 million, or even 400 million."

The mere three to four million registrations across Europe were already a major concern for Sean Bauer.

This left Chen Guiliang speechless.

It's important to know that at that time, "Future Era" had 2.6 million registered players in mainland China alone (many of whom had duplicate accounts).

The Chinese mainland market is not even in the same league as the European market.

Sean Bauer continued, "Our OE launched in Europe a full 20 months later than LOL, which put us at a disadvantage. But our game is more mature, with a more refined interface and characters, giving us enough advantages to catch up. Besides, we have more money than Riot!"

Tencent has already launched beautiful skins for League of Legends in China, but these skins have not been internationalized, and players in North America and Europe are still using the ugly skins.

Some players uploaded Chinese-themed League of Legends skins created by Tencent to Western gaming communities, making Western players extremely envious.

Some Western players have been secretly using third-party tools to modify local game files on their computers, replacing models and textures with Chinese skins. However, they can only admire it themselves; their teammates and opponents cannot see it.

This shows that the aesthetic sense of Western gamers is not much different from that of Chinese gamers; everyone likes beautiful things.

But Riot Games remained unmoved and refused to release any attractive skins, making it difficult to understand the thinking of Riot's top management.

Shawn Ball claims he's richer than Riot Games because Riot has limited funding in Europe. Chen Guiliang, on the other hand, is pouring money into expanding into the European market, allowing Shawn to run more promotional activities.

Chen Guiliang even wanted to hire Adele's team at great expense to create an exclusive song for "Oracle Era" and make it into a music video to accompany the game's opening animation.

Unfortunately, it was too expensive, so the plan was shelved.

Adele has become incredibly popular this year, and her schedule is packed. Asking her to write and record a song would disrupt her work plans and would require additional buyout fees and compensation, totaling over $1000 million.

If Chen Guiliang really had that $1000 million in spare cash, he could have done many other promotional activities. There's no need to spend it all on just one song.

After communicating with Sean Bauer, Chen Guiliang inspected his European headquarters, letting the foreign employees see what their boss looked like.

On June 1st, OE (Oracle Era) began its test operation in Europe.

(End of this chapter)