My capital is quite large.

Last night, "The Coming One" experienced its most important turning point since its premiere.

On stage, Mao Buyi, holding a guitar, slowly sang his original song, "Sorrow," with his story-filled voice.

When the line "One cup to the morning sun, one cup to the moonlight, awakening my longing, softening the cold window" echoed on the stage, not only did the judges and audience members below the stage have tears in their eyes, but the song also went viral on major social media platforms overnight at an astonishing speed.

This morning, countless employees noticed a peculiar phenomenon while scrolling through their WeChat Moments:

Those middle-aged business owners who almost never update their WeChat Moments unexpectedly shared the link to this song and unanimously added the lyrics "One cup to the rising sun, one cup to the moonlight".

The hardships of life and self-deprecation struck a nerve with those already exhausted adults at this moment.

However, thanks to the song "Sorrow," "The Coming One" successfully broke into the mainstream.

However, compared to the nationwide frenzy surrounding The Rap of China, the ripples it has created so far are still too small.

......

At this critical juncture, Haofeng Group, which was somewhat embarrassed in the variety show arena due to the sudden emergence of "The Rap of China", has launched a counterattack on another battlefield.

It was Haofeng Film & Television's long-silent game department that helped them regain face.

It was late December, deep into winter.

On this otherwise uneventful day when major game companies are preparing for their year-end reviews, Haofeng Games unexpectedly posted a huge poster on its official website.

NBA 2K Online 2 will officially launch its open beta on December 28th!

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The first reaction of players in the entire gaming community, especially those in the basketball gaming community, upon seeing this news was not excitement, but bewilderment.

"Wait, this game hasn't even had a closed beta, and it's already on open beta?"

"Haofeng, has he gone mad, or is he in such a hurry to be reincarnated?"

On Hupu, China's largest basketball forum, the related discussion thread surged to the top of the trending list within just half an hour.

Players are discussing it extensively. After all, in an era where PC game development often takes two or three years, skipping the closed beta test so abruptly is undoubtedly a subversion of industry norms.

And the root of all this is thanks to the game "NBA 2KOL1" operated by Tencent next door.

......

Just yesterday, the official website of "NBA 2KOL1" under Tencent updated with a new promotional video featuring star players in the Showroom that shattered players' worldviews.

The so-called showroom in OL1 has always been a bottomless pit of money that only super whales are qualified to touch, requiring tens of thousands of yuan to draw.

In the official promotional video last night, the image featured was that of Shaquille O'Neal at his peak, the dominant center in the hearts of countless basketball fans.

However, the visuals in the video broke the defenses of all players who sought realistic competitive gameplay.

In the video, Shaquille O'Neal, who should have been destroying the rim in the paint, is instead standing outside the three-point line.

He first executed a smooth crossover, then, facing the defender's block, took a pull-up jump.

"brush!"

Hollow-core netting.

The video ends with a freeze-frame on Shaquille O'Neal's game stats panel at his peak—three-point rating: 99!

"Magic basketball, this is fucking magic basketball!"

That night, countless ordinary gamers sitting in front of their computers watched this video and felt a surge of excitement rush to their heads.

In today's OL1, so-called tactics, defense, and passing have become a joke in the face of money and modified data.

The unveiling of Shaquille O'Neal at his peak in the showroom is tantamount to the penguins clearly telling everyone:

"I'm blatantly robbing you this time. With a few tens of thousands in the account, a modified peak Shaq can score from midfield without any interference. What good is your skill then?"

"You disagree? Go ahead and spend money to try your luck in the showroom!"

Despite the overwhelming anger and threats of quitting from players, Tencent's official attitude remained as arrogant as ever.

After all, Tencent's game operation logic has always been "you get what you pay for".

Want to experience fairness without spending money? There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Moreover, Haofeng's second game is about to be released. If they don't make money aggressively now, they won't be able to later.

The idea of ​​using no effort (or money) to create (your) happiness (and numbness) is perfectly embodied in this moment.

......

On December 28th at 10:00 AM, the open beta of "NBA2KOL2" was launched.

Along with the server launch, Haofeng Games simultaneously pinned a letter to players written by their planning team to the top of various game media outlets and online forums.

The first page of this letter prominently displays four large characters:

[Focusing on fair competition].

To ensure these six words were truly implemented, Lao Chen even personally cut off all acquisition channels for historical football stars in the public beta version, and made three almost table-flipping promises to all players in a written announcement:

First, no historical legendary players will be available at the beginning of the game. All data in the game will be based on the actual performance of current NBA players.

Secondly, even if historical players are introduced later to enrich the gameplay, the official team will definitely strictly balance the gap between current and historical players.

The attributes of current top stars like Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and LeBron James are in no way inferior to any historical stars who come after them.

If the first two promises only gave ordinary players who had been suffering for so long a glimmer of hope, then...

Then, Haofeng Games' third promise plunged the entire basketball game enthusiast community into a collective frenzy.

Unlike Penguin Online 1, which had a closed-loop system where you could only become stronger by spending money in the official store and using a nested gacha system, this game offers a different experience.

NBA 2K Online 2 has surprisingly introduced a fairly complete free trading market within the game system.

"Free trading between players."

This means that every player card in the game is no longer a digital item that the official team has locked away on the server.

Instead, it has become a commodity that players can publicly price in the market and freely circulate.