Building a Gaming Empire From Scratch

Chapter 825: Chapter 784: The Subtle Player Reputation

Tuesday, Wild Island morning meeting.

Boss Bob sat at the conference table, his eyebrows furrowed.

The most direct problem they faced now was: when would “Iron Fist” be released?

The promotional material did not specify a time, one reason being to wait for player equipment updates and modifications, and the second being to avoid Cloud Dream.

But they couldn’t wait like this forever.

Last week’s meeting agreed on the strategy: “Steady and stable, maintain hope.”

To put it bluntly, it was actually to hang on, to wait and see if there was a turning point.

As a result, after waiting for a week, not only did the popularity of “Pokémon” not decrease, but even “Chang’an” had started its closed beta testing.

Although before, he had said that the threat of “Chang’an” was not as significant as “Pokémon”, they shouldn’t come together, right?

What to do now? Wait another week?

The problem was that this was not a game release, but just testing. Who could guarantee that if they waited another week, they wouldn’t be waiting for the official release of “Pokémon”?@@novelbin@@

Once “Pokémon” was released, wouldn’t “Chang’an” also release?

Moreover, the virtual environment version of “Last Moment Reset Edition” was also rumored to have been basically completed.

Should they keep waiting?

But one week after another, and one more week after that, if they continue to wait, it would be New Year already!

“How’s the progress of the equipment modification?” Bob asked.

“Based on the data collected so far, 6.2 million modification appointments have been received since the promotional material was released. Over the past week, a total of 4.1 million devices have been modified nationwide, and the efficiency has been pushed to the extreme. According to the players’ reservations, it is estimated that all modification applications can be completed by this weekend.”

“For the remaining appointments that are difficult to arrange, there are about 180,000 of them. In addition, there are more than 2 million devices whose owners have not submitted requests for in-home modifications. I’m afraid only the official release of “Iron Fist” and the resulting player enthusiasm can activate these users.”

Marketing Manager Tiffany quickly reported the data, and her expectation was not only not heavy but even somewhat relaxed.

Although the popularity of “Pokémon” completely overshadowed “Iron Fist” last week, the progress of modifying Wild Island VR devices remained rapid.

It must be said that the combination of “Free,” “In-Home Service,” and “Choose Your Own Time” has had immediate effects.

Hearing these numbers, Bob’s mood improved a bit, and he asked, “When do you think it’s appropriate to release the game?”

“In my opinion, as soon as possible!”

“As soon as possible?” Bob was surprised, “Chang’an just started closed beta testing last night, shouldn’t the whole internet be discussing this game? Is it too risky for us to release “Iron Fist” now?”

“Speaking of this…” Tiffany’s expression was a bit subtle, “The internet is indeed discussing “Chang’an”, but the content of the discussion might be different from what you imagined.”

“Different?” Bob was puzzled, “What’s different?”

He had become accustomed to Cloud Dream releasing a game and players blindly praising it and had never considered other possibilities.

But now, that “other possibility” had crookedly appeared.

*

Only an hour after the “Chang’an” closed beta testing opened, a large number of related topics began to emerge.

After all, Cloud Dream only forbade the circulation of images and didn’t require players to keep the content of the game confidential. Besides, various gameplay elements were not open, so there was nothing to hide for the players.

At first, players were still blindly praising the game.

They were raving about how amazing and bustling the city was, how well-restored it was, the buildings, the NPCs, the crowded streets, the market noises, the lives of the residents, and countless amazing details were all included.

Being in it, there was a strong sense of time and space dislocation.

These feedbacks excited players who didn’t receive an invitation, and the internet’s popularity soared!

However, not long after that, the atmosphere changed in a strange way.

The admiration for this city was quickly overshadowed by the “emptiness” of the game content.

The task system was not open, and players could not receive tasks – it wasn’t completely impossible, as they could interact with NPCs as usual, but without system prompts, it was difficult for players to tell whether they were doing tasks or not.

Not to mention the lack of “task rewards”, even if you completed a task, all you could get was some money or other things.

“No main missions”, “No side missions”, “Can’t become stronger”, “Limited exploration”, “Many buildings inaccessible”, “Overpowered by guards and NPC pedestrians”…

If players didn’t find anything interesting, the more time they spent in the city, the more bored they would become.

It seemed like a whole city with a vast area for exploration outside the city walls, but without clear goals and rewards, the motivation for exploration was significantly reduced.

They couldn’t be heroes, only the unlucky bystanders who would be killed by heroes.

They couldn’t do whatever they wanted, as doing bad things would land them in jail – famous streamer Yi and Yelang were still in jail to this day.

Even as an honest tourist, life was incredibly difficult with not a single penny – a pancake still cost a whole cent!

Players were very real in their experiences.

Since the game experience was so poor, their complaints would not hold back:

“‘Chang’an’ is not a martial arts game at all! It’s a [Simulation of Life · Tang Dynasty], the most realistic and challenging kind.”

“‘Reborn Tang Dynasty: Starting from a Beggar’.”

“Bullshit! I played for four hours, and three and a half were spent in jail!”

“I’ve had enough! I want to pillage and plunder in Night City, I want to be the worst person possible!”

“I mean, are the guards a little too strong? Our five-person group, armed with swords, bows, and spears, were all wiped out by an elite monster! Just one guard!”

“When will the Blacksmith Guild’s boss move in? Reserve a set of heavy armor for me! The blacksmiths in this game can’t even make armor, trash!”

“Can we wear iron armor in Chang’an? Otherwise, I can’t keep playing!”

…

A flood of complaints quickly drowned out the casual players’ praise for the city.

-Without even a photo, their praises lacked convincing power.

Even game media, which has always been supportive of Cloud Dream, cautiously remained silent.

By the next morning, the word of mouth for “Chang’an” had turned into mostly negative reviews.

Bob looked at the players’ comments on “Chang’an” online and the game’s score, which had already fallen to [6.3] on the RANK-Popular Game Rating list, and was overjoyed.

As the founder of Wild Island and well-informed about the gaming industry, he wouldn’t think that “Chang’an” was doomed just by looking at its rating like Richard did.

Bob clicked on the rating details and read a few pages of player comments, then immediately realized:

Players giving low ratings to the game were more like expressing their dissatisfaction with the game’s current state through this method.

As long as Cloud Dream unlocked more game content and improved the game experience for players, the score and word of mouth could easily rise.

After all, only about 160,000 players have participated in the rating so far, with over a million players in the closed beta and a steady count of over 10 million players after the game’s release.

But that wasn’t important!

Since “Chang’an” didn’t explode in popularity and reviews, now was the perfect time for a game release window!

Bob looked up at the executives present and said: “We can begin the countdown to the ‘Iron Fist’ release!”

“This Friday?” asked Tiffany.

“No! Delays lead to changes, let’s make the final preparations today and launch it tomorrow! Then, for an entire week, we’ll throw all our promotion budget at it!” Bob’s voice was full of determination.

“Success or failure hangs in the balance!”