Why would they need to hire them permanently for something like that? Wouldn't a short term contract be more than enough? Also, if they're being paid less than what they make now, and being asked to move to a much, much more expensive area, then isn't this a really bad deal for them?
I can't even bring myself to read this chapter. I can't muster up even a single iota of faith that it won't be just another philosophical diatribe about the author's pet theories on work, life, morality, etc..
I really hope that this means that the Meng Chang arc is almost over. It hasn't been interesting to me since the beginning.
C673 makes me facepalm! I can't believe author made "veteran game designer" really suggest easy Sci-Fi RTS as a game that would "surely lose money". He even mentions "Command and Conquer" as illustration that this game genre is quite able to generate massive profits. The only thing that actually could be against it is its Sci-Fi setting (that pits it against Starcraft 2) - but it's completely negated by targeting casual gamer audience instead of the hardcore RTS fans of the Starcraft 2, as has been vividly demonstrated by Ocean Stronghold being a casual variant of CounterStrike. And MC is making even bigger mistake by using "Mission and Choice" as a blueprint/inspiration for his game team. Just look at the problems it had - "Simple and crude graphics, program bugs everywhere, weird game mechanics…" $70million ensures it'll have incredible graphics (as RTS don't really need much of them), his resident natural prodigy tester girl aura ensures all the bugs are found and squished well before the release... This leaves just "weird game mechanics" - which, due to being dumbed down ("for the sake of easy play") won't be able to deter new players at all. .
C688 I really don't understand where MC gets his "hate of copyright infringers". Author might hate them (as he is deluded into thinking that piracy reduces his income), but in-universe MC has no reasons to hate them whatsoever - in fact, in the past he should've pirated lots of books/movies/games himself (as he used to be poor) - and after transmigration he has even fewer reasons to hate them as he is interested in making losses, so anyone that pirates his games is doing him a favor.
I'm surprised the system is okay with this comission scheme. "However, Meng Chang felt that it was impossible." Naive! I wonder if any companies are sending Old Ma messages while pretending to be their own competitors, precisely so that he will show them to his followers. Also wondering if the system would allow him to advertise his physical industries in markets where they don't currently exist on the premise that some locals might be on vacation. If so, then he could waste massive amounts of money that way. Its suggested because RTS is deemed to be a dying genre that's become too niche to be profitable, and which is already dominated by long standing franchises. He also mistakenly assumes that no casual gamers would be interested in the genre as they've never been interested before, while neglecting the fact that no games had been made in the genre to cater to them before. This is a common blindspot, even in real life. As for the MC, he chose M&C because of its extremely bad reputation and built-in hatred from the public. He's hoping that it will discourage people from even trying the game in the first place. Though, given his company's reputation, that is definitely a naive hope. Still, it will have more of a deterrent effect than a brand new name, and it gave him a chance to waste some money without any real effort. Its probably just the author projecting, but if you want a reason that isn't so meta, then perhaps the MC believes that pirating is a form of free advertising and that more people playing the games means more people talking about them, which means more people buying them, which means he earns more money than he otherwise would have.
Starcraft 2 in-universe just sold 4 million copies. How the hell is that a "dying genre"? "The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about." M&C is a famous game in that world, so it's lots of free publicity. As long as the new game is actually good (which, given enormous amount of money and experienced game designers is more than likely to be true) that name is much better than any brand new name. Frankly, not having enough resources / chewing far more than you can swallow is about the only guaranteed way to lose money in games, so both MC and the game designer are at fault for allocating so much to it. And even Struggle 2.0 would be better than making an RTS...
And it's dominating the RTS market with effectively 100% market share, its also got a competitive scene that makes people far less likely to be willing to switch to other games, and is gear toward hardcore players, which are deemed to be the ones most willing to buy RTS games in the first place. Its like seeing Google and thinking "yeah, there's no space in the search engine marketplace for anything else." And if we look at the market shares of Google's "competitors" then we can see that this is a very sensible conclusion. The fact that this isn't the case here is something that the characters built-in misconceptions about the potential playerbase are preventing them from seeing. Nah, Tengda is going to be attached to it regardless. It'll have massive name recognition no matter what name is stamped on the cover. M&C at least gives it a chance at driving people away. Not a great chance, true, but its better than nothing. He can't pursue that route to failure though. He has to put out a working product by the deadline. Intentionally biting off more than he can chew could easily lead to the game not being in a finished state come settlement time, or him having to force people to work overtime, thus undermining all of his work to convince them to stop doing that.
By being easier, they are aiming for a completely unoccupied niche of "casual RTS". Any Experienced Game Designer should see a possibility of that niche being big enough for the game to be successful (considering that there's far more casual than hardcore players). But it doesn't mean that he has to allocate resources rationally. I.e. spend 300 million on developing a kick-ass 3D engine - then use it only on Lonely Desert Road 2.0 Or spend all those millions on text-based RPG - by not having graphics at all you can guarantee that no matter how much content there's in the game or how good it is not many people are going to waste their time on it.
I'm glad he thought of advertising where it couldn't be effective, but I have a feeling his people will take it to mean that he wants to expand into those markets, and they'll oblige by opening branches in them I think the problem here is that you're forgetting that people are not perfect. They're shaped by their assumptions. And the "expert" in question has had his assumptions reaffirmed repeatedly for decades, and is in turn reinforcing the MC's. You need look no further than history to realize that things like this are only really obvious in hindsight. There's a reason that seemingly obvious game genres take so long to come into existence. I'm not sure you realize how long it takes to develop a 3D engine. He can't guarantee that he'd finish it, even in two settlement periods. Also, text based adventurers don't require many resources. Investing millions into it would require them to add features beyond the text. This means phenomenal music, a talented voice cast, fantastic art, deep and engaging plots, etc.. There's definitely a market for that. And yes, he does actually need to be somewhat rational. Its one of the System's requirements. He can push the boundaries, but not to insane degrees.
I read this novel with the mindset of slapstick comedy. So I don't think too deeply about the plot and I just enjoy watching everyone stab a knife on Boss Pei's back . But there are some moments that actually moved me and make me enjoy this novel even more.
I'm just here for splastick comedy since it seems like the major selling point, but the business premise is quite good for what the author is. Better than some of the other hot garbage being put out. Author was probably not a business academic (someone who studies the nature/applications of business strategies) judging from the different minor yet obvious inconsistencies relating to business but I can chalk it up to the MC just being naive. After all, the premise was he was an avg. humanities graduate from one of China's key universities who spent roughly 6 years working as a low-mid level employee post graduation (nothing impressive but did well as a member of society nonetheless). Getting into a key university meant he knew how to apply himself in school enough to get into one of these key universities but his talent compared to them was avg. so he ain't gonna rake in the bank. Chuck him a decade into a past, parallel version of his Earth and we get his new world. Different changes and decisions ultimately Shift the advancements and views plus the fact he is from a different time and is now having such a substantial influence creates this wonderfully slapstick comedy we have now where everybody backstabbing him. He inadvertently adjusts himself to the common sense dictated in his original universe (living there nearly 30 yrs does that) while he's been in his new one for like what 2 or 3 years. That 30 years of adapting to that world isn't going away + a system giving him like 200 rules (plus anything in between the lines) he'll naturally be seem as an eccentric since being 10 years advanced in a different timeline will put him ahead for quite a long time because not only does it give him the initial advantage, but he also gets to set the trend first. He'll now be the first when people think of a product so he'll always have some degree of success unless he does something egregious. Overall, I find the series fun for backstabbing and a little bland for interactions, do I think it's perfect oh he'll no there are some many logical fallacies it has me dying on the floor. Is it better than the other system novels where they literally sit in place and get OP, absolutely. Do I recommend, Yup, at least read Ch 1-39 on Webnovel if your privy to getting points for reading (should net you a decent amount of read time). I'd say it's a little overrated (ratings are like a 4.2 but I don't think it quite hits a 4.0 maybe a 3.8) but I still think it's worth it to read the free chapters if you're trying to get fast passes or something.
Honestly, there was a part of me that though Assistant Xin had found a way to make money off of the annual meeting when it kept bringing up the fact that he hadn't read the plan
Just my 2 cents. -Pei parents still don't know that their son is tengda boss? -This is the only novel of this genre that I read where there is no romance needed to make it more interesting. -I can't wait to read his thesis paper.
What about the game designer? If they slash the price of his game, then he'll earn less money too. Shouldn't he also be compensated? They know he works for Tengda, but they think he's in the movie/film division. I'm kinda expecting him to get Assistant Xin to write his thesis for him at this point...
Its well known by now that FV are using GoG tactics. So I have to wonder why the opposing team didn't study GoG tactics at all prior to this match.
I think it's because there are no GoG Leagues yet outside of China, there is only one Global Invitational Tournament (with elimination format) so far for GoG. Meanwhile there is GPL in China, so there are a lot more battle between teams (Pre-Season and friendly exchange), thus tactic development also growing faster
Its all streamed though, or else the fans wouldn't know about it. That means that they could check into it themselves, or hire people that understand GoG and Chinese to look into it for them.
Perhaps they simply don't have enough time to implement it. After all FV has been training GoG style from the qualifier and even doing mock battle everyday when the other teams is in group stages.
They had at least a week. Sure, its not enough time to practice the techniques themselves, but its enough time to become aware of them and how they might be implemented in IoI.