Chapter 825: Chapter 784: The Subtle Player Reputation
Tuesday, Wild Island morning eting.
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 ti, one reason being to wait for player equipnt updates and modifications, and the second being to avoid Cloud Dream.
But they couldn’t wait like this forever.
Last week’s eting 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 co together, right?
What to do now? Wait another week?
The problem was that this was not a ga release, but just testing. Who could guarantee that if they waited another week, they wouldn’t be waiting for the official release of “Pokémon”?
Once “Pokémon” was released, wouldn’t “Chang’an” also release?
Moreover, the virtual environnt version of “Last Mont 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 equipnt modification?” Bob asked.
“Based on the data collected so far, 6.2 million modification appointnts 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 extre. According to the players’ reservations, it is estimated that all modification applications can be completed by this weekend.”
“For the remaining appointnts 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-ho 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 sowhat 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-Ho Service,” and “Choose Your Own Ti” has had imdiate effects.
Hearing these numbers, Bob’s mood improved a bit, and he asked, “When do you think it’s appropriate to release the ga?”
“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 ga? 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 beco accustod to Cloud Dream releasing a ga 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 erge.
After all, Cloud Dream only forbade the circulation of images and didn’t require players to keep the content of the ga confidential. Besides, various gaplay elents were not open, so there was nothing to hide for the players.
At first, players were still blindly praising the ga.
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 ti 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 ga 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 ntion the lack of “task rewards”, even if you completed a task, all you could get was so money or other things.
“No main missions”, “No side missions”, “Can’t beco stronger”, “Limited exploration”, “Many buildings inaccessible”, “Overpowered by guards and NPC pedestrians”…
If players didn’t find anything interesting, the more ti they spent in the city, the more bored they would beco.
It seed 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 strear 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 ga experience was so poor, their complaints would not hold back:
“‘Chang’an’ is not a martial arts ga 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 an, are the guards a little too strong? Our five-person group, ard 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 ! The blacksmiths in this ga 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 ga dia, 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’ comnts on “Chang’an” online and the ga’s score, which had already fallen to [6.3] on the RANK-Popular Ga Rating list, and was overjoyed.
As the founder of Wild Island and well-inford about the gaming industry, he wouldn’t think that “Chang’an” was dood just by looking at its rating like Richard did.
Bob clicked on the rating details and read a few pages of player comnts, then imdiately realized:
Players giving low ratings to the ga were more like expressing their dissatisfaction with the ga’s current state through this thod.
As long as Cloud Dream unlocked more ga content and improved the ga 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 ga’s release.
But that wasn’t important!
Since “Chang’an” didn’t explode in popularity and reviews, now was the perfect ti for a ga 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!”
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