Qin Guan bewilderedly clicked on each one to take a look…
A few minutes later, Qin Guan, who would usually spend half an hour playing mobile gas before getting out of bed, suddenly sat straight up and cursed out loud, "What the hell!"
A day had passed, and the VR ga recomndation video released by Qin Guan had spread through the enthusiastic efforts of netizens across various chat groups, ga forums, and discussion boards, causing quite a stir among dostic players.
Previously, when Yang Qiu had used alternate accounts to create a buzz for the ga, he had also shared the three promotional videos shot in real locations on the official website. However, the visuals in the videos were just a bit too "cinematic," making it difficult to believe that such ga scenes could be produced with 21st-century technology. As a result, it was quickly labeled as a "deceptive ga that only had impressive CG in marketing" by many dostic gars and didn't receive a good reception.
Of course, it wasn't entirely the gars' fault for being skeptical. Such situations were all too common. There were instances of mismatched content between what was advertised and the end product, CG animations that seed disconnected from the gaplay, and the use of movie stills and CG in promotions.
Many deceived players into downloading gas that turned out to be either bootleg imitations of renowned gas or just web gas. Unscrupulous ga developers in China certainly didn't hold back.
So more conscientious ga developers even beca victims of these unscrupulous counterparts who shalessly used their work as raw material. Not only copying CG, but also "borrowing" character models, scenes, and costu designs. Even if their own productions lacked integrity and their models were a thousand tis less refined, being capable of deceiving players into paying was a testant to their skill.
It wasn't until Qin Guan, a gaming content creator that never spent loads on gas, started playing and released in-ga recordings that people who previously criticized Yang Qiu's alternate accounts suddenly had a revelation.
The bunch of them hurriedly visited the official website… only to find out that it was too late. All 300 slots for the closed beta had already been filled.
So were willing to patiently wait for the developnt team to release new slots, but others were more impatient and began flooding the official website's ssage board with higher offers to buy closed beta accounts…
At first glance, this seed like a positive turn of events. It seed like "OtherWorld" was gaining traction compared to the fact that only three people had logged in during the initial closed beta.
Qin Guan, as the first content creator to release a gaplay video of "OtherWorld," was also experiencing a surge in popularity. He didn't just surpass 100,000 subscribers overnight but was even on track to reach 200,000.
However, anything that was on the internet… was never limited to a single perspective. While Qin Guan's video spread like wildfire among the gaming community and his ID, Vanilla Pudding, beca increasingly recognized by players, dissenting opinions also erged.
First, a well-known strear in the gaming community called into question the authenticity of Qin Guan's twenty-minute video, suspecting it to be fabricated, gimmicky, and employing deceptive marketing tactics.
It called into question the content creator, Vanilla Pudding, had colluded with the ga developers and stolen footage from a popular foreign film, using dubbing, editing, and post-production techniques to craft a misleading video.
The reasons for the strears' skepticism were quite valid—anyone that had played VR gas worldwide knew how far the developnt had co; creating even a small-scale scene that doesn't look obviously fake required extensive efforts from established companies and their dedicated research and developnt teams.
Now, here was an obscure production team on the national and international stage, releasing a diocre ga without even a proper publishing license, yet dared to claim that their ga possessed groundbreaking black technology that surpassed the top ga publishers of the world. This wasn't just a scam of the century; it's the epito of all scams!
With a prominent influencer stepping up to confront the situation, others naturally followed suit. As soon as Qin Guan opened the live streaming app, he saw several videos on the hopage that were ridiculing and mocking him…
"What the hell is this?" Qin Guan angrily shut the app and turned to Weibo.
Comnts and private ssages aside, there were thousands of ntions (@Vanilla Pudding).
Trembling, Qin Guan clicked on so of the ntions and found many were directing him to a lengthy Weibo post.
Qin Guan took a deep breath, then clicked on the post.
After reading for just two minutes, he slumped back onto his bed with a "thump."
The Weibo post was brilliantly written, analyzing the marketing technique of "OtherWorld" and drawing similarities to manipulative tactics employed by Luckin Coffee. It made for a very convincing read:
[T/L Note: A Chinese company chain claiming to challenge the dominance of Starbucks, rising teorically and having an IPO on Nasdaq before a scandal revealed that the company had fabricated sales figures, i.e massive fraud]
Firstly, massive pre-launch hype for a large-scale VR ga was artificially generated by employing low-cost tricks and deception.
Secondly, they planned to take the ga and the company representing the groundbreaking VR technology to an international financial hub, such as London, New York, or Singapore, for an initial public offering.
Then, while maintaining the ga's popularity in the second largest economy, China, along with the allure of the revolutionary VR technology, they would lure global investors with grand promises and stories, exploiting the Western world for their own gain…
Toward the end of the lengthy post, the writer seemingly disagreed with the criticism directed at the content creator, Vanilla Pudding, believing him to be rely an insignificant pawn in this elaborate sche and frowning upon Vanilla Pudding's opportunistic behavior in aiding the bigger bad.
The writer then encouraged others to boycott the deceitful developnt team behind "OtherWorld" and urged them to refuse to contribute further attention to this fraudulent ga…
This lengthy Weibo post was published at 10 p.m. the previous night, and when Qin Guan saw it after 11 hours, it had already been re-shared over ten thousand tis, with several thousand comnts.
There were also nurous comnts on the Weibo post as well as private ssages insulting him.
Qin Guan had never experienced such humiliation in his life, and his entire body trembled from the anger. "What the f*ck is this? See for yourselves when the ga is launched! Why the hell are you all rushing to criticize without even waiting for a couple of days?!"
While still dazed at the flurry of online insults, Qin Guan received a call from a younger bro that had previously fard gold with him in a certain ga.
"Brother Qin, I saw your text in the group chat yesterday and used this month's living expenses to purchase helts for the few of we brothers in the studio. You know how hard our life is. Nowadays, most studios make money through botting and using scripted cheats. We, who honestly grind for gold manually, can barely make ends et… You wouldn't deceive , right?"
Qin Guan suppressed his grievances and said, "Xiao Zhou, even if others don't, you should know , right?
"All these outsiders are spouting bull and making things up. There's no connection between the developnt team of 'OtherWorld' and . It's all completely fabricated… This ga has truly high-quality content, and it will definitely beco popular in the future. People like us have it hard when it cos to making money, and even if I had to deceive soone, it wouldn't be you, right?"
After comforting this skilled younger bro, Qin Guan still had lingering frustration when he received another call from a different studio.
"Vanilla Bro, you're really heartless! How could you not help rope in us brothers when you got involved with such a boss capable of making a fortune by exploiting foreigners?"
"You have the cake, and us brothers can still enjoy the crumbs. Just make an introduction, okay—"
"You really don't have to buy that helt! Better hurry up and request a refund!" Qin Guan shouted angrily and hung up.
On the other end, the studio boss, who wanted to be part of sothing big, scoffed, then instructed his subordinates to contact players on the official site's forum who were looking to buy closed beta slots.
He wanted to quickly sell off the helts while there were still fools willing to buy them…
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