Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 456 Quick Death and Slow Death

Online games really need these pure elements.

Being overly focused on profits and too much on pace often leads to short-sighted, unsustainable consequences.

In fact, life in games is still life, and the game world is still the world.

While future free-to-play games may be fast-paced and intensely competitive, they also drive players to relentlessly compete, abandoning social interaction, friendship, and even humanity in their pursuit of stronger equipment.

It has become almost the norm to curry favor with wealthy patrons.

While such games are very lucrative, this lucrative success is not sustainable. At most, after two or three years, the game will exploit players to the limit and then decline and disappear.

Cheng Yi once considered operating it for free, but after weighing the pros and cons, he decided to abandon the idea.

Once it becomes free to operate, issues like multiple instances and studios will proliferate. World of Warcraft's subscription model is not a perfect choice either. This world is inherently unfair, and pursuing absolute fairness is itself a form of unfairness.

Online games should not only cater to players with a lot of free time.

Many players are mostly at a mediocre level.

I have a little money and a little time.

There is only one type of person with plenty of free time: the unemployed.

The prepaid card system favored the unemployed too much, ultimately leading to their control over the prepaid card world. They controlled prices and determined the life or death of any player, which is actually a kind of pathological situation.

Even when Yao Ming played World of Warcraft, he was killed by a group of freeloaders and cursed those people for being rude.

Does having money but no time mean you don't deserve to play games?

Pay-to-play games and free-to-play games are two extremes.

In point card games, players with more time are gods.

In free-to-play games, players with lots of money are like gods.

Cheng Yi's plan is to create a third model.

Two-way charging...

As long as players with a lot of time can earn enough money to buy game time cards in the game, then for these players, the game is a free game. For example, in the game "Honghuang Zhanji", players with a lot of time quickly earned thousands of yuan, which is enough to buy game time cards for a year.

Moreover, the prepaid card model will make the market more stable because there are items that are continuously consumed.

The emergence of the in-game store allows players with more money to find enjoyment in the game. A better experience for paying players will attract more paying players. The more paying players there are, the more money ordinary players earn. And the more money they earn, the more ordinary players they will attract.

This will create a virtuous cycle.

This refers to the 73 theorem established in the Primordial War Chronicles.

The production of items follows the 70/30 rule: 70% are produced in the game and 30% are sold in the store.

If the player in "The Legend of the Primordial Era" earns 30 billion, then the players in this game can earn 70 billion.

Sensing the enthusiasm of the players who messaged him privately, Cheng Yi immediately replied: 【Yes, I'm back.】

A player named "Piggy Don't Cry" replied: "Brother Dao, it's so good that you're back! Since you quit the game, the remaining brothers have scattered into more than a dozen guilds, some of which are even rivals, leaving us no choice but to fight each other."

Piggy Don't Cry's reply included a helpless emoji, and Cheng Yi knew it was a game setting issue.

To prevent the emergence of super guilds, guilds in Honghuang War Chronicles only have 100 official members plus 50 honorary members. Sometimes it takes a long time to get an honorary member spot in a large guild. As for official members, it's almost impossible to even dream of it. You can't become an official member without staying in a guild for a full month.

"Which guild are you in now?" Cheng Yi asked again.

"I'm loyal and righteous," said Piggy Doesn't Cry. "Brother Dao, now that you're back, let's rebuild Shadow Pavilion, okay? We used to be glorious, we were once the number one guild in the entire server, and we really don't want to live this dependent life anymore."

【Okay, go contact your old buddies and ask who's willing to come back.】 The emotions from the private chat earlier ignited a passion within Cheng Yi, as if he had returned to the past.

【I'll go ask right away.】Pig, don't cry, I'll go ask right away.

Cheng Yi strolled around Longcheng for a while and felt that the World Channel was much quieter. Without him, the talkative guy, the World Channel was really not lively at all.

Occasionally, you can see people asking in the world chat why Zangai Lengshao deleted his account.

However, apart from Chen Zhi, no one in the entire server knew why Zang Ai Leng Shao deleted his account.

Cheng Yi waited a while, and then Piggy Doesn't Cry sent a message: [Brother Dao, shall we meet at the guild flag teleportation point at the east gate of Dragon City? We should also issue a server-wide announcement that our Shadow Pavilion has returned.]

"Okay." Cheng Yi replied, and soon arrived at the east gate of Longcheng.

At this time, more than thirty players had gathered at the east gate of Dragon City. These players, who held titles from more than a dozen guilds, sent messages to Cheng Yi upon his return, excitedly calling him "Brother Dao".

One Slash, Eighteen Slices; was once the founder of the Shadow Pavilion.

Shadow Pavilion was the first guild in the second district to obtain the guild flag, and it also participated in the first Handong Province Guild Championship as the runner-up.

Unfortunately, with the rise of more than a dozen guilds such as Bloodthirsty Blade, Shadow Pavilion, which did not rely on in-game purchases, gradually declined.

Of the original 150 people, only about 30 remained.

We, the Shadow Pavilion, have gathered once again!

[Brother Dao, you have no idea how much we want you back. Last month, we were all fighting every day in our respective guilds. That feeling of being dependent on others was unbearable.]

Yes, sometimes I come to the East Gate to take a look. This association flag used to be our pride.

I always walk around the east gate. Coming here, I feel like Wu Song returning to the Hall of Righteousness thirty years later, only to find it deserted and covered in cobwebs. It's so disheartening.

Everyone chimed in, sharing their unique sentiments and feelings characteristic of this era.

Affection and loyalty are the best medicine to touch players' hearts and increase game retention.

Many people will fight for three days and three nights without regard for gains or losses, just for the sake of a brother. There are no financial backers or boss rewards; their battles are simply because their brothers have been bullied. That's all.

Seeing these simple words made Cheng Yi even more determined to take the path he wanted to take.

Chinese online games absolutely cannot enter the free-to-play era again.

The players' simplicity and dedication should be continued; this is the path to healthy development for online games.

Cheng Yi still remembers that once in the game he was insulted and chased by more than a dozen enemies. He had nowhere to go, so he could only privately message the only friend who was online. This friend stayed up all night with him and those enemies.

The two fought until their equipment was shattered, and they were stuck in the safe zone, unable to leave. The friend even sent Cheng Yi a silly grin emoji.

Innocence and purity transform games into life, and life itself becomes a game.

Life is too hard for those born in the 80s and 90s. If there were a place where they could find joy amidst hardship, perhaps this world would be worth living.

Once Momo Internet Cafes are spread all over the country, he will establish proper rules for online games nationwide and promote this feature.

Soon, all thirty-odd people left their previous guilds and rebuilt Shadow Pavilion with Cheng Yi.

"Let's top up one million first." Cheng Yi took out 1000 million gold coins from his own pocket and topped up the game, sweeping up all the materials in the cross-server auction house.

The materials in the auction house were all priced far above market value. Those that were priced at market value were snapped up by Chen Zhi and his group as soon as they appeared.

The auction house's materials were cleared out instantly, which means that another whale (a player who spends a lot of money) has appeared.

At this moment, Cheng Yi was simply a player. A truly successful online game professional must first and foremost be a loyal player.

The biggest reason why Legend lost to Conquer Online was that Chen Tianqiao looked down on online games, while Shi Yuzhu was completely immersed in the game. He would ask the game team to make changes as soon as there was anything wrong with the game or anything that needed improvement, in order to ensure the best experience for players.

The later popularity of private servers for the Legend of Mir game further proved the feasibility of this approach, as every owner of a private server for the Legend of Mir game was a veteran player of the game.

The Legend of the Past boasts a peak of 70 concurrent online users on the official server and 1350 million on private servers, generating a total revenue of 3713 billion.

Shengda Legend is now besieged on all sides and has begun its decline.

Even those private server owners who were previously made an example of have gradually revived under the lure of money, and started operating private servers in a more covert way.

Meanwhile, the market share of internet cafes was also ruthlessly eroded by Honghuang Zhanji.

Given the current situation, the Primordial Era doesn't need to do anything else; it can simply wait for its opponent to be defeated.

Therefore, Cheng Yi guessed that Shengda would definitely have some big moves to make.

Shengda is now facing the choice between dying quickly or dying slowly.

When you're about to die, you struggle desperately, hoping for a sliver of hope.

Slow death means proceeding step by step and gradually losing market share.

Soon, Cheng Yi arrived next to the master smelter and began to enhance the weapon.

Using up all the materials from the cross-server auction house in a flash, I could barely upgrade the weapon to +16.

Cheng Yi spent a total of 671 million yuan to purchase these materials.

About fifteen minutes later, a dazzling message appeared on the most prominent scrolling screen.

[Player successfully upgraded weapon to +16 with a single strike!]

[One slash, eighteen pieces? He's back?]

[Really? This "Eighteen Slices in One Cut" move used to bully Bloodthirsty Mad Blade every day.]

That's all ancient history, isn't it? Was that one cut into eighteen pieces the lottery?

The moment the news broke, the world chat channel in Zone 2 erupted in excitement.

The fourth player in Zone 2 with a level 16 weapon has been born!

Throughout the entire Primordial War Chronicles, with over 200 advance zones, fewer than 100 people possessed 16 weapons, while Zone 2 now boasts four of them.

When Cheng Yi led more than 30 people to the entrance of the mysterious valley, it caused a sensation once again.

The Shadow Pavilion, which had disappeared for nearly a year, has miraculously resurrected.

It's quite stress-relieving...

Cheng Yi led his men in a fierce battle, feeling quite relieved.

The level 16 weapon is much stronger than the previous level 14 weapon. It can easily take down an average player in two hits.

The only downside is that his level 12 defense is too poor, and he can occasionally be killed by several people working together.

Just as he was leading his team in a frenzied slaughter of the third-tier guilds in the second district, a notification appeared in the system message bar of the world channel.

[Congratulations to player Bloodthirsty Blade for successfully refining a mount with 6 stat bonuses.]

[Congratulations to player Bloodthirsty Blade for successfully refining a mount with 5 stat bonuses.]

[Congratulations to player Bloodthirsty Blade for successfully refining a mount with 7 stat bonuses.]

[Congratulations to player Bloodthirsty Blade for successfully refining a mount with 5 stat bonuses.]

……

With the launch of the mount training feature, Bloodthirsty Blade has also begun refining its equipment.

Once a mount has 5 or more affixes, a blessing message will appear in the world chat.

The way he refined the Bloodthirsty Blade was very extravagant. Even after refining it into a rare mount with 7 stats, he wasn't satisfied and refined it again to 5 stats.

Given Chen Zhi's personality, he would never give up until he got a mount with 8 attributes, all of which were gold.

Cheng Yi used a function to calculate the probability.

Based on the current odds, Chen Zhi would need at least ten million to get a mount with 8 stats and gold attributes. If he's a little unlucky, it could easily cost twenty or thirty million.

As the Bloodthirsty Blade began its refinement process, 8L and Yiren Fengcai also began their refinement.

In the world chat, the notifications for the three refinements almost dominated the entire chat.

"Let's compete." Cheng Yi smiled happily as he saw the three of them begin their competitive training.

"President Cheng." Around 5 PM, Kong Feng excitedly pushed open the door to Cheng Yi's office and exclaimed, "This refined mount is amazing! Guess how many gold coins and ingots we used?"

"How could I possibly guess?" Cheng Yi laughed.

Kong Feng said, "A total of over 900 billion game coins and 7 million in-game currency were consumed!"

"So much?" Cheng Yi exclaimed in surprise, "Does that mean our revenue today has exceeded 100 million?"

"Yes," Kong Feng said excitedly, "I thought that the fact that no equipment drops when the guild declares war would devalue our in-game currency, but I didn't expect that just one piece of equipment would cause the price of in-game currency to skyrocket."

“A surge isn’t a good thing either,” Cheng Yi said. “Go add a setting where 100 gold coins can be exchanged for 80000 gold coins. Set an official exchange rate for these gold coins and don’t let the value of the game currency rise too ridiculously. Otherwise, many people will be ripped off. If some players choose to hoard these coins, the price fluctuations will be outrageous.”

"Okay, I'll go now." Kong Feng left the office in high spirits, as swift as the wind.

Cheng Yi played for a while, then privately messaged "Piggy Don't Cry," typing: "I don't have much time to play games right now. When I'm not around, log into my account and lead everyone in battle, let's restore the glory of our Shadow Pavilion!"

【Really?】Even Piggy, who wasn't crying, doubted whether she had seen it wrong.

That's a top-tier account with +16 weapons, something an ordinary person like him with a +10 set of +12 weapons could only play with.
Piggy Don't Cry immediately typed excitedly, "Brother Dao, don't worry! I'll be online for 15 hours every day, and I will definitely revitalize our Shadow Pavilion!"

【Okay, write down the account and password.】 Cheng Yi quickly sent the account and password to Piggy Don't Cry and logged out of the game.

For whales (high spenders), they always need to find a few people to control accounts to show off their status.

After shutting down his computer, Cheng Yi went to the Momo Internet Cafe flagship store across from the group's headquarters.

This is where their dream began; this four-story building has now been bought by Cheng Yi.

This Momo Internet Cafe is of great significance. Even if he buys the commercial street and redevelops it after the New Year, he still intends to preserve this building.

He still remembered the wary look on Shen Dongxing's face when they were negotiating the price.

He originally wanted to buy the building at a price higher than the market price, but Shen Dongxing completely disagreed with his offer and even gave a price far below the market price, saving Cheng Yi more than 20 yuan.

This old man is too protective of his reputation.

(End of this chapter)