Restart life

Chapter 235 0232 [A simultaneous interpreter would also be acceptable]

Chen Guiliang didn't participate in the lottery for tickets, mainly because his English was too bad and he couldn't understand what Annan was saying at all.

Chen Guiliang hasn't even taken the CET-4 (College English Test Band 4) yet.

He skipped class again in the afternoon and went to the company.

"How have you been these past two days?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Chi Siyuan said, "The whitelist and blacklist systems are still being improved. You could say they are adapting to each other. Those who like to comment on current events and hurl insults will automatically adapt to the standards of each website. Only those who spread rumors are difficult to deal with, because it is hard to determine whether they are spreading rumors."

"How did you find out about the person who spread rumors for several days in a row?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Chi Siyuan said, "At the end of each article, he marked it 'For internal communication only, for spreading rumors.' He wanted to distance himself from the issue in this way, while encouraging others to cite his articles to spread rumors."

"Is this guy crazy?" Chen Guiliang couldn't help but complain.

Chi Siyuan said, "I even copied his article and searched for the keywords on Baidu several times. I found that many forums and online communities were quoting his article to spread rumors. I warned him many times, but he didn't listen, so I banned his account. Now this guy has gone to other blogs and spread rumors and insults against us every day."

Chen Guiliang asked, "What about that square-cut pork knuckle?"

Chi Siyuan said, "This person is very smart. After being warned twice, he roughly understood our limits. He was too lazy to write new articles and just copied and pasted his previous columns published in the newspaper."

Chi Siyuan added, "The top two trending topics on Chinese and American websites these past two days are both related to the Qier Pharmaceutical fake drug scandal. Even the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the Champions League final, and Super Girl have been overshadowed. Many people are taking advantage of the fake drug scandal to stir up trouble, confusing our editors and making it impossible for them to tell whether the news is true or false."

There's nothing we can do about it. If we can't figure it out, we can only leave it for now. Deleting posts or banning people arbitrarily will only cause more public outcry.

Chen Guiliang returned to his office, and Ao Yanzhen followed him in with a folder: "This is the company restructuring plan I came up with after consulting with Professor Wu and Professor Zhang, based on your requirements and the company's actual situation."

Now that they've secured huge venture capital funding and the website is growing larger, the previously makeshift team structure needs to be adjusted accordingly.

ByteDance's next plan is to expand its workforce to around 150 employees.

The company is structured into detailed departments based on four lines: product and technology, operations and growth, commercialization, and functional support.

Of course, some departments are not set up immediately.

For example, the legal department was not formally established; it was simply expanded from one legal specialist to a legal team of three.

After carefully reviewing the proposal and discussing the details with Ao Yanzhen, Chen Guiliang made two changes and then quickly signed it.

Next, Chen Guiliang sent someone to Shancheng to talk to Zhu Mingyao about investing in ZBJ.com.

He then called several senior executives and key functional personnel to speak with them individually about their recent work and the upcoming company restructuring.

After dealing with the ByteDance matter, Chen Guiliang went downstairs to Game Science.

Qu Guohao, the head of Game Science, may not have as much theoretical knowledge as Ao Yanchen, but he is much more adept at practical application.

Qu Guohao was generally able to complete the tasks assigned by Chen Guiliang with high quality and quantity, and there was usually nothing for Chen Guiliang to worry about.

Game Science has also been hiring recently, with plans to reach a staff size of 100.

Besides the game "Three Kingdoms Kill" which continues to generate revenue, there's also YKpay. Xiaonei.com, HaiNei.com, and QuanYuTianXia all partner with YKpay, earning money daily through commissions on top-ups.

Because online banking is so terrible, the proportion of users of games like Three Kingdoms Kill, Renren, and HaiNei is increasingly using Youpay.

However, Upay also frequently encounters problems, and Dong Qianqiu has to patch it every now and then. Currently, he is leading the technical team to develop Upay 2.0.

Game Science's recent expansion includes three programmers, specifically recruited for the Upay 2.0 team.

The card and board games on the Youke Interactive gaming platform have also started to generate profits. However, the profits are still a fraction of what they earn from the game "Three Kingdoms Kill," and the platform mainly relies on these games to build its user base.

Flash games and web-based mini-games are similar to card and board games. They have a large player base, but very few are willing to spend real money.

The number of domestically produced single-player games listed for sale on Youke Interactive Games has increased to 17. However, total sales are still less than 500 copies, and it's unlikely the situation will improve in the short term, as pirated versions of these games are readily available!
If pirated versions are available, who would use legitimate ones?
Chen Guiliang still called in the heads of various departments for a talk, and the last one called in was Meng Zicong, the head of the "Future Era" project team.

Meng Zicong reported: "The engine and game development have entered the third stage. It is estimated that in another two to three months, we will be able to carry out full-scale production and engine optimization."

Chen Guiliang didn't understand any of this, so he asked directly, "What can reach the internal testing phase?"

“Eight to twelve months,” Meng Zicong said.

Chen Guiliang carefully calculated the timeline and found that the development speed was far exceeding his expectations. He had thought it would take 15 months.

Meng Zicong, however, thought Chen Guiliang was complaining about the slowness and quickly said, "Boss, everyone has already put in a lot of effort. If we need to save time, we can work overtime."

At that time, the development cycle for domestically developed games was generally within one year.

Works like "The Emperor's Reign" and "The Journey" which took more than a year to complete are actually outliers.

The development cycle for "Future Era" is estimated to be 20 months from preparation to completion, far exceeding that of domestically produced online games!
"It's alright, just focus on doing your best. There's no need to work overtime for now," Chen Guiliang said.

It's impossible not to work overtime.

The Future Era project team has been working overtime for a long time, and it's genuinely employees who voluntarily stayed behind. For example, if they haven't finished their work for the day, or if they need to adjust some details, it's common for them to stay and work overtime for two or three hours.

This, in turn, made things difficult for Chen Guiliang.

Paying more overtime wages is tantamount to encouraging overtime work.

This sends the wrong signal that the boss wants employees to work more overtime.

As companies grow larger, some middle and upper management may intensify their demands for overtime work in an attempt to curry favor with superiors. They might even require employees to work overtime to demonstrate their competence, even after the day's work has been completed. This doesn't improve efficiency much, but instead breeds resentment among employees.

But overtime pay still has to be paid; after all, employees can't work for free.

Finally, Chen Guiliang set a few rules:

First, in special emergency situations requiring overtime work, the relevant senior management must sign off. Overtime pay is three times the normal wage.

Second, for overtime work without senior management approval, there are specific weekly overtime limits for each employee. If these limits are exceeded, employees can anonymously report it, and the department or team leader will be held accountable. This type of overtime pay is only 1.5 times the normal salary.

Third, the company provides meal and transportation subsidies during overtime work.

For a time traveler like Chen Guiliang, making money is too easy. Besides, there's no end to the money he can earn, so there's no need to adopt a 996 work schedule.

When he first started his business, Chen Guiliang was stingy out of necessity, and was even jokingly called a capitalist by Ao Yanzhen.

Things have calmed down now.

With Chen Guiliang's approach, apart from a few who still liked to slack off, the overall enthusiasm of the employees was on the rise.

It's true that without comparison, there's no harm done. Compared to other internet companies, ByteDance and Game Science are simply paradise.

Now, anyone who's kept behind to work overtime is all laughing and joking, with absolutely no emotional fluctuations.

Meng Zicong couldn't help but ask, "Boss, have you ever played 'DNF' before?"

"Huh?" Chen Guiliang looked like he didn't understand.

Meng Zicong said, "There is a game in South Korea called DNF, which is very similar to our game Future Era in terms of gameplay. Of course, it is only similar in gameplay, but the content is completely different."

"Is DNF very popular in South Korea?" Chen Guiliang asked knowingly.

Meng Zicong said, "There were Chinese students studying in South Korea who posted screenshots of DNF on game forums, and they even created a DNF Tieba (forum). I secretly downloaded the game and played it on the Korean server for a few days, and I got a lot of inspiration from DNF."

Chen Guiliang said, "I've heard of DNF. But when I was preparing for Future Era, DNF hadn't been launched in South Korea yet. It was purely coincidental."

“I know it’s a coincidence,” Meng Zicong said worriedly, “but what if a domestic game company brings DNF to China? Then our Future Era won’t be finished and it will be snatched away by DNF! So, I’m applying to be exempted from the weekly overtime limit so that I can finish Future Era as soon as possible!”

Chen Guiliang shook his head and said, "No need. You can't log into DNF anytime soon."

"Why?" Meng Zicong asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "I have sent people to pay attention to the agency issue. DNF is too popular in South Korea, which has led its developers to ask for exorbitant agency fees. Many companies are still watching and waiting."

“Then I feel more confident,” Meng Zicong said.

Even if you manage to secure a distribution agreement for a foreign game, the subsequent technical handover can take two to three months.

DNF has a fatal flaw: it disconnects frequently!
This is because South Korea has a simpler internet environment and particularly fast internet speeds, so Korean games have historically not placed much emphasis on communication issues.

Given the complex network environment in the Chinese market, it can be understood that Korean games have poor communication optimization.

However, DNF is quite unique, as it involves fighting monsters entirely within dungeons, and its combat system is extremely scalable. As a result, after DNF was introduced to China, players experienced frequent lag and disconnections as soon as they entered a dungeon.

When Tencent started monitoring cheating software, the game communication problems reached a catastrophic level—players could be disconnected even without entering a dungeon!

The nickname "Disconnected City and Weak Warriors" was born from this.

Even if Future Era goes head-to-head with DNF, if Tencent doesn't quickly resolve the disconnection issue, Future Era could easily steal away players.

"How did Feng Ji perform?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Meng Zicong said, "He knows a little about technology, but he's not particularly good at it. However, he has a lot of ideas and puts his mind entirely on the player's perspective, offering all sorts of suggestions. Based on his suggestions, the design of two levels has already been adjusted. This person is a natural-born game designer."

After chatting for a few more minutes, Chen Guiliang left the company.

Director Zhu sent him a text message asking him to come over.

Director Zhu is from the Thirteen Taibao Province, but he studied and worked in Sichuan for 15 years, and occasionally he would joke with Chen Guiliang in the Sichuan dialect.

He is currently the deputy director of the Chinese Department at Peking University and the executive director of the Yuanpei Program Management Committee. He is also a Sanskrit disciple of Ji Xianlin.

"I managed to get you a ticket to Annan's speech." Director Zhu took a picture of the ticket.

Chen Guiliang sat down with a grin, picked up the ticket, and said, "I can't understand his English either."

Director Zhu said irritably, "You can't even understand an English speech, how dare you call yourself a sophomore at Peking University?"

"I can understand some of it even by guessing; that's how I guessed on my English listening tests," Chen Guiliang said.

Director Zhu joked, "Should we assign you a simultaneous interpreter?"

"That's great!" Chen Guiliang acted as if he were one of the family.

Director Zhu actually agreed: "I can arrange one for you, just consider it as getting used to the job in advance."

Peking University does not have students majoring in simultaneous interpreting, but it does have students studying translation. This is a good opportunity to test their abilities: the UN Secretary-General is giving a speech, and the students are doing simultaneous interpreting next to Chen Guiliang.

What a great opportunity to train!

(End of this chapter)