Restart life

Chapter 36 0035 [Gaze from the Grand]

Magic City.

Shanda headquarters.

Zhang Yingfeng is reporting on his work.

Mr. Zhang is responsible for the screening, introduction and negotiation of all Shanda's game projects, and is also responsible for the authorization, operation and protection of related copyrights.

In the future, he will be promoted from head of legal affairs to CEO of Shanda.

From legal officer to CEO, are you afraid?
Boss Chen sipped his coffee and invited Zhang Yingfeng to sit down. He said cheerfully, "We've already made connections with the higher-ups. A special operation will begin next New Year's Day, with five ministries and commissions jointly cracking down on private servers and cheats. How's your legal department doing with evidence collection?"

Zhang Yingfeng took out a thick stack of materials: "The main targets are 17173 and 17577."

"17173 was recently acquired by Sohu and transformed into a gaming portal. However, they have a large number of posts involving private servers and cheat trading. This site is difficult to deal with. First, it has Sohu as its backer; second, they can shirk responsibility by claiming that these were all private actions by netizens and that the website itself was simply inadequately regulated."

"For 17173, my suggestion is to first send a lawyer's letter, and do so when the five ministries and commissions launch a special campaign. Order them to issue an apology on their homepage, delete all posts involving illegal transactions, and promise to strengthen post management in the future."

"As for forum 17577, it's the most rampant. It's the largest private server base in the country, openly selling private server architectures and cheats for games like Legend and Legend of Mir. We must make an example of them and shut down this forum. We've already collected a large amount of evidence. However, when it comes to specific monetary transactions, we must go through the relevant authorities to collect evidence."

"My suggestion is that we should not only take down 17577, but also send the stationmaster Canying to jail!"

Boss Chen took the stack of materials and looked at them carefully.

Zhang Yingfeng concluded, "There's no end to private servers and cheats. Take down one, and ten more will pop up. We need to focus our efforts on gaming forums, where they're the root of the problem. Only by eradicating them can we end it once and for all. Without a platform to distribute them, those who run private servers and sell cheats will quickly become rootless. After taking down 17577, we'll send a lawyer's letter to forums like Ledu, demanding an apology, deletion of posts, and improved management."

Zhang Yingfeng’s idea is very clear, he only wants to remove the roots, not the weeds.

Because there is too much grass and it is impossible to cut it all, it will grow again with the spring breeze.

But if the roots are gone, the grass will naturally wither and die.

They say five ministries are leading the joint action, but where are the manpower to help Shanda?
From evidence collection to sentencing, the entire process is extremely long.

By the time the penalty results came out, the special rectification campaign had already ended.

Boss Chen instructed, "Okay, let's do as you wish. But sending the stationmaster of 17577 to jail is debatable. There's no need to go that far."

"Chairman, if the illegal office sets up a negative example, I'm afraid it won't scare off other similar websites," said Zhang Yingfeng.

Boss Chen asked: "Do you have a legal basis?"

Zhang Yingfeng said: "There are no targeted laws yet, but we can refer to copyright regulations. Although it is a bit difficult, we can give it a try."

There's no point trying!

Targeted laws have not yet been formulated, and they were not available until 2006. Currently, we can only carry out special administrative measures to crack down on this kind of thing.

In other words, Chen Guiliang's private server operation seemed to be illegal, but it was actually not illegal.

If you are really caught by the special task force, the most you will get is an administrative fine.

After the "Regulations on the Protection of Information Network Dissemination Rights" was promulgated in 2006, those who continued to operate private servers would have to worry about going to jail.

The first case resulting in a prison sentence for operating a private server occurred in 2007, after the legislation was enacted. The game "Legend of the World" had grown to the point of renting 94 servers, and Shanda targeted it as a prominent offender, cracking down on it. All five private server partners were arrested.

Boss Chen stated his principles for action: "Since the law makes it difficult to define the nature of the matter, there's no need to create unnecessary complications. This time, we're coordinating with five ministries and commissions. We must act with force, but we should also be cautious."

Zhang Yingfeng understood that it was to scare those who didn't know the law, and act as if he was sending someone to jail!
In another time and space, Canying, the webmaster of 17577, was really scared by Shanda and simply shut down the website and ran away. Later, it was found that nothing happened, and Canying came out to act again, but his influence was much less than before.

Boss Chen casually asked, "Did you see those two recent trending posts when you were collecting evidence?"

"You want to run a private server that doesn't sell equipment?" Zhang Yingfeng asked.

Boss Chen nodded.

Zhang Yingfeng said, "Two players got drunk and boasted, and a bunch of other players just followed suit. Without selling game cards, cheats, or equipment, how does their private server make money? Even if they could create one, they'd shut it down once their funding ran out."

Boss Chen lamented, "Players are really dissatisfied with us. Words like legendary refugees and internet orphans have become buzzwords, and I'm afraid even traditional media will report on them. Ugh, we'll have to spend money on PR again!"

Some traditional newspapers nowadays are particularly fond of reporting hot online events.

A post, a phenomenon, can be used by print media to write a long article or even a series of reports.

The newspaper has a selling point and readers find it fresh.

Ever since the game Legend exploded in popularity, Shanda has been at the center of a controversy. Controversy surrounding internet-addicted teenagers and digital opium has left CEO Chen incredibly anxious, prompting him to personally defend the company numerous times.

It is estimated that public opinion caused some kind of psychological trauma on him, which led to Boss Chen, who became rich by making games, looking down on the online gaming industry for his entire life.

He felt that he was not noble enough and was always scolded.

The two hot posts created by Chen Guiliang and Tao Chenggang, after going viral on the Internet, are equivalent to handing weapons to the print media, and they will definitely criticize Shanda again!
Boss Chen gets a headache when he thinks about this.

He picked up his coffee again, and Zhang Yingfeng immediately left. There was only one person left in the office.

Boss Chen drank his coffee, picked up his mouse, and clicked on the live text post of "Private Server Development Log".

He always felt that there was something fishy about this matter.

The poster gave the latest news: "Thanks to the netizen '我畔河边的水了鞋' (water army) for providing the idea. Yijian Xilai and I have decided to adopt his worldview..."

"The Marfa continent is facing an invasion from a mysterious force. This mysterious force is the void force from the abyss. The void force causes some monsters on the Marfa continent to mutate, and the equipment dropped by these monsters will also mutate..."

"To put it bluntly, it's the same top-tier monsters and top-tier equipment as before, but we'll make the top-tier monsters extra powerful, and the top-tier equipment have randomized attributes. Players will have a chance of discovering mutated monsters in every map."

"It's possible that defeating a scarecrow will result in a 'Void Ebony Sword' with attributes close to that of the Infernal. Furthermore, different 'Void Ebony Swords' have different attributes. Every time a player explores the map, it's like a treasure hunt, filled with surprises..."

"Thank you again, brothers and sisters, thank you for your great suggestions and selfless support. We will definitely make this private server a success. Every monster in the game is the result of the hard work of all of us!"

Boss Chen carefully checked every reply and found that those netizens were as excited as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

The game wasn't even out yet, and they were already celebrating.

There are also many netizens who put forward various suggestions and even argue with each other because of different ideas.

Boss Chen is now very sure that if this private server is produced, it will definitely become extremely popular in a short period of time.

Of course, it is estimated that it is difficult to make money, and it is purely a loss-making business.

Because once charging is implemented, there will be backlash from public opinion.

We agreed that there would be no charge!
The more enthusiastic netizens are now, the more intense their attacks will be when the time comes to charge. They will feel betrayed, their feelings played with, and their youth desecrated.

Chen Guiliang has already felt this potential backlash from public opinion.

He discussed the game repeatedly with Tao Chenggang, Yang Yuhui and Feng Tao over the phone and decided to modify the original game idea and compromise with the emotional netizens.

The perverted private server with a one-hit 9999 damage rate is definitely not allowed.

Chen Guiliang registered an account and posted a test post, offering suggestions on how to level up with one hit. He was immediately ridiculed by nostalgic old players and was criticized by so many that he could not take care of himself.

But we can’t just let the players do whatever they want, otherwise we won’t be able to make money.

You can only compromise.

Slightly slow down the leveling process and lower the Abyss dungeon level. Increase the amount of Void Equipment in normal maps to improve the gaming experience for regular players, while ensuring that these equipment do not affect dungeon plans.

All netizens who participated in replying to the post are Chen Guiliang’s free planners. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are the godfathers of the private server.

……

imperial capital.

Fu Guoqiang, the Beijing gentleman, had nothing to do again today, but he contacted many legendary old brothers and sent the post URL to his friends through QQ.

My old friends who I hadn't contacted for a long time were deeply moved after reading the post and all replied and left messages to express their emotions.

The original "Legendary Refugee Post" now has more than 9900 floors and is about to become the third 10,000-story post on the Chinese Internet - the first is NetEase's "First News Post" and the second is Tianya's "Cairo Declaration Post."

NetEase and Tianya’s Wanloutie have huge user bases.

Chen Guiliang's "Legendary Refugee Post" relies entirely on the enthusiasm of game players.

One after another, veteran players shared their unforgettable experiences. Some even called on their friends to come and take a look, and those old friends continued to reply. Eventually, people they knew, whether they knew each other or not, started chatting directly in the thread.

Fu Guoqiang and his friends have contributed more than a hundred floors. They have added each other on QQ for a long time, but now they don't use QQ to catch up. It seems that chatting in the post is more ritualistic.

Fu Guoqiang typed the last sentence in the post: "If this private server is completed, would Guangming's old brother be willing to fight again? If you get it, please reply!"

"Roger that!"

"Roger that!"

"Roger that!"

"..."

Chen Guiliang looked at the endless stream of “received” messages and felt a huge amount of pressure instantly.

People have been fooled into coming, but if they are unhappy with the copy charging fee, the backlash of public opinion may directly kill this private server!
Tao Chenggang also called and said, "Fuck, I don't dare to read the post anymore."

Chen Guiliang said: "Put your efforts into polishing the game and try to make it as perfect as possible."

"Then postpone the launch until next Friday night." Tao Chenggang was also under immense pressure. For the first time, he felt that too much publicity could be a problem.

(End of this chapter)