Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 149 "Help"

In contemporary public relations, there is a very important concept called the "golden time for public relations."

In the era of traditional print media, this prime time was roughly 24 or 48 hours.

However, in the Internet age, the "golden time for public relations" has been further divided into two types. One is the public opinion that ferments naturally, and the golden time for handling this kind of public opinion is 6 to 12 hours.

Secondly, there is "targeted" public opinion, which is public opinion involving "third parties".

This type of public opinion is the most difficult to handle. If you want to resolve this kind of public opinion, the golden time for handling it is further compressed, and you generally have to respond within 2 to 6 hours.

In today's internet age, once the "golden window" for public relations is missed, everything that follows becomes increasingly difficult.

Because once this window of opportunity is missed, attempts to influence public opinion will result in the loss of the narrative power, and even silence will not suffice.

In the modern internet public opinion system, silence represents "acquiescence" and also represents actively "giving up" the right to narrate.

In addition, in the contemporary internet.

In the process of handling public opinion, the weight of an entity's first statement, or rather, its first public relations approach, is far greater than the weight of all subsequent statements.

A common mistake made by many second-hand game developers is that when faced with problems, they initially adopt a high-handed attitude, but then realize that public opinion is too strong, and gradually back down the second time.

Players are not buying this kind of apology.

Because if you apologize after the collective anger has reached its peak, players will think that your apology was because you couldn't withstand the collective anger and that's why you apologized.

Simply put, it means "You don't know you're wrong, you know you're going to die."

It's like when we go to a restaurant to eat.

If you find a fly in your food and tell the owner the first time, that's just informing them. But when their notification doesn't work, when they start to get angry and call the police, and then you offer compensation, the player will feel that the compensation was obtained through their anger.

This is a classic example of how a poorly executed public relations effort can lead to a collapse of trust, making everything that follows a mistake.

Returning to this Apple product removal controversy, even though Apple is a super giant and has hundreds of millions of fans worldwide, its handling of this matter...

Apple made three mistakes.

First, there is a loss of control over the narrative.

Following the incident, Starry Games responded immediately and provided a considerable amount of substantial information, including Apple's "removal notice."

Note that although the "removal notice" was issued by Starry Games, its actual effect was that Starry Games "helped" Apple make its first "statement" on this matter.

Players will subconsciously take Apple's "removal" announcement as Apple's attitude.

This is one of the reasons why there was such a huge outcry this time.

Secondly, although this public opinion event appeared to be a natural development on the surface, it quickly turned into a "targeted" public opinion event as other mobile phone manufacturers intervened.

Finally, there's the overall environment.

In China, 2016 was, to some extent, a watershed year. Huawei rose to prominence, and domestic smartphone manufacturers officially began their push into the high-end market. Huawei started competing with Apple globally, which directly led to Apple's market share in China declining by more than 30% in the second quarter of 2016, plummeting to around 10%.

Moreover, under Mr. Ku's leadership as a "conservative leader," Apple's overall reputation has been slowly declining in recent years, with weak product innovation and a constant stream of minor problems.
Interestingly, Xiaomi also experienced a decline that year, with its market share falling from 15% in 15 to 8.9%.
This is why Xiaomi became the first manufacturer to open up Star Tap for download in its app store and publicly support Star Tap.

For them, I can't even sell my own phones, why would I care about app store revenue?

But... Xiaomi's move...
This has put the Hardcore Alliance in an extremely passive position.

Because once public opinion erupts, it is accompanied by a large number of secondary crises.

Originally, this matter had absolutely nothing to do with Android phone manufacturers, but with Xiaomi's entry into the market and its "targeted" marketing, it was quickly discovered that...
Hmm. So only my Xiaomi phone supports Star Tap?

This is a huge advantage!!!
Domestic manufacturers are supporting the global voice of domestically developed software! That's incredibly impressive!
Lei Jun's Weibo account also became active immediately, posting three Weibo posts in a short period of time.

The first post was a screenshot of his score in "Jump Jump," which wasn't high or low. The caption read: "It's a bit addictive. As expected of StarCraft Games, the details are really well done. What scores did everyone else get?"

Not long after, a second Weibo post was published, which was a reflection: "Seeing game developers today always reminds me of the days when I was writing code. Their dedication to sticking to one path is enviable and admirable."

Then came the third Weibo post.

"@Chu Chen, Mr. Chen, your games are so cool, have you ever considered collaborating with Xiaomi to create a co-branded phone?"

Each of the three Weibo posts garnered significant traffic, especially compared to Lei Jun's previous everyday Weibo posts, where the number of comments jumped from a couple hundred to several thousand.
The difference of more than ten times also proves that this issue is currently a hot topic.

Chu Chen naturally saw the Weibo post as well, and he wasn't about to pass up the free traffic, so the two quickly started interacting.

The two then interacted back and forth under the watchful eyes of hundreds of millions of netizens, engaging in mutual flattery as well as some "explosive" moments.

For example, the two made a deal that if Lei Jun got 100 points in the game, Xingchen would buy 100 of the latest Xiaomi phones and give them away as a prize to Xingchen Tap fans.

Lei Jun also directly stated that if he really reached 100 points, he would also give it to him.
In short, this round of dialogue between the two has made the issue of "traffic" crystal clear.
However... while Xiaomi is enjoying its massive data traffic, the public relations departments of other domestic mobile phone manufacturers are cursing.

That night, the Hard Union alliance...

Mobile phone manufacturers held an emergency online meeting.

"Our official Weibo account has been flooded with comments! Starting half an hour ago, every single post, regardless of its content, is filled with people asking why we haven't listed it on Starry Sky Tap!"

“Some people have even dug up our previous reports about app store revenue sharing, saying that we are in cahoots with Apple!”

Listening to the manufacturers' complaints, Zhang Guangtai, who had been so arrogant in the gaming industry, could only offer a wry smile and explanation.

“We are also acting in accordance with regulations. Platforms with distribution functions are inherently in a gray area of ​​review.”

"Regulations? Who talks about regulations anymore!"

"The current situation is that the issue between Android and Apple is about whether or not to support domestic software! We have to follow suit! If we don't, then we're standing against the users and engaging in hegemony like Apple!"

(End of this chapter)