Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 392 Global Carnival
Just as the public opinion was rapidly escalating, the official Weibo account of the FGO Chinese server operations team released an emergency announcement.

【Dear Masters:】

[Due to a surge in new users in North America and Europe, the number of concurrent online users worldwide exceeded 400 million, surpassing the capacity of the global ranking servers. This resulted in some players experiencing login issues and connection interruptions.]

To ensure a smooth gaming experience for all Masters, we will be performing emergency server maintenance at 14:15, which is expected to last 5 hours. After maintenance, we will distribute compensation to all players worldwide: 30 Saint Quartz.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

[Fate/Grand Order Operations Team]

This announcement is a typical "starry sky" announcement, offering ample compensation while also serving as a form of publicity.

The announcement silenced the previously noisy player community for a moment, followed by an even more intense discussion than when the server crashed.

"What? It's been shut down? Okay, okay, let it run for a while longer, preferably until tomorrow morning. A hundred free draws as compensation isn't too much to ask, is it?"

"Well done, Star! I've been wanting to get rid of this server for ages, and it hasn't crashed in a year! If it hadn't crashed soon, I wouldn't have had enough gems left!!"

"Thanks to all the new players who crashed the server! You are the heroes of Chaldea! You deserve a share of the credit for every ten stones you collect!"

"Long live protection! Long live compensation! Daddy Star, I love you!"

"Wait a minute, am I seeing things? A surge in new users in North America and Europe? More than 400 million concurrent users worldwide?"

"Holy crap! What does this mean? It means the servers were overwhelmed not by our own people, but by foreigners?"

The lively scene made many people familiar with StarCraft begin to suspect that StarCraft was "using the same old tricks" again, using the same tactics they used in "Final Battlefront" many years ago.

In particular, the mention of "North America and Europe" in StarCraft's announcement sparked a subtle sense of pride among the players.

This trend is not limited to China; it is also very strong in Japan.

Because when Western players play domestic games, they often feel a sense of cultural pride, like "my family's cooking is delicious."

Japanese gamers, on the other hand, have added some inexplicable "feelings" to their relationship with Westerners.

In addition, FGO wasn't very popular in Europe and America before.

Therefore, this announcement elicited an even stronger reaction in Japan.

Almost simultaneously with the announcement from StarCraft, a post on 2CH quickly went viral: "[Is FGO's recent popularity in Europe and America real or fake? Is it hype? Or is it genuinely popular?]"

The original poster expressed a skeptical attitude in the post.

However, someone quickly provided an answer in the comments section of the post.

"It should be true. When I was watching FGO on Twitch this morning, it had already reached number one in global live stream popularity."

Then someone else posted a screenshot.

This is a screenshot from the Chinese FGO gaming community, which shows the Apple download charts in various European and American countries. FGO has topped the download charts in 31 major countries around the world.

It covers almost all European and American countries.

Looking at some screenshots from players on Twitch, it's true that this morning, FGO's livestream viewership was number one.

In fact, although Xingchen used some "promotional tricks" in its announcement this time...

This global maintenance update wasn't for publicity; it was because, besides Europe and America, the number of players in China and Japan had exceeded StarCraft's expectations. After estimating the peak numbers, StarCraft's operations department proactively initiated global maintenance.

Meanwhile, "FGO Killing" has indeed created a sensation in Europe and America.

Just like how "Among Us" became a huge hit in Europe and America in its previous life, this type of game is the one that transcends national boundaries.

The "FGO Kill" mechanic perfectly matches what live streaming platforms need most: interactivity, drama, and program effects.

Players do not need to understand the complex background of the Holy Grail War, do not need to know the difference between "Heroic Spirits" and "Masters", and do not even need to know the character's name.

All they need to know is that there are "good people" and "bad people" here, and your goal is to survive and fool all your opponents.

This social and deceptive gameplay has transcended cultural and linguistic barriers, demonstrating astonishing viral power.

Many streamers simply can't stop broadcasting after they've finished the "commercial orders" given to them by Xingchen.

After watching a few rounds of the streamer's game, the first thing viewers did was rush to the app store or StarTap to download the game that made them laugh until their abs hurt.

At this point, the effectiveness of StarTap's strategy of offering free casual games to expand its market among European and American players finally became apparent.

While it's not quite as exaggerated as the 7000 million downloads of "Among Us" in the previous game, it's true that it happened on the second day after the game's release.

A large number of new players from Europe and America have flocked to the game.

Most of them selected the "priority loading" function when installing the game, and jumped straight into the standalone module of "The Feast of the Pseudo-Holy Grail" without even downloading the main game.

This "global popularity," coupled with the server shutdown for maintenance and updates, led to a large influx of clips from European and American streamers into China and Japan, further amplifying the influence of "FGO Killer."

Although Chu Chen really didn't want to make this comparison, it was just like in his previous life in China, when #HonorofKingsCrashed# could top the Weibo hot search list and get over 10 billion views.

Starry Night's "FGO" received basically the same treatment in Japan.

In China, StarCraft bought the trending topic #FGOGlobalViral#, but it only ranked third. However, in Japan, StarCraft did nothing and shut down the game.

Three of the top ten trending topics on Japanese Twitter were directly related to this topic.

~~~
It can be said that the overall public opinion surrounding this maintenance shutdown of FGO has been positive.

On the one hand, the maintenance only lasts five hours, not to mention there is compensation. On the other hand, the reason for this maintenance is none other than the large number of new players.

Players are actually quite tolerant of the problems caused by the game's popularity.

The reason so many domestically produced MMORPGs like to use "ghost players" (players who intentionally wait in queues) is because back then, if you didn't queue up when the server opened, you were considered undesirable by Chinese players.
It really makes people feel like your game isn't very popular.

Therefore, this maintenance, which was necessary due to the game's immense popularity, did not cause a drop in popularity; instead, it boosted the game's overall popularity to a new level.

Because of the maintenance, the millions of people who were just enjoying the game are now at a point where their "desire to share" is at its peak.

Due to the large number of players' desire to share and the "withdrawal reaction", a large number of FGO-related videos, Twitter, and Weibo discussions began to gain popularity.

Because of the large number of videos related to "FGO", the content generates traffic.

The media also joined in the celebration.

(End of this chapter)