Game Development: Starting with Recreating the Anime Game Style

Chapter 478 Shang Fang’s Sword
This answer, which suddenly appeared on Zhihu, is nothing special on its own, but at this particular juncture, its simple words and sincere emotions stand out.

It certainly resonated with many veteran players.

Soon, this answer was screenshotted by players and forwarded everywhere.

Next, the major gaming media outlets took the stage.

The fact that Xingchen appeared on the CCTV Evening News was already a hot topic in the Chinese gaming industry, and they were just looking for news to publish.

This Zhihu Q&A platform has come at just the right time. After all, if you ask the editors of these gaming media outlets to write news, they won't be able to produce anything of substance.

But if you were to say that leveraging trending topics and finding material everywhere is their forte.

As a result, following this Zhihu post, a large number of gaming media outlets, like sharks smelling blood, jumped into the fray.

[A single answer sparked a frenzy on Zhihu: Why did a StarCraft player's "confession" move so many to tears?]

From electronic heroin to a national symbol, what have we, the generation of gamers, experienced?

Stop talking about fan culture! Xingchen's success is the ultimate victory of content being king!

These news reports quickly amplified the topic, and the original answer from the Zhihu user instantly became a "viral tourist attraction."

The number of likes skyrocketed at an alarming rate, and the comment section was no longer filled with sarcastic or sarcastic remarks.

Those "rational discussions" that were previously pushed to the top are now completely gone. Apparently, some people wanted to go back and take a look, only to find that the original poster had already sheepishly deleted their answer.

Your face is all swollen from being slapped, are you going to keep it for the New Year?
Even so, you can still occasionally see things like this in a bunch of news reports about stars.

"That's enough. It's just a 30-second news segment. Why are you making such a big deal out of it like you won the Nobel Prize?"

"You were just lucky. You happened to catch a policy trend. At any other time, who would know you?"

"Heh, wait until StarCraft can make a AAA title before you start bragging. Right now, you're just an indie game developer, nothing special."

These sarcastic remarks.

That same evening, Xinhua News Agency also joined in the fun.

[Xinhua Commentary: A Player's "Self-Promotion" Reflects the Cultural Confidence Needed by Our Times]

The article is not long, but every word is precious.

After this article, the already limited "noise" on the internet has now completely disappeared, making it so quiet it's unlike the typical Chinese internet.

It's not just that this news was reported by Xinhua News Agency; more importantly, at the end of the report, Xinhua listed a quality that an "excellent" game company should possess.

The product is of high quality: the game is fun, innovative, and not shoddy.

Respect players: Listen to community feedback, actively engage with them, and don't treat players like韭菜 (a metaphor for exploiting them).

Fair pricing: The price is reasonable, making players feel that it is "worth the money".

Positive values: Avoid vulgarity and borderline content, and have your own cultural pursuits.

While these qualities seem to be praising the stars, considering the medium through which the article is published, one can't help but wonder if there are any other hidden meanings behind them.

Just like the new "3A" game definition proposed in the CCTV interview in my previous life: "high cost, high scale, and high quality".

The same words can sound different depending on the context, which is why the online noise decreased after Xinhua News Agency published its commentary.

Not only are the sour stars gone.

As a large number of players took this "official standard" and commented on it under various game companies' posts, that same evening, the operations department of "A Chinese Ghost Story" under NetEase released a new version event preview as usual.

This is a typical operational announcement, promoting the newly launched pay-to-win system and limited-time skins.

Normally, there aren't many comments in the comment section of these announcements. Even if there are, they're usually just a few curses like "cheating to make money" and "the planners should come out and take the beating."

However, tonight's atmosphere is completely different.

A bizarre comment quickly appeared in the comment section and was rapidly pushed to the top. The content was simple, but every word was veiled.

Hello, I am "Inspector No. 1 of the Excellent Game Company" conducting a routine inspection against the standards for "Excellent Game Company".

And there is more than one.

The Weibo operators of NetEase were stunned on the spot.

What the hell is this?

About half an hour later, netizens realized that, wow, this "excellent game company inspector" thing had become a meme.

It's not just NetEase; Tencent, Xishanju, and Wanmei—all these established game companies have their comment sections filled with these "inspectors."

This is clearly a typical example of "Internet abstraction behavior".

It is also a typical example of "internet trending behavior" that is "all emotion and no content". What seems to be an abstract internet performance art is essentially an emotional outburst of long-standing grievances.

Over the years, Chinese gamers have been playing uninteresting games with no other choice, enduring the arrogance and perfunctory attitude of game developers time and time again, and have long been seething with anger.

They reluctantly spend money on in-game purchases, engage in online arguments, and submit feedback to customer service only to receive no response. It seems that their only recourse is to quit the game.

But now, a commentary on Xinhua News Agency has been handed to every player like a sword of Damocles.

This feeling of being "officially certified" gave players a perfect outlet for their pent-up emotions.

Even Xinhua News Agency itself probably didn't expect that a casually written article would evolve into such an abstract internet event, although such popularity usually only lasts for one or two days.

Once the emotions dissipate, they will naturally dissipate.

But when this emotion comes, it's like a dam releasing its floodgates—it comes on strong and powerful.

Moreover, public relations efforts by a single manufacturer are ineffective in dealing with this kind of thing. Just like the "ML incident" that swept through the second game in the previous life, this internet movement spontaneously formed by players had no leader or organization, but it had amazing mobilization and creativity.

Finally, what brought this event to its climax was...

It's a meme drawn by someone I don't know.

In the center of the image are the logos of major companies such as Tencent, NetEase, and Xishanju, being chased and attacked by a group of stick figure players wielding various tools.

In the corner of the screen, the Starry Sky Games logo peeks out with half its head looking innocent, next to a player who is also a stick figure.

"What... happened?"

The stick figure player didn't even turn his head. While waving his arms to cheer for the middle, he impatiently waved his hand and said to the star logo.

"None of your business, go have fun."

Then, a dialog box appeared above the star logo, containing only one word.

"Oh."

(End of this chapter)