Game development begins with destroying Girls' Frontline.

Shen Wansan put down his pen, his tone tinged with emotion.

"Rockstar, Blizzard, and EA are all overdrawing their own trust. This time, they are using their remastered games as a tool to harvest players. It seems that they have made money without spending much money."

"But this is actually overdrawing one's own trust."

"On the contrary, Xinghuo's IPs, such as Rise of the Dragon and Julius Caesar, are classics, but have long been forgotten in the market."

"But Xinghuo chose them anyway. Why? Because they have a good reputation and a sense of nostalgia. Xinghuo used these two games to tell players: 'We not only understand games, but we also understand you.' This emotional resonance is the most powerful thing."

The people next to him nodded thoughtfully.

"So, Spark's success this time is not only due to the high quality of the game, but also because they have captured the hearts of the players?"

"Yes."

Shen Wansan smiled, a hint of appreciation flashing in his eyes.

"Where does the Spark platform get its popularity? Why is it that as long as a game is from Spark, even one from a small, obscure development team, people will buy it without even looking at it?"

"It's because Spark is not just making games, but also building a 'brand'."

“In the past, we said that anything produced by Blizzard was bound to be of high quality. This brand effect brought Blizzard a great deal of benefits, but now they have forgotten where those benefits came from.”

Those around them suddenly realized what was going on.

"So, I understand now. Spark is trying to tell others that if they can even remaster such obscure IPs, then other games are even easier?"

Shen Wansan nodded.

"Yes, that's what I admire about President Lin. Everyone else is focused on making money, but President Lin is focused on the players."

"Many people ask Mr. Lin why Spark was successful, but in fact, the first sentence of his autobiography explains it clearly: the core of the game industry is always the players. Only by winning over the players can you remain invincible in the market."

"It's such a simple sentence, but very few people can actually do it."

"Alright! Stop bragging and get to work on the manuscript."

"Wait, Brother Shen, how do we judge the popularity of GTA Remastered? Will the online multiplayer demo of Heroes of Might and Magic 3 on Spark overshadow the popularity of GTA Remastered?"

Shen Wansan thought about it and finally made the decision.

"Blow your guns, I feel like Western games are all paper tigers. What a load of rubbish! Even if you get proven wrong, it'll still generate traffic!"

~~~

"Come on! Let's match up quickly! There's a new online mode today, so there's bound to be lots of fries! Let's grab as many as we can and have a blast!!"

Magic City.

Zhou Shenlin's home.

study.

With headphones on, Zhou Shenlin passionately turned on his microphone, and the computer screen displayed the Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered ranked matchmaking interface.

The Heroes of Might and Magic III remastered version caused a huge uproar among players worldwide after its release three days ago, even though Rise of the Dragon, Julius Caesar, and God of War III took away some of the traffic.

However, as a global IP, the Heroes of Might and Magic III remake still generated a lot of buzz.

Moreover, there was a demo of Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered before, and many players even pre-ordered it months ago, just waiting for the game to be released.

The biggest difference between the previous demo and the final version, besides the fact that the final version has a complete storyline reset, is the online multiplayer system.

Many single-player games are actually very weak in terms of online systems.

Again.

Once a single-player game is sold out, it's sold out, so the online system naturally becomes less important.

However, in the Heroes of Might and Magic III remastered version, the multiplayer system has been completely improved. After clicking on multiplayer, it even feels like entering the matchmaking interface of League of Legends.

On the left is the online news section, which mainly contains strategy guides and updates.

On the right is the Heroes of Might and Magic III assistant settings interface.

This Heroes of Might and Magic III helper is a major update in the remastered version, and its specific functions are somewhat similar to those of the League of Legends helper.

However, the details will definitely be different.

Its main functions are divided into three parts: building upgrades and troop selection, troop combination strategies, and magic and treasure recommendation systems.

These systems sound complicated, but they are very easy to use.

The main purpose of this assistant system is to lower the barrier to entry for games.

Heroes of Might and Magic III is an old game and also a relatively complex one. For example, if a player mainly plays the bunker game...

Once you enter the game, you'll face a host of decisions, such as which buildings to construct first and what resources you'll need.

Logically speaking, players can find out this information themselves, or after playing a few games, that the human race's building requirements are relatively simple, mostly requiring only wood and stone.

However, the castle also has a very special feature: when the human race recruits level 7 units, they need to consume gems.

Therefore, if the human race wants to produce archangels, they should occupy the gem mines as soon as possible.

This information is common sense for veteran players, like needing to drink water when thirsty, but for new players, it can be overwhelming when they first see a bunch of buildings.

Next, recruiting troops and figuring out how to combine them left me completely bewildered.

Recruiting heroes, which heroes are suitable for which types of troops, what magic they should learn—I'm confused again.

When you go on an expedition and encounter treasures, you're confused again about which treasures can be combined and which are suitable for which heroes.

Then, in this confused state, after playing a couple of rounds, I got thoroughly thrashed by veteran players.

Finally, he left with the comment, "What a trash game!"

This player has passed away.

Although Lin Li himself actually supports new players to explore on their own, gradually become veterans, and then enjoy the fun of PK.

However, the reality is that the Heroes of Might and Magic III system is too complex. In the previous round of DEMO testing, Spark had already discovered the problem of very poor player retention.

This is why the assistant system was eventually developed.

Simply put, the original Heroes of Might and Magic III was a bolt-action rifle from World War I, and this assistant is a bunch of modern auxiliary tools added to it without changing the original structure of the rifle.

These tools, of course, will not change the fact that rifles still require a bolt-action mechanism.

However, it can enable someone accustomed to modern firearms to quickly adapt to this weapon from World War I.

Like Zhou Shenlin, he kept losing in online games during his first demo, and he lost badly. But this time, he had the help of an assistant.

After applying the strategies of some experts and various suggestions from the assistant in advance, you can start using the assistant.

Although he still loses sometimes, he doesn't lose as badly as he used to, especially after he got the game assistant.

He no longer frantically built structures or blindly recruited troops as he had done before.

Instead, he learned to allocate resources rationally based on his assistant's advice, prioritizing the construction of key buildings such as the market, blacksmith shop, and magic tower.

He also learned to flexibly adjust his unit composition and hero selection based on the opponent's race and tactics.

After simplifying these things, Zhou Shenlin can focus more on the most enjoyable aspects of the game.

In other words, it involves deploying troops and devising strategies to create a situation similar to the legendary "Tian Ji's Horse Racing" on the battlefield, as well as outwitting and outmaneuvering the enemy in battle.

Compared to the complexity of campaigns, the battlefield system, although it also has many settings, is more addictive because it involves direct PvP against the opponent. Winning a key battle is enough to give you a good feeling for a long time.

It was this excitement that made Zhou Shenlin so thrilled when he learned that the online system was open for free trial.

"Hey! Can you guys log on a little faster? This isn't our dorm room, can you be a little more efficient?"

"Let me make this clear first, this is my first time playing this Chaos War."

"Don't be afraid, I'm here."

"I'm coming."

"Open! Open! Open!!"

Chapter 557 Gameplay and Modes

The online multiplayer function of Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered is divided into two modules: the traditional room creation mode and the ranked mode.

Although many players say they don't want ranked matches or ladder matches.

In reality, for a PVP game to maintain its popularity, a season system combined with a ranked ladder is already the optimal solution.

There are only three reasons why this whole thing can be so boring.

Search engine, mechanism, and updates.

"Stingy" refers to developers being stingy with the ranking rewards, resulting in rewards that are not attractive enough.

It's not that developers don't know that increasing ranking rewards can boost game activity, but in most games, ranking rewards are actually used for the battle pass.

The ranking system itself relies solely on ranking points and players' sense of honor to keep them engaged and encourage them to continue playing.

The battle pass is the real tool to attract players to pay.

However, Starfire did not design a battle pass in the Heroes of Might and Magic III remake. Since it was originally a single-player game, there was no need to consider monetization points without a battle pass.

In the ranked system of Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered, in addition to the addition of ranks, almost every rank has some attractive items.

For example, personalized avatars, hero skins, unit skins, new terrain unlocks, and so on.

Yes, new terrain unlocks have also been added to the rank rewards.

The new terrain and maps in Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered are essentially the same concept, except that the maps in Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered are pseudo-randomly generated.

The so-called pseudo-random generation means that the details, resources, and roads on each map are slightly different, but the players' spawn points and the style of the map are similar.

For example, if this terrain is a summer terrain pack, then no matter what kind of randomness is used, the weather will not change, and the distribution of players on the map will not change either.

The new terrain is the new map, a typical terrain pack for Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered, which mainly includes weather, map style, mountains, and water features.

For example, swamps in summer, snow-capped mountains in winter, flowers blooming in warm spring, and deciduous forests in late autumn.

Each terrain feature corresponds to one or more seeds that can be used to create a random map.

The reason for including these things in the ranking system is twofold: firstly, to encourage players to continue playing, and secondly, to cater to new players.

When you're at a lower rank, reducing the number of maps you can use is a quick way to improve a beginner's learning ability.

Besides, the second most important factor causing player churn in PVP games is the game mechanics.

The matchmaking mechanism is unreasonable, the ranking system is unfair, and the sense of frustration is too strong.

Finally, there's the issue of updates. If the game updates too infrequently, players will feel a lack of content, especially veteran players, as the lack of novelty will cause them to gradually leave.

The Heroes of Might and Magic III remake has somewhat resolved these issues. As mentioned earlier, regarding ranked rewards and the matchmaking system, Starfire has released balance patches almost daily in the few days since the game launched.

As for the game content, Spark has promised to release new heroes, maps, and gameplay modes every season.

For example, the currently launched "Chaos War" and the new mode "Hero Battle" for the second season have already been revealed.

The "Battle of Heroes" mode is inspired by the nomadic warfare in the later Age of Empires IV. There are a total of 6 players. After entering the game, they can choose to set up a city in any location and then freely attack and conquer.

The victory condition is to capture another player's city or defeat the opponent's king hero.

Whether you capture a city or defeat the king or hero, the winner will receive an additional buff reward, which mainly increases the troop production of the winner's city.

This mode is the biggest difference from Age of Empires IV.

The rule is that the king and heroes cannot enter the city to hide, which means that players must always be vigilant and deploy their troops wisely.

Should we give all the troops to the king hero to ensure strength? Or should we give the troops to ordinary heroes to search for the enemy's king hero outside? Or should we let the ordinary heroes defend the city and directly push the king hero out?

Different decisions lead to different ways of playing.

This gameplay, combined with the unique online action mode of "Heroes' Clash," actually has a very fast pace.

And this so-called online action mode.

This is related to the entertainment gameplay of the current first season, which is this season.

The new season's entertainment mode in Heroes of Might and Magic III Remastered is called "Chaos Lands," and it's somewhat similar to a battle royale game.

But it's not exactly the same as playing PUBG.

Many games directly copied PUBG after it became popular, but in reality, even if you want to copy PUBG, you should think it through before you do.

Just like Honor of Kings, a MOBA game, it completely copied the battle royale gameplay of a shooting game, and the resulting battle royale mode was naturally very boring.

The core of PUBG is multiplayer competition, a death game where only one person remains.