In order to combat user churn.
And even more so to defend the company's performance and their department's year-end bonuses.
Various game companies have taken action one after another, releasing news of New Year's events in advance.
For ACG (Anime, Comics, and Games) titles, this often means new characters, new skins, giveaways, promotions, announcements of future content, and promises…
This is already a standard annual program.
Now, due to the strong impact of Dream Workshop, the news has to be released even more urgently and fiercely!
To the point that there is a clustering phenomenon, which excites the players.
Of course, in addition to being earlier than in previous years, there is also a new trend this year—
The characters are wearing less and less.
The "unhealthy" trend brought about by "Project Snowstorm" in order to survive has rapidly spread in the past six months, affecting a large number of ACG game companies.
After everyone tried it, they found that the revenue did increase significantly.
Even if they knew that this trick had future consequences, it was difficult to stop under the pressure of performance.
Especially when competitors are following suit, if you don't follow suit, your users will be lost.
So everyone started to compete internally, and the characters became more and more lewd.
Even when Moyu Games suffered a heavy setback and was warned by higher-level departments, explicitly mentioning words such as "vulgar values" and "unfavorable to the healthy development of young people's physical and mental health", their peers did not stop.
Even Moyu Games themselves did not stop. The new character information of "God Bird" has surpassed "Project Snowstorm" in terms of sexiness!
—On the contrary, after the failure of "Mirror World Story", the art designers of "Project Snowstorm", under Xu Meng's suggestion, restrained themselves a lot, and began to explore more gorgeous costumes and more in-depth and layered sexiness.
These methods of their peers have played a good role in curbing user churn.
Even Lu Ming had to admit:
Although he was very dissatisfied with Fei Zhiyuan's approach, when he saw the background data stop falling and the daily active data begin to rebound, he had to admit the short-term effectiveness of this tactic.
But this is only a commercial acknowledgment.
He always believed that this was not the right way to operate a game, and it would inevitably be counterattacked in the future!
But future things will only happen in the future.
At the moment, he had to face a reality—
These data gave the boss even greater confidence.
Fei Zhiyuan therefore convened a meeting and set the future development plan for "God Bird"—to continue down this path and squeeze out more profits.
He also privately comforted Lu Ming:
"With Dream Workshop's development trend, most ACG game companies will not be able to survive."
But after the meeting, he finally couldn't help but find Xu Meng's phone number and press the dial button.
The first time, it didn't go through, the line was busy.
The second time, it still didn't go through, still busy.
Lu Ming blinked, suddenly feeling a little flustered.
"Could it be that I haven't responded for too long, and Xu Meng has blacklisted me??"
… …
… …
Lu Ming was overthinking it.
Xu Meng was simply on the phone.
The first time Lu Ming called, he received a call from Wu Shuang.
Wu Shuang told him: "The Xia Country Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of Press and Publication will issue an [Opinion on Regulating the Management of the Online Game Market] tomorrow, to conduct a centralized rectification of various illegal and non-compliant behaviors and bad content in the industry."
"All online games with a large number of users and a large social impact will be the focus of investigation."
"We will also urge all game companies to conduct self-examination and self-correction, eliminate violent and pornographic content, as well as vulgar and suggestive behavior."
Obviously, it's not just game companies that are doing New Year's activities.
The official is also doing it.
"So…" Xu Meng blinked, "Does 'Project Snowstorm' also need to be rectified?"
Xu Meng felt a little regretful, but was not surprised.
In his earliest predictions, it would be a great success if "Project Snowstorm" survived for 3 months and gave Dream Workshop a chance to breathe.
Now that it has developed to the point where "Project Snowstorm" has not only successfully survived for half a year, but also climbed to the position of industry leader.
There is already strong support in terms of gameplay.
Not just [Dragon Palace Treasure Hunt].
After Dream Workshop was no longer short of money, the development team of "Project Snowstorm" was also greatly strengthened, and the conventional ACG open-world map design, combat, puzzle solving, etc. have been significantly improved.
Even if it needs to be rectified, it won't be a major injury.
Besides, there is also the little trick that has been prepared long ago—a one-click anti-harmony mechanism.
There's really nothing to panic about.
But Wu Shuang shook her head and denied his guess, "No need."
"The banner raised by this action is to care for the physical and mental health of young people. 'Project Snowstorm' has no underage users, so it is not subject to rectification."
"I just suggest that 'Project Snowstorm' be more low-key next, and don't make big moves, so as not to intensify public opinion."
"If you have any big events, you can do them after this period."
"Oh, no problem, the next big action of 'Project Snowstorm' will be in January, and the content is not sensitive." Xu Meng reassured her.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, he subconsciously emphasized again: "It shouldn't be sensitive."
Wu Shuang didn't care, "Anything goes with the game, the next thing is serious."
"【Dreamwalking Agent】 can enter the clinical trial stage. Do you want to come to the scene and have a look?"
The production method of Dreamwalking Agent is more troublesome than holographic medium.
Thanks to the help of Xiao Meng, who has achieved academic success, drug molecule model prediction, protein simulation prediction, signal pathway analysis… and other work have been greatly accelerated, at least dozens of times faster than manpower.
This is how the finished product was made in such a short period of time.
But after it is made, the steps to verify its safety and effectiveness are equally troublesome.
The effectiveness of the holographic display medium is very easy to verify—the effect can be seen with the naked eye.
Safety is also not difficult—just throw the experimental monkey in.
But Dreamwalking Agent, the effectiveness verification and safety verification of this thing are bound together.
Monkey verification alone is not enough.
It must also pass more stringent drug safety tests and undergo clinical trials.
Thanks to the support of higher-level departments, 【Dreamwalking Agent】 quickly completed all the previous processes and advanced to the human testing stage.
Xu Meng hesitated a little.
But thinking about the pile of things in his hand, he declined: "I won't go, you can just do the normal experiment."
"Tell me if you encounter any problems, and if there are no problems, just continue according to the plan."
"Okay, that's it, I'll contact you if anything happens." Wu Shuang finished speaking and hung up the phone neatly.
Xu Meng then looked down at the report submitted by Song Zhicheng.
This report statistically analyzed the data change trend of "Project Snowstorm" in the past week, and also mentioned the Christmas or New Year activities of ACG peers.
Xu Meng was a little unbearable to look directly at it.
He had seen a storm a day in advance…
But before he could think too much, the phone rang again.
The caller was still not Lu Ming, but Song Zhicheng.
"What, did you also get the news?" Xu Meng asked.
"News? What news?" Song Zhicheng was a little confused by Xu Meng's question.
Xu Meng then told him about the storm that would happen tomorrow.
Song Zhicheng was still in shock.
But he did not forget the business: "The first-party studio under Xinli Game Station—Shengcai Entertainment contacted us and found me here."
"Shengcai Entertainment?" Xu Meng was a little surprised, "What are they doing looking for us?"
If it was Xinli Game Station, Xu Meng could still understand.
It is estimated that they want "Monster Hunter" to be logged on to their platform, but what can Shengcai Entertainment, a first-party studio, do?
"This…" Song Zhicheng felt a little outrageous, and his speech was a little hesitant, "They hope that their game can be launched on the Dream Workshop game platform."
"?"
Xu Meng had a question mark on his head.
If you are a third-party studio, then Dream Workshop welcomes you to join.
But you are a studio bought by Xinli Game Station, and you come over and say you want to be on Dream Workshop's platform?
A month ago, everyone was still fighting, and three months ago, your boss was still saying that Dream Workshop games were incorrect, not inclusive enough, and not respectful enough of minorities!
So this is just like nothing happened?
Okay.
It's also possible.
If your game is very awesome and can compete for the level of Game of the Year in the minds of players, then Xu Meng can also laugh off the past grievances.
"So… what game is it?"
"Dreadwolf." Song Zhicheng said the name of the game, and added, "The translation should be 'Fear Wolf'?"
"Wait a moment." Xu Meng looked at Xiao Meng.
Without him speaking, Xiao Meng raised his hand.
Information and pictures about this game immediately appeared in front of Xu Meng.
Xu Meng looked at the "pure passerby" protagonist on the poster who was so ugly that it was against the sky, and instantly put a cross on the game in his heart.
After reading the promotional materials for this game three months ago, those characters' weird self-cognition and sexual orientation made his whole face wrinkled together.
He told Song Zhicheng without hesitation—
"Promise them."
"Ah?" Song Zhicheng was very surprised.
In his impression, the boss should be very vindictive.
"Ah what?" Xu Meng continued, "After they submit all the information needed for listing, tell them that it's not okay and the game can't be listed."
"Ah???" Song Zhicheng said even louder, "Why?"
"Because their character design is not 【correct】 and failed to pass the 【correctness review】 of the Dream Workshop game platform."
"Do we have this review?"
"We didn't have it before, but we have it starting today!" Xu Meng said decisively.
"Okay! Haha." Song Zhicheng hung up the phone laughing.
When he was seeking to launch "Project Snowstorm" on the console before, he was the one who contacted Xinli Game Station.
At that time, the other party also asked him to change the character to 【non-binary gender】 and asked Dream Workshop to add more diverse content to the game, which disgusted him a lot.
Now he can finally get back the lost ground!
Raise your eyebrows and exhale!
