Chapter 367 - 233: The Man Playing Games on Top of the Server

Guo Mo’s reality experiment failed!

This failure strengthened Chen Ba’s belief that the situation Guo Mo encountered was purely accidental, a randomly generated freak Bug.

If that’s the case, then there’s no need to worry.

Such highly random Bugs, completely unpredictable in nature, are no big deal even if they exist; consider it a bonus for the players.

After all, among so many players, only Guo Mo encountered this situation, and even he only experienced it once, without continuous occurrences. Why worry?

Would you go out of your way to find a lottery winning pattern, trying to figure out a 100% winning method just because XX stranger won five million in the lottery?

Impossible!

This random Bug, Chen Ba believes is insignificant, because it’s too random and doesn’t have much impact.

A mere 10 points of merit; if this were a lottery, the prize would be too meager.

"Let’s leave it at that!"

Chen Ba tapped the solid wood tabletop with his index finger and then softly said, "The second test found no new issues, so it can end perfectly."

After a few days of testing, nothing happened.

If that’s the case, there’s no need to be paranoid. Just follow the original plan and prepare for the public beta of "Cultivation Fantasy."

Public testing is different from the second test.

The biggest difference is that public testing is open to everyone, whereas the second test used activation codes, only accessible to a small group of people.

Furthermore, public testing signifies the official release of an online game, equivalent to completing all the processes and formally getting married. After this, the game can’t randomly shut down or reset the servers.

The public testing period is also considered by many as the official launch timing of an online game. Internal testing is generally not counted.

Of course!

For an online game, apart from different meanings, there’s not much difference in content between public and non-public versions.

Many online games during public testing merely add an "in-app purchase and pay-to-win" system based on the content of the no-reset beta version.

Moreover...

Some twisted game developers even open in-app purchases during the reset test or no-reset test phases, promising to return in-game currency at a rate of 200% or 500% during public testing.

That’s just twisted!

Encouraging users to top-up during reset testing, promising to refund at certain rates during public testing—such games are often referred to by Chen Ba as "poor taste."

Is there really any need to rush?

Starting off with a bad look, afraid players wouldn’t recognize it as a cash-grab game—isn’t that intentionally driving them away?

According to Chen Ba, during testing and even the first half year of public testing, the operation must be sincere, even if it means not making money.

Firstly, retain players and let them develop interest or trust in the game!

After half a year, when the retention rate is ensured and the reputation is relatively ideal, expose the bad look and vigorously reap benefits—this is a more reasonable "pig farming" method.

"What sort of pig farming is this?"

Lu was puzzled as to why the game should be operated sincerely for a while before showing its true colors—can’t it show its true colors right from the start?

"Two reasons!"

Chen Ba explained: "First, doing this maximizes favorable impressions among players and reduces game abandonment rates."

"The second reason is simple sunk cost! You’ve been playing this game for half a year, and still it’s an MMORPG game—do you think your cost of abandonment is low?"

Many online games can’t wait to start various cash-grab activities and packages as soon as public testing begins, eager to rob players.

Such games might be lively for a few days after opening, but once the initial excitement wears off, players aren’t dumb—they know what the game is about, and leave decisively.

By choosing sincere operation for half a year, Chen Ba greatly reduces the chances of players being driven away even after revealing the bad look and might even achieve high evaluations.

Players don’t run away, choosing to continue playing, and over time, it creates the so-called "sunk cost."

Regardless of whether you’ve spent money in the game or not, the time and emotional investment are implicit costs. As long as the game involves this kind of sunk cost, it significantly raises the bar to abandoning it.

"That’s indeed the case..."

Huang Qing didn’t understand games deeply, but he understood human nature, so he also said, "When you’ve invested too much emotion and time into a game, even if the game deteriorates later, you’re likely to keep playing."

Unless one day, you’re truly heartbroken by the game, or something touches you deeply, or you’re caught up in real-life affairs and haven’t played the game in a long time—then you might decisively abandon it...

"Haven’t you noticed that most online games nowadays follow this pattern?"

Chen Ba joked: "Not talking about those small factory games; for big company’s games, the first half year or first two months are definitely worth getting into."

As for whether you’ll be able to pull out after two months or half a year, that’s all up to individual willpower.

Generally speaking, it’s not possible.

The big companies’ traps are deeper than the mountains and seas—at the beginning, you’re confident, thinking you’re just playing casually and won’t get addicted. But after a time, it’s not so simple.

The best way is actually to tell a friend you’re going to play a certain game, just to have some fun for a while, and ask them to remind you to pull out on time.

If it’s a trusted friend, they might be able to advise you and help cut off distractions, allowing you to withdraw from the game cleanly.

If even a friend can’t advise you, and instead tries to pull you into the game, that’s a different story...

"It has to be online games!"

Zhong Shengwei mused: "Making single-player games doesn’t require worrying about these trickery? Just launch the game directly for sale, and if someone loves it, play it; if not, forget it!"

"That’s not right either."

"Who said single-player games don’t have tricks? Single-player games have tricks too, especially those where refund restrictions apply; there are tons of games aimed at refund restriction deadlines."

Chen Ba was quite frustrated mentioning this.

While still studying, he often encountered single-player games that were explosively fun in the first few hours, only to become tedious afterwards.

High emotional intelligence: The game lasts over 20 hours throughout the process!

Low emotional intelligence: By the time you notice something’s wrong, you can’t request a refund anymore!

Of course!

There aren’t many single-player games like this; most single-player games still have integrity. After all, in this business, a bad reputation can greatly affect future projects.

"Online games have deep tricks."

Yang Dong said with a smile, "Hasn’t someone commented before that making a good online game isn’t about studying gameplay, but about social dynamics and human nature?"

Hit the weak spots of human nature, build good social features, and your online game can make big money even with your eyes closed!

If you don’t do these two aspects well, even if the gameplay is strong and the game is fun, it won’t attract online game players, and it’s hard to make big money in the online game market.

Does Mi Family Game have social features?

Indeed, it doesn’t. But they’ve nailed exploiting human nature’s weak points! Who do you think those characters were drawn for? Who do you think those storyline documents were written for?

"Cultivation Fantasy" is very conscientious in open testing.

At least at the beginning of the open test, Chen Ba doesn’t plan to play tricks on the players. It’s a genuinely conscientious game, not aiming for money but just wanting to make friends.

Only half a year later does he start pursuing revenue.

Anyway...

Although "Cultivation Fantasy" is a revenue-driven online game, Chen Ba doesn’t plan to follow competitors; the necessary baseline and integrity must still be maintained.

"What do you mean by that?"

"It means, even if we’re really bad, that’s only relative to Tianba Studio’s past games, making us look bad and without baseline."

Chen Ba explained, "Compared to competitors, our game is still quite good. When it comes to being bad, we’re not afraid of anyone."

"I understand!"

Lu instantly grasped the essence.

The lower limit of "Cultivation Fantasy" is very low, but that’s relative to other games from Tianba Studio.

However, if you put "Cultivation Fantasy" in the MMORPG game pool and compare it with competitors, "Cultivation Fantasy" is still more conscientious and more fun!

"As long as you understand, go ahead and work on the game shop based on this thought process!"

Chen Ba rubbed his arm and said, "During the open test, remember to buy more ads for promotions and stuff. We have money, so spend freely."

Times have changed.

Promotions for games in the past were really poor; they wouldn’t even dare to touch slightly high-end ads since the studio didn’t have that much money.

But now, with so much money lying on the account just earning interest, if we don’t spend it, are we just waiting to raise babies?

Spend like crazy and it’ll be fine!

With online games, the louder the initial testing, the more players you’ll attract. Don’t worry about too many people coming; it’s the lack of people coming that’s a problem.

"How many servers to open?"

"Well..."

Chen Ba was stumped for a moment because he also wasn’t sure how many servers to open to satisfy demand.

Mainly, he’s not confident about "Cultivation Fantasy," not knowing how many players might flood in during the open test.

If you have too many servers but can’t fill them, not being able to achieve "full queue," it would be quite embarrassing. After all, everyone else’s open test is booming with queues, you not having queues would make you seem out of touch, wouldn’t it?

You can’t just arrange a bunch of ghost soldiers to queue up to disgust the players, right?

"Let’s do this, initially open five servers! Later, increase as needed, maximum not exceeding eight servers..."

Chen Ba thinks five servers are enough.

Suppose one server has 100,000 players online simultaneously, then five servers would be a full 500,000 players online simultaneously.

To be honest, for games not from the big Pig Goose companies, reaching 500,000 online simultaneously is already quite good. A million online would require a game like "Don’t Leave After School" to achieve!

"Alright, five servers then."

Lu nodded, then quickly asked, "Are all these five servers going to be set up in Jiangning?"

"No, no, no, that won’t work."

Before Chen Ba could speak, Yang Dong first stopped him, "Servers should be spread out to better cater to players from different regions."

Southwest should have one server, Southern China should have one, North China and Central Region should each have one, and as for East China... Jiangning can cover it, no need to specially set up a server in Zhonghai.

Of course, this is a private naming.

What we call Jiangning server is just what the studio uses internally; the names players see for the servers will definitely be different.

For players, when they choose a server to register a character, besides latency and popularity, there are not many significant differences.

Latency has an impact but is acceptable.

After all, it’s an MMORPG game, not very competitive like FPS or MOBA games that pursue extreme low latency and strong competitiveness.

So, when it comes to servers, just pick your favorite.

Even players who play FPS or MOBA games don’t necessarily play in the lowest latency servers, why care so much about latency in an MMO game?

Anyway, the highest latency is only about 40-60ms, with the lowest being around 20ms; for an MMO game, play as you like, the impact isn’t particularly significant.

What?

This latency affects your operation, you pursue extreme low latency, preferably single-digit latency?

Sure, no problem!

The computer in Ba’s office has a latency low to 2ms for the company’s network games, about 3ms when playing "Cultivation Fantasy," which I assume is the kind of network latency you’re dreaming of.

How about this, just casually give a few million on this idea, and Ba will immediately pack up and move out, leaving the office for you to use; how does that sound?