Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 983 A New Game
"Well, okay, I see."

Sierra Company, after Roberta Williams hung up the phone, Ken Williams sitting next to her asked with a smile, "What's the matter with the call?"

Roberta laughed, "Ask us if we can arrange for Minecraft to be launched within two months. YU hopes to put the game online on the video game theme day of the annual conference."

"This is good news for us. The deep space annual meeting is very popular now. If it can be launched on the video game theme day, it will save us a lot of publicity costs. And it should be nothing if it goes online within two months. Question?"

Roberta shook her head, "I heard that Blizzard will also announce the launch time of "Warcraft 3" on the video game theme day. I'm afraid that people's attention will be on "Warcraft 3" at that time. And Compared with "Minecraft", YU obviously pays more attention to "Warcraft 3."

Ken wondered: "How did you come to this conclusion? "Minecraft" has YU's participation, he can't ignore it, and our competitor is not "Warcraft 3" game."

"I heard that YU will ask about the progress of "Warcraft 3" every two months."

"Don't think too much about it, we'll just follow YU's arrangement. YU and they won't favor one another, even if there is a situation of favoring one another, as a subsidiary, we should suffer a little loss."

Roberta nodded, she knew her husband was right, they had always been taken care of before.

In fact, Roberta is not so nervous about changing another game. The key point is that "Minecraft" has devoted her a lot of effort. She believes that this game has infinite potential, and it may not be more important than a large-scale game such as "Warcraft 3". Poor, so she hopes that the head office can pay attention to it and help them run this game well.

At the same time, in Blizzard's office, Mike Mohan, Allen Adhan and Frank Pierce gathered in the hut where they often discussed things.

This meeting was organized by Mike Mohan, and when all the people were gathered, he was the first to speak, "Just now YU's assistant called and said he wanted to have a video conference with us, and the meeting started about 15 minutes later. "

Frank Pierce looked at his watch and said angrily, "Why are you telling us now?"

Mike Mohan shrugged helplessly, "I also only got the news about ten minutes ago."

"Then you should have told us ten minutes ago, now we have to turn on Netmeeting as soon as possible, that thing is sometimes unstable."

Frank was talking about Microsoft's web conferencing application, which they had used for video conferences before.

This program has been out for three or four years, and it is relatively simple to operate. Under the Microsoft XP system, the motor starts to run, and the program can be opened by entering conf, and then some settings are required to be used normally.

When the user wants to call someone, he can input the IP address of the computer he wants to call in the input box of the window, and press the phone icon next to it to make a call.

Because everyone is using the Microsoft system, this program still has advantages, as long as it is a computer using the Microsoft system, it is also used by Mike Mohan and the others for video chatting before.

Hearing that Frank was going to run netmeeting, Mike Mohan waved his hand with a smile. He pointed to the computer and said, "No need, we use DD for video chat today."

"DD?" The other two questioned and looked at the computer screen at the same time.

There is a DD icon on the computer screen.

Frank stared at the DD icon carefully, and then asked, "Did the pigeon's wings get bigger?"

Mike Mohan gave a thumbs up, "Frank, your observation skills are really good. This pigeon is indeed a bit bigger than the previous one. This is the latest beta version of DD. I just installed it."

"Beta version?"

"Yes, the internal beta version. This version has not been officially released yet. We are also the first to use it. The biggest difference between the new version and the old version is that there is an additional video call function."

Then, Mike Mohan operated the mouse to open DD, logged in to his DD account, then he found YU in the friend column, clicked into the chat interface, pointed to the toolbar in the middle of the interface, "Look at this The spherical icon is the symbol of video chat, as long as you click this button, you can send a video chat request to the other party."

The other two laughed, "Although the new version has added functions, the screen is more concise, and the startup speed of the software seems to be faster than before."

Mike Mohan nodded and said, "That's true, all aspects have been optimized, and we can use DD when we want to video chat in the future, without having to enter the IP address every time."

Alan Adham asked, "When is this public beta coming out?"

Mike Mohan shook his head, "I don't know about that, it should be soon, in fact, it doesn't matter whether the public beta or internal beta is over, I heard that many numbers will be released when the beta officially starts, it's no different from the public beta .”

"Get me a few internal beta spots later," Frank said.

"The internal test qualification is based on the account number. You have to give me your account number and pass it to the deep space computer, and let them give you the internal test quota."

"Okay, I'll send you a few accounts later." Frank looked at his watch again, "There are less than 10 minutes left, before the meeting starts, tell us what the main content of today's meeting is , don't wait until after the meeting starts and we don't know anything."

"I don't know the specific content of the meeting. I only know that it is related to "Warcraft 3". It should be that YU played the game. Do you have any suggestions?"

Allen Adhan scratched his head, "We asked YU many times before, hoping he could give some advice, but we didn't get any suggestions. Now that the game is about to be released, it is difficult for us to make suggestions at this time. ah."

Frank smiled and said, "I don't know what's going on now, maybe it's just a simple chat with us, don't think too much about it."

"I hope I don't suddenly make any suggestions that require major changes." Allen Adham muttered.

Mike Mohan said with a smile: "If YU really wants to propose a major change, it is actually a good thing. It is better than having problems after the game is launched."

"That's what I said, but no one wants to have problems..."

The three of them were chatting when suddenly there was a crisp sound of "Ding Dong Ding" from the stereo connected to the computer.

They can all hear this voice, it is the voice in DD that pays special attention to going online.

Speaking of special attention, Mike Mohan and the others were very moved. Although the functions of DD are far less than those of ICQ, every function of DD can catch the hearts of users, and they are all small functions.

In addition to this special attention, there is also the stealth function that came out before. After that function came out, it was strongly sought after by young people, and many young people gave up ICQ and switched to DD.

It is also these ingenious small functions that help DD quickly win the instant messaging market in Europe and the United States. Now DD's global market share has completely surpassed ICQ, and ICQ can still compete with DD in North America. , which is simply not comparable in other countries.

The current situation, in addition to DD's own advantages, is also related to ICQ's development strategy.

There are two fatal problems in the development of icq. The first one is the single language. Although they were the first to become popular, they did not pay attention to the market in other countries. They only launched the English version, which gave DD a chance to take advantage of other countries and regions. machine.

Non-English users in many countries barely use icq, and then DD appeared, and they gave up icq directly.

Second, with the update of the version, ICQ integrates too many useless functions. The current ICQ is not like an instant messaging software, but more like an operating system. In addition to chatting, it also adds IP telephony services. Installed a search engine, added a multi-functional schedule and so on.

In their opinion, the more complete functions a software has, the better. It is best that one software can meet all the users' online needs, but in fact, many functions in it are not used by ordinary users, and the software installation package is added in vain. size.

Later, DD became popular, and in order to follow the trend, ICQ would copy all the popular functions in DD. It is not too difficult to implement many functions, but there are great differences in the implementation process.

Deep space has been developed for a long time and has been optimized many times, so the path selection is the simplest. It is different when it comes to ICQ. They need to consume more code to achieve the same function, and the installation package is naturally Just bigger.

Moreover, there are a lot of small functions in deep space. After the invisibility is released, there are still invisibility, only invisibility, etc. In the past two years, ICQ has spent a lot of energy just copying dd.In the past two years, they have no intention of copying, because the software is almost overwhelmed.

It is also an instant chat software. The installation package size of DD and ICQ is ten times different. This alone can make users choose DD to give up ICQ. When they download the software, their purpose is to chat online. Several people will choose ICQ because ICQ has more search engine functions than DD, because they usually have their own customary search engines.

Perhaps ICQ has already realized the problem, but now it is hard to get back, and it is very difficult to change, unless they start over, but it takes a lot of courage to start over.

"YU is online, should we take the initiative to say hello?" Frank said.

Mike Mohan looked at his watch, "It's not the appointed time yet, maybe he has other things to do, let's wait until the time..."

Before he could finish his sentence, the computer's external speaker rang again.

"YU took the initiative to send a video request."

"Quick pick up."

Mike Mohan didn't hesitate, and clicked to answer directly, and then they saw the three of them on the computer screen, but the picture of the other party was completely black.

"Is there a problem with the new function?" Frank couldn't help muttering.

Yu Dong smiled and said, "No, there is something wrong with my camera, wait a minute."

"Okay, okay."

The three of them remained silent, waiting for Yu Dong to repair the camera.

After a while, the screen finally recovered, and Yu Dong appeared on the computer screen. Beside Yu Dong, his assistant Jiang Yueming was still standing.

Yu Dong waved his hand to greet Mike Mohan and the others, "Good morning, everyone."

The Mike Mohan trio replied, "Good evening."

Yu Dong nodded, "The short notice to start a video conference should have affected your work. I would like to apologize to you first."

"No, no, we were going to have a small meeting together this morning. Yesterday, Ren communicated with us about the annual meeting, and we need to confirm it." Mike Mohan said, he was talking about the game department Ren Hongfei.

"Well, there are two reasons for short notice for the meeting. One is because I tried out the new game "Warcraft 3" today and came up with some ideas, so I am in a hurry to tell you. The other is that DD's video chat function is released. I I also want to try how the effect is, and now it seems that it is relatively smooth."

"It's really smooth, and the pictures of the cameras on both sides can be adjusted. It's very good to use." Mike Mohan boasted with a smile, and then asked, "What do you think about "Warcraft 3"?"

Yu Dong said with a smile, "The game is very well done, especially highlighting the role of the hero, which allowed me to see the difference between this version and the previous version, as well as the difference between the "Warcraft" series and "StarCraft". Before we The conversation has basically come true, and I think next year my wcg can definitely include "Warcraft 3" in the competition."

Mike Mohan looked at each other, and they both saw surprises in each other's eyes. When they heard Yu Dong say that they had some ideas about the new game, they were quite worried about the problem, but they didn't expect to say such a good thing to them. information.

When working on "Warcraft 3", their goal was to strive to make the game a wcg project, and now their goal has been achieved. They know whether "Warcraft 3" can become a wcg competition event, YU It's totally payable.

When Deep Space Company just won Blizzard from Vivendi, Mike Mohan and the others, like ordinary people, thought that Yu Dong was just a shareholder of Deep Space Company with a certain right to speak.

But as time went by, Blizzard had more and more connections with its parent company, Deep Space, and Mike Mohan and the others also noticed that Yu Dong was not just a shareholder with a say, he was at least on an equal footing with Jimmy.

Mike Mohan said excitedly, "We will definitely assist the electronic marketing company to complete the creation of this new competition project to ensure the excitement of the project."

"Well, you just need to contact the electronic marketing company about this matter. I have something else to tell you."

"Something else?"

"Well, it was when I was playing "Warcraft 3" that I thought of a new way to play."

(End of this chapter)