You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 397: Marketing
Will the Chinese version of "Plants vs. Zombies" be given away for free?
Hong Fei’s first reaction was that Mr. Qin was joking, but then he realized that Mr. Qin seemed very serious and he was completely shocked.

Mr. Qin, are you crazy?!

"Free? Wouldn't that be a waste of money?" Hong Fei couldn't help but ask, "Boss Qin, why?"

The game "Plants vs. Zombies" has extraordinary significance to Hong Fei.

When stand-alone games in China were on the decline, the emergence of "Plants vs. Zombies" gave the industry a shot in the arm.

It is the first domestically produced stand-alone game to win an international game award, and it is the first stand-alone game to win the world's annual sales champion.

It is no exaggeration to say that Hong Fei feels that it is worth it for him to be able to participate in the production of such a game in his life.

Moreover, "Plants vs. Zombies" is the gold mine that Qin Shaoyan used to start his business. Without this game, there would be no campus network, Facebook, YouTube, and QVOD.

So Hong Fei found it difficult to understand why Mr. Qin wanted to make a special Chinese version and give it away for free.

"It's mainly to retaliate against domestic piracy. Since I can't ban piracy, I might as well just release a free version." Qin Shaoyan answered as a matter of course, "There are not many Steam users in China anyway, and there is no channel to sell genuine discs."

Hong Fei was stunned and quickly persuaded: "Boss Qin, there is no need to be angry. There are still distribution channels."

"Ogilvy Electronics has already run away." Qin Shaoyan replied calmly, "The largest PC game publisher in the country can't do it anymore, so how can there be any channels?"

"Ah, has he already run away?" Not only Hong Fei was stunned, but even Zhang Pingyi was surprised.

"The Shanghai branch ran away at the beginning of the year. We just got the news that the top management of the Beijing branch has also run away, and they still owe their employees wages." Qin Shaoyan said with an indescribable strange smile, "The domestic single-player game industry is completely over."

"Then..." Hong Fei was a little puzzled, "Don't we still have Steam? We can sell it to foreigners through Steam."

"Forget it, we'll talk about it later." Qin Shaoyan said casually, "Strictly speaking, this thing of ours is not the orthodox DLC of "Plants vs. Zombies", but a modified version, which is equivalent to a reskin."

It is indeed a modified version. Qin Shaoyan took the hybrid version of domestic enthusiasts as inspiration, added some new plants, improved the values, and the main purpose is to make players have fun.

"This is a trial version for the market. We'll see how the feedback is before making the official version." Qin Shaoyan smiled, "And the greatest value of this thing is not to make money, it has its unique function."

Zhang Pingyi explained at this time: "Boss Qin asked me to add a hidden applet in this modified version. When you start the game, a webpage will pop up, and this webpage is the official website of our online game."

"This modified version is equivalent to a tool for external publicity and advertising."

Qin Shaoyan smiled and said, "When the campus network's sales staff conducted research in Internet cafes, they found that the game Plants vs. Zombies is very popular. Basically, 80 to 90 percent of Internet cafes have this game on their computers."

"..." Hong Fei was completely numb. He looked at Qin Shaoyan who was silent for a long time and gave him a thumbs up. "It has to be Mr. Qin. Most people can't think of such a mean trick."

This kind of marketing method is the first time I have seen it.

But after a while, Hong Fei found that he had underestimated Mr. Qin's marketing methods.

When he heard the magical advertising slogan, he didn't know what to say.

Not only Hong Fei, but also the employees around him who were watching the game promotional video were looking at each other in bewilderment.

What on earth is this?
What new version of the ship? Can't you just speak out your tongue?
And what is the Taoist's Fifteen Dogs?

What is the Fiery Blade Explosion?

Everyone was looking at Qin Shaoyan with strange eyes. With their level, they really couldn't understand Mr. Qin's tactics.

Qin Shaoyan didn't care about other people's opinions at all and was still enthusiastically giving instructions on how to record a game promotional video.

"This angle is not good. Let's find a better-looking place to show off our artistic strength and the excellent performance of the engine."

"This doesn't feel right. Where are the numerical planners? Come on, configure a temporary monster for me and fill it with all the drops. Configure any high-level weapons, high-level equipment, potions, and gold coins."

"What I want is the kind where the monster explodes immediately after one strike, with all the dropped items filling the entire screen and luxurious equipment all over the ground."

"I picked a monster with low HP. I want to kill it in one blow. Give me full experience for killing monsters."

"I want the feeling of reaching level 99 with one strike!"

"Teacher Hong, this upgrade special effect is not good. You need to make it something really cool, with a giant golden dragon coiling up into the sky!"

"Why is there only one summoned baby? We agreed that the Taoist priest would have fifteen dogs. You should show everyone whether there are fifteen dogs first, and then adjust it back when the game goes online."

"Yes, yes, yes. One person should lead a group of minions to surround the BOSS and fight it."

Hong Fei couldn't help it, "Boss Qin, isn't this false advertising?"

"Yes, it has to be fake!" Qin Shaoyan said confidently, "This is an advertisement! How can we attract people without some exciting content?"

"You can add the in-game footage to the video! At worst, you can write it in small letters at the bottom. Please refer to the actual version of the game. Use the smallest font possible and write it in the corner."

Although Hong Fei didn't quite agree with Mr. Qin's opinion, he had to admit it in his heart when he saw the results of the adjustments made based on his suggestions.

This game video looks really cool.

Especially when the entire screen is filled with top-quality equipment dropping, it is very shocking.

There is also a one-hit kill that can level up several times, which is much more exciting than the legendary one where you can't level up even after a month of hacking.

"Boss Qin," Hong Fei said cautiously, "This video is indeed great, but do you think about your advertising slogan again?"

"What's there to think about?" Qin Shaoyan retorted, "I wrote this myself, you are not allowed to change it, just use this one."

"What we want is to be down-to-earth, to be magical and brainwashing, and to be able to touch the legend by the way."

Yes, the legend of hitting someone in a car is Qin Shaoyan’s main purpose.

Unlike those legendary web games that were played more than a decade later, those games were played out of sentiment.

Qin Shaoyan really wanted to snatch players from the Legend game. Until 2006, Legend, which was represented by Shanda, still had a huge influence.

According to statistics, the total revenue of Chinese online game operators in 2006 reached 78.2 billion yuan, among which Shanda ranked second with a 20% market share.

Ranked first is NetEase, which accounts for 24% of the market share.

This shows how incredible the revenue-generating ability of the game "Fantasy Westward Journey" is. NetEase has occupied nearly a quarter of the market share with just one online game.

Although Qin Shaoyan has set his main online game competitor target on "Zhengtu", suppressing competitors is one aspect, but it is more important to take advantage of "Legend".

Hong Fei sighed. Qin Shaoyan's marketing model has always been unconventional. He has liked to do things against the rules since the beginning of the campus network.

Since President Qin said that this thing is effective, Hong Fei believes that this thing will most likely succeed.

"Mr. Qin, since the promotional video is about to be released, why don't you give our game a name?" Hong Fei suggested.

Yes, this online game still has no name and is called by a code name within the company.

This kind of thing is very common. Generally, people will wait until they are about to go online and apply for a version number before they come up with a name.

"Let's pick a name." Qin Shaoyan thought for a moment and said casually, "Let's call it the Warring States." "The Warring States..." Hong Fei muttered, and then repeated it again, "The Warring States!"

Qin Shaoyan sighed: "The online game market in 2006 will be an era of warring states. I hope our game can become one of the overlords."

The online game market in 2006 was indeed a year in which many players emerged, and it was also the year in which Chinese online games rose to prominence.

In addition to "Zhengtu", the game that opened the era of free online games, there is also "Perfect World", the first large-scale 3D online game in China.

"Perfect World" was developed by Perfect World using its self-developed 3D game engine. It pioneered many novel gameplay elements and was also the first Chinese online game to be exported overseas.

This game also became Perfect World's most glorious achievement. In 2010, the game company Perfect World changed its name to Perfect World, which shows the significance of this game to the company.

In addition, there are domestic online games such as "Ao Shi Online", "Magic Domain" and "Ask the Way".

Games imported from abroad such as "Audition", "KartRider", and "World of Warcraft" will also become strong rivals.

It is not as easy as you think to bite off a piece of the big cake of the online game market.

Although Qin Shaoyan has always been full of confidence and has been making promises and boasting to others, he is still a little unsure in his heart.

No matter how those online games perform later, they will always attract some players to try them when they are first released.

Although there are a large number of new players every year, the emergence of new games will also divert players. How to attract more players in the market has become the primary task of online games.

During this period, the performance of online games was promoted by announcing the number of online players. The more people online, the more popular the game was, and the better the revenue.

This method of comparing the number of online game users was still used until the emergence of free online games. It was only after several years that it gradually became a method of promoting online game revenue data.

Even in the era of free online games, the number of online players is still a very important data for a game.

Regardless of whether it is paid or not.

After the game is launched, the first thing game manufacturers need to be concerned about is player retention data. After all, only when there is a sufficient player base can there be more paying players.

The planners have tried every possible way to attract more players online and keep them engaged in the game.

For example, various gameplay modes are added 24 hours a day, and props rewards are given for idle time, etc.

Of course, these are just small details that add icing on the cake.

What really attracts and retains players, in the final analysis, is that the game quality is good enough and the gameplay is interesting enough.

Qin Shaoyan called the planners into the meeting room again and taught them a lesson.

From polishing the game plot to designing the growth system.

From the daily gameplay to the economic system deployment.

"The excellence of a good game must be reflected in the details." Qin Shaoyan said seriously, "Compared to the already built framework, your work on various details is very rough, and some of them don't even consider the details."

"For example, the relationships among the UIs are a mess. You didn't sort out which UIs are parent-child relationships, which UIs are parallel relationships, and which UIs are mutually exclusive relationships. The UIs are arranged in a mess."

"There are also various prompts that are not in place. For example, if there are not enough weapon enhancement items, clicking the enhancement button will not have any response, not even a prompt. Players thought it was a bug."

"Also, there is no rolling message when the arena opens. At least add a countdown message to remind players."

"Think about it from the perspective of a player, try playing the game, and see what shortcomings your design still has and what you haven't thought through."

"Don't always count on the test team to give you feedback. They have more important tasks to do. They haven't finished testing a lot of bugs yet. How can they have time to point out these small problems for you? So you have to solve them yourself."

"Optimization is a meticulous and tedious task. Even if you improve a little bit every day, it will be a big improvement if you accumulate it slowly."

"Don't just bury your heads in gameplay design every day." Qin Shaoyan said seriously, "From today on, I have a requirement that every planner must take two hours to play our game."

"How can I design a game myself but not play it myself?"

“When you look at the game from a player’s perspective, you will have a different experience.”

Don’t think Qin Shaoyan is joking. The phenomenon of game developers not playing their own games is not an isolated case.

Many planned and even designed things are thrown into the game without even being looked at.

Therefore, it is not surprising that there are incredible gameplay and stupid designs in the game.

The planning meeting lasted until late at night, and only then did an exhausted Qin Shaoyan leave the game company's secret R&D base.

After taking a short nap in the car, he opened his eyes again and found that the driver, Hao Dashan, had taken him to the downstairs of where he lived.

"You sent me home by yourself. Go back to the company first." Qin Shaoyan was a little surprised.

Hao Dashan hesitated a little, "Boss Qin, I saw that you were a little tired, so I sent you back. It's so late, you still want to go back to the company?"

Qin Shaoyan thought for a moment and said, "Forget it. Let's talk about it tomorrow. Go back and have a rest first. Come pick me up at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning."

"Okay." Hao Dashan agreed, "The car is parked for you. If you have any urgent matters, you can call me."

"I'll take care of anything I need, so you can just take a rest." Qin Shaoyan smiled, "Take a taxi back by yourself, the company will reimburse you for the fare."

Qin Shaoyan locked the car and staggered upstairs.

As soon as he entered the door, he turned on the computer, which was a habit he had developed over the years.

No matter how tired he is at work or how late he gets home, he will turn on his computer as soon as he enters the door and take a look at something, as if he cannot fall asleep without taking a look.

He logged into his QQ account and scanned his friend list as usual, and then he saw Mingyue with her profile picture still lit up.

Honest and upright young man: "Hey, you are still awake so late."

Mingyue: "I have some work to do, so I'll go to sleep for a while. How can you, a busy person, have time to go on QQ?"

Honest and upright young man: "Today the driver insisted on sending me home, so I came back early."

Mingyue: "Oh, the boss has become rich and has a driver now."

Honest and upright young man: "If you buy a new car, you need a driver, otherwise the grade of the car will not show up."

Mingyue: "Looks like he really got rich. What kind of car is that?"

Honest and upright young man: "It's just a Mercedes. The car is not mine. The ownership belongs to the company. I only have the right to use it."

Mingyue: "Wow! Mercedes-Benz, please take me with you, boss."

Honest and upright young man: "I just happen to need your help. Are you free tomorrow? Let's meet."

(End of this chapter)