You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 420 Pulling
Chen Tianqiao is the first Chinese richest man in the Internet industry and can be considered a true veteran in the online gaming industry.

Now that Qin Shaoyan has deceived and taken advantage of me, I naturally can't just let it go.

He decisively called Shanda's legal department over and said, "Sue Qin Shaoyan immediately!"

The legal affairs department was shocked and tried to dissuade them tactfully, saying that the chances of winning the case were slim.

Chen Tianqiao is determined to sue, regardless of whether he can win or not.

After studying the legal issues for a long time, they still didn't know what to do. Someone suggested sending a lawyer's letter first.

"Then send it quickly!" Chen Tianqiao urged the legal department to send the lawyer's letter quickly and then prepare to sue.

The legal department had no choice but to go back and draft a lawyer's letter, and then go to Shanda's CEO Tang Jun to discuss the matter.

When Tang Jun heard that he was going to sue Qin Shaoyan, he shook his head decisively, "You can't sue me. It's meaningless and it will offend people."

The legal officer sighed, thinking that the CEO was the one who understood the situation, and could only helplessly say, "If the chairman insists on suing, there is nothing we can do."

Tang Jun thought for a moment and said, "You guys go get the lawyer's letter first, I'll go and persuade the chairman."

After sending the legal department away, Tang Jun brought Shanda’s CTO Tan Qunzhao to find Chen Tianqiao together.

Tan Qunzhao joined Shanda in 1999 and served as R&D director before being promoted to CTO. He is Chen Tianqiao's right-hand man and is deeply trusted by him.

The two of them went straight to Chen Tianqiao's office, and Tan Qunzhao said, "I know Qin Shaoyan. He is said to be the top game producer in China. Last year, he suggested to the Copyright Administration that they launch a game export plan. He has a close relationship with the Copyright Administration."

Tang Jun also said: "Qin Shaoyan has a lot of connections in the United States. He has a close relationship with Bill Gates. When he went to the United States, he lived in Bill Gates' mansion. It was he who pushed for Microsoft to acquire YouTube."

"Moreover, the campus network he set up has a very complex background and close cooperation with administrative agencies and universities."

Chen Tianqiao said angrily: "So what if he knows Bill Gates? He is trying to copy the marketing legend. Can't I sue him?"

"We can sue," Tang Jun advised, "but there's no need. Not to mention that the lawsuit will take a long time, and it won't be very beneficial to us if it gets out of hand."

"Besides, you are a senior in the industry, why would you bother with a junior like him?"

"Just send a lawyer's letter of warning."

Chen Tianqiao also knew at this time that he would not win the lawsuit, and by the time the verdict came out, the other party’s marketing goal would have been achieved.

What Tan Qunzhao said was what made him most wary. Qin Shaoyan had a close relationship with the Copyright Administration, and Shanda still had to rely on games to support its revenue. If the Copyright Administration blocked them at any time, the loss would be huge.

But we can’t just suffer in silence!
Chen Tianqiao said with a sullen face: "We don't have to file a lawsuit, but we can't just let it go. We can't encourage this kind of evil trend. We have to criticize him in public opinion!"

"We need to let the whole of China know that he is trying to scam us. We need to let everyone see his immoral behavior!"

"Okay, I'll make the arrangements." Tang Jun thought for a moment, "I'll go discuss it with the PR department."

Shanda quickly drafted a statement and released it directly to the media, angrily denouncing the campus network for its fraudulent marketing and infringement of Shanda's legal rights.

"Someone didn't think about how to make a good game, but instead put his evil intentions on his competitors, hoping to get a piece of the pie by relying on fraudulent marketing. This is simply morally corrupt."

"I'd like to give someone a piece of advice: a good iron must be made with its own strengths. You can't make a good product by relying on fake marketing!"

"If you don't stop in time, we will resort to legal means!"

……

"Well written!" Qin Shaoyan commented with a smile after seeing the grand statement, "Unfortunately it's not strong enough. If I were writing it, I would post a statement every day and guarantee that it would be different."

Zhang Pingyi was shocked, "How dare you laugh?"

"Why am I not laughing?" Qin Shaoyan asked back, "Look how well our competitors are cooperating. Before I even made a move, they came up and made their move."

"Tell Sohu later not to suppress the news, but to put it on the front page and expose us harshly!"

"Don't make insinuations, name the campus network directly!"

"Shanda's statement was too subtle and irresponsible!"

Zhang Pingyi was a little confused for a moment and couldn't figure out who the victim was.

"The essence of touch-and-pie marketing lies in interaction," Qin Shaoyan explained patiently, "Sometimes touch-and-pie ads are not straightforward enough, and many people simply don't understand who you are touching."

"But if the victim gets impatient and comes out to clarify the matter, everyone will see clearly."

"If the other party doesn't respond no matter how hard you try, then your attempt to scam me has failed."

"If there is a give and take, then there will be heat, right? What do people online like to watch? They just like to watch the excitement."

"As long as there is excitement to watch, there will be attention. Even people who don't play games will take a look. This is better than the advertising effect."

Zhang Pingyi was stunned and couldn't help asking, "You planned this all in advance, right? You were thinking about how to deal with it when you wrote the ad, right?"

"Not really." Qin Shaoyan said sincerely, "I just thought the slogan was stupid and couldn't help but use it."

"Is there really a Taoist priest with fifteen dogs?" Zhang Pingyi asked curiously.

"Some private servers are like this." Qin Shaoyan thought for a moment, "As long as you pay, let alone fifteen dogs, there will be fifty dogs."

"In terms of version iteration and gameplay, the private server Legend is far superior to the official Legend."

Zhang Pingyi frowned, "There is no Taoist Fifteen Dogs in our game."

"I have written a disclaimer on the ad." Qin Shaoyan said righteously, "The ad was shot for the internal beta version. Players are advised to refer to the actual version of the game for the final version."

"..." Zhang Pingyi sighed, "How are you going to respond to that grand announcement?"

"Let the legal department and the public relations department draft a draft and send it to me for review." Qin Shaoyan thought for a moment, "The core is that we are not trying to copy the legend, we are just paying tribute to the legend."

"Then we will release a video of the actual game. The public has sharp eyes. Let everyone tell for sure whether we are scamming or not."

"Find a few more people to write soft articles and spread them on social platforms."

The campus network responded to Shanda’s statement the next day.

"Legend has a huge influence on the gaming industry. There was even a scene where the entire Internet cafe was playing Legend."

"As time goes by and technology advances, more and more online games are appearing, giving players more choices."

“Even though the legendary glory is gone, it is still a milestone in the history of Chinese game development.”

"Our ads did not infringe on Shanda Legend's rights. At best, some elements were similar. Some people are just making groundless accusations."

"There's no need to blame someone if you want to."

"Our game's art style and gameplay design have nothing to do with Legend. We will release more game videos and let everyone judge whether it is infringement or not."

The second video of "Warring States OL" soon appeared on Qvod.com, which was completely different from the cool displays in the first advertising video.

The second video is a demonstration of various gameplays, such as tower climbing challenges, the grand arena, treasure hunt competitions, and the battle for the imperial city. All kinds of novel gameplays are demonstrated one by one.

After watching the video, players became more interested in the game and couldn't wait to try it out.

Especially the treasure hunt competition and the fight for the imperial city have become hot topics of discussion. Searching for treasure chests in the complex ruins may reveal top-quality equipment, which is full of fun of exploring and treasure hunting.

The battle for the imperial city fully demonstrates the terrain destruction effect of the physics engine. The magnificent and splendid imperial city is gradually turned into ruins during the players' fight, which is quite visually stimulating.

The discussion in the forum is getting more and more heated, with nearly 100,000 people flocking in every day to post frantically and predict various ways to play the game.

The mutual announcements between the campus network and Shanda attracted even greater attention, which was even more effective than advertising.

Soon after, an article criticizing the legend circulated in major forums. It was written in an impassioned and heartfelt manner.

As an old player of Legend, the author first expressed his love for Legend.

The passion of fighting monsters day and night in the Internet cafe, the excitement of winning the first Judgment, the pleasure of PK, and the passion of conquering the Sand City.

He can remember vividly every battle and every upgrade that took place in the legend, and he is still moved when he talks about the past.

"My feelings towards Legend are complicated. From initial love to dissatisfaction, then to disgust, and finally to hatred. What happened in between?"

“Is it the game’s fault? The game does have some problems, with frequent bugs, unreasonable mechanisms, monotonous gameplay, and slow-reacting officials.”

"I think the biggest problem lies with Shanda itself. You ruined this game by ignoring the rights and demands of players. The game version is updated slowly, account theft is serious, and bugs are not fixed in time."

"And you don't want to make progress. This is the most serious. Your understanding of the game is incredibly poor. You don't even understand the players better than the Legend Private Server."

“I don’t know if the game Warring States copied Legend or not, but I know that this game is more sophisticated than Legend, and the gameplay and graphics don’t seem to have anything to do with Legend.”

“Maybe they just paid tribute to Legend in the advertisement and expressed respect for the game Legend, but they shouldn’t use this respect as a source of pride.”

"Shanda has been living off its past success with Legend, and it's ugly. You abandoned the players, and now it's time for you to be abandoned by the players."

As soon as this article came out, many old players of Legend felt the same way and stood up to denounce Shanda and speak out about the grievances they had suffered.

For a time, public opinion criticizing Shanda was formed in all major forums.

I didn't see any criticism of "Warring States OL", but instead I just criticized Shanda.

The internet trolls controlled by Qin Shaoyan's old classmate Xiong Jiajia are ready to make a move, praising and demoting one thing and praising another everywhere, belittling Shanda's "Legendary World" and exaggerating "Warring States OL" into a 3D version of Legend.

Shanda’s public relations department was furious when they found out about this situation, but no one dared to tell Chen Tianqiao and they could only pretend that nothing had happened.

When Chen Tianqiao discovered that the campus network dared to jump out to refute, he immediately asked for greater efforts and continued to issue statements to respond.

The two sides kept pushing each other back and forth for a week.

Finally, Xiong Xiaoge discovered the situation and came to Qin Shaoyan, asking him, "What on earth are you doing?"

"I'm doing marketing promotion!" Qin Shaoyan looked at Xiong Xiaoge with an innocent expression, "What's the problem, Mr. Xiong?"

"Just promote it if you want, why are you fighting with Shanda?" Xiong Xiaoge said unhappily, "Don't make trouble for no reason, just stop it."

"I have a very good cooperation with Shanda. You see, everyone on the Internet is discussing our game now. The popularity is much better than advertisements." Qin Shaoyan said proudly.

"..." Xiong Xiaoge was somewhat helpless and sighed, "I understand."

"But you should avoid this kind of marketing, or you might end up making things worse."

"Why would you mess with Shanda? It's going to go public soon. You're not the one who would take the initiative to cause trouble."

"I haven't broken any law." Qin Shaoyan retorted confidently.

"Alright, alright, just use some regular promotional tactics." Xiong Xiaoge said impatiently, "Don't do this again."

"Okay." Qin Shaoyan felt that this duet had almost ended, and if it continued, everyone would get tired. "Then I will never respond again."

"Let's remove the advertisement as well." Xiong Xiaoge continued.

"Hmm?" Qin Shaoyan frowned. "The advertisement is innocent. Why should it be withdrawn?"

"Less trouble is worse than more trouble." Xiong Xiaoge advised, "That advertisement of yours is too stupid. Change it to something more normal."

"Okay, okay, you are an investor, so you can talk nonsense." Qin Shaoyan did not object. He had already started thinking about arranging the ghost video.

By then, the entire Internet will be filled with Taoist Shiwugou’s ghost videos, and people will be making memes on all major forums. It won’t matter whether the advertisements are withdrawn or not.

Qin Shaoyan looked at Zhang Pingyi and asked, "How about launching the internal test on December 12st?"

"It's not a good idea to just call it an internal beta test. It would be better to call it a closed internal beta test," Zhang Pingyi suggested. "The closed beta test will last for two months, and then the internal beta test will resume on March 1st."

"Okay, are you sure about transitioning from internal beta to public beta in May?" Qin Shaoyan asked seriously.

Zhang Pingyi thought about it and said, "Technically, there won't be any big problems. Teacher Fan is very skilled. It will depend on whether there are any changes to the gameplay design."

"It's up to you in this regard. If you think there's anything that needs to be modified, please let us know in advance. We'll also need to assess the difficulty of research and development."

Qin Shaoyan said confidently: "There is no need to modify the gameplay design."

"Then there will be no problem with the launch time." Zhang Pingyi was also very confident. "The two tests will only test for bugs and the gameplay will not be changed, which will save a lot of time."

"What about commercial design?" Qin Shaoyan asked.

"One month is enough." Zhang Pingyi calculated, "They are all small things, without complicated technology."

"Then let's make an official announcement." Qin Shaoyan finally made the decision, "Open the official website client for download and let the operations department prepare!"

……

Lin Haixiao hurried to the president's office, "Boss Shi, Warring States Online just announced that they will launch a closed beta test on December 12st."

Shi Yuzhu was stunned for a moment, frowned, and said, "Don't panic."

"Mr. Shi," Lin Haixiao said anxiously, "We have studied the game Warring States. It has many similar gameplay designs to ours. Now that it has announced a closed beta test, it is very likely that it will be officially open to the public next year. Moreover, it has announced that it will be permanently free. This is our competitor!"

Shi Yuzhu suddenly laughed, "I thought they were going to challenge Shanda, but I didn't expect they were targeting us!"

Lin Haixiao was very anxious, "Mr. Shi, what should we do?"

Shi Yuzhu thought for a moment, "How threatening do you think this game is?"

"It's not a big threat." Lin Haixiao frowned, "It's a very special game."

“It’s unclear what the specific situation is, but judging from the video released, it is a groundbreaking product in terms of both graphics and gameplay.”

"Especially the performance of the 3D engine, which has far surpassed all engines on the market."

"I don't care about the game engine. I just know whether Zhengtu can beat it?" Shi Yuzhu said impatiently.

"..." Lin Haixiao said hesitantly, "I don't think there is much hope."

Shi Yuzhu's face suddenly turned dark.

(End of this chapter)