Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 371: The Real Culprit Is Still Myself
Pei Qian really wanted to switch to another hero, but he had already locked it in, and the match was about to begin.
He had no choice but to make do with it.
Even before entering the game, Pei Qian had already noticed a rather ominous sign.
Everyone had very tacitly chosen their lanes!
Next to each player's avatar was a tag. The other three players quickly adjusted theirs to read: Mid Lane, Roamer, and Bottom Lane.
Ma Yang also solemnly changed his tag to "Commander."
Pei Qian clicked on the tags and discovered that only one was left: Top Lane.
He couldn't help but be startled, wasn't this the classic lane distribution he remembered?
Something wasn't right.
Pei Qian suddenly had the strange feeling of having traveled through time.
The names Top, Mid, and Bottom hadn't changed, but "Jungler" and "Support" had been renamed to "Roamer" and "Commander."
In Pei Qian's memory, this kind of lane distribution in League of Legends had already appeared in Season 1.
Although the game hadn't fully taken shape in S1 and lane assignments were still somewhat chaotic, by the time of the Season 1 World Championship, top European teams had already developed this setup to maximize team resource efficiency.
After that, this style became known as the "EU meta," flourished, and was later officially recognized by Riot Games as the standard lane arrangement.
Facts proved that the benefits of this structure far outweighed its drawbacks.
Its biggest advantage was that it greatly reduced the difficulty for newcomers.
Each lane had clear standards, suitable heroes, and defined playstyles. Even if new players didn't fully understand the game, as long as they faithfully performed their assigned roles, five random players could still coordinate effectively as a team.
At the very least, they wouldn't fight each other for resources and start internal conflicts before the match even began.
No matter how you look at it, this system shouldn't have appeared until at least a year later.
So why has it already shown up in GOG?
Although the terminology was slightly different, the actual effect was basically the same.
And whoever came up with this was quite sly, "Support" wasn't called Support, but Commander instead.
No wonder someone like Ma Yang, who loved the spotlight, would willingly play this role…
Pei Qian felt a trace of unease, but after thinking it over, he decided not to panic.
They had just entered the game. Only after fully experiencing it could he draw conclusions.
Pei Qian first reviewed the abilities of this "Coin-Spraying Hedgehog."
The passive skill was spending money.
The Q skill made him spray coins after being backstabbed.
The W skill was driving employees away to prevent overtime.
The E skill was sending employees on trips.
The R skill was continuously backstabbing himself…
Pei Qian's face turned green.
Who designed this hero? There's something seriously wrong here!
An allegory. Absolutely an allegory!
If this were the dark old society, this would definitely qualify for a literary inquisition!
But then Pei Qian reconsidered. This was the bright new society now. As a boss, he should be magnanimous.
Fine. When the time came, he'd simply send the designer on an all-expenses-paid trip to the East African Rift Valley, or perhaps gift them a surprise haunted house package.
As the game progressed, Pei Qian discovered even more problems.
Compared to Divine Revelation, this game's difficulty has been drastically reduced!
Even with terrible last-hitting, you could still earn gold. You didn't lose money when you died. Shutting down a kill streak granted bonus bounty. The entire map had been shrunk, making it faster for teammates to rotate and support…
Pei Qian felt increasingly uneasy.
The entry barrier had dropped significantly!
However, as he kept playing, he also noticed some relatively optimistic factors.
First of all, the game balance was a mess.
Pei Qian realized that this Zadkiel was simply too strong!
Not only was he extremely tanky, but even with normal development, his base damage numbers were quite impressive.
During team fights, as long as he timed his ultimate well and picked the right moment to enter, he could stir up absolute chaos in the fight. He could use his W skill to block the enemy's retreat, then charge straight into the crowd and start spraying coins like crazy.
Even when retreating, he could deal damage to enemies while running away.
He could even use his E skill to throw Ma Yang into the middle of the enemy team, which was hilariously fun.
Of course, Ma Yang quickly took revenge by having Taotie swallow Pei Qian's hero whole and spit him into the enemy crowd.
But the outcomes were worlds apart.
Pei Qian, as a super tanky top-laner, could soak damage and dish out damage at the same time. Being spat into the enemy team by Ma Yang was basically a perfect team-fight initiation.
Meanwhile, the Taotie Ma Yang was playing was just a relatively tanky support. After being thrown in by Pei Qian, he was quickly focused and beaten up badly.
Of course, the opposing side didn't dare go all out, they only beat him up symbolmetrically and then let Ma Yang escape.
After all, they didn't want to lose their jobs.
After playing around a bit, Pei Qian realized that the current version of GOG seemed to have barely considered balance at all.
Or maybe balance had been considered, but not nearly enough.
The gap between strong heroes and weak heroes was so huge that the weaker ones were basically unplayable.
Secondly, although the game was playable, there were still occasional small bugs. They didn't break the game, but they were definitely annoying.
Moreover, many of the details weren't polished yet.
For example, the hero models, animations, art style, and some specific in-game mechanics all still had lots of room for improvement.
In short, the game was still just a half-finished product, and it was still a long way from being a complete one.
…
After the match ended, Pei Qian gave the current version of GOG an overall evaluation.
If you had to talk about its current advantages, it was basically just the fixed lane system and the changes to the in-game gold acquisition mechanics.
But in the areas that matter most for a MOBA game—such as balance quality and character IP—GOG wasn't doing particularly well.
What's more, even when it came to "lowering the entry barrier," GOG still hadn't taken things to the extreme.
Objectively speaking, the current GOG was still far from good enough.
Pei Qian felt a little more at ease. In the short term, this game probably wouldn't stir up much of a storm.
As for the issue of Zadkiel maliciously alluding to President Pei…
Pei Qian decided not to pursue it. After all, the hero was so strong and so fun to use, it's clear that the designer still had some conscience.
But while the hero could be let go. The game itself could not.
Because the game still had hidden risks.
Staring at the half-finished GOG, Pei Qian fell into deep thought.
The most urgent task was to figure out exactly who these changes had come from…
He Desheng leaned over. "President Pei, what do you think of the suggestions we gave? Not bad, right?"
Pei Qian: "?"
He was momentarily confused.
"Your suggestions? What suggestions?"
He Desheng froze for a moment. "The game modification suggestions! Increasing minion gold, shrinking the map, fixing the lane assignments… those were all suggestions we made!"
"Sure, our original intention was to give President Ma a better gaming experience, but judging from the results, it was pretty successful, right?"
He Desheng's face was full of self-satisfaction, clearly fishing for credit.
After all, ever since Dream Fulfillment Ventures invested in Fingertip Games last time, they hadn't had much to do.
Although He Desheng and the others reported directly to Ma Yang, everyone knew that President Pei was the real big boss.
You could serve President Ma perfectly, but if President Pei decided to cut staff, wouldn't that all be for nothing?
So He Desheng wanted to seize this once-in-a-lifetime chance to show off in front of President Pei.
He had to make sure President Pei knew that even though Dream Fulfillment Ventures hadn't had much to do lately, everyone was still doing their utmost to serve Tengda Group!
And this wasn't even taking credit for nothing, these ideas really were the result of collective brainstorming, and they truly had produced good results.
Compared to the normal version, the "President Ma special edition" of GOG was more popular at Moyu Internet Café, and the data reflected this very clearly.
He Desheng figured that even if President Pei didn't give everyone a raise on the spot, at least he'd quietly remember the brothers' contributions in his heart, right?
Sure enough, the corners of President Pei's mouth lifted slightly into a meaningful smile.
"Mm, your suggestions were very good and very helpful."
He Desheng felt a bit embarrassed. "You flatter us, President Pei. This is what we should be doing!"
Pei Qian smiled on the outside, but inwardly: yeah, right.
Gotcha.
And this time, the fish had bitten the hook all on its own!
Pei Qian hadn't even suspected this angle at all. He had assumed that the changes to GOG must have been the handiwork of Li Yada's design team, what could Dream Fulfillment Ventures possibly have to do with it?
But He Desheng had just self-destructed and confessed outright!
Damn it, He Desheng, back when I saw that name, I shouldn't have kept you around!
Pei Qian maintained his smile. "So why did you think of submitting modification suggestions to GOG in the first place?"
He Desheng smiled and explained, "Actually, our original intention was just to make sure the game mechanics wouldn't restrict President Ma's outstanding gaming talent."
"And we didn't only give suggestions to GOG, we sent the same suggestions to Fingertip Games as well."
"President Pei, you don't need to think too much about it. We just did what little we could, within our limited ability."
He Desheng looked completely humble.
Pei Qian was taken aback, and his line of thinking shifted.
What caught his attention wasn't the polite talk, it was that one sentence in the middle.
They sent the suggestions to Fingertip Games too?
Wouldn't that mean that IOI and GOG were back on the same starting line?
No, IOI was definitely still far ahead of GOG. After all, Fingertip Games had more investment, a longer development cycle, and more manpower.
Mm… it's a false alarm.
Since IOI was still way ahead of GOG, there was no need to worry too much.
In the end, there could only be one winner anyway.
Even if GOG managed to make some money in the short term, as long as they kept buying IP rights diligently, they could easily spend it all away and it wouldn't cause any real trouble…
Thinking this way, Pei Qian finally relaxed a bit.
Thank goodness. This He Desheng—his crime didn't warrant the death penalty.
Pei Qian had almost sent him on a "tour" of the East African Rift Valley.
Since that was the case…
Death penalty waived, but punishment still required.
They absolutely could not be allowed to keep playing games like this!
Pei Qian glanced at Ma Yang, then at the gold-tier "carry squad" around him.
Thinking carefully, where had all this nonsense started?
GOG had been made more newbie-friendly because He Desheng and the others offered suggestions.
They offered suggestions to improve President Ma's gaming experience.
And President Ma played games all day because…
He had nothing else to do.
Why did Ma Yang have nothing to do?
Because after he'd burned through those 20 million, Pei Qian hadn't given him any more money, and Dream Fulfillment Ventures had completely ground to a halt.
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more it felt like…
Wasn't the real culprit still me?
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