Almighty Video Game Designer

Chapter 89: Chapter 88: Thunderbolt Poker

Lin Chaoxu nodded, “Right, what do you think about Thunderbolt Poker?”

“That might be a completely original playstyle. I can’t tell the potential it has just from playing it for ten minutes, but so far I think we should be wary of it.

“It’s playstyle is similar to that of Golden or Five-card stud, but these two card games aren’t popular, and don’t even come close to Dou Dizhu in China.

“Golden Flower relies heavily on luck as everyone is completely blind to everything else other than their own cards, so it’s more like gambling where intelligence does not play a part at all.

“On the other hand, as Five-card stud has a hidden card and a revealed card, there is too much information, ruining any chance for mind games, making it difficult to become popular.

“The design for Thunderbolt Poker probably took inspiration from both of them. The players could use the community cards to determine how good the hands of their opponents are, but still incorporating some elements hidden from the players, making it more competitive.

“However, I think we still need to observe if these changes are successful. Moreover, it’s a completely new card game after all, meaning all the players will need to start fresh. Even if it were to become popular, it would take a long time.

“During this time, we could also look into inventing other card games.”

Lin Chaoxu asked, “If we make this card game as well, there aren’t any legal consequences right?”

Wu Zhao nodded, “There aren’t any legal risks. Card games are considered ‘rules and methods for mental workouts’ and aren’t subject to copyright. That means that everybody can do it.”

“That means according to your analysis, this came wouldn’t be a big problem for Emperor Dynasty during the short term, and would have no chance at converting players from our platform,” said Lin Chaoxu

Wu Zhao replied after some thought, “You could put it that way.”

“Then what if the game was promoted on the front page of Emperor Dynasty gaming platform?” asked Lin Chaoxu.

Wu Zhao was confused, “Huh?”

“Remember when Qiu Bin and Chen Mo made a bet? This was the game he wanted to put onto the promotional spot for a month,” explained Lin Chaoxu.

Wu Zhao scowled, “Mr Lin, aren’t we just handing them the advantage we have?”

“That’s why I’m asking you how big the effect would be,” replied Lin Chaoxu.

Wu Zhao was put in a bad spot, and said after a few moments, “There will probably be some effect, but it shouldn’t be too problematic. That was made by Chen Mo? Why doesn’t he promote I Am MT? Why would he promote a tabletop game?”

Lin Chaoxu said, “All that matters is that it wouldn’t cause too many problems. You’ll have to answer the other questions yourself.”

Wu Zhao nodded, “Yes, I understand. But Mr Lin, this guy has many ideas, we should probably keep an eye on him to prevent him from gaining anymore.”

“Yeah, I understand. Follow the rest of this development. The promotional spot isn’t much, but my main concern is him taking too many of our players,” acknowledged Lin Chaoxu.

Wu Zhao nodded, “I understand,” leaving the office afterwards.

Lin Chaoxu was deep in his thoughts.

This guy wants players instead of money? This kid has quite the ambition.

Lin Chaoxu also thought that Chen Mo would’ve wanted to promote I Am MT as it had strong profitability. Combined with the support from Emperor Dynasty gambling platform, it shouldn’t be a problem to double his monthly income, maybe even pushing the fifty million mark.

By that time Chen Mo would be increasing his net profits by more than ten million a month.

But Chen Mo chose to give up that money, instead choosing to promote tabletop games?

This kind of courage wasn’t one an average person would have.

Lin Chaoxu could easily tell Chen Mo’s intent.

Tabletop games don’t bring in money, and its revenue could never compete with I Am MT, but the main selling point of tabletop games was that it made it cheap to acquire players. Combined with the newly released Thunderbolt Gaming Platform, it was obvious that this play was to drive users to his platform.

However, it didn’t matter even if Lin Chaoxu knew what he planned, Emperor Dynasty Entertainment would never use dirty moves just because of Chen Mo’s potential threat as there were many spectators waiting for drama.

—

Can tabletop games not make money?

It doesn’t exist in the parallel world, but in Chen Mo’s previous world, tabletop games were one of the hidden money makers.

The reason was because of the various shady methods the videogame designers of the previous world did that the videogame designers of this world haven’t thought of yet.

However, Chen Mo didn’t plan to profit from this.

Why were tabletop games not profitable? Because players lacked the drive to continue spending money. The noobs who keep losing wouldn’t win from spending money, and would quickly realise how meaningless the money they spent were. Other games might give them an advantage if they pay, but if you were bad at tabletop games and kept spending money, you may as well donate that money.

The players who were good weren’t willing to spend money either, as they could earn beans using their skills. Moreover, one the players reach a certain amount of beans, such as tens or hundreds of millions, the beans wouldn’t make a difference anymore, they would have no point in spending money, and the players would slowly lose interest.

Therefore, more often than not money goes into tabletop games and nothing comes out, usually resulting in losses. The desire to buy in-app purchases for most players are heavily suppressed.

This meant that it was common knowledge in the industry that tabletop games made no money.

The in game currency for tabletop games, such as Happy Beans were strictly banned against converting into real money. The law states that any tabletop game that allows exchange of currency both ways are considered gambling, making it illegal.

Once convicted, not only would the game need to be taken off the market, the maker might need to face jail time.

And in Chen Mo’s previous life, most makers of the game rode on the grey area to evade prosecution to make money.

For example, if the currency exchange was set overseas, and the currency exchanger allowed conversion both ways, the developer would take a cut as profit.

And in game, through the use of private rooms, players would be able to move the currency between accounts. The player would then be able to exchange that for real currency using the overseas currency exchanger.

Many tabletop games companies would profit this way, and some of these companies would make tens of millions this way through tens of thousands of their players.

Texas hold ’em was especially guilty of this. Ninety nine percent of Texas hold ’em games used this model and would rake in scary amounts of profit.

However, Chen Mo decided to keep this secret to himself forever, wishing that this model would never appear in the videogame industry of this world.