Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

In a mere one-odd hour, Qiao Liang had already completed his first run of the game. Evidently, this game encouraged multiple tries; after one finished the game once, he would then be returned to the very first room and start from the beginning. What was different was when the second try began, players would get some initial funds based on the previous play(s).

Some unique game genres in the game like MMORPG required a huge sum of development funds. When players who just started out tried to choose this genre, unless they made every single choice correctly, if not; the chances of success were zero. They would fail because of a lack of funds.

However, with some initial funding from the second try, the rate of success would be higher for such larger-scale genres.

Qiao Liang did not immediately start on his second try but actually sunk deep in thought.

This game… was rather special!

It was hard to describe this feeling.

When the game had first begun, Qiao Liang was stunned. It kept on picking on his inertial thinking and threw all his supposed game knowledge out of the window. The game’s name was Game Designer; the content was as such. Gamers had to take on the role of a game designer and design a game that would be assessed and evaluated by the games market ultimately.

When he had first entered the game, there weren’t many things that stood out to him; Qiao Liang actually wanted to quit.

Although this game supported using both a mouse and a joystick, players could only at most move around or change their viewpoint. The entire gameplay comprised running around continuously; even doors were opened for them, and they didn’t even need to interact by opening the doors, much less having any fighting elements to it.

After running into a room and choosing one of the doors, that meant the game had proceeded to the next key segment. If it wasn’t that this game’s artistic style was indeed outstanding and the scenes within each room were very on-point, Teacher Qiao felt that he would have stopped playing right at the beginning.

Something else that irked people was… the voice-over.

Originally, Qiao Liang had thought the voice-over was only simply narrating the background story of the game. However he played, he realized that this voice-over was actually around the whole time. It kept on making its presence known as well.

It kept on laughing at me; it has never stopped!

After entering a room and making a choice, the voice-over would use that cheap and provocative tone to suggest something.

For example, when selecting between low and high paywalls, the voice-over would try his best to insinuate players to choose the high paywalls option. The worst was this voice-over was probably a professional management trainee; his sarcasm was extremely on-point!

If he didn’t go along with the voice-over suggestion, he would be mocked. If he went according to it and ultimately still failed, he would still be mocked.

All in all, this voice-over’s presence was to give bad ideas and then continuously attack the players’ self-confidence. Its words were extremely venomous while it really triggered people to want to beat it.

Many a time, Qiao Liang had been so infuriated that he actually wanted to yank the voice-over out from the computer screen and beat it up good.

Qiao Liang was very puzzled; what was the point of this voice-over’s presence?

Was it just to disgust players? That did not make any sense!

Confusion and anger… these were Qiao Liang’s first impressions of the game.

However, as he progressed in the game, Teacher Qiao actually felt something different. He discovered that that teasing voice-over was actually the hidden essence of this game! If one purposely did not choose according to the voice-over among the array of choices available, the voice-over would have different responses.

At the beginning, the voice-over would not seem to care and just pretend to be a little helpless. Slowly, the voice-over would start to grow a little irritated and start to explain to players what the consequences of not listening to it were. Then, the voice-over would become angrier and vexed as its words would become sharper and harsher, and it wouldn’t hold anything back. After being enraged, it would then explode just like thunder.

Until the end, where the voice-over would enter a stage of resignation and indicate that the player was useless as it would adopt an ‘I’ll quietly watch and see what other stunts you can pull’ stance.

At every concluding scene, the voice-over’s response would be very interesting.

If players listened to its recommendations but failed, the voice-over would mock them coldly; it would mock them for being people-pleasers and without their own opinion, that they deserved to fail. If players did not listen to its recommendation and failed, the voice-over would still mock coldly and indicate that if players had listened to it, they would not have failed; and they deserve it. If players did not listen to the voice-over and still succeeded, the voice-over would become adamant that if its advice had been taken, players could have gotten a greater success!

Although no matter what the sarcasm would still come, the difference was when players succeeded, the voice-over’s tone would be rather sulky; it was very interesting.

Qiao Liang suddenly grew intrigued by this dubbing person and was curious how he managed to do this. How had he managed to grasp voice-over so well and knew the different levels of each emotion confidently!

While being teased by the voice-over, Qiao Liang once again found many interesting points of this game.

After close investigation, the artistic style of this game was not only ‘not bad’, but ‘very outstanding’! The snapshots in each setting were especially good at boosting the atmosphere. Together with the perfect music and sound effects, the realness of the setting would be enhanced. By looking at both settings big and small, this was evident.

The unique artistic style made this game’s artistic feel very strong; it was very classy. From the second try onwards, after trying different combinations in choices, Qiao Liang reached a different ending; however, it was all a huge surprise to him!

The first try, as he had listened to the voice-over’s advice and had chosen a high paywall, the game’s reputation had become bad. Although he earned money, the sustainability of the game was called into question and mocked by the voice-over.

The second try, Qiao Liang became obedient as he chose a benign and less expensive method. Ultimately, as the game did not have enough revenue due to players paying too little, he could not recoup his costs and was mocked once more.

The third door, Qiao Liang completely listened to the voice-over. This time, it was even worse; and the voice-over had mocked him bitterly.

Qiao Liang was really so angry he wanted to smash his joystick.

This was really messed up! Why was it that every decision led to a bad ending; was this game playable? However, after facing many setbacks, Qiao Liang took his time to learn from them and found the depth of this game.

Players were game designers in the game. What Qiao Liang had experienced… wasn’t that the daily lives of game designers in real life?

That hateful and detestable voice-over; that could be viewed as one’s internal greed or even keyboard warriors and bystanders on the sidelines. Some of the voice-over’s suggestions were coincidentally good and accurate; some were completely wrong.

As a game designer, it was hard not to face interference. If he didn’t have his own opinion, he would definitely fail. If he was adamant on his way and didn’t listen to suggestions, he would probably fail as well.

Only if he took it in advance and analyzed carefully and seriously, making the best decisions numerous times, could he achieve great success!

Actually, not only game designers… but any producer or developer in the cultural sector all were like this, right? On this route they have chosen, it was a very lonely one for creators. It was tough but precise… so that the final achievement and success was so sweet!

Without realizing, Qiao Liang found out that the corner of his eyes had gone damp.

Qiao Liang himself was also a content creator. Making videos and games were both a form of cultural production; it was actually very similar in terms of mentality. Qiao Liang couldn’t help but recall all that he had experienced.

He had poured in his heart and soul into one episode; it had flunked. In order to survive, he had no choice but to accept some sponsored partnerships and—as a result—was scolded badly by fans. He didn’t dare to show his face for a few days. Every time when fans sent him private messages in long chunks that expressed how disappointed they were with him, he would be a little sad.

However, he soon grew used to it. After all, nothing lasted forever. He welcomed new fans, tried to be loyal to old ones; if someone really left his fan group, he would wish them well and all the best.

Perhaps in a certain video he made, he had caught onto something popular and had gained in popularity which was seemingly attributed to him being lucky. However, it actually had a lot to do with the huge amount of experience and work he had prior.

In Game Designer, Qiao Liang resonated with all these. He realized that the producer of this game was a genius! This game seemed to be crude, disgusting, and tyrannical. However, wasn’t that a clear reflection of life?

In reality, many game producers had suffered much; who among them had not been laughed at and mocked at before finally achieving success?

Some had been so exhausted that they quietly quitted. Others forged ahead, not forgetting their passion and drive. Some gave up on their ideals and became the most hated version of themselves.

Every single mentality had been introduced in this game; only one who thought deeply would realize that!

It was just like a cup of top-grade tea. Initially, it might taste a little biter. Slowly, one would then taste a sweet aftertaste. After taking time to enjoy this flavor, one would then realize this was like life, the fickleness of it. After finishing the tea, one would still be filled with memories about it.

Qiao Liang sat in front of his computer as his heart was suddenly filled with emotions.

“It seems like… I have wrongly blamed Boss Pei…

“To be able to create this kind of game, how could he be a petty person?

“I want to do another video!”

Qiao Liang once again went to the Potato Web platform. He looked at his two segments now that were split into ‘Trash Games Diss’ and ‘New Recommended Games’.

He hesitated; it seemed like these two segments were not appropriate.

After considering for a while, Qiao Liang created a new one.

“Products of the Gods”!