Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Teacher Qiao started analyzing the deeper intentions of Game Designer.

The voice-over represented one’s greed and other’s opinions on their path forward.

The game created an ‘immersive’ feeling via the first-person narrative and the surroundings. At the same time, it created a ‘distanced’ feeling using the voice-over. This atmosphere was truly worth reflecting on for the players.

The choices that the player faced each time completely duplicated the thoughts of game designers. Once one had played the game, one would then understand how hard being a game designer was!

Other than that, Teacher Qiao had elevated the intentions of the game to another level.

“When playing the game, I felt that it resonated deeply with me. Why is that so? I have never had any experience relating to producing games. When I probed into that, I realized that was due to the similarities between producing videos and producing games.

“Or rather, almost all cultural content creators had the same mentality.

“Loneliness.

“As the saying goes, it is destined that the speaker will be misunderstood. The content in Game Designer showcased this point. The performance art outside the game itself showcased that, too.

“Maybe, this is Tengda’s motive for producing this game. They may have already predicted that the sales numbers will be a disaster and that they will not be able to recuperate their loss. However, they hope that they could achieve one thing: they want us to find serenity in this impetuous world. They want us to do things patiently and think patiently as well.

“Where did we come from, and where will we head to? In this impetuous society that we are in, how should we live? What exactly should we be pursuing?”

…

…

After watching this video, the viewers before their screens all sank into complete silence. So… that was what happened?

The ending question in the video pounded on their hearts like a heavy hammer.

When they saw Teacher Qiao’s previous video, many thought that Teacher Qiao was a monkey; and they were the audience to his antics. Right now, they realized that it was actually the reverse. Everything was the reverse!

The viewers were the monkeys, and Teacher Qiao was the one playing with them!

A sponsored video that was so stupid and dubious managed to deceive all its viewers and created a new meme—’Qiao-logy’! All the viewers and netizens participated in this performance art unwittingly. After an experiment, the results were disappointing.

These were the netizens that would ride the wave without thinking deeper!

Very soon, the number of likes for the video skyrocketed. The number of comments increased exponentially, too!

Originally, ‘Qiao-logy’ had become a trend that was in fashion. Many netizens wanted to show off their ‘Qiao-logy’ and keep up with the gossip when they heard that Teacher Qiao had uploaded a new video.

Therefore, this episode received a lot of attention from the very beginning! When the viewers discovered the ‘truth’ behind the video, their mentalities turned 180 degrees. This could be seen from the comments.

“What the f*ck? This is actually a large-scale performance art?”

“Why had game companies become so… ‘innovative’?”

“I’m sorry, my dearest son. Dad had misunderstood you. I will like and forward your video immediately!”

“Teacher Qiao, a contemporary artist!”

“It is destined that the speaker will be misunderstood. I’m crying. What about you guys?”

“I have never expected that Game Designer had such deep intentions. I’ll give it another try!”

Of course, some people thought that Teacher Qiao was trying to whitewash his reputation. However, those voices were quickly buried by other comments. That was because Teacher Qiao’s explanation was more reasonable and appealed to the netizens’ understanding!

Once the episode was released, many players who had originally quitted the game halfway decided to be patient and give it another try. Those who had yet to experience the Game Designer because of their distaste previously also decided to try it out. They wanted to see if the game that Teacher Qiao called a ‘masterpiece’ lived up to the title.

…

…

Swan Lake Restaurant…

Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. was having a company dinner celebration! Dinner celebrations after a game was developed and released had become a tradition for the company since Ocean Stronghold.

As for the reason why they chose the same restaurant…

They had no choice. It was the most expensive restaurant in the entire Jingzhou City. Pei Qian had wanted to fly to Beijing to have an even better meal, and yet the system did not allow him to do so.

He could only settle with this.

Pei Qian walked between the tables with a glass of red wine in his hand. He found that the others did not seem very excited. This was normal. The sales records for Game Designer had come to a standstill. How could they be in the mood for a dinner celebration?

This was different from the previous time.

Previously, they had the company dinner immediately after the release of Ocean Stronghold. They did not have much psychological pressure at that time and could hence enjoy their food. However, this time around, Game Designer had been released for three days; and the sales numbers and reputation were both lower than their expectations.

Therefore, other than Pei Qian, the rest were unable to eat to their hearts’ content.

“This is our cohesion event! You guys should be enjoying yourselves! Why do I feel that you guys are in low spirits? Is the food not up to your expectations? Since you guys are in such low spirits, you should order the most expensive things on the menu. Waiter! I’ll order three plates of bluefin tunas for everyone!

“My dear employees, you should be setting a good example. You have come here before and know what’s expensive. Don’t let me see anyone hugging and eating from a tub of ice cream!

“Furthermore, this is Ma Yiqun, our new member. He had great qualifications and is very knowledgeable. Make sure you guys take care of him, do you understand?”

Pei Qian was full of energy and seemed as though he had received good news. He was busy entertaining his employees and making sure that they were having a good time.

Some people were not drinking wine?

It’s okay. Boss Pei would raise his glass wherever he went. It was hard for the employees to turn down their boss’s toast.

Of course, Pei Qian’s toast was a completely different concept from normal drinking cultures.

In traditional drinking cultures, the act of encouraging one to drink—especially when a leader forced his employees to drink—was to establish a sense of authority. The purpose was to make the employees feel miserable from drinking too much and therefore establish this submissive relationship.

However, that was not Pei Qian’s motive.

They were drinking red wine which was less likely to make people drunk. Moreover, Pei Qian did not set a requirement for how much they had to drink. It was acceptable if his employees merely sipped a mouth.

His main purpose was to encourage them to eat more food. Everyone’s mood was a little down. Drinking some wine would increase their appetite and could ease their moods. Of course, after a few rounds of drinks, the mood evidently turned for the better!

Pei Qian was very happy. He got some delicious food for himself and started eating to his heart’s content.

He had never been so happy in ages!

Up to this point, everything was going smoothly. The internet cafe was losing about three hundred thousand yuan each month. There were no signs of any possible profits.

Although the short video became popular, he had declined all those little sponsored partnerships. He had yet to receive any bigger customized requests. Therefore, the revenue was zero.

The reputation of Game Designer was alright, and so were its sales figures. According to the current trend, there was no way the game would be able to recuperate its loss!

Pei Qian felt that his food seemed even more delicious due to that thought.

Happy!