Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 252 - 261 Hidden Problems

Chapter 252: Chapter 261 Hidden Problems

Gu Fan explained, "Actually, the cost-effectiveness of ’Mission 3’ is quite poor."

Lilith was somewhat puzzled, "Why? After all, this game comes with a group of players. If we overhaul it drastically and cause these players to have a lot of negative feelings, wouldn’t that be quite cost-effective?"

Gu Fan shook his head slightly, "President Li, you should think of it this way.

"This first game, compared to the next two, inherently has a premium price.

"’Mission 3’ has game mechanics and gameplay quite similar to ’Free Roaming Adventure’, not as good as ’Demon World Conflict’. Yet, its price is thirty to forty million higher than the other two games. Why? Of course, it’s because its IP itself holds a certain value, and there are some players, the game could still net about a million a month.

"But if you think about it carefully, you’ll find that these things are actually not worth the premium of thirty to forty million.

"Suppose we buy the game and do nothing, earning about a million in net profit each month, then with the cost of eighty million, it would take us seven years to recoup the investment. Even if we only consider the premium of thirty to forty million, it would take about three years to recover.

"And that’s just the ideal scenario. Under real-world conditions, this kind of old game could fail at any time. Maybe this month it could still make a profit of a million, next month it might drop to three hundred thousand, and the month after it might go down to one hundred thousand.

"Moreover, the IP of this game can’t really be considered a positive asset. Although many players have heard of the ’Mission’ name, it’s also well known to them as a somewhat boring, outdated shooting MMORPG.

"If we inherit the players from this IP, we’ll also inadvertently inherit the other players’ stereotypes about it. By accepting these players, we will have closed the doors to other potential players.

"Currently, the active player base of ’Mission 3’ is not large, and even if we modify the game and name it something like ’Mission 4’, it would be very difficult to attract enough players.

"Even if we drive all these active players away, how much negative sentiment would that actually generate? It’s hard to say."

After listening, Lilith nodded slightly, "Hmm, that makes sense!"

If it were ’Mission 4’, then no matter how much money we threw into advertising, we wouldn’t attract too many new players.

However, if it were a completely new IP, under Nitiandang’s reputation and marketing efforts, it could potentially attract a huge number of new players. Driving them away afterward might actually generate more negative sentiment.

So, spending an additional thirty to forty million to buy this premium part is indeed a bit uneconomical.

Gu Fan continued to analyze, "’Free Roaming Adventure’ and ’Demon World Conflict’, I feel, are not much different.

"However, relatively speaking, ’Free Roaming Adventure’ is a more stable framework.

"Although this game has already been shut down and is basically over, after all, it had been in operation for three years, the game surely wouldn’t have too many outrageous bugs. The gaming experience that players can get is also more consistent.

"Content-wise, it’s decent and conventional, or you could also say it’s old-fashioned.

"In contrast, ’Demon World Conflict’ is still a work in progress, the content isn’t very stable, and there might be severe bugs that could affect the player’s gaming experience.

"But after all, it’s the latest game with many innovative mechanics, which is more suitable for packaging some gimmicks to attract players.

"Furthermore, ’Demon World Conflict’ is more suitable for using Western Fantasy background art assets, which is an advantage for our Nitiandang Games.

"We can completely lure more players in with beautiful art."

Lilith was caught in a dilemma.

Gu Fan had simply helped her eliminate one wrong choice, but choosing between ’Free Roaming Adventure’ and ’Demon World Conflict’ ultimately required Lilith’s own decision.

After pondering for a moment, Lilith finally made her decision, "Then it’ll be ’Demon World Conflict’! I feel this game is the most suitable!"

The decisive factor was clearly an important one, the art resources.

’Free Roaming Adventure’, after all, was a game with a cultivation fantasy aesthetic, and it would be somewhat strenuous for Hell to produce similar art resources. Even if it were possible, it would feel somewhat odd.

But ’Demon World Conflict’ was very fitting.

For Lilith, with numerous pitfalls in the game’s content, wanting to attract as many players as possible meant the graphics had to be made beautifully enough.

In this aspect, ’Demon World Conflict’ indeed had the advantage.

Regarding the bugs in the game, Lilith also felt that there wasn’t much difference between the two games.

Although "Free Roaming Adventure" was relatively stable and didn’t have many bugs, the problem was that after buying the game, Lilith still had to make major changes!

If she didn’t change it, how could she get the players to generate a sufficient amount of negative emotions?

But once changed, all kinds of strange bugs would still appear, and the previous minor advantage of the game framework’s stability would naturally be gone.

With that being the case, it might be better to buy the half-finished "Demon World Conflict."

Moreover, making changes to the game itself also has a time cost for Lilith.

If Lilith introduced a completely new mechanism and gameplay, it’s very likely that "Free Roaming Adventure" could only adapt to 30%, while "Demon World Conflict" could fit 50% or even more.

Because the gameplay of "Free Roaming Adventure" is rather old-fashioned, while "Demon World Conflict" has comparatively more innovative gameplay and more complex mechanisms, naturally, there is also more basis for modification.

After much consideration, Lilith finally made a decision.

"Alright, then we’ll buy ’Demon World Conflict’!

"When the time comes, we’ll change the game’s name, replace all the artistic resources, and then I’ll make certain modifications to the game content.

"The modifications are expected to take three months, and after three months, we’ll start a major publicity campaign, Nitiandang’s first MMORPG game!"

...

Lilith left in high spirits.

Gu Fan then picked up the document on the desk again to take a detailed look at some of the intricate details of "Demon World Conflict."

This document was extensive and thoroughly researched; previously, Gu Fan had only skimmed through it, grasping the general framework, but he still lacked a deeper understanding of some details.

He flipped directly to the middle part of the document, focusing on the changes made to the game before and after major revisions.

The reason "Demon World Conflict" was difficult to produce and ultimately ended up as a half-finished product seeking someone to take over, was mainly due to the unreliable producer.

In the beginning, this producer was clearly very ambitious.

He wanted to create an MMORPG with an extremely high degree of freedom, different from other MMORPGs with relatively fixed jobs and skill combinations; he hoped to allow players to select skills to match freely, creating their unique builds similar to some independent games.

One could say, the idea was ahead of its time, but when it came to actual production, a myriad of problems were discovered.

There weren’t just endless bugs, but also balancing issues that could never be adequately adjusted, along with an indefinitely extending schedule...

In the end, under the pressure of investors, he had no choice but to abandon his original ideas and reluctantly returned to the same old path.

Every job’s skills and talents were set in stone.

As a result, issues with balance were resolved, and the problem with bugs was greatly alleviated, but the game became very mediocre. Compared to other MMORPGs on the market, it no longer had any distinct advantage.

Moreover, such major changes also slowed down the game’s development progress and ultimately led to its difficult birth.

Of course, to be fair, at that critical moment, regardless of whether the producer chose to be stubborn or to pull back from the brink, the result was bound to be the same. One could only say that from the very beginning, the producer’s abilities didn’t match up to his ideas, so the failure of this game was actually predetermined from the start.

It was foreseeable that within the game’s underlying code, there must still be a large number of mechanisms that might not be apparent on the surface but would, under certain conditions, still come into play.

At this moment, "Demon World Conflict" was like a massive iceberg, with the visible content of the game being the part above the sea level.

But beneath the sea level lay an even more massive portion.

Gu Fan couldn’t help but fall into deep thought: if he could make good use of this aspect, perhaps this game really had a chance to turn things around?

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