Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 279 - 288: Let’s Create a Similar Model!

Chapter 279: Chapter 288: Let’s Create a Similar Model!

Beyond that, the active player data for Shadow World was truly shocking to Ji Heng.

In the first few days after the game’s launch, the active player count of Shadow World continuously declined, especially on the second day when the numbers significantly plummeted.

But in the past few days, the active player count for Shadow World had been skyrocketing.

This was in stark contrast to Ji Heng’s judgment!

Ji Heng felt that, even if Shadow World had introduced such a hidden mechanism, it shouldn’t have had much impact on players who had already quit. At most, the game’s active players could have remained stable or increased slightly.

But now, the data showed that many players had indeed been persuaded to return, or rather, that a large number of players had been attracted to play without any massive marketing campaign and there had been no subsequent mass exodus!

If one were to look at online public opinion, this trend was even more apparent.

Almost all of the public opinion available to date had been praising the new game mode of Shadow World.

Although each person praised different aspects, the general feedback was: thrilling! Fun! Interesting!

This naturally made Ji Heng uncomfortable, because he had misjudged.

What made him even more uncomfortable was what Kang Yong would say next.

"This seems like a new trend and direction; should we consider... following suit?"

Although the tone seemed consultative, Ji Heng was well aware that this was actually more of a direct notification.

The tone was polite, but it was merely a formality from the leadership. If you weren’t respectful, the leadership could find ways to make you respectful.

Ji Heng was smart; he didn’t need much explanation to get the point.

From an outsider’s perspective, Kang Yong’s urgency seemed somewhat irrational.

After all, Shadow World had only been officially on sale for less than half a month, and it had only been five days since Instructor Ding discovered the full profession hidden mechanism that triggered the heat safeguard for the game.

In such a short period, many things had not yet been verified.

For instance, whether Shadow World would run out of steam later on, whether the full profession gameplay would be patched by the official team, or if this style of play had any hidden negative effects?

Making a decision to imitate at this stage was indeed a bit hasty.

Not to mention, "World of Star Spirits" was a game that was operating stably and generating steady profits at the moment.

But as the producer of "World of Star Spirits," Ji Heng could understand why Kang Yong was so anxious.

The reason was simple: although "World of Star Spirits" looked alright at the moment, its state was closer to "hanging by a thread" or "a flash in the pan."

After all, it was a four-year-old game; despite continuous version updates, the loss of old players and the failure to attract new players were realities.

Since the game had only so much content, simply releasing higher levels and developing more raid content was just a stopgap measure; it couldn’t fundamentally reverse the declining trend.

The current revenue might look good, but in reality, this was only possible due to the official launch of various highly discounted recharge promotions and appearances.

If one were to take a closer look at the backend data, they would realize that in recent months, the online player count for "World of Star Spirits" had been steadily decreasing, and several server merges had even been forced.

Although it wasn’t quite evident on the surface, in truth, the game’s player count was verging on a critical threshold.

Once that threshold was crossed, the player base would cascade away at an alarming rate, and the game’s revenue would plummet as if off a cliff.

Nobody knew when exactly that threshold would be breached or how fast the decline would be.

Considering that as a large project, changes required time—even the simplest new version would need at least a month or two of frantic overtime from the complete staff to finish.

So, if changes were to be made, they had to be done as soon as possible—the sooner, the better.

Actually, even before, Ji Heng had thought of many ways to change, but none had been implemented.

The reasons are quite simple: most of these measures are not very reliable and cannot convince everyone!

But now, the brand-new mode introduced in "Shadow World" had achieved some success, giving Kang Yong a glimmer of hope.

Ji Heng was silent for a moment before saying, "President Kang, do you mean to suggest that "World of Star Spirits" should also launch a gameplay for all professions similar to this?"

Kang Yong nodded, "That’s right. With so much content in "World of Star Spirits," it’s a treasure trove waiting to be tapped. This type of gameplay might be revolutionary, but once it’s successful, it can utilize all the existing content, which is extremely cost-effective!"

As a game that had been in operation for four years, "World of Star Spirits" has numerous versions, a plethora of team dungeons, and rich professional skills.

In terms of content, it certainly has much more to offer than "Shadow World."

If "World of Star Spirits" could also create a classless gameplay mode, then the vast library of professional skills could cause a surprising chemical reaction. Then, merely exploring these existing features would keep players entertained for a considerable amount of time.

If successful, it might truly bring a second spring to "World of Star Spirits."

Of course, to talk about whether it would be difficult to make this change? Of course, it would be challenging.

"World of Star Spirits" was initially created based on the standard MMORPG template, with defined classes. To switch to a classless mode, all aspects related to class settings would need to be removed, and a new system encompassing all skills and talents would need to be developed.

However, although the work is tedious, it wouldn’t be too difficult. Any technical team willing to dedicate time to it could accomplish the task, let alone a formal organization like the Shengjing Group.

Ji Heng gave no immediate response; he pondered seriously for a while, and then said, "President Kang, it’s possible.

"However, modifying the official server directly now is a bit too risky. I think we should launch a pilot test server, or perhaps an experience server.

"In the experience server, we would lift the class restrictions, allowing all professions to learn skills from other professions. Of course, the learning quota for different skills would vary, and there would be limits on the total number of skills and talents.

"Broadly speaking, it would follow the approach of ’Shadow World,’ taking the essence and discarding the dross.

"In this experience server, I will make balance adjustments targeting the mainstream builds developed by the players. Once the balance adjustments for the first version are roughly in place, and the player demand is high enough, we could release it as a brand-new version and roll it out to all players."

Kang Yong was delighted, "That’s perfect, that’s exactly what I want!

"Ji Heng, it’s so convenient to talk to a smart person. This way, we can also share in the buzz created by "Shadow World."

"No, we might even turn the tables!"

Kang Yong’s confidence was not utterly baseless. Although "World of Star Spirits" was artistically less impressive than "Shadow World," it had been operating longer, had more volume, and more content. Once the class restrictions were broken, players would have more combinations at their disposal than in "Shadow World."

Plus, with the return of veteran players, financial backing from Shengjing Group, and Ji Heng’s rich operational experience, they might indeed surpass the original.

If "World of Star Spirits" could be successfully revitalized, grabbing a wave of "Shadow World" users would be sweet revenge for when Nitiandang poached Old Wei!

Ji Heng stood up, "Alright, President Kang, I’ll go back and arrange the work immediately and quickly finalize the development plan.

"If all goes well, we could launch a pilot test version within two months, no, one and a half months."

Speed is of the essence in warfare, and Ji Heng had to hurry.

Based on the experience of domestic game companies, it’s either not to do anything at all, or to do it as fast as possible. You can’t afford to hesitate, ending up with money spent and missing the hype.

The timeline Ji Heng had set was just right.

The current hype for "Shadow World" is still going strong and, by estimates, this level of interest should last at least three more months.

Even in the most optimistic scenario where players could figure out the optimal combinations, or class pairings within a bit more than a month, they would still have the goal and motivation to tackle higher-level team dungeons.

Assuming a standard ten-person team consistently works on progressing every week, it would take them at least more than two months to clear the epic difficulty of the second team dungeon.

After all, the output of each team dungeon is fixed, which is a primary method most MMORPGs use to extend the playtime of their users.

If "World of Star Spirits" could launch a test version at this time point, it could capture the moment when players start feeling fatigued with "Shadow World," seizing both the hype and the users!

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