Losing Money to Be a Tycoon
chapter-68

After researching online for a long time…

Pei Qian still could not understand how Ocean Stronghold became so popular!

He went through the comments section and found that the gamers were basically divided into two camps: one was for the game and one was against the game. Both camps were arguing profusely.

A mysterious alphabet C appeared on Ocean Stronghold’s ratings. There were a fair number of people who rated it with five stars but also a fair number rated it with one. In the end, its overall rating was 7.3.

The length of one star was short, but it was still longer than two stars.

The comments were not great, but they were not bad either.

As for the gamers’ reviews, they were mixed.

Pei Qian looked through all the gaming platforms, websites, and forums; just to look for more reviews on Ocean Stronghold. He even found a couple of hot topics that discussed Ocean Stronghold, Counter Strike, and Bullet Hole.

In the end, all of it left Pei Qian even more confused.

“I didn’t think that a domestically-produced game could do so well in terms of its story mode. Five stars for sure!”

“Four stars! I’m taking one away for its name. This is a great game that nearly got hidden away thanks to its name!”

“The final scene where the Ocean Stronghold exploded, and the little girl was taken away moved me to tears! It’s so moving indeed! I was very sucked into the main lead’s character. Few domestically-produced games made me feel this way!”

“This game’s PVP mode is very novel. The biochemical mode and apparition mode are ingenious creations, and they’re very fun as well! I am a handicap that’s always being tortured in PVP mode, and yet I could still have so much fun playing in biochemical mode!”

“Are the people praising this game all fake reviewers bought over by the gaming company? What lousy hand sensitivity. How dare they praise this game?”

“Lousy hand sensitivity? What a joke. Just because you’re not used to the hand sensitivity, you’re saying it’s lousy? I think this game is much more fun than Counter Strike. The feeling of making countless headshots is amazing!”

“This lame game is selling one weapon for 888 dollars, and the various weapons are even split into different types. How do they have the cheek to say that this is a competitive game? It’s insulting to other competitive games!”

“I don’t think anyone here called it a competitive game… and only a few ballers would bother buying that Red Kilin, right? Every other part of the game is free-of-charge. Even the game itself is free! What’s more, the Red Kilin adds very little to the game overall. I think the creators were already being very kind!”

“I think so, too. Bullet Hole, on the other hand…”

“Hehe, please stop talking about Bullet Hole. We’re talking about Ocean Stronghold and Counter Strike now. Whoever talks about Bullet Hole is inviting all the fake reviewers!”

“Holy sh*t, how do you justify your Ocean Stronghold stealing the thunder of our Bullet Hole? Aren’t you ashamed?”

“Stealing your thunder? Stop messing around. Your game is rubbish. Naturally, gamers would run over to Ocean Stronghold. Talk about stealing your thunder… might as well say that Counter Strike is stealing your thunder as well.”

…

Pei Qian’s head was beginning to hurt.

He did not understand; he really did not understand!

He kept scrolling through the forums, searching. Still, he could not understand how Ocean Stronghold got to be so popular!

After ‘The Lonely Desert Road’ got popular, Pei Qian found Teacher Qiao’s video.

After Ghost General became popular, Pei Qian found Ruan Guangjian’s Weibo.

However, after Ocean Stronghold became popular, Pei Qian could find anything responsible for it.

It was very strange indeed.

Logically, for a game to become popular, a wave of people must have marketed it crazily. They must have made the game become a hot topic before official games platforms begin recommending it. Slowly, the game would become more popular.

Now, the main problem was that Pei Qian could not figure out where that first wave of people was!

Pei Qian really could not understand.

Yet, he had to understand.

He had to understand where Ocean Stronghold went wrong!

As the saying went, one learns from one’s own mistakes. Only by analyzing where Ocean Stronghold went wrong could he avoid making the same mistake in the future!

Otherwise, if he tries to create another game and it becomes popular for no reason, how would he be able to handle it?!

People could not allow themselves to fall in the same way twice.

Pei Qian thought about it for a long time.

He had it!

I really cannot figure out where this game went wrong, but I am the boss! Why must I do this myself?

I could get Huang Sibo to do the analysis and then hand the report to me!

Just thinking about Huang Sibo made Pei Qian’s blood boil. Although he could not see clearly what had happened, this HSB[1] had to have something to do with making Ocean Stronghold so popular!

Good story mode?

Novel PVP mode?

This was obviously all thanks to Huang Sibo and Bao Xu!

I have to make Huang Sibo do a detailed analysis. Once I figure out who was responsible for this, I will settle the score with him afterward!

At this point, Pei Qian finally sent a message to Huang Sibo.

…

Huang Sibo was still trying to calm down after finding out that Ocean Stronghold attained so much success.

All of a sudden, he realized that Boss Pei had sent him a message: “Write me a detailed analysis on why Ocean Stronghold became so successful. Cover everything from its design to its marketing, and make sure you leave nothing out. Then, send it to me directly.”

Huang Sibo paused for a couple of seconds, and immediately replied, “Yes, Boss Pei!”

Although a ton of work was being thrown at him, he was not in the least bit angry. Instead, he was overjoyed!

He felt just like a top student being assigned work by his teacher.

Why did Boss Pei want this detailed report?

Was it because he did not know why Ocean Stronghold succeeded?

What a joke, of course not!

Boss Pei was the one who set the direction for the game.

He was also the one who decided that this game would be publicized without any marketing effort on their part.

It was obvious that his understanding of the game far surpassed everyone else’s!

Why was he asking for this detailed report, then?

The reason was simple: he was helping them digest the learning points!

This was akin to a teacher asking his students to hand in an end-of-term review after finishing a test. The teacher’s only hope would be to help his students absorb as much experience as they could from the test, so that they could keep improving!

This shows that Boss Pei values me!

Otherwise, of all people, why did he assign this task to me?

Huang Sibo was extremely excited. He immediately opened the relevant files and began organizing the information. At once, he started to write everything he knew about why Ocean Stronghold succeeded!

…

…

A few hours later, Pei Qian received this report.

He quickly scanned through it.

In front of the report, Huang Sibo wrote about where Ocean Stronghold succeeded. For example, the lowered difficulty invited a huge group of ordinary gamers. The exemplary story mode and the love gamers had for domestically-produced games earned a good reputation.

The variety of PVP modes…

There was no barrier of entry, which allowed gamers to download the game without any pressure.

The 888-yuan Red Kilin satisfied the ballers’ thirst to show off and act cool. The stats of the Red Kilin were considered quite controllable. What’s more, it had the effect of adding experience to the other players in the room. As a result, ordinary gamers did not despise those with Red Kilins but welcomed them instead.

Reading this analysis made the corners of Pei Qian’s mouth twitch.

What is going on…?

It went so differently from the way I expected…

Am I holding the wrong script?

Weren’t these the reasons Ocean Stronghold was supposed to fail? Why had they all become reasons that Ocean Stronghold became popular?

Pei Qian suppressed the urge to kill himself and read on.

What followed was the analysis on how Ocean Stronghold was marketed and publicized.

He had to find out who the mole was!

[1] This is an acronym for Huang Sibo.