Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 404 Xianxia Universe

It is certainly not an easy task to build the "Big Universe of Boiling Academy". It does not mean that a universe view can be established by simply transporting some novels and film and television works. It must first have a mass base. Everyone recognizes and is familiar with this view of the universe. In order to form IP and create value.

In 2004-2005, even after several years of tossing by Fang Jie, many changes have taken place in all walks of life in this world, but the inertia of history is strong. In addition to bringing a greater impact on the game and Internet industries, other aspects Actually not much has changed.

Especially for metaphysical things like cosmology, everyone doesn't have this concept in their minds now. The development of the online literature industry has indeed advanced a bit, but compared with the previous life, the industry ecology is slightly ahead for more than half a year. In addition to changing the website into a game , in fact, the difference is not very big.

At least the readers are still new to online novels with themes such as online games, comprehension, prehistoric, apocalyptic, suspense, etc. As for the comics section, it has only initially built a framework, and more of them are Nissan comics that have already been listed and have copyrights. Domestic comics are still struggling to get off the ground.

As for the currently relatively mature world view, the Jin Yong martial arts system is definitely one, but there are too many people staring at this big IP. Fang Jie can cooperate with the "Jin Yong Qi Xia" series of online games, and there is no need to compete with others further. Fry this fresh rice over and over again.

The second is the Xianxia universe view.

This refers to the classical fairy tales, not modern comprehension. After all, modern comprehension has not yet come out of the circle, and it is only the beginning of its emergence in the online literary world.

The theme of Chinese Xianxia is actually a very complete cosmic system. The typical representative work is "Journey to the West", and then there are "Shan Hai Jing", "Huai Nan Zi", "Strange Tales from a Liaozhai Studio", "Fengshen Romance" and other wonderful books.

In Xianxia works, there are often all kinds of beings from the six worlds of gods, immortals, humans, demons, demons, and underworld (ghosts) appearing, integrated into the growth process of the characters, and the characters often have various magic weapons and fairy weapons.

The Xianxia universe is the most well-known to the majority of Chinese people, and has even been integrated into culture, religion, and customs, similar to the western medieval magical universe view.

Since we want to make a universe IP, of course we must pick the soft persimmons first, and Xianxia universe is the best choice.

But there is a problem that the Xianxia system exists more in the form of folklore, and the subject matter is relatively old.

Although during the 90s, the country filmed the TV series "Journey to the West" and "Feng Shen Bang", which aroused great social repercussions and formed a scene of empty streets, but now it is the 21st century, and such themes need innovation to gain public recognition. Will pay for it.

Another problem is that it is relatively "fragmented", that is, those who work on this IP are fighting alone without forming a joint force, so that the value of this big IP is far from being tapped.

For example, the IP of "Journey to the West" shoots its own TV series at the national level, and writes its own novels on the Internet, such as "Wukong Biography", the Greater Bay Area makes its own movies, and NetEase makes its own games. Havoc in Heaven, "Nezha" and other movies, but the situation is still the same...

What Fang Jie has to do now is to participate in it, integrate all resources, and formally promote this big IP concept.

Its purpose is to make money on the one hand, and the deep purpose is to engage in cultural output.

The stinky and long garbage novel "Harry Potter" in the Western world can be made into a world-renowned magic-themed big IP, and our Chinese fairy tale theme can also be done!
Don't talk about cultural differences, people can come in, we Chinese can accept magical themes, talk about Voldemort all day long, why can't foreigners accept fairy tales?
In fact, those fairy-tale idol dramas in ancient costumes from the Xiaoxianrou period in the previous life are still very popular overseas. Many foreigners even learn Chinese, search for information and translate idioms, and gradually fall in love with traditional Chinese culture.

Moreover, cultural output and making money are complementary.

Once the world accepts China's Xianxia universe, then all kinds of related cultural products can be sold at a high price!

Therefore, this matter has to be done, even if it is difficult, even if it does not make money at the beginning, it must be done first!
In fact, as early as when he was helping NetEase to tide over the difficulties and produced "Westward Journey II", he was already planning this matter. "Westward Journey II" is one of the IPs of Xianxia universe.

The online game "Journey to the West II" has always been the top three in China in the number of online players. The first is "Legend", followed by "Miracle MUD", and then it is it.

In 2004, "The Legend of Jin Yong" became the first, "Legend" was second, and "Journey to the West II" was still the third.

But in 2005, thanks to Fang Jie's conscious promotion and the earning word-of-mouth of "A Chinese Journey to the West II" itself, the number of online players jumped to the first place, and "The Legend of Jin Yong" came in second.

As for "Legend", an old game that has been in operation for many years, it finally dropped to the third place. Then under Fang Jie's arrangement, "Legend" embarked on the old road of "Wulin" and opened the free mode, which is equivalent to retiring to the second line I started to retire.

After "Legend" was announced to be free, many domestic games such as "Miracle MU" also adopted the free model. Therefore, 2005 was also called "the year of free online games" by the online game industry, officially opening the era of free games.

The free-to-play mode has the benefits of the free-to-play mode, but this also further promotes the success of the excellent "Westward Journey II" made by the game economic system, and it is also one of the reasons why "Westward Journey II" can become the online game with the largest number of online players in 2015 one.

After all, free-to-play games can open unlimited trumpets at no cost, and the involution is serious, and the official itself is selling game props and game coins. It is difficult for professional players to make money in it, which is basically a restricted area for studios.

It is also difficult for ordinary players to have a good experience. Normal players will not exhaust themselves to open N trumpets, nor will they spend too much money on virtual game props, which makes the distribution of game resources extremely unbalanced, and soon Then I realized that I was just a training partner.

Therefore, "Westward Journey II", which is well-balanced and profitable, broke out in its second spring by such a coincidence. As for "The Legend of Jin Yong", the game is relatively brain-intensive and complicated, and it is still played in "Westward Journey II". The simple gameplay of Ghost Run Ring is more attractive to novice players.

Of course, this also had a lot to do with Fang Jie's push behind the scenes.

In order to create an integrated fairy tale universe, the promotional focus of Boiling Academy in 2005 is "Journey to the West" fan fiction and classic fairy tale novels.

For this reason, Boiling Academy has organized several essay contests for fairy tale novels, including the "A Chinese Journey to the West II" fan fiction essay contest jointly held with Pig Farm. The prize money for the first prize in each contest is as high as 10 yuan!

The method of selection is online voting by readers, and those who are eligible to vote must be "senior" students who have a "student ID card" of Boiling Academy and whose identity level has reached "primary school student" or higher. Therefore, although the situation of swiping votes still exists, the impact is minimal .

Incidentally, this move has also further enhanced the gameplay and user stickiness of Boiling Academy, increased the value of the "student ID card", made it more superior and pretentious, and greatly increased the number of students in the academy.

According to the votes of the players, "Zhu Xian", which is still nearing the end of its serialization, firmly ranks first in the general list of fairy tale novels.

This novel is about Zhang Xiaofan, an ordinary boy at the foot of Qingyun Mountain. His parents died because of the massacre of Caomiao Village. He was accepted as an apprentice by Dazhufeng of Qingyunmen. Burning a fire stick with a weapon, while embarking on the road of the strong, it also plunged him into a huge crisis.

Whether it is the name of the protagonist Zhang Xiaofan or the fire stick in his hand, readers are deeply impressed and easy to understand. It is essentially an inspirational story about the rise of grassroots.

Perhaps, this kind of online literary works are indeed not rigorous enough, and the literariness is not too strong, so they are not seen by the traditional literary circles, and they are still criticized by many literary circles, but if it comes to innovation, who else can I!
To create the IP of Xianxia universe, innovation is the most critical.

If, like "Dream of Red Mansions", I hold a novel and study it over and over again, and even develop an independent knowledge, Fang Jie wants to say: I don't know the truth, and I am very Resby, but this kind of self-indulgent behavior, It has no meaning for cultural output, not even basic science popularization significance, and it is not as popular and realistic as "Those Things in the Ming Dynasty".

For example, the somewhat pretentious sentence "Heaven and earth are not benevolent, and everything is a humble dog" originally from "Tao Te Ching". Before the release of "Zhu Xian", not many readers knew about it, but after the novel was released, this sentence quickly disappeared. Everyone knows that this is also a kind of popular science education of traditional culture, at least it allows readers to add some strange knowledge.

What's more, "Zhu Xian" does not pull the hips. The whole novel is ingeniously conceived and magnificent. It opens up a unique and charming fantasy world of oriental fairy tales. The plot is ups and downs, and the characters are distinctive. Struggles, battles of fate come together.

The inspiration for "Zhu Xian" comes from "The Legend of Swordsman of Shu Mountain", but the content and themes are derived from "Shan Hai Jing". absorption, enrichment and development.

Judging from previous lives, "Zhu Xian" is an enlightenment chapter in the field of online novels, and has an unshakable position in the online literature world. After that, many online novels used it as the basis to build one after another fairy world, and only then did Xianxia come into being. The situation of a hundred flowers blooming in the novel.

It is precisely because of the inspiration of this novel that many other excellent fairy tale novels such as "The Legend of Mortal Cultivation of Immortals" and "The Fate of the World" have exploded under the stimulation of essay contests and bonuses.

In addition, there are many more innovative comprehension novels emerging, but at the moment, comprehension themes are not suitable for creating universe IP, and the readership base has not yet been fully established.

And the blowout of countless outstanding fairy-tale novels has also detonated the reading market of such themes.

Under the herd effect and concentration effect, during this period readers liked to read novels about fairy tales the most, and fan novels are also fine, anyway, as long as they have a relationship with fairy tales, the reading data and income are significantly higher than other novels. type of fiction.

While reading these novels, readers also gradually have a comprehensive understanding and cognition of the Xianxia system. No matter how innovative these novels are, the framework remains the same, so the Xianxia universe view, especially the classical Xianxia universe view, is gradually established. Woke up.

Of course, it is not enough just to make efforts on the Internet side, and to create a cosmic IP requires the linkage of the entire entertainment industry.

The first is the game. In 2005, in addition to the second spring of "Journey to the West II", Boiling Games also produced and launched a 3D MMORPG large-scale online game with the theme of Xianxia-"Zhu Xian".

It didn't take much work for Boiling Games to make this game, or the art department was a little busy, because the main job was to change skins and special effects.

In essence, "Zhu Xian" is actually the oriental version of "Magic World". Except for the different skins and mission plots, other things, such as the game engine, framework, system, and gameplay, are almost carved out of the same mold.

Now that the production of "Magic World" is almost completed, the production of "Zhu Xian" is naturally no problem.

Don't think that this kind of game is not sincere, at least in the eyes of the players, it is quite sincere.

Because this is 2005, the classic 3D large-scale MMORPG online game in the world is only "World of Warcraft", and it will only land in China in the middle of this year.

So such a game is actually quite tall in the eyes of players, so it is also quite looking forward to.

Moreover, Boiling Games also issued a press announcement saying: "Zhu Xian" is the oriental version of "Magic World", and the gameplay is very similar. Those who like fairy tales can go to "Zhu Xian", and those who like western magic themes can go to "Zhu Xian". "Magic World", it is not recommended to play two games at the same time, which is of little significance.

Not only did this statement not be complained by the players, but they praised the Boiling game for its power. Thinking what the players think, they actually made a game into two completely different styles for players to choose from. It really is a conscientious company... …

Well, conscience is only about the boiling game, not the leader, nor the boiling academy. Anyway, Fang Jie's public opinion is not as good as it used to be.

Fang Jie doesn't care about these things either. With his current status and achievements, some things are inevitable. If he cares too much, he will not be able to live this day.

So he still just continued to move forward unswervingly according to the route he had set. In addition to letting his own company launch "Zhu Xian", he also cooperated with Jinshan Company to produce and develop another fairy-like 2D online game "Fengshen Bang".

The game "Feng Shen Bang" was originally developed by Jinshan Company in the previous life. It was used as a supplement to the "Jian Wang" series of online games to fill the blank period between the "Jian Wang" series' listing, so the company is not very interested in this game. Pay attention to.

As for its gameplay, it can only be regarded as a traditional kimchi game, or the "Fengshenbang" series can be regarded as a reskinned version of the "Jian Wang" series, just like "Magic World" became "Zhu Xian" after the reskinning , The martial arts "Jianwang" changed its skin, and it became the fairy tale "Fengshen Bang".

Therefore, this game not only inherits the smooth game advantages of "Jianwangyi", but also inherits the disadvantages of kimchi, unplayable, and poor balance.

As an ordinary player, Fang Jie's evaluation of it is: You can play it for a while, and it is relatively refreshing, but you can play it for three months, no more, because the game will almost be useless by then.

Not to mention the specifics of this game, anyway, it is at least one of the sideline plot supplements of Xianxia Universe, so let's just make up the number.

In addition to web articles and games, of course, film and television dramas have also been laid out.

In 2004, Boiling Entertainment invested in two upcoming TV series, namely "Myth" and "Legend of Sword and Fairy".

In fact, he also invested in the movie of the same name as "Mythology", which is the one in which Kim Hee-sun participated.

Fang Jie didn't know how much money the movie made, because it wasn't worth wasting his attention, he only knew it wasn't a loss.

As for the "Mythology" TV series, Boiling Entertainment is only the largest investor, and is not responsible for the specific casting and filming. Except for the designated heroine, that is, Kim Hee-sun who was pulled by Fang Jie as a model worker, the other actors are all from the original cast in the previous life. Boiling Entertainment did not dictate other aspects.

Like the previous life, the show was a great success after it was released, and it also gave Chinese audiences a clearer understanding of time-travel dramas, and it is relatively easier to accept TV dramas of this type.

The first time for Chinese audiences to see time-travel dramas was "Looking for the Qin" adapted from Huang Yi's novel by the Greater Bay Area in 2001. Although the drama was changed beyond recognition, it still fascinated countless audiences.

But at that time, there were also many viewers with traditional thinking who sneered at it. For example, Fang Jie's father, Fang Wanxing, commented on him in four words: nonsense!
This is probably the main reason why it is difficult for time-travel dramas to pass the review in China.

Because the people of the previous generation thought that these were all made up, and they couldn’t understand the imagination and fun of them like young people. They could watch the TV all day long, watching weird spy movies and anti-Japanese dramas with relish, but accepted But this kind of plot is reasonable, it is just a new type of script with an unconventional background setting.

At the moment in 2005, the young people born in the 80s have gradually grown up, so the public opinion environment of the drama "Mythology" is much better than that of "Looking for the Qin".

Of course, the drama "Mythology" itself also has a lot of remarkable points. It is not purely an idol costume drama that does not have much nutritional connotation in later generations, but involves various schemes, especially the hero who plays Zhao Gao. A well-known actor in the Bay Area portrayed the characters vividly and won wide acclaim from the audience.

Although this drama is just an ancient costume drama and seems to have nothing to do with the Xianxia Universe, it actually has a lot to do with it.

Because most of the novels released by Boiling Academy now and in the future will almost always choose time travel in terms of the background setting of the protagonist, even if it is rebirth, it is actually a kind of time travel.

If we want to vigorously promote the Boiling Academy universe in the future, not only the Xianxia universe, but even other universe views, the premise is that everyone must accept and understand the basic setting of the protagonist's time travel, otherwise once it is expanded into other entertainment products, it will be like "Looking for Qin Ji" ", was scolded by audiences like Fang Wanxing as nonsense.

For example, if we want to shoot a TV series adapted from the web novel "Dead Rising", first of all, the setting of Zombie Rising is already weird enough. If the protagonist is a modern person who has traveled to the end of the world, it will appear even more out of the ordinary, at least for a TV like Fang Wanxing. It is not easy for mainstream audiences to accept it.

It is true that even if Fang Jie does nothing, everyone will slowly accept the common script setting of the protagonist traveling through time, but he can't wait that long. Since he wants to promote this industry, he naturally has to backfire.

For example, taking advantage of the fact that the relevant state departments are not too strict, invest in a few more time-travel dramas, so that the audience can accept and get used to the setting of the protagonist's time-traveling, then the road ahead will be easy, at least not even going through the trial. The problem was directly cut off.

If the "Mythology" time travel drama is to pave the way for the future, then the TV series "Legend of Sword and Fairy" is the creation of a serious fairy tale universe.

In the previous life, the "Legend of Sword and Fairy" game and series of TV series were a big IP, but the capitals only promoted those actresses and made some money, but they didn't make full use of this IP to create a systematic Xianxia universe.

It cannot be said that those capitals are short-sighted, it can only be said that it is a natural selection driven by interests, and thus lost a larger market.

For this drama, Fang Jie not only participated in the investment, but also participated in the adaptation of the script.

I didn't make too many adaptations. It's nothing more than expanding the world background of the whole play. Through some details and hints, "Legend of Sword and Fairy" was incorporated into the Xianxia universe system, making it a part of the Xianxia universe world. A side story.

For example, the key supporting role "Jiu Jianxian" in the play is set as a disciple of the Shushan Sword Sect, and he is a registered disciple who is not very good. A casual cultivator who has just touched the threshold of cultivating immortals.

In the secular world, these two are indeed extremely powerful existences, but once you zoom in on the map, you will find that the Shushan Sword Sect is only the "leader of the 72 immortal sects in the world". It may be invincible in the world, but in the fairy world, farts are not , Even the Immortal Realm is not qualified to enter, any little transparent in the Immortal Realm can easily destroy the Shushan Sword School.

Another example is Zixuan, a descendant of the female baby, who is actually a descendant of the descendant. The clone of Nuwa that appears in the play is just the clone of Nuwa's descendant in the fairy world, not the clone of the real girl.

In other words, after an expansion and adaptation, "Legend of Sword and Fairy" has become a mortal side story in the world of Xianxia universe, which is the tip of the iceberg. In the plot, there will be some hints in the dialogues and scenes of the characters Or leave some clues, foreshadowing the overall expansion of the Xianxia universe in the future.

This kind of conscious digging is obviously more forward-looking than forcibly integrating the world view in the future. The initiative is completely in your own hands. The audience was shocked—I didn’t expect this work to have such a connection with the XXX work N years ago. It turns out that the characters in it live in the same universe!

Isn’t the concept of the big universe IP just like this? Once the audience establishes this view of the universe, then all the branch plots and characters can be developed to be the main drama and the protagonist, such as Monkey King, Zhu Bajie, Erlang Shen, Nezha, Jiang Ziya, Daji and so on in "Fengshen Bang".

And Fang Jie's plan is not limited to these historical masterpieces. Xianxia web articles and games can also be continuously added to this universe view. The Jiujianxian and Juggernaut in "Legend of Sword and Fairy" can completely create a protagonist drama alone. come out.

Of course, Rome was not built in a day, let alone a fairy-tale universe, which involves the entire Chinese fairy system and countless branches and expansions below. It takes time to build slowly, just like stacking blocks, only step by step come.

However, in Fang Jie's opinion, there is one thing that feels like it was built in a day - Boiling Venture Building and Taiji Tower were completed and put into use at the end of January 2005!
(End of this chapter)