Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 432 Let's Be Worse Thieves Together
Domestic players really can't afford "PUBG Mobile", not because they have no money to play, but because this game is made according to the configuration of later generations, which requires high computer configuration. If domestic players want to play, they have to change their computers first. But it is too high, not for ordinary people to play.

What's more, there are more than N routines in it, and it's nothing more than cheating foreigners. It's outrageous to cheat your own people. The same is true for "Journey".

In addition to these two games, the version upgrade of "Ark: Survival Evolved" is also on the agenda.

When Fang Jie was working on Ark World, he didn't think too much about the game planning at the beginning. It was just a whim of a sandbox game, and then gradually improved and evolved to the deformed appearance it is today.

Regardless of its financial attributes, the gameplay is actually very average, and the difficulty is far beyond the average game. Under normal circumstances, it is the effect of direct persuasion, not the overcrowding of today.

In fact, it is not overcrowded. At present, there are more than 2000 million players scattered on a primitive earth, which is still very rare. Human beings cannot be called the absolute overlord in this virtual world.

What's more, these so-called "overlords" are still killing each other and conquering each other. This can be seen from the current revenue of Fangzhou International.

As of March 2008, the revenue brought by Ark World to Fangzhou International is 3 billion US dollars!
This is also the reason why Fang Jie was worried that the fee of 0.1 US dollars would be too high when setting the price. He made so much money by accident, and he was a little flustered.

If you do the math, you will know that 0.1 US dollars is resurrected once, 40 billion US dollars, which is equivalent to the total number of resurrections of players in Ark World reaching 400 billion times in the past six months!

If you calculate the average value, there are currently as many as 2000 million players in Ark World, which means that each player died 2000 times in half a year, and resurrected an average of 11 times a day...

Of course, 1 day in reality is equivalent to 60 days in the game, so 11 deaths in two months in the game, the frequency is not very high.

But obviously, this can never be a natural death, but must be a battle casualty!

The actual background is: the international economy is going down, Citigroup continues to open the gates to release water, and the large amount of banknotes in the hands of the capitalists continues to depreciate. They need to find a place to avoid danger. Therefore, Ark World, which can make money, maintain its value, or even appreciate it, has become everyone's favorite.

And after all kinds of ghosts and snakes entered the Ark World, the involution began.

In reality, everyone can only sigh and be more introverted.

If it is rolled up in the game, there will be no benevolence, justice, morality and laws to talk about, it will be war directly!
At first, it was just players launching small-scale village fights in order to dominate the mines and grab resources, and they just played Ark World as a game.

But with the large-scale entry of capital, the nature of this game has gradually changed, and it has become an enclosure movement in which big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat shrimp. Therefore, the player tribe has carried out the second and third times Mergers formed large and small city-states, controlling one or more nearby resource production areas.

This merger process was not so friendly. It was accompanied by all kinds of bloody killings. Those former tribal leaders thought they were high-ranking and charismatic, and they could fight for hegemony, but they found that they were nothing in front of capital. , was killed in minutes.

Of course, there are also some smart, courageous and well-meaning Niubi Gaowan who stiffened their necks and resisted. From this, many tragic heroes were born, and some players even wrote great works of online novels, which were widely circulated.

For example, one of the stories is that because Yigaowan’s family was ruined in the game, he saw with his own eyes that the tribe he built with his own hands grew from scratch, from depression to prosperity, and then was slaughtered and turned into scorched earth, and was finally annexed by capital-controlled business tribes. , Angry but launched a desperate act of revenge.

This person is also a leader. He has been revived countless times to carry out assassinations in the enemy's city, and even if he dies, he will pull a back. Just to win this breath, he has now recharged tens of thousands of dollars!

As the reputation of this indomitable hero gradually increased, he won the support and love of many players and villagers, and everyone joined the resistance army one after another. After a arduous struggle, everyone finally defeated the evil enemy tribe Kicked out of that territory and established his own free city-state, the hero also became the city owner of the free city-state!
Of course, in fact, this is just a heroic story told by the capital, just like those Hollywood blockbusters, it cannot withstand scrutiny.

This matter is indeed true, but in fact, the heroic city lord was given to Zhao'an by the hostile capital tribe as early as the early stage of the independent resistance, and the expenses for the subsequent resurrection were all paid by the capital behind. With the high salary given by the capital, including some high-level executives who joined the rebel army later, they were actually extra performers hired by the capital.

The hero and the capital, the two sides performed a typical western story of a fallen prince turning over, and then the capital asked the gunman to write a wonderful script and posted it on the Internet, which aroused strong repercussions, and many players and netizens who did not know the truth joined in. The rebel team.

Therefore, after a lot of manipulation, the capital spent only a small amount of money to advertise with excellent results, and recruited a large number of free land reclamation workers. As for the resources and city-states that were taken away, it was nothing more than changing an agent to manage them Well, in fact, there is no loss at all.

There are many stories similar to this kind of "grassroots rise", and the script is also very good. Adapt the classic passages such as "The Frog Prince", "The Count of Monte Cristo", "The Three Musketeers", and "Zorro" , and then draw a scoop according to the gourd, it is a story of individual heroism that can arouse strong resonance among netizens.

Of course, the current civilization process in Ark World has not yet evolved to the age of firearms, and everyone is still fighting with cold weapons, and even the Iron Age has not yet fully entered, but this also increases the twists and turns and drama of struggle and resistance, otherwise people will take it. Machine gun fire, even if you are a great hero, even if you can be resurrected infinitely, every time you appear on the stage, you will be instantly killed into a hornet's nest. This story is not good to write.

Don't be surprised, the progress of civilization in the Ark World at this time is indeed just getting out of the Stone Age and entering the Bronze Age, and the way of human warfare is still very primitive.

After all, even with 60 times the time flow rate and efficiency bonus, everyone knows all kinds of modern knowledge, but the improvement of productivity and the acquisition of resources cannot be improved in one click or two. This is in line with the general law of exponential changes. Slow development, faster and faster.

Now the biggest obstacle restricting the upgrading of civilization and productivity in the Ark World is mainly the traffic problem, or it can be said that the business activities are not running smoothly.

More than 2000 million people were placed on the primitive earth, and everyone is now basically clustered near the place of origin that is suitable for survival and has special resources. This will cause serious problems of resource bias. Some resources are so abundant that they are everywhere, such as Trees, animal hides, some resources are extremely rare or even non-existent.

For example, on the European continent, Eastern Europe is a plain, and various resources, especially iron ore, coal mines, and oil resources that are in greatest demand, are quite rich, which is conducive to the development of industrial civilization, while Western Europe is either a beach or a highland. Relatively speaking, resources Very poor and difficult to develop.

If you choose Western Europe as your birthplace, the competition for resources is very fierce. For a certain iron ore resource, tribes and tribes, city-states and city-states fight every day, causing countless casualties. But if you choose the inland areas of Eastern Europe, rare minerals and forests are rare , commercial transportation is a big problem.

After all, the cost of land transportation is too high, especially on a primitive earth. In the absence of modern transportation tools, the loss of personnel and materials in the middle of the journey is quite large, and it takes a long time, not to mention some capital tribes. It is the work of robbers who stop and rob.

However, there are many smart people in the world, especially those who play Ark World as a financial game. They hired some economists and historians as game consultants to help them guide them.

Then these consultants pointed out sharply: The best development route should be to learn from the Roman Empire, first engage in offshore trade, colonize the Mediterranean, build an economic circle around the Mediterranean, and then connect the East and build the Silk Road. In order to communicate with each other, accelerate the process of civilization, and gain strategic initiative!

Makes sense!

It seems that we are going to commit suicide and resurrect again, and change the place of origin to develop. As for the resource production areas that we occupied before, let those "grassroots heroes" help us take care of them, and by the way, we can tell a wave of good stories and good scripts.

And some larger and more formal capital, such as a group of bigwigs on Wall Street, have not only economists and historians in their think tanks, but also financiers.

This group of think tanks pointed out: It is recommended to develop in America or Africa. These two places are sparsely populated with less competition and more gold resources. Although there is no official currency or game currency in Arkworld, the gold inside will replace reality sooner or later. Currency becomes the general equivalent in this world and forms its own currency system.

Therefore, the gold resources in Ark World are equivalent to currency. Instead of staring at those messy resources, it is better to directly produce "money". As for the inconvenience of ocean trade and transportation, there is no rush before the development of technological civilization. , even without realizing it, it is a hard currency, and it will be more valuable than the dollar in the future!

Look, this is the real giant capital whale, which has anchored the top of the financial system in Ark World from the very beginning. It doesn’t care about short-term capital and time cost losses at all. The entire investment plan is for 5, 10 or even 20 years. I will go later.

In addition, these capitals also found Fang Jie in private and put forward their own demands: We hope that when Ark Games develops and upgrades the next version of Ark World, it should make targeted inclinations and settings for ocean trade, and accelerate economic and trade development. Exchanges make gold and silver the general equivalent in the world, which is very beneficial to us.

Fang Jie immediately stated: "Yes, yes, I have the same intention, so let's do it!"

So years later, Fang Jie went to the Greater Bay Area in person. At the Ark Game Project Seminar, in addition to throwing out the two game plans of "Journey" and "PUBG Mobile", he also officially proposed a new version of "Ark: Survival Evolved". Upgrade plan.

The name is: "Ark: A Century of Voyage"!
Different from the first version of the Ark World circle game, the new version will be directly produced in accordance with the standards of 3A masterpieces, and it is a luxurious 3D game.

Of course, as he said before, it is said that it is 3A, and it is not bad to be able to get 0.5A.

Anyway, the gameplay of Ark World is not strong, so rely on a lot of funds and publicity routines to turn the game into a Hollywood commercial blockbuster!
But then again, from a certain point of view, if carried out according to Fang Jie's plan, "Ark: Voyage Century" can be regarded as meeting the 3A standard.

First of all, not to mention the capital investment, it must be massive.

Secondly, its own map resources are huge. Even so far, more than 2000 million players have not even opened up 1% of the map resources in Ark World. Another point that everyone may have overlooked: in Ark World, more than 60% of the map resources The map area is ocean.

And "Ark: Age of Voyage" is obviously a version that favors the ocean economy. If we focus on the development of ocean map resources and gameplay, it is equivalent to the amount of data in the previous two Ark worlds. This alone is enough to win On the 1A standard of "substantial resources".

Coincidentally, the online game "The Age of Voyage" has just been developed in China. The type belongs to the combination of MMORPG+sandbox, and many resources are common.

At that time, Fangzhou Games will just pay for Boiling Games to buy the resources. Not to mention the relevant art resources and engine systems, they can be used directly, which will save more than 50% of the workload. .

As for "a lot of time", although there are ready-made resources that can save a lot of development time, it does not mean that this game cannot meet the 1A standard. It took a few years to tinker with it, so it certainly meets this 1A.

Therefore, "Ark: Voyage Century" is a 3A masterpiece. No matter who you tell this gimmick, you can't fault it!
However, Fang Jie only has a general framework in his mind on how to make this new version of the game. The specific details need to be brainstormed by everyone. This 3A project cannot be handled by him alone.

And there is another key problem: "Ark: Navigate Century" is a 3A game alone, of course, it is not a big problem, but if it is an upgraded version of "Ark: Survival Evolved", those map resources on land, How to change from 2D circle to 3D?

It’s not that it can’t be changed, but the workload is too great. The ocean, coast, and ship resource data can be transferred from the domestic “Great Voyage Era”. The workload is relatively small, but the resources on land can only be done by ourselves. Well, this is by no means something that can be done within 1 or 2 years.

At the project seminar, the planning, art, and programming of Ark Games were helpless.

Especially foreign employees, when it comes to the planning ideas of "Ark: Voyage Century", they are more and more strange than the other, but when they talk about how to upgrade "Ark: Survival Evolved" to the same version, they immediately shut down mouth.

We don't do this kind of boring coolie work!

In the end, it was Fang Jie who made the final decision: "Well, since you dislike the tiring and dirty work, the upgrade of the land part of "Ark: Survival Evolved" will be outsourced to Boiling Games to finish slowly. As for "Ark: Navigation" "Century", let's make a separate game, and then embed it into "Ark: Survival Evolved."

"That is to say, before the upgrade of "Ark: Survival Evolved", the ocean area will be upgraded to a 3D version. When the player leaves the land to carry out ocean trade or island activities, it will automatically switch to the game system of "Ark: Nautical Century" , when players return to the mainland, they will also return to the 2D circle of "Ark: Survival Evolved" again."

Everyone in the meeting nodded, saying that this is a good idea. Since the overall upgrade cannot be completed at once, let's upgrade part of it first.

Moreover, "Ark: Nautical Century", as a relatively independent and more refined game, will also bring more gameplay and game experience to players in the Ark World. It is difficult to achieve, and the only worry is that the world of Ark will become somewhat nondescript.

But the nondescript thing is not only not a problem, it may be a good publicity stunt for Arkworld.

Because as early as the beginning, Fang Jie said that Ark World is a game world that is constantly upgrading. Now it is only because the game resources are too large that this kind of upgrade method can only be upgraded first.

Since even the 3A masterpiece is just a block in Ark World, doesn't this just make Ark World even more compelling?
After this proposal was unanimously approved by everyone, the next step is to discuss the specific gameplay settings of "Ark: Voyage Century".

In terms of game settings, it is obvious that you cannot do things on your own. It must conform to the overall rules and basic framework of Arkworld. It still needs to simulate the earth's climate, geography, biology and other ecological environments. This is the premise and cannot be shaken.

Secondly, the game type must also be an open sandbox game. In fact, it is nothing more than changing the ocean area into a 3D game environment. The core mechanism of the game is the same as that on land.

Of course, there are still some peculiarities. At least the ocean and land are two different environments. In terms of gameplay, in addition to DIY building ships and ocean-going trade, the naval battle system must be designed into it. Otherwise, what is the favorite pirate IP of Westerners? Not wasted in vain.

If players don't become pirates and don't fight sea battles, how can Arkworld make money?

But Fang Jie felt that relying solely on the autonomous evolution of Ark World, it was not enough for human beings to have ocean wars due to competition for interests. Internal friction and consumption had to be further stimulated, otherwise he was not worthy of being a qualified capital.

So after some discussion, in addition to simulating the ocean environment, "Ark: Century of Voyage" also added some extra materials, adding many islands on the basis of real geographical charts.

These islands are not large in size, but their resources are quite rich and rare, such as the most typical rare resource, guano.

Guano is a good thing. Its main ingredients contain ammonia, uric acid, phosphoric acid, oxalic acid, and carbonate, from which phosphorus, nitrogen, and potassium nitrate can be extracted, and these are the main raw materials for fertilizers and gunpowder...

Once the human beings in the Ark World enter the age of firearms, under the undeveloped technological civilization, before human beings light up the synthetic ammonia technology, then whoever has more bird droppings will be awesome.

In other words, these islands are strategic resources from a certain point of view, and they are battlegrounds for military strategists. You must know that in reality, many small island countries have become rich countries by selling bird droppings.

Of course, humans in the Ark World can also directly dig saltpeter mines on land to refine gunpowder, but this is too troublesome, not to mention the scarcity of resources, the long distances and inconvenient transportation, the mining efficiency is also low, and they have to compete with other forces .

But if it is an island, the whole island may be piled up with bird droppings, and if you just shovel it down, it will be full of bird droppings. If you drive a big boat and come back with a full load, you will be able to blow up the hostile forces and cry your father and mother!
As for why there are so many guano islands in "Ark: Age of Voyage", isn't it because this is the original earth, there is no greenhouse effect, the sea level has not risen, there are more islands, and more guano, which is normal okay?

Ark World or Fang Jie, the question that really needs to be explained to the outside world should be: Didn’t you say that the resources are constant, why are there so many extra resources out of thin air?you lied!

Oops, I'm really sorry about this, I only considered the situation on land at the beginning, and the resources on land are indeed constant, but for marine resources, didn't I even make a map carefully at the beginning, so naturally the resources are not constant.

Anyway, once "Ark: Nautical Century" is released, the marine resources will be settled, and this is not an example.

After this game plan came out, some capital also recalled: This is wrong!Even if the ocean resources are constant this time, if you make a space version in the future and say that you didn’t consider the problem of constant space resources before, will there be a next time?
But after thinking about it, everyone felt that the problem was not too big. If the Ark World was really going to evolve into a space world, then the real human beings must have entered the interstellar age. By then, it would be a problem whether this financial game can continue to play.

And as long as Ark International still throws the core server into the sea in front of everyone like before, it will not be a problem. Before the core server was thrown into the sea, didn't many people participate in it in advance?
What's more, it's just adding some guano islands. The combined area of ​​all the guano islands may not be as large as the island country, so it doesn't have a big impact on the economy of Ark World.

More importantly, it’s good to have more bird droppings. The more gunpowder everyone has on hand, the more exciting the war will be, the more Fangzhou International will earn, and the partners will earn more. There is really no reason to object .

As for the external explanation, I don’t need to explain it. Let’s make it clear. If you just fool around, who would know that the resources in Arkworld have increased?
Seeing the series of changes in the mentality of these capitals and partners, and Kaiwu who has been following Fang Jie, Fang Jie's previous words gained a little more understanding.

Let the world join me, and let the world change the world—to put it bluntly, it's like putting a bunch of thieves on your boat and having to be worse thieves with you, right?

(End of this chapter)