Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 436 "The Ark: Century of Voyage"

(Recently, there have been major changes at home, and stable updates may not be guaranteed. If necessary, I will explain it specifically. Alas, let’s do this for now...)
It only took a year and a half for "Ark: Nautical Century" from project approval, production and development, to listing and distribution, but no one denies that this is a 3A masterpiece.

In other words, the concept of "3A" was first proposed by Ark Games in this world, and after more than a year of hype, it has become the standard for the majority of players to judge whether a game is a big production and whether it is tall or not. .

The method used by Ark Games to hype the "3A" concept is very simple, just like Fang Jie said at the beginning, two words: throw money!
First of all, at the beginning of the game project, it was announced that it had spent 6000 million U.S. dollars to package and buy out all the game resources related to Huaguo online game "Great Voyage Era" from Boiling Games, such as the game engine and subroutine system. , art resources, and the main art, planning, and programming personnel of the game development team.

In this regard, the outside world was very suspicious at the beginning, suspecting that Fang Jie was engaging in profit output with his left hand instead of his right hand.

You must know that 6000 million US dollars is enough to produce a 3A masterpiece alone, and it is already the largest investment in a game project in the history of the world, except for the main body of Ark World, but Fangzhou International actually gave this money to Boiling Games , and then bought back a bunch of semi-finished game resources that have to be reprocessed, which is unreasonable.

Even the internal partners and shareholders of Fangzhou International and Ark Games strongly opposed this at the beginning, feeling that the money was not worth the money.

But soon, they were convinced by Fang Jie, because Fang Jie threw out concepts such as "attention economy" and "Hollywood-style online games".

In his words, the explanation is: the 6000 million US dollars, the actual cost of buying out the game resources is actually only 3000 million or less, and the extra money is actually advertising and marketing expenses.

It is to make everyone feel that the money spent is worthless, which will cause controversy on the Internet, and then attract the attention of all netizens to the upgraded version of the game "Ark: Voyage Age", and even make those few Or people who have never been online, also learned the news from various sources, and then participated in the debate and discussion, and invisibly played a super advertisement for the game, expanding its world influence.

This is the use of the "attention economy", so the 3000 million is worth spending, and the advertising promotion effect and effect produced are at least ten times that of not spending this money!
Secondly, spending so much money is also announcing to everyone its unprecedented huge investment. To hype up the "3A" concept, at least players must realize that it may have spent a lot of money, but it cannot be denied that it is indeed spent a lot of money.

Since it is true that so much money has been spent, before the game comes out, everyone will always have a strong expectation, just like those Hollywood blockbusters in history, which have not yet started shooting. It blows up a cruise ship or something, it would be a pity if you don't go to see the movie after it's released, and I'm so sorry for my expectations!
In fact, Fang Jie's judgment was accurate. After the news was released, there was an uproar from inside and outside the industry.

Of course, this is naturally inseparable from the Ark game behind the scenes, spending money to invite media, industry experts, scholars in various fields, public knowledge, Internet celebrities, game anchors, etc., to actively participate in this debate.

Some of these well-known people made long speeches and listed data, thinking that this is a reasonable deal, and endorsed their platform; Praise, it's useless to talk about these things, you'll know when the game comes out and you go in and take a look.

More keyboard warriors put forward conspiracy theories, thinking that this is Fang Jie's profit export, the purpose is to transfer the money of the partners of the Ark Project to his own pockets, and call on the partners of the Ark Project all over the world to boycott, and even Threatening to send a lawyer's letter and file a lawsuit with Fangzhou Games to protect the interests of all general partners.

In the face of these threats, Ark Games not only did not compromise, but also said arrogantly: This investment was made after careful study by all shareholders of the company. As for you retail partners... sorry, you are only partners of Fangzhou International, And Fangzhou International is only a non-controlling major shareholder of Ark Games. If you want to talk about it, you should go to Fangzhou International, and you still have no control over us.

Therefore, under the call of a certain legal person, Keyboard Man, he really organized thousands of retail partners to take Fangzhou International and its subsidiary Ark Games to court, and then relevant news was posted in the media from time to time. The sense of presence has further promoted a wave of advertisements for the Ark game.

Seeing that the advertising effect is so good and the routines are repeated wave after wave, the internal shareholders and core partners of Fangzhou International and Ark Games finally burst into smiles, let go of the last trace of doubt in their hearts, and feel that the money is really worth the money .

As for the lawsuit... Hehe, don't say that this is a self-written and self-directed drama, even if it is not, a bunch of retail investors are in a lawsuit against the capitalists in the capitalist world. Instead of believing that the lawsuit will win, it is better to believe that God will Advent.

And this wave of marketing routines is just the beginning.

When the hot news about this 6000 million buyout contract gradually ebbed, Ark Games stood up and announced: In the next 3 years, it will spend another 6000 million US dollars to Boiling Games, and the land sector of Ark World will be upgraded to 3A-level 3D Version work will be outsourced to Boiling Games.

Ah this...

This is definitely an output of benefits!
Not only is it a real hammer, but it is also very arrogant in the face!
As a result, another protracted scolding war and controversy broke out on the Internet, but the inside of the Ark game was quiet, because the shareholders all knew that the 2D map of the Ark world only cost more than 6000 million yuan to produce, and the inside of the Ark game They are also unwilling to do this kind of hard work. Outsourcing [-] million to Boiling Games to upgrade the game is actually a good quality and low price.

But the keyboard warriors in the outside world don't care so much. The previous one was 6000 million, and the matter has not passed yet, and several lawsuits are still being fought. The bad daydreams further strengthened the doubts in my heart.

Just when this news hotspot reached its peak, it had already had a great negative impact on Ark World and the Ark Project, and related lawsuits were also developing in an unfavorable direction for Ark Games. Ark Games seemed to have finally compromised, and came out in despair to hold a meeting. A press conference specifically explained the issues that the public has been controversial for a long time, saying that this is a reasonable expenditure.

At the same time, he also stated that the total investment of "Ark: Voyage Century", which is specially aimed at upgrading the ocean sector, is actually as high as 2.7 million U.S. dollars. Among the previous 1.2 million U.S. dollars, 6000 million is the upgrade fee for the land version of Ark World, which is directly paid by Fangzhou International For Boiling Games, it has nothing to do with Ark Games and its "Ark: Nautical Age" project.

Only the 6000 million US dollars for buying out game resources is included in the project investment of "Ark: Voyage Century". Compared with the total investment of 2.7 million US dollars, it actually only accounts for a small part. China’s Boiling game has made money, and the reason for buying out related game resources is also to allow "Ark: Voyage Century" to meet players as soon as possible and increase the value of Ark World.

Regardless of whether you understand these words or not, anyway, under the conscious publicity of the media, the topic of controversy on the Internet has gradually shifted to the total investment of "Ark: Voyage Age". After all, this is indeed an unprecedented huge investment.

2.7 billion dollars!
Ordinary Hollywood blockbusters would not dare to shoot like this!

With so much money, you can make 4 or 5 top-level 3A masterpieces, but this is only used to upgrade the ocean section of Arkworld...

This is awesome!
I have long heard that Ark World can make money. At first, many people expressed disdain and thought it was a kind of stupidity. But now after a heated debate and hype, Ark World has become a topic of conversation after dinner. Many passers-by heard that Then there was a strong curiosity.

Since the ocean sector of Ark World has invested so much in game production costs, it is said that the production cost of land maps has exceeded 1.5 million before. It seems that Ark World is not as bad as I imagined, otherwise the Ark World and Ark games Are those capital shareholders all fools, dare to burn money in it like this?

Well, let’s take a step back, even if this is really a big hole, if you go in and try the water with your own ingenuity, you may not be caught, because we must be smarter than most people in the world, and there must be more People who are more stupid than themselves!
As a result of this wave of publicity, more and more passers-by poured into Ark World. They didn't come in to play games, but purely because they were curious and found it profitable, and thought that I was the best in the world, so they thought Come in to blog about other people's stupidity.

And those players who had been squeezed by the capital and couldn't survive, also re-entered the pit, because the version upgrade of "Ark: Voyage Century" is a major opportunity for them to get ahead again for players with certain experience. .

Once the game is upgraded, if you can seize the opportunity to make a little bit of a human appearance in it, not to mention yourself as the king and hegemony, such as organizing a manpower to dominate a resource island or something, as long as the capital is fancy to buy Zhao'an, that is also a way to stand out , at least a considerable income.

So "Ark: Nautical Century" has not yet been released, and the circle game Ark World has become popular again, attracting more people into the pit.

In fact, more than half of the US$2.7 million investment was spent on publicity, marketing and media public relations, and the production cost of the game itself was less than US$1.3 million.

In fact, anyone who knows a little bit about this account knows that the ocean area does account for more than 60% of the entire Arkworld area. However, for large areas of the ocean, as long as the relevant special effects and texture modules are made, most of the maps will use the relevant game engine subtitles. The system came out as soon as it was swiped, and it didn't bother at all.

What really burns money are those island maps, marine life modeling, marine weather systems, ports, CG special effects, etc., but the number of these game elements is countless times less than that of land, no matter how detailed they are, they are relatively expensive. Not too much money.

Of course, then again, after all, it still burned a lot of money, and the game production fee it invested is still the No. 1 in the history of global games!

Based on this alone, "Ark: Nautical Century" is an undisputed 3A masterpiece!

When the players watched the game CG special effects blockbusters released by Ark Games from time to time, they were shocked, and they were all hooked. At the same time, they didn't bother to care about how this huge sum of money was spent. brain.

Some of these special effects blockbusters show all-round scenes of ports around the world in the game, such as the bustling wharves where chariots and horses shuttle, regional buildings of different cultures, people in different costumes, and almost simulated motion capture of characters, detailed to the hair. Modeling, gorgeous and realistic light and shadow rendering effects...

Some are accompanied by relaxing and romantic music, showing the ecological scenery of the ocean. There are thousands of strange marine life, seabirds, flying fish, dolphins, and giant whales that suddenly spew out water columns. It is as beautiful as heaven. The islands, the colorful and mysterious underwater world, and the ancient sunken ship with a few gold coins scattered on the deck...

And the latest issue, accompanied by the launch of "Ark: Century of Voyage", the CG blockbuster of the opening title of the game, directly blinded the eyes of all players and caused everyone's adrenaline to surge.

This CG opening animation has no narration at the beginning, only the sound of rushing waves and creaking decks. The big flag suddenly came into view, and the tense BGM sounded.

The screen zooms in, revealing a single-lens telescope, then zooms in, and the one holding the telescope is a lookout with a rich and gradually terrified expression on his face, he staggers two steps, grabs the rope on the side, and spits Shouting loudly downwards.

At the same time, the crew panicked, their palms trembled, the monocular telescope accidentally fell, hit the mast and rotated, and the close-up picture of it penetrated the telescope again, and then a long lens zoomed in, quickly pulled from the ship Go to the opposite pirate ship.

I saw the one-eyed pirate who was also holding a binoculars, and suddenly grinned evilly, revealing a gleaming gold tooth in his mouth. After putting down the binoculars, he raised his arms and waved forward!
Accompanied by cheers and strange screams, the picture zoomed into the air. It turned out that the pirate ship was full of pirates screaming wildly with swords, guns and sticks, and there was more than one pirate ship, and there were more than a dozen such pirate ships around.

Seeing that the merchant ship was about to enter the tiger's mouth, the audience was extremely worried, and as the picture continued to zoom up and up, they found that there was a magnificent fleet of hundreds of warships in the distance, behind the sea level.

The picture shows a 360-degree close-up of the details of the leading flagship. First, a fleet commander on the bow of the deck with a calm and confident smile waved his hand behind him lightly, and then the orderly waved the order flag. At the same time as a series of orders were issued, countless crew members on the deck and in the cabin started to run.

Then, the sails on the flagship were full of wind, and the muzzles on both sides of the ship were opened one after another, and the black cannons were slowly stretched out one by one, making the flagship into a steel hedgehog in a blink of an eye. Entering the cabin, black spherical shells are also being installed and loaded...

In the next second, the gunner ignited the fire wire, and a cannon fired a cannonball with a loud bang. The camera followed the trajectory of the cannonball and hit the side of the enemy ship, bursting out an astonishing ball of fire , At the same time, countless fireballs in the screen are also exploding one after another, and from time to time there are time travelers who are blown up screaming and flying into the sea!

The picture zooms up, and through the lingering smoke, it turns out that the ships of the enemy and ours are intertwined, and the two sides are bombarding each other at a very close distance. When the camera zooms out, it turns out that it is not the officers and soldiers who are fighting pirates, but two The regular naval forces are shopping, and countless warships are fighting to the death in this sea area!

In this grand war scene, some ships are bombarding each other, large pieces of sawdust, various sundries, and unlucky crew members are blown up, and some ships collide with each other. The crews of both sides started a hand-to-hand battle, and some were swallowed by the fire and were constantly tilting. From time to time, some sailors on the deck jumped into the deep sea crying...

Such an epic war scene, coupled with various details of the rendering and depiction, as well as Hollywood-style camera use and plot transitions, make players feel as if they are in it, and their blood is surging!

But they don't know that there are actually many psychological hints hidden in these CG animations.

For example, in the earliest port CG animations, the regional culture and landmark buildings of various countries reflected are not fictitious, but are actually the unique cultures of each country in reality, which makes players from various countries have a sense of substitution and creates a sense of collective honor.

But in essence, this is actually a certain form of rice circle culture. Once the player enters the game and finds that the real port of his country is actually occupied by foreign players, there will be a chaotic fight for reality, especially in the Mediterranean economic circle. Absolutely no peace.

As for the marine ecological landscape animation, the last picture of the shipwreck scattered with gold coins indicates that this game version contains a lot of wealth, and reminds everyone that the gold in the Ark world can be used as currency.

As for the sea battle CG animation, it has more meanings. On the one hand, it shows the ocean economy and running a business, but on the other hand, it reminds everyone that you can be a pirate and rob your house. At the same time, if you have ambitions, you can also fight for ocean hegemony and establish your own invincibility. fleet.

Especially after this CG animation, there is an evil little easter egg, the content is that the pirates successfully robbed the merchant ship and kidnapped the beautiful rich girl of the merchant ship owner. Move back, and standing opposite her is the one-eyed pirate who first appeared in the animation...

Although it is a pity that the video ends here, it does not prevent players from developing their own rich associations.

When a media reporter interviewed Fang Jie, he asked about this ending. Unexpectedly, his answer was: "Don't think wrongly, can't the next one be a plot of a hero saving the beauty?"

All in all, the series of promotional CG animations of "Ark: Nautical Century" can be said to be all-encompassing, and they are all the elements that human beings most yearn for, such as wealth, power, and beauty, and successfully activated people's desires. After all, its production team is Ark Games The directors, screenwriters, soundtracks and special effects teams of Hollywood blockbusters who paid a lot of money are very familiar with these things.

However, after "Ark: Nautical Century" was launched, the market feedback it received was mixed.

It's not that the game is not well done, but that it's done too well. Its exquisite picture quality makes the computers of foreigners a little bit unable to run.

Ordinary people can only experience the 3D version of Arkworld more smoothly by adjusting the picture quality to the lowest level. Few people can enjoy the mid-range picture quality. As for the most high-end picture quality, I am afraid that only local tyrants like Fang Jie are eligible to enjoy it.

Therefore, many players praised that after the Ark game was upgraded, it has indeed become a 3A masterpiece, bringing you the ultimate experience, but at the same time, they crazily complained that the optimization of the game is too rubbish. The function of 2D to 3D conversion is not turned off in the game settings.

Everyone enters Ark World mainly to make money, such as image quality, if it delays the efficiency of earning money and normal operation, then they would rather play circle games.

"It's not that we can't optimize the game better."

When my lover reported to Fang Jie, he explained it like this: "We use the Unreal III engine. Technically, it is possible to make the optimization more friendly to players without affecting the image quality. But if the optimization is done too well , It does not help the sales growth of PC accessories on Ark Computer and Ark Business, such as graphics cards, CPUs, and memory.”

Fang Jie shook his head and smiled: "So you mean that it is enough to meet the minimum configuration threshold of players, forcing players to update and upgrade their PC hardware?"

"Not only that..."

The lover hesitated for half a second, and said with a hey: "Xia Hao also meant that..."

"I did make such a small request..."

Xia Hao explained on the phone: "Our Ark Internet cloud service project has been officially launched. What if the player's computer configuration does not meet the requirements of the game and they want to play such a 3A masterpiece? Then it will happen in the future. Rent our cloud service to experience the game!"

Fang Jie was noncommittal: "Cloud service, at least the Internet speed of home users must keep up with it?"

Xia Hao smiled and said: "Boss, you forgot that Ark Internet just acquired Nortel Networks? They are the third largest telecommunications service provider in Citigroup. With their foundation, plus our funds and IDC data center, after the death, the It can speed up the construction of network infrastructure and greatly increase the speed of the network. At that time, with the same network speed, our price will be the most competitive, and at the same price, our network speed will be the most competitive. This is another big profitable business.”

"So relatively speaking, the Ark game has slightly improved the game optimization, and the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. And it is not only good for our Ark Internet, but also good for Ark Entertainment. This is not my idea alone. If you don't believe me, ask Liao Shunbin..."

"It's really good for us."

The explanation given by Liao Shunbin is: "Ark World is not a very playable game, but a financial game, so the picture quality is just an external appearance, and the poor configuration will not cause the loss of core players. Therefore, a higher configuration requirement will not cause much loss to the Ark game.”

"On the other hand, such a 3A masterpiece, a bunch of poor fools are not worthy of experience. If you really want to have a high-quality experience, you can watch our game anchors play the 3D version. The game anchors just use this to pretend to detonate traffic .If everyone can play the game by themselves, who will watch the anchor play?"

"Also, once the game anchor detonates the traffic, it will naturally stimulate those fans who have quit the pit to want to experience the 3D version again. At that time, the game anchor can live stream the goods, sell some computer machines or accessories, and then You can also organize everyone to join the game guild, and collectively go to the Ark World to expand the territory, which involves a lot of tricks, and it also saved a lot of lost players for the Ark World..."

"Also, don't you say that the more controversial the better, an extremely sophisticated 3A masterpiece, but everyone can't afford it, this is a big controversy, you see, it's all discussed in the news recently , and the fan circle effect you mentioned... Players who can afford the 3D version will have the opportunity to come out and pretend to be aggressive, and they can despise players who can't afford it. In short, the advantages of publicity outweigh the disadvantages..."

Then I found Li Yu and asked him what he thought. After being silent for a while, he replied: "The advantages of this indeed outweigh the disadvantages. At least, domestic players can't play it. They are directly stuck on the hardware, and it is difficult to get into the pit... ..."

Ok……

Fang Jie couldn't help shaking his head and smiling after a round of phone calls.

Looking back at his computer screen, Fang Jie rubbed his hands and held the mouse to control the game characters as he watched the exquisite game screen, delicate light and shadow rendering effects, realistic game character modeling, and constantly surging waves. Sa Huan jumped up from the edge of the cliff, and finally plunged into the sea...

(End of this chapter)