Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 455: The Online Game of Wonderful Real People Reciting Mantras
The acquisition of YouTube is just Fang Jie's speculative idea of ​​taking a shortcut. If the goal can be achieved, it will be of great benefit to both Fangzhou International and the export of cultural strategies.

But he also knows that there is little hope. After all, this video website is Google's trump card. It has great influence in all countries in the world except China, and brings Google more than 20 billion US dollars in profits every year.

At present, only Ark Entertainment can compete with YouTube in the world.

The main body or predecessor of Ark Entertainment was actually established on the basis of Facebook, and then joined the network streaming video platform of Netflix, a strategic core partner.

Among them, Facebook has brought huge social network traffic, and Netflix has provided a large amount of original content, so Ark Entertainment has quickly formed a competitive situation with YouTube on the international stage.

But comparatively speaking, in terms of video sites, YouTube has more advantages.

Because although Facebook also has a video section, it mainly focuses on still pictures. Although Netflix has a large number of original content copyrights, almost all of the content is film and television dramas, and the content is relatively old. After all, Netflix’s core business is the video tape rental market. Instead of making movies and TV shows by yourself.

Backed by the huge traffic brought by Google, YouTube not only has a large number of film and television drama copyrights, but the key point is that most of the videos on the website are original by users, with rich content, diverse themes, more entertaining and interactive, and It is more popular with young people, so the development momentum is stronger.

Of course, no matter how you say it, only Ark Entertainment is currently able to challenge YouTube in the world, and it can even be said to be a strong rival. If you are not careful, you may be overtaken by Ark Entertainment.

So not only Fang Jie wants to take over YouTube, but Google also wants to buy Boiling Entertainment. Not to mention the acquisition, at least it needs to take some shares and gain some voice, which is conducive to its global strategy.

As for the shares of Ark Entertainment, it's not that Google has never thought about it, but it can't and dare not buy it. The two companies are rivals. The key is that Ark Entertainment implements a rogue unlimited partnership. One, it will be really unclear who bought whom.

So even if Ark Entertainment offered to acquire, Google would not agree.

But Boiling Entertainment is different. The only shortcoming of YouTube at present is that it cannot enter the Huaguo market. Once it has a share in Boiling Entertainment, YouTube can indirectly open the Huaguo market. In addition to enjoying the profits brought by this huge market, It can also be used to export some cultural value from it.

However, from Fang Jie's point of view, foreigners are absolutely not allowed to intervene in this one-third of an acre of land in China. This is a matter of principle. If you want to buy shares in Boiling Entertainment, don't even talk about it.

Therefore, this acquisition and anti-acquisition is just a trial by both parties. How much sincerity is there is actually hard to say. Both parties are not stupid, they have their own strategic goals, and they are very clear that the other party will not easily fall into the trap.

The only difference is that Fang Jie had been prepared for a long time, and launched an offensive in a planned way after the trial, while Google YouTube was still very arrogant and didn't take this contact too seriously.

Actually speaking, Google is also one of the partners or shareholders of Fangzhou International, but when it comes to the subsidiaries of Fangzhou International, the capital giants of all parties have different interest demands, which will lead to very complicated competition and cooperation, or even hostility.

For example, in Ark Entertainment, the video segment business has formed a hostile relationship with Google’s YouTube. From the perspective of Ark Entertainment’s executives, that is, from the perspective of Fang Jie, Facebook, and Netflix’s three major shareholders, you YouTube will not join us. The big family, that is deliberately trying to make life difficult for us, if you don't join, you will be beaten until you have to join!
Capitalists treat everyone, including other capitals, as equals, driven by the original drive, because if they don’t do this, they may be the ones who are swallowed.

Taking advantage of this mentality, Fang Jie threw out a strategic plan, drew a big cake, and successfully tied several other major shareholders to his chariot.

The first step of this strategic plan is to throw out another acquisition case, the full acquisition of the Twitch platform.

Twitch is a streaming video platform of Citigroup. It is small in scale, but it has its own characteristics: it is an independently operated site focusing on game-related content.

To put it more professionally, this is a game video website that does well in the field of video segmentation. The video content includes game competition live broadcasts, game live broadcasts, game network radio stations, game strategy videos, etc.

In less than 2 years since its establishment, the monthly visits to the website have exceeded 3000 million, and nearly 2000 million players around the world have gathered on this platform to watch game competitions, live broadcasts, or search for game video guides and Taoxin games.

This business model is tantamount to a combination of game portals such as +17173, the previous game live broadcast platform, and it only took a short time to become a gathering place for foreign players.

Its status among international players is very similar to that in the previous life when all kinds of platforms hadn’t come out. Whenever domestic players want to find new games or strategies, they must first go to 17173 to take a look. Twitch is nothing more than On this basis, the live broadcast of games is also added to it, which is more attractive.

Nowadays, whether it’s YouTube or Ark Video, game anchors and UP hosts often add a sentence at the end of the live broadcast or video: "My new Twitch channel is XXX, see you on Twitch tonight."

This shows how influential Twitch is among international players.

Therefore, one of the benefits of acquiring the Twitch platform for Ark Entertainment is that its video business has a very strong game segment.

In the past, Ark Video did not have its own game channel, but compared with many other internal channels, or compared with the outside YouTube game channel or Twitch, it did not have any advantages and highlights. If it is not for its own "Ark" related The game video is supported, I am afraid it is not even necessary to exist.

But if Twitch can be taken down, combined with the original resources and strength, then Ark Video will surpass YouTube in an all-round way at least in the subdivision of game videos, making the other party's game channels completely useless for players.

And you must know that many subsidiaries of Ark International are also linked. Once the STEAM platform under Ark Games cooperates with the Twitch platform, it will be invincible. YouTube does not have its own game industry layout.

On this basis, if you count the huge advantages of Ark Video in social media channels and film and television drama channels, in Huaguo's words, this is called "Three Great Wars against Lu Bu". Not to mention whether you can win YouTube, at least you can win From weak to evenly matched.

This first step in the strategic plan is of course beneficial and harmless. The key question now is whether Twitch will be successfully acquired.

The small-scale Twitch has not yet fully developed, so the acquisition is no problem, and the other party even contacted Google actively, asking the other party to pay for itself.

However, Google, which can be called a giant in the international Internet industry, is not too interested in this little guy, and its YouTube is not very urgent and focused on strengthening the game video segment channel.

Therefore, Google’s attitude towards Twitch is lukewarm. It’s not impossible to buy it with some money, but the purchase price must be kept down. It’s best if you can get a bargain.

As a result, the acquisition negotiations between the two sides reached a deadlock.

In fact, it doesn't even count as a stalemate. Here Twitch is licking its face and eagerly wants to finish the acquisition quickly, but the Google executives over there don't take this matter seriously at all. takeover negotiations.

Google's attitude made Twitch's founding team very angry. On the surface, they swallowed their anger, but in private they often scolded Google for its serious bureaucracy and disrespect.

Just at this juncture, Ark Entertainment actually contacted them and proposed a takeover case.

For the Twitch founding team, it was sleepy-meets-pillows!
Regardless of money or not, at least they feel that they have been fully respected by Ark Entertainment. Based on this, they are willing to sell themselves even if the money is less!

So the two sides hit it off, and Twitch happily accepted Ark Entertainment, an unexpected owner, and officially became an important member of its Ark Video.

However, this is only the first step in Ark Entertainment's strategic plan.

The second step, needless to say, must be to let the Ark game platform, that is, the original STEAM platform, add BUFF to the Ark video.

Its own game video platform, live broadcast or record games on its own game platform, can be said to be close to the water, and the linkage effect produced must be 1+1 greater than 2.

Ark Games provides game content support for Ark Video Game Channel, and Ark Video Game Channel conducts promotion for Ark Games. Both parties are mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation.

But this is just the basic operation of Fang Jie's strategic plan.

The show operation is that Fang Jie asked Ark Games to carry out a major upgrade and revision of the 2D krypton gold game "Journey", in order to cooperate with the Ark video game channel that has merged the Twitch platform.

There is no need to explain the krypton gold level of the game "Zhengtu". When it is released internationally, the gold-absorbing ability can be described as abnormal. After all, foreigners are richer than Chinese people. In the previous life, Chinese people were so crazy about krypton gold, let alone not bad Money foreigners.

However, there are also poor people among foreign players, or their consumption is relatively rational. After spending some money in the game "Zhengtu", they found that if the game is not recharged, it is not fun to play at all, even if the money is less, it is just as bad. , has become the background board for those super krypton gold players.

However, the game "Journey" is the pinnacle of "heart flow" design. Although non-krypton or small krypton players are not happy with it, they can't help but want to continue playing.

As a result, many foreign players who were reluctant to quit the game left messages in the game forum to protest or even abuse, asking game companies not to be so ugly, and at least give non-krypton gold players a way to survive.

Since the majority of players have such strong demands, Fang Jie will satisfy them.

The biggest highlight of the upgraded version of "Zhengtu" is that it gives all players a "new skill" to quickly kill monsters, clear bosses, and explode equipment materials.

The reason why this "skill" is in quotation marks is because it is actually not a skill, but a setting.

This setting is that during the process of spawning monsters and hunting treasures, the player can speak a spell into the computer headset or mobile phone, and after the spell is recognized by the game's voice system, the character can suddenly burst into some kind of magic stunt, giving The BOSS causes a lot of damage, and can even achieve a spike effect.

In the past, you had to form a team to fight the boss in the game. It was impossible to fight alone. Usually, it was the king or the minister, that is, the trade union bosses in the game, who brought their younger brothers to collect materials and equipment. The blood is very thick, and it often takes a long time to fight.

It's completely different now, one person can single out the BOSS, and there is no need to change into krypton gold equipment, as long as the player "chant the mantra", there is a chance to max out the equipment materials, which plays a big role for krypton gold players and non-krypton gold players A certain balancing act.

As for how to chant the mantra, what is the content of the mantra, and what are the requirements...

There are no specifications and no requirements.

For example, chanting a spell of the undead: Lord of Darkness who rules the four worlds, follow the fate of your fragments, and with all your power, grant me stronger magic power!
At this time, the game character may burst out with magical nirvana, or the mana value may be instantly full.

It is also effective if you shout "Taishang Laojun is as anxious as a law" or "Subduing the Dragon's Eighteen Palms", and the game characters can burst out cool stunts.

Of course, you shout "Balala Energy, Sarosara, Little Demon Fairy, transform your whole body", or "Mercury power, transform! Water and Wisdom, Sailor Suit Warrior, Sailor Mercury, I will replace Mercury and punish you !" This kind of "Sailor Moon" transformation slogan will also work.

Although the characters in the game will not transform, after voice recognition, lethal and powerful stunts can be displayed.

Even if the player yells "Fuck!" or "FUCK" to the phone, the game characters can also burst out with stunts.

It is nothing more than, generally speaking, the longer the spell, the greater the power of the stunt, the more gorgeous the special effects, and the more it can blind the eyes of other players on the same screen.

Such a wonderful game setting is unprecedented, creating a precedent in the history of global games.

The consequence of this is that, no matter men, women, old or young, whether they are krypton gold players or non-krypton gold players, all "Journey" players around the world are collectively stunned, and they are getting closer and closer to the gate of the psychiatric hospital

Of course, at the beginning of the upgrade and revision of "Zhengtu", all this is not so serious for the time being.

In fact, many players had to be dissuaded because the game was too expensive before. "Zhengtu", which has been in operation for more than 2 years, is considered an old game, and it is a 2D game, so there are not many actual online players. .

But after the game was upgraded and revised, "Zhengtu" once again hit the headlines of the game, even the international headlines, and became popular again.

This has a lot to do with Ark Video and the game anchors and UP masters on its platform.

As we all know, in order to attract traffic, game anchors and UP owners will naturally try their best to make the content more novel, funny or technical.

The voice chanting version of "Zhengtu" obviously meets the three characteristics of novelty, funny, and technicality. It is an excellent content for drainage, so the game was quickly noticed by international game anchors and UP owners. Then he was played with various tricks by this group of people.

In the beginning, this group of people just thought that the setting of "chanting spells with real voices will bring great attack power bonuses to the characters in the game" is very novel, and they all gave audiences who watched the live video Introducing this revamped and upgraded game.

But gradually, some game anchors and UP hosts began to test various spells they knew or didn't know, which of course also included spells in other countries, cartoons, and film and television dramas. There were many jokes and famous scenes, and the live broadcast process and video content were very entertaining.

For example, there is a famous scene in which a foreigner game anchor is actually dressed as a priest during the live broadcast, chanting some simple spells devoutly and seriously, and singled out the BOSS, which is very funny in itself.

What's even more funny is that even though he had made enough preparations and recited the spell very seriously, he failed to single-handedly fight the boss several times. In the end, in a state of desperation, he started a rap-like curse that lasted for 2 minutes.

But after cursing, he saw a huge bolt of lightning burst out on the game screen, instantly killing the bloody boss.

Seeing this scene, the water friends in the live broadcast room suddenly burst into laughter, while the game anchor was stunned for a long time, and finally danced excitedly, and even tore the priest's uniform into pieces, shouting in his mouth: OMG!guys!Did you see it!I actually sprayed the boss to death! OMG!incredible!wow ha ha ha ha ha...

After this funny video was broadcast, it took only three days for it to be played more than 1000 million times on the Ark video platform, and this is just one of the related videos.

As for the water friends who watched the live broadcast and video, there is no reason not to fall into the pit, and some old players have returned because of this, wanting to experience this interesting real-life spell system for themselves.

As a result, when a large number of new and old players entered the upgraded "Zhengtu", the funny videos recorded by various players themselves spread like a virus on the entire network, and finally even passers-by who did not play the game began to flock after seeing it. into the pit.

Among them, the most amusing videos are sneak shots of various funny reactions of game players when playing "Zhengtu".

You can imagine, when your relatives and friends around you, or see a passer-by on the road, playing with your mobile phone while chanting all kinds of strange and incomprehensible spells, what a scene it is.

Or these sand sculptures are further upgraded, start cosplay and all kinds of spoofs to death, and finally are forcibly escorted to a mental hospital by the police, what a funny scene?

This is not finished.

Later, the game anchors and UP hosts found out that they were not as funny as these ordinary players, so they found another way, and began to study this real-life voice spell system carefully, and made some technical guide videos about spells.

For example, under normal circumstances, the duration of "chanting a spell" determines the damage value of a game skill, especially when the game voice system cannot correctly recognize the player's spell. The extra-large lightning trick in the game, ordinary bosses can't handle it at all.

In addition, through the research of these technical types and those game anchors who are full and have nothing to do, it is found that some specific spells have special skill effects, such as increasing blood and mana, and some increase various attack and defense BUFF , and some are to use nirvana and big moves.

Among them, some people further discovered that some spells of Huaguo are particularly useful.

For example, the spell "Heaven and earth are not benevolent, treat everything as a dog, saints are not benevolent, and treat the people as a dog" will activate the clear screen nirvana, causing huge damage to all monsters and other players within the full screen range.

Another example in "Book of Changes" is "Tian Xingjian, a gentleman strives for self-improvement", which can increase the player's combat power by ten times within a certain period of time. force.

There are also Tang poetry and Song poetry "flying down three thousand feet, it seems that the Milky Way falls nine days", dense beams of light will instantly fall from the sky, instantly killing all creatures within the range of the spell.

There are many such "spells" of Huaguo, and many of them have not even been excavated, waiting for further research and exploration by players.

Of course, magic spells in Western culture also have these effects, but in comparison, Western spells are too lengthy, and it is smelly and long to read in English, while these "spells" in Huaguo are quite concise. The time is relatively short, and the efficiency of spawning monsters is higher.

Therefore, after getting familiar with how to play spells, many foreign players start to improve, learn Mandarin pronunciation, and recite the "spells" of Huaguo in order to upgrade monster spawning or PK.

After making such a big circle, I believe it can be seen that this is a kind of cultural strategy output show operation by Fang Jie.

In the past, foreign players' understanding of Chinese may only be a few limited words such as "Hello, thank you, shit, awesome", and they all learned from Chinese players in the game.

It's different now. If you want to play this game well, you'd better learn some Chinese pronunciation, and memorize the words and sentences in Chinese "Tao Te Ching", "Lao Tzu", "Confucius", "Book of Changes", and Tang Poetry and Song Ci.

After memorizing them, foreign players will definitely be curious about what these "spells" translate to mean, why they can stimulate powerful game skills, and then they will have a strong interest in Huaguo culture.

Of course, the routines are hidden very deep. After all, using spells or famous quotes from the West or other countries, even if it is just cursing, can have various skill effects, and it seems that there is no obvious tendency.

The only difference is that if you are not interested in these Huaguo spells, it is nothing more than that the efficiency of game upgrades, spawning monsters, fighting bosses, and PK is a little bit lower, and when other players use these skills to emit blinding and unique special effects , I can only envy and hate.

From the perspective of cost performance, most foreigner players will probably not spend time and energy learning Chinese "spells", but it doesn't matter, as long as a few foreigner players enter the pit, the goal has been achieved.

After all, cultural strategy is not something that can be accomplished overnight. It is better to accumulate steps every day than to travel thousands of miles a day. It is like setting up a high-profile "Confucius Institute" in the West. Obviously, it is not safe to use online games to subtly let young foreigners accept Huaguo culture. , The former will become the target of public criticism, while the latter sneaks into the village and makes people hard to guard against.

After "Zhengtu", an upgraded version of the "real-life spell online game", became popular, the Chinese language has also become very popular for a while. Some sand sculpture foreigners even tattoo some Chinese "spells" that they think are very profound in order to pretend to be aggressive. To show off your uniqueness.

This is a very good cultural output. Who said that online games are scourges? The key depends on where they are used. Sometimes the cultural influence brought by an online game is greater than the effect of shooting hundreds of film and television dramas. much.

Not to mention that the learning and growth of all AI artificial intelligence is carried out in the game model environment. Based on these two points alone, Fang Jie's strategic thinking with the game industry as the core will never change.

Gossip less, in short, the third step of Ark Entertainment's strategic plan is to upgrade "Journey" to a "real mantra online game", so as to provide game anchors and UP hosts with high-quality ammunition or output content, and let these The content spreads in a phenomenon-level viral manner, which greatly increases the influence and market share of Ark Video!
As for the export of Chinese mantra culture, it was just a small operation by the way, not part of the plan.

Next, the fourth step of the strategic plan is to let Netflix shoot the hit American drama "House of Cards" in advance...

(End of this chapter)