Rebirth of the big era of online games

Chapter 462 The Ark Game Cluster
After research and analysis, the root cause of the stagnant development of civilization in the Ark game world is that the cost of resurrecting players after death is too low, leading to an upside-down cost, making players not care about death, or in other words, the cost-effectiveness of maintaining life is too low compared to death. So that they are unwilling to carry out normal production and life.

To solve this problem of cost inversion, the most direct, simplest and most effective way is to increase the cost of resurrection and increase the cost of resurrection.

But doing so is very risky, not only will it cause a backlash from the players, but it will also bring violent shocks to the entire financial system of Ark World, resulting in unpredictable consequences.

And once this is done, it is a "broken trust" behavior. If Fang Jie can change the resurrection price at will, wouldn't it be tantamount to interfering with the lowest data structure of the entire game society, which is not in line with the principle of "ruling by doing nothing". Breaks the rules of the game.

Since the resurrection price cannot be changed, the only way is to increase the value of life extension.

In other words, the longer the player lives, the greater the benefits, and the more advantages they have when performing various game activities, so as to improve the cost performance of long-term survival and encourage players to go back to the right path.

So after some serious thinking and analysis, Fang Jie decided to solve the current problem in three steps.

First of all, an algorithm upgrade is carried out for "Ark", and an age setting similar to that of "Wulin" is introduced, that is, the older the player is, the higher the basic attributes of game characters such as physical strength, strength, endurance, and energy.

In this way, the advantage is that players who have survived for a long time have an advantage in the game over players who often die and resurrect at will.

For example, even if it is just running a knife in the game, the faster the long-term survival player runs, the farther the running distance is when the physical strength is full, and the faster the physical strength recovers when resting, and because of the stronger strength, whether it is swinging a dagger or Smashing rocks will cause more damage and make it easier to kill the enemy.

And if you use firearms, the stability of shooting with the end gun is stronger, the less recoil you feel when shooting, the more accurate the shooting is, and because of the stronger load-bearing capacity, it can also carry more weapons and ammunition.

If you live in production, because long-term survival players have higher physical strength and energy, and because they are less likely to get sick, when other players suffering from various diseases work inefficiently, they can produce at double or even several times higher efficiency Work.

Of course, this point alone may not be enough to guide players to submit, or in terms of cost performance, the weight on one end of the balance is not enough. For example, some players are afraid of trouble, even if long-term survival has a great game advantage, but Compared with such troublesome things as food, clothing, housing, transportation, eating, drinking and drinking, it is better to die early and be reborn early.

This setting can at most play a stimulating role, but it is difficult to form an overwhelming trend, and further efforts must be made.

So the second step is to officially launch a comprehensive Ark professional certification system.

Ark career certification has actually been going on for a long time, but before that, it only relied on the players' real occupations and qualifications for certification.

For example, if you have been a soldier or an engineer in a shipyard in reality, then the game will also give the corresponding professional skill level, and there will be a certain bonus effect when performing combat or shipbuilding tasks in the game.

The so-called "officially launching a comprehensive Ark professional certification system" means that Ark Games conducts its own professional certification internally. The game system will automatically give players a rating and certification based on their activities in the game, and give them certain bonuses. into effect.

The difference between the two is that the professional skill level certified by real-world qualifications can still be inherited after the player is resurrected, while the professional skill level certified in the game will be reset once the player dies.

For example, the player is a veteran in reality, and after entering the game, he also chooses the development direction of the military route, and often fights, then the game system will not only give the soldier's professional skill bonus corresponding to his reality, but also according to his performance in battle Give ratings and bonuses to relevant combat skills in the game.

In other words, if the player can participate in the battle for a long time without dying, the higher the professional skill level in the game, the more bonuses, and it is possible to become the king of elite soldiers with one enemy against one hundred on the battlefield.

If the player dies in the game, his real professional skill level will still be retained after resurrection, but the skill rating given by the in-game system will be cleared.

This setting is also logically said in the past, that is, when a person dies, it is naturally settled. Things in the game are resolved in the game. Since you die in the game, the skill bonus in the game will naturally disappear, but the player as a reality The main body in the game did not die in reality, so the skill bonus in reality still remains.

Then it is obvious that after professional certification is divided into two different sections, reality and games, it becomes very necessary to survive in the game as much as possible.

After all, professional certification in reality is generally difficult to upgrade and is basically fixed. For example, if you are promoted from a second-class soldier to a first-class soldier and then to a first-class soldier, it may take several years to slowly rise up in peacetime.

But the game is fighting every day, and the combat experience is accumulated quickly. The skill rating given by the game system is naturally easy to upgrade, and the higher the rating, the more bonuses it brings, and the greater the game ability and advantage, so Once dead, the cost is high.

If there is an army in the hands of the player force, and the soldiers in it are all veterans on the battlefield, then this army will have a huge attribute bonus. Whether it is individual combat ability or overall combat ability, it will far exceed other miscellaneous troops. Victory on the Internet may be a breeze.

Not only the combat profession, but also all walks of life such as production and life in the game.

If every link of a production line in a shipyard is operated by skilled players who have survived for a long time, the improvement in efficiency and productivity it brings may be several times that of other shipyards.

Anyone who has studied political economy knows that the value of a commodity depends on the socially necessary labor time to produce the commodity. The improvement of productivity and production efficiency will enable shipyards to build ships at a lower cost and become more competitive in the market.

Therefore, the setting of the professional certification system in the game will greatly stimulate investors and capital in the game to protect and train their own skilled workers or veterans as much as possible, instead of directly resurrecting them at low cost as before. Human life to pile up wealth and enclosure.

So if the age attribute setting is to stimulate the majority of players, then the game professional certification setting is to stimulate business capital. After the players and capital form a joint force, then the "death is worse than life" is possible. And then promote the progress of game social civilization.

But then again, once everyone “would rather die than live”, a new problem will arise—the number of deaths and resurrections will decrease, and Ark’s game revenue will drop sharply.

This is a very contradictory thing.

If you want the game civilization to advance in the right direction, you can't let players die too fast and too frequently, but if you want to make money, you must let players die and resurrect more.

Although this contradiction is unsolvable, it is not that there are other ways to resolve it in disguise.

For example, the business of many subsidiaries under Fang Zhou International basically revolves around Ark World, and the business income it brings is no less than the revenue of Ark Game itself. The annual contribution of the Ark video platform and game platform alone The revenue is as high as one billion US dollars.

However, Fang Jie didn't have the time and energy to take care of these subsidiaries, not to mention that these subsidiaries also had their senior management and major international capitals in charge, so he didn't need to worry about them.

He only considers the layout from a strategic point of view, so for him, the most direct and effective means is to find ways to increase the player base in Ark World.

As long as the player base is large enough, even if the player's survival rate is greatly improved, the resurrection income brought by normal life, old age, sickness and death in the game will not be small. This is called small profits but quick turnover.

At present, international capital is spreading fire everywhere in the game world, which is a very effective means of increasing the player base.

But this kind of method only treats the symptoms but not the root cause. Once the game world is completely enclosed, without new stimulation, relying on national pride and ideology alone, not to mention expanding the player base, even the original passer-by players may not be able to retain them.

So it is necessary to think of a longer-term and sustainable means to achieve this goal.

And obviously, all the hustle and bustle in the world is for profit. If passers-by players from all over the world, regardless of gender, age, or age, enter the pit, the only effective method is to lure them.

As long as Arkworld can make money, real money, and the income is not lower than the real income, then everyone will naturally be motivated.

Of course, Ark World has been rendered as a game that can make money before, but this so-called money-making is more of a kind of financial speculation. Most people still have great doubts about this, and they don’t think it is A stable job, and the resources are basically controlled by international capital, it is a bit difficult for ordinary people to make a fortune.

Besides, except for the players in Huaguo and some developing countries, who can earn no less than the wages of working-class people in the game, players in developed countries actually look down on that little labor fee. Restaurants make more money washing dishes.

Therefore, at present, most of the players in Ark World are passer-by players who came in temporarily because of the fire, and a small half are real players who play purely as a game, and the remaining small percentage of players are international players who come to make money. Workers or mercenaries hired by capital.

What Fang Jie has to do is to try his best to keep all passers-by who have already entered or are about to enter the pit.

So during the Chinese New Year in 2012, it was still the same. Fang Jie would make some layout plans at this time of year, and this year was no exception. He wrote dozens of game plans in one go, involving dozens of games.

Strictly speaking, there is actually only one game plan, and other plans are of the same type. Fang Jie just made a rough outline on the basis of the first plan, leaving the specific content to the game planning department to fill in the blanks.

These dozens of series of games are all simulation business games, and they have formed a strong linkage with "Ark". social business value.

The first detailed game plan I wrote was called "Ark: Farming Simulator".

You can tell what this game is for just by looking at the name. It is nothing more than a game similar to "Happy Farm" in the previous life, but in terms of specific settings, interactive functions such as stealing vegetables have been canceled, and the professionalism and rigor of the game have been enhanced. , that is, games similar to previous life simulators.

In fact, "Ark" is actually a simulator game, and the upcoming dozens of simulation games such as "Ark: Farm Simulator" are the extension of Ark World, and a certain section of it is taken out separately to make a simulation game. game.

If we only talk about the game "Farming Simulator" itself, the gameplay is not too special. There have been many similar games before, and the production technology content is not high. It is just a 2D game.

But once a strong linkage with "Ark" is formed, the meaning is completely different, because players can influence the agricultural economy in the world of Ark through this game, and obtain corresponding real economic income through their own game labor.

"Ark: Farming Simulator" is divided into two modes. One mode is a purely simulated management online game. The game system provides players with initial development funds and resources, and then the player acts as a farmer to gradually grow his own farm.

Another mode is "Ark Online". Players need to obtain or purchase all the resources for running the farm from the Ark World, and even the land and wood needed for the initial farm construction must be prepared by themselves.

Although the Ark online mode has a high threshold and requires a certain initial investment, this investment is rewarding. Once it has output, it can be directly traded and sold on the trading platform with pending orders. real cash income.

You must know that although the most cheating setting in Ark World is the determination of disease, which causes a high mortality rate, the factor that causes the highest mortality rate is not disease, but famine.

At the beginning of the opening of Ark World, it was better. At that time, there were few players and many wild animals, and you could fish and eat casually every day. But now the situation is different. Hundreds of millions of players gather together in some developed ports and livable areas. The problem of eating has become the biggest problem.

At present, the daily staple food of most players in the living area of ​​the game is only wild vegetables and wild fruits dug in the wild, which are only used to maintain a minimum survival. After all, everyone is now naked and may get sick at any time. If you plan to survive for a long time, it is naturally as simple as dealing with it.

But once the age setting and the game's internal professional certification setting are online, in order to survive as much as possible to obtain higher attribute bonuses, wild vegetables and fruits alone are not enough to sustain life for a long time, not to mention that the nearby wild vegetables and fruits have also been dug up. One day, the players finally have to return to reality and develop agriculture honestly.

Then "Ark: Farming Simulator" is to stimulate the development of agriculture in the game world and provide players with sufficient food sources, which can just fill the gap of food shortage.

Moreover, the threshold for entering this industry is not high. Unlike heavy industry, which requires a lot of investment and security measures, every player, including passers-by, can carry out agricultural production in a relatively safe area, and those who have the conditions can invest more to get one. For larger farms, it is not impossible to get an acre of land to grow a la carte without any conditions.

Now that there is a simulated farm, there will definitely be simulated ranches, various simulated factories, simulated restaurants, simulated shopping malls, simulated companies, simulated hospitals, simulated taxis, simulated cities...etc. A game cluster with Ark World as the core.

And this game cluster will eventually evolve into the "real virtual" world framework envisioned by Fang Jie. Once the virtual reality technology matures, these games will no longer be games, but will become "real virtual" attributes. Forms of business and careers that actually exist in reality.

Of course, it’s still early to say these things. The short-term goal of the upcoming series of simulation business games is to attract more passer-by players into the pit and increase the player base of ARK games.

In the current game world where food is scarce, and in order to survive for a long time, it is necessary to maintain balanced nutrition to avoid illness, agricultural output must be in short supply, and running a farm can bring good income, which is the biggest motivation to attract passer-by players.

And once a large number of passer-by players come in, the demand for food will be even greater, and there is no fear of no sales.

Not only food, in order to survive, players will have a huge demand for basic necessities of life, and various game simulators will attract passers-by who have never played games to invest in games.

Many passers-by may not be able to play games, but it doesn't matter, these simulator games are all 2D, even word games, which don't look like games at all, more like highly professional semi-automatic office software.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t planted land and have no experience in this field. When “Simulator Ranch” comes out, you can also raise cattle and herd sheep.
If it still doesn't work, when "Simulation Workshop" comes out, set up a private workshop or factory to process and manufacture various production and living utensils, right?
No matter how bad it is, when "Cargo Simulator" comes out, you can still drive a truck for transportation. If you have driven a plane in real life, it will be even better in the game. Directly invest in a private jet for air transportation, or join the army to fight in air combat. It's a high salary.

Of course, airplanes and the like have to be manufactured by the various workshops of the players, which will also create a huge demand for related industries. Anyway, no matter what you do in reality, you can find production suitable for your operation in the game project, don’t worry about making money.

In short, during the Chinese New Year holiday, Fang Jie was busy writing these game planning proposals. The specific content and in-depth logic are of course not as simple as the above. It can only be said that these dozens of game planning proposals are roughly like this. What's going on won't be revealed until the game is made.

These planning plans are Fang Jie's layout for the game industry in the next few years. In the world of Ark, fighting is not enough, and it is necessary to plan ahead to guide it in the right direction.

Not only Ark games, Boiling Games will also launch these simulator games. While making big-scale games, these interesting small productions will be used as supplements. Even if these simulation games are not online with Ark, they can be regarded as ordinary online games It's actually quite fun to play around with.

From the end of 2011 to the end of February 2012, Fang Jie has been busy with the game, so the time and energy invested in other aspects will be ignored.

In terms of film and television dramas, Fang Jie only personally finalized the new script and leading role of a Korean drama "The Moon Embracing the Sun", and let the rest take its course.

This so-called "letting go with the flow" includes the Korean historical drama "Taizong Li Fangyuan", which was set to start filming in 2010, and the well-known "You Who Came from the Star" that is scheduled to start filming in the second half of the year, as well as domestic "Palace Lock Heart Jade"

Speaking of "You Who Came from the Stars", we must first mention the drama "The Moon Embracing the Sun".

In the previous life, "The Moon Embracing the Sun" was not only very popular in South Korea, its ratings exceeded 40%, and the leading actors in it were not ordinary.

The male protagonist of "The Moon Embracing the Sun" is Kim Soo Hyun, um, the male protagonist of "My Love from the Star".

That's all, the actress who played the heroine's youth in the play is Jin Yuzhen, this is the heroine of the ancient costume magic Korean drama "Moonlight Drawn by Clouds" and many Korean dramas in her previous life.

And the actress who plays the second female in the play is Kim So-hyun. This one is even more awesome. She is the previous life "School" series, "Fighting Ghosts", "Your Name", "The Monarch-Master of the Mask", " The heroine of "Ring the Bell if You Like", "Legend of Mung Bean", "Moonrise River", and the regular host of "Music Center", she can definitely be regarded as a professional female lead of popular Korean dramas.

So the "three golds" in this drama are really high in gold.

Of course, at this moment, only 13-year-old Kim So-hyun and Kim Yoo-jeong can only be regarded as child actors. Kim Soo-hyun only made his debut last year through "Dream High". The big name is Han Jiaren who plays the heroine's adulthood.

However, under Fang Jie's interference in this life, Han Jiaren was replaced by Song Qian as the female lead, and the male lead was also snatched by Hu Ge, playing the role of the king of an alternate historical dynasty.

Hu Ge alone is not enough to cultivate stars in Hualiu film and television dramas, an actress is also needed, so Song Qian is in the position, and this kind of popular Korean drama is the best channel to promote newcomers.

When it comes to Song Qian, many people in her previous life may have the impression that she is a member of the Korean girl group and the captain of f(x). She is most famous for participating in the international version of "We Got Married".

But in fact, she was born as a serious dancer and graduated from Beiwu. Compared with the achievements of idol girl groups, she has achieved greater achievements in dance and acting. She has won domestic dance awards and participated in more than ten performances. film and television drama.

Fang Jie, who can't take care of her in this life, didn't interfere much with Song Qian's development, so Song Qian basically followed the route of her previous life. She is still the captain of the girl group f(x), and she still participated in the show in 2010 After "We Got Married", in 08, she still participated in the MV heroine of the popular debut song "My Sister is So Beautiful" by the boy group SHINee.

The fate trajectory is slightly different. The girl group f(x) is under JYP, not SM. In 2010, "The Greatest Dancer" she led the girl group f(x) to perform on stage as a choreographer. He didn't achieve much, but he managed to attract Fang Jie's attention.

If it wasn't for her appearance this time, Fang Jie would have almost forgotten that there is such a person.

In my impression, Fang Jie has a good sense of her. She feels like a pretty girl who is straightforward and has good professional skills. Decided to give the other party a chance to become popular.

Fortunately, Song Qian herself is a member of the Korean girl group. After participating in the phenomenal variety show "We Got Married", she is currently very popular in Korea. It is difficult for Korean audiences to accept.

As for letting Hu Ge continue to be a model worker to play the male lead, it is purely out of trouble, because if Kim Soo Hyun becomes popular because of "The Moon Embracing the Sun", maybe the male lead of "My Love from the Star" will have to negotiate with Han Fang Capital and the screenwriter. They argued, so they simply didn't give Kim Soo Hyun such an opportunity, and it would save a lot of trouble.

Since Hu Ge was planned to star in "The Moon Embracing the Sun" and "My Love from the Star", Hu Ge didn't have the time and energy to participate in "Taizong Li Fangyuan".

In fact, it is not suitable for participation. It is not a big problem for a top Chinese star to play a virtual or unimportant king, but if he plays Li Fangyuan, an important historical figure in the Joseon Dynasty, it will be easily politicized, and it may be criticized by others. The shanggang is online, so it is better to avoid this kind of behavior of dancing on the cusp of the storm.

Speaking of dancing, from the end of the Chinese New Year in 2012 to June, it is the preparatory stage for the second season of "The Master of Dance".

After the first season of "The Great Master of Dancing Forest" was aired, the response received is of course not to be boasted about.

From Fang Jie's point of view, the first season of "The Great Dancer" successfully completed the task of cultural export, and successfully established Li Qing as a dancer.

Especially last year for almost half a year, Li Qing has been running around the world, and "The Great Master of Dance" held in various countries have all sent invitations to her, asking her to participate in the program as an expert judge guest and a Chinese representative.

And Li Qing did not embarrass Fang Jie, nor did she disappoint the program groups of various countries. Every time she went to a country, she learned the national dance of that country, and then combined with her own understanding of dance, when the guests performed the show, she created a One dance show after another is not only in line with the local cultural elements and what the people love to see, but also has a certain unique national charm.

So after such a circle of gilding, Li Qing became popular internationally. All dance videos related to her have over [-] million on-demand views on major video platforms. Foreign viewers who don't know the truth directly put the title of "dance master" on her head.

Of course, the country is also proud of this, so in the second season of "The Great Master of Dance", Li Qing was directly promoted from a contestant to a professional judge, becoming a well-known new dancer in China.

(End of this chapter)