Chapter 265: I’ll Give You Twenty-Four Hours
There were many similar discussions. The internet was all riled up out of nowhere, and ‘Chen Mo’s Price War’ became a trending topic.
Various defamatory pieces started appearing, and all of them had the same talking points.
They compared Chen Mo’s lower priced platforms to the free apps in the app war, with one key argument: Chen Mo did this to break the rules of the game, attracting developers with short term benefits to gain an advantage over other distributors before forming a monopoly to gain even more benefits.
At the same time, many discussions defaming Chen Mo also started appearing.
“Chen Mo opened a can of worms when the invented pay to win games like I Am MT and Onmyoji, and you still think he’s the good guy? Are you kidding me by saying he doesn’t love money?”
“In terms of making money, he’s better than any other large companies. He’s only been in the industry for a few years and has billions in net worth. Who else can you compare him to?”
“Don’t buy into his lies. It’ll be difficult to restore the ecosystem once it’s destroyed! Boycott Thunderbolt Gaming Platform!”
“Yeah, Boycott Thunderbolt Gaming Platform!”
A lot of them were paid haters, but there were innocent bystanders that were mistaken among them too.
Some of them were pretending with ulterior motives, and there were some who weren’t pretending as they were used.
Soon, a huge verbal war across the internet started as Thunderbolt Entertainment’s players and Chen Mo’s fans retailated.
“Heh, you guys are brainwashed quite easily huh. How many other companies copied I Am MT? Just think about it! Moreover, Chen Mo had made quite a few nice, non pay to win games. Bunch of blind dogs!”
“This perfectly describes the saying: a knave thinks of others in terms of his own desires!”
“You guys must be pretending, this is completely different from the app wars alright? Aren’t the distributors you guys are supporting bullying and abusing new developers for money? Emperor Dynasty and Fantasy sometimes take eighty to ninety percent of the profit. You guys are now whining now that your source of income is disrupted?”
“Support Chen Mo!”
Of course Chen Mo’s fans couldn’t take the defamatory comments of the haters. Obviously it is a good thing that Chen Mo opened up his platform, using it to help out some designers who don’t make much money by promoting their games.
The intentions of the attackers were clear too; they were trying to create a bad public opinion to protect their interests.
Once Thunderbolt Gaming Platform gains momentum, the other distributors would surely be affected, and the days of making big banks would surely be over.
This became a trending topic for quite some time as both sides constantly attacked one another.
—
Inevitably, Chen Mo’s Weibo became the main battleground for the arguments.
There was to guarantee that the words of the haters on other forums and sites would be seen by Chen Mo, so there was no point.
This wasn’t the case on Weibo as Chen Mo was quite active there, making posts before every game release. Although he almost never replies to comments and private messages, many thought that he most certainly would see them.
In a short few days, there were many Weibo posts about this matter as everybody got all riled up. This also affected people who didn’t care, every time they went on Weibo, they would see two people going at each other’s throats.
And on the fifth day of Chen Mo’s silence, the attackers went even further. The tags, private messages and comments went from bad publicity to personal attacks, even going as far as spreading rumours with fake accounts.
“Heh, is Chen Mo really going to stay silent? How come he’s not saying anything? Isn’t he usually active? Nothing to say this time?”
“Guilty as charged then. He doesn’t know what to say in retaliation.”
“You could just come out and pretend to be a good guy. Just say: ‘The platform is not for money, but for the benefit of all designers’. Look, I’ve even thought of the line for you.”
“Heh, these garbage designers that make garbage games only have so many tricks up their sleeves. Disgusting!”
Chen Mo’s fans were trying their best to defend Chen Mo, but since their opponents were well organised, taking the offensive at all fronts. There wasn’t much they could do other than fighting back with anger.
As each and every of Chen Mo’s moves could be used as ammunition. Many of these attackers were under the cover as ‘players’ and would never reveal the mastermind behind them.
Many thought that there was most certainly a distributor behind all these attackers, but there was no way for them to find out where it game from.
The war entered a stalemate.
Many communities were discussing this matter.
“What does the actions of Chen Mo mean? Silence is golden?”
“That’s not right. In theory, if he does plan to fight the price war, he could totally dress himself as the good guy. If his points are good, he should be the guy on the moral high ground right?”
“That’s weird, could it be that Chen Mo is extremely calm and doesn’t get their logic clouded by emotions?”
“He’s extremely calm? I think that was the best joke in history. Just ask Shi Huazhe and Qiu Bin and see if they agree. Have you guys forgotten how hot headed he was when he entered the industry? Is it because he hasn’t had any heat on him for a long time?”
“Chen Mo isn’t someone to back down. He challenged Emperor Dynasty Entertainment when he was still a C-grade videogame designer. You think these guys are enough to scare Chen Mo? I think he’s just waiting for cooldowns to get fit of everyone in one fell swoop”
—
Indeed, Chen Mo no longer kept his silence on the evening of the fifth day.
Chen Mo sent out a Weibo at 8pm that night.
“There have been quite a few attackers in the last few days. I wasn’t going to care since I’ve been so busy, but seeing how hardworking and enthusiastic you guys have been, let’s have a chat. I’ll give you twenty-four hours to say whatever you want to say. How much money you attackers can earn will all depend on the next twenty-four hours. Please bring your performance!”
This gave the bystanders who were drowsy from dinner a jolt.
What does this mean?
“Let’s have a chat?”
Does that mean Chen Mo is about to partic.i.p.ate in the war himself?
Of course, Chen Mo wasn’t someone who would bow down to others. The attacks are right at his door, how could he stay completely silent? That doesn’t make sense!
The attackers also got excited. The main event finally showed up after all their efforts in the past few days!