Chapter 268: PVP Map COG
Lin Mao asked, “Chen Mo, the stuff about your video game platform has been quite heated recently. I commend you for being so brave, you must’ve gotten on many people’s bad side.”
Chen Mo laughed, “Getting on other’s bad side? ARe you talking about the distributors? I never liked them. Anyways, what do you mean ‘get on their bad side’? I don’t need to care what they think now, them being happy doesn’t affect me at all. In truth, they should be the ones trying to get on my good side.”
Lin Mao laughed too, “Alright, alright, don’t get too full of yourself, but there’s nothing wrong with being proud. Here’s one for your c.o.c.kyness!”
The three of them raised their gla.s.ses and had a drink.
Chen Mo filled up their gla.s.ses with more beer.
Lin Mao also grabbed a bottle of beer to fill up Chen Mo’s gla.s.s too, “To be honest, I’m curious as to why you’re making a video game platform too. Thunderbolt Gaming Platform is now the third largest gaming platform in China, there’s nothing stopping you from taking seventy to eight percent of the designers’ revenue and make bank. Why did you drop the rate to thirty percent?”
Chen Mo asked, “They don’t know, but you don’t know either?”
Lin Mao blinked his eyes, “You just don’t like them?”
Chen Mo laughed, “Yep, it’s just because I don’t like them.”
Zhao Zihao had his thumb out, “Incredible.”
Chen Mo explained, “In truth, the bigger distribution platforms overseas would take thirty percent on average, fifty percent at most. But the distributors in China? They abuse their power to take control over the designers who have no power over them, taking eighty to ninety percent of their revenue!
“Moreover, with their monopoly, they’ll recommend the players a bunch of garbage games just for money, it does nothing good for the players.
“This causes the players and designers to be in a tough spot, but there’s not much the designer could do other than bow down to them just to get a promotional spot so that more players would notice their game. They’d even get forced into changing the profit method of their games, messing up a decent game.
“Many designers who have integrity decide to release their games overseas, and overtime, there would be fewer and fewer creative games in China.
“That’s why I don’t like them, and many of the distributors who have power choose to follow their awful ways. But I choose to be different. Although I work on a distribution platform, I’m also a designer. If I don’t care about this, n.o.body else would, that’s why I have to make my stance.
“Many think that I’m starting a price war. That’s not the case. I have the money and the resources now, so I’m choosing to do the right thing, that is all.”
Lin Mao nodded, “Alright. I’m completely impressed by what you said Chen Mo! Honestly I’m quite impressed by your bravery. You’re basically destroying their source of income.”
Chen Mo laughed, “So what? Online stores destroyed the source of income of physical stores, so what? Things that shouldn’t survive will die off. It’s enough for me that I know I’m doing the right thing.”
“Well said,” praised Lin Mao, “And right on cue, my new game is almost finished. I plan on giving you some support and releasing it onto your platform.”
Chen Mo nodded, “Welcome! Don’t worry, I’ll promote your game the best I can. How far along is it?”
“It’s almost done, I should be good to release it in the next few days. Also, how many designers have contacted you?” asked Lin Mao.
Chen Mo replied after some thought, “So far there’s been a few dozen. Most are still choosing to observe as Thunderbolt Gaming Platform has never promoted games of other designers. Moreover, the various other distributions are putting them in an awkward spot, so it’s normal for them to be hesitant.”
Lin Mao said, “Don’t worry, you can take it slow.”
Lin Mao had made four games so far, releasing one a year. He’s also now a B-grade designer. Lin Mao had been doing well for himself, but looked unimpressive when compared to someone like Chen Mo.
The three of them continued chatting.
All of a sudden, Zhao Zihao thought of something and said to Chen Mo, “By the way, I found a decent RPG map in Warcraft that isn’t popular in China called COG, Clash of G.o.ds. Have you tried it?”
Chen Mo was shocked, “That translates into… Fight among G.o.ds?”
Zhao Zihao nodded, “Yeah that’s it. It’s quite interesting and similar to the Chenghai3C map that you made. It also only has three lanes but arranged slightly differently. 5v5 as well.”
Chen Mo furrowed his brows, “Huh, do you have a video?”
“Yeah, give me a second.”
Zhao Zihao spent quite some time looking around on his phone, finding some gameplay of COG to show Chen MO.
This video was filmed using a phone so it looked quite terrible. The average joe would struggle to make sense of it, but Chen Mo clearly understood it.
It was a map made in the Warcraft World Editor. Similar to Chenghai3C, it had three lanes and already had something resembling a jungle and neutral creeps.
Ten players could each control a hero (according to the mod, they are called G.o.ds) to destroy the base of the enemy.
There wasn’t much that could be gathered from the video, but Chen Mo could tell what the map looked like from the minimap.
Chen Mo nodded, “Hmm, interesting.”
“The map is quite popular overseas especially in Europe and America. It recently reached the top of PvP maps,” explained Zhao Zihao, “I quite like the map too, I think it’s more balanced than Chenghai3C and it’s easier to get into.”
Chen Mo could check the statistics for Warcraft’s international version, but because he had been busy recently, he hadn’t bothered to constantly monitor it. If it wasn’t for Zhao Zihao mentioning it, he might’ve discovered that a week or two later.
Chen Mo asked, “Are there many western companies who plan to make it onto a standalone game?”
Zhao Zihao replied after some thought, “Uhh, I think the author is trying to find a company for it, but because his price is quite high, he hadn’t found a deal yet. Not sure what happened after that.”
Chen Mo nodded, thankfully it was still within his expectations.
The author must understand the potential of a gamemode like this, but because COG is a fork off Warcraft, they need to make huge changes from the engine to the characters in order to profit off it. Obviously the author didn’t have the power to do that yet.
But the large western video game companies aren’t necessarily going to spend so much resources for a random map, so it’d be difficult for them to strike a deal in a short amount of time. COG was still quite a ways away from becoming a standalone game.
Chen Mo asked, “Would you be able to get in contact with the author?”
Zhao Zihao was shocked, “Uhh, probably, why?”
“I plan to have a chat with him.”