Chapter 1462: The Last Straw To Crush IOI Players
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
This update announcement seemed to have been released on the first day of Chinese New Year. However, Pei Qian was still at home at that time and did not come out to surf the net. Thus, he did not pay attention.
There was quite a lot of content in the announcement. It could be divided into three parts.
The first part was the new spring event.
As the domestic games market had been developing rapidly in recent years, many foreign games companies had also placed more emphasis on the domestic market. Thus, Chinese New Year activities had also begun to appear in more and more games.
IOI’s new spring event this time was not bad. It included a set of limited skins for the Chinese New Year and a set of limited skins for Valentine’s Day. There were also some messy activities like login rewards during the Chinese New Year period.
These two sets of skins were relatively well-made. The event was considered conscientious. There should be nothing to nitpick on this area.
The second part was a routine version adjustment.
It was a large version after all. It had to make some adjustments to the balance. Otherwise, players would be tired of playing those strong heroes.
The weakening this time also looked like a conventional weakening. It had eliminated the more popular heroes in the previous international compet.i.tion. This should be treated equally between domestic and foreign teams. After all, IOI World Compet.i.tion had mainly strengthened the heroes that foreign teams were good at previously. Now, it had been cut back a little.
The strengthened heroes were unpopular heroes that domestic and foreign teams did not use often.
Obviously, Finger Games was also very conflicted. How to cut and strengthen this hero was a dilemma.
Continue to strengthen the heroes that foreign teams were good at? Cut down the heroes that domestic teams were good at? Then the intention to target FV Team would be too obvious. Was he afraid that there would be too many domestic players? Did he want to continue adding fuel to the fire?
However, if they strengthened the heroes that FV Team was good at and cut down the heroes that foreign teams were good at, foreign players would not do it again: Who won the champions.h.i.+p in the international compet.i.tion previously? FV Team won the champions.h.i.+p but continued to strengthen? The one who did not win the champions.h.i.+p was weakening instead? Was he crazy?
It was inhumane.
However, balance had to be done. He had to do it.
Therefore, they could only treat everyone equally. There should be no problem to cut down last year’s strong hero and strengthen the unpopular hero that no one liked to use, right?
The third part was FV Team’s champion skin.
The reason why he took it out alone and did not put it together with the two sets of skins limited by Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day was because Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation were very generous this time. They specially made special activities for FV Team’s champion skin.
That was obviously to please domestic players.
Previously, after IOI’s international compet.i.tion ended, many players expressed their dissatisfaction, thinking that FV Team had suffered unfair treatment. Finger Games and Long Yu Corporation did not dare to make any rash moves in order to take care of the emotions of foreign players under those circ.u.mstances. They could only work hard to make the champion’s skin good, looking forward to the champion’s skin to recover some reputation and favorability.
Now, the champion’s skin was finally made. Of course, he had to make it big so that all the gamers in the country who were still insisting on playing IOI could see the sincerity.
Pei Qian looked at the announcement and could not help but praise Finger Games.
Alright, I’m quite smart!
This Chinese New Year event might not be particularly eye-catching and there were no huge additions, but it was not considered a deduction, right?
It should not be a problem to increase the number of active players during Chinese New Year, right?
“It’s a pity that I can’t see IOI’s data. However, I should be able to know if the event succeeded after looking at the feedback of the players online.”
“Even if we don’t succeed, there’s no reason to be scolded, right?”
Pei Qian randomly found an IOI forum to check the players’ feedback on the Chinese New Year event.
However, Pei Qian was stunned when he saw these posts.
“Hehehehe, I knew it. It’s the same old. Finger Games will always be like this. They will never be able to look forward to bringing players any surprise!”
“FV Team worked so hard to train a hero, but you f*cking cut it off? Is there something wrong with you? Are you really going to hack whatever FV Team train until they can’t train anymore?”
“That’s right. You might as well cancel FV Team’s qualifications to partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion. You can just write it on the announcement: ‘We will not allow any ICL team to win the finals champions.h.i.+p’! Then, domestic teams can entertain themselves in the domestic league and not partic.i.p.ate in your international compet.i.tion. Let other foreign teams compete for the champions.h.i.+p!”
“Slash, hack, hack, hack, hack every time. Is your Balancer useless? I can do it even if I’m on this balance. In any case, I just want to pull a watch to see the winning rate of the heroes in the professional tournament. I’ll hack at the front one by one and strengthen the back one by one, right?”
“Yes, Balancer should balance the game mechanism and hero characteristics and learn from GOG!”
“Indeed, there is a reason why IOI is not good.”
“Heh, don’t talk about it. Look at the bulk of the Chinese New Year event. One set of limited skins for the Chinese New Year, and one set of limited skins for Valentine’s Day. Obviously, they’re using this opportunity to continue making money! Just like before, they’re just producing skins in different ways. Don’t you have any idea how lousy your game is? Why are they still producing skins?”
“However, this is not the most infuriating thing. The most infuriating thing is FV Team’s champion skin! Obviously, FV Team’s att.i.tude is very obvious. Such a trashy company is not worthy of the support of players!”
“Sigh, look at GOG next door. It’s another annual huge return! It’s just as well that it’s the new year. They distribute all sorts of red packets as if they don’t need money. What do they mean by ‘down-to-earth operations’? Red packets during the Chinese New Year are down-to-earth operations!”
“I’m going to buy FV Team’s skin. Goodbye, IOI. I’m not reluctant to leave anymore!”
There were many similar posts.
All in all, the entire forum was filled with the atmosphere of farewell!
Pei Qian felt light-headed.
What was going on?
There didn’t seem to be any problems with the new year event. Why was everyone so excited? What went wrong?
Pei Qian leaned back in his chair after studying the content of these posts carefully. He seemed to understand a little.
It would not be a big problem if he only looked at the content of the update this time. If the event was done by GOG or other games with better reputations, he would definitely be praised.
At the very least, he would not be scolded.
However, IOI was different. These seemingly no problem activities accurately stabbed the gamers’ wounds!
First of all, it was completely conventional to set a limit on skins for the Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day. GOG had also done it. However, the problem was that Dayak Corporation had done such skin activities too many times in order to recoup their costs as much as possible ever since Finger Games lost part of IOI’s autonomy!
It was not a bad thing to have many skins, but if he focused his energy on the skins, the other updates would naturally be lesser.
For a long time, IOI’s game mechanism was updated, its balance was updated, and the new hero development plan were all compromised by the skin. Players were not stupid. They could tell what was going on: to earn money!
It was alright to make money, but the game content had to be good, right?
Therefore, when they saw that IOI was producing skins again, gamers had no desire to spend money at all. They categorized it as “IOI is scamming money without any bottom line”.
How could that be good?
Secondly, this routine balance update angered everyone.
Logically speaking, it was normal to kill the strong heroes in the previous international compet.i.tion. However, the problem was that FV Team had received too much unfair treatment. That was why all domestic players had lost their trust in Finger Games.
No matter what Finger Games did, it looked like they were targeting FV Team!
This time, FV Team spent a long time and put in a lot of effort to train these strong heroes. They stood on the same level as other foreign teams, but Finger Games cut them off in one blow. Why?
The key was that the strengthened heroes were not heroes that FV Team was good at. That made people feel very targeted.
The players did not care what the other foreign companies thought, but the treatment that FV Team received was really infuriating.
Many people could not help but think that if the champion was not FV Team but SUG or some other foreign team, would Finger Games still be so anxious to kill those strong heroes?
Once this guess appeared, it would be very difficult to clean up.
On top of that, the comparison between IOI and GOG made the gamers of IOI’s heart ache.
GOG’s Chinese New Year event was called the ‘New Spring Red Packet of the Executers’. It was a red packet with a total value of 10 million yuan. All players would fight for it in the game!
It was a compet.i.tion of luck, not hand speed. The accounts that were logged in on the first day of the Chinese New Year were divided up.
There were a total of five million yuan red packets. The lowest red packet was 0.88 yuan, and the highest was 888 yuan.
As for who would get the 888 yuan red packet, that would depend on luck.
Of course, according to Tengda’s usual lucky draw rules, similar activities had certain requirements for activity. In order to prevent scalpers, the higher the weight of players in the game, the corresponding increase in luck.
The key was that players could even choose to cash out directly!
If they did not choose cash, they could also choose to multiply the money by 10 to turn it into a coupon for buying skins and support the deduction of use.
Simply put, if he drew a 0.88 yuan red packet, he would be able to exchange for a 8.8 yuan coupon. This voucher could be used to buy any skin.
If you drew a 188 yuan red packet, you would exchange for a 1880 yuan coupon. This coupon could be used multiple times. For example, if you bought a skin that was only 10 yuan, you would be given a skin and a 1870 coupon until the entire coupon was consumed.
Considering the price of Tengda’s skin, those lucky people who received 888 yuan in red packet would probably be able to buy all the skins in GOG for the next year if they did not mention it as a cas.h.i.+er.
There would still be a sunny coupon as comfort even if he did not get a 0.88 red packet.
One was earning money by producing new spring skins, while the other was distributing new spring red packets. The difference was obvious.
Wasn’t it obvious which game would be more popular?
Lastly, FV Team’s champion skin became the last straw to crush IOI players!