Chapter 637 541 The President Is Truly a God

After "Yu-Gi-Oh!" came out, many game merchants, including players, couldn't believe that this was actually an online game that could be seen in 2001.

"No, if pokeni does this, can the performance of computers and game consoles really be able to withstand it?"

"Are you trying to kill the programmer or the player's computer? Are you actually using 3D models to fight in an online game?"

"How can an online card game follow the rules of "Border Online"? Wouldn't it be better if it was free? After all, you have to draw cards in the game.

I originally thought that "Yu-Gi-Oh!" would have a free model like "Border Online".

Unexpectedly, there is still a charge?

3,000 yen is a little cheaper than ordinary games, but it’s not too much. "

There are a lot of doubts on the Internet.

However, many people haven’t played the game yet and are just asking about it through forums.

Only after they actually experienced it did they realize that everything was very different from what they had imagined.

Even though this game is a 3D online game, it actually plays quite smoothly, at least in terms of performance, it won’t stutter. The only thing that may cause stuttering is the network condition.

In fact, Qing Zhiyuan is a veteran game programmer from the next 20 years, and many things are done only after careful consideration.

First in terms of gaming performance:

A few 3D models are not too big to carry, and they are not high-precision large models with tens of thousands of faces.

Just make the vertical painting beautiful enough.

The card surface is well drawn and the model is well made, which is actually enough to meet the needs of players.

And in "Yu-Gi-Oh!", there will be no more than 10 combat units on the field at the same time in a game.

There will be less after integration.

The card battle of Yu-Gi-Oh is a two-dimensional structure, which corresponds to a limit on the number of grids on the ground. P Club itself imposes certain restrictions through terrain.

The scene itself doesn't need to be very detailed. Shenmue's scene is much more complex than this, but it still runs quite smoothly.

Even the accuracy of many models is lower. For example, non-human monsters such as Goblins and Charmanders can have relatively few faces, but give people a high quality.

Texture is also important.

The accumulation of these technologies does not take place in a day or two.

You must know that there are as many as 10 players fighting units in a Border Online game, and they are all 3D scenes and higher-precision models.

In the past, in pokeni's Pokémon 3D World game, you would encounter many 3D model enemies.

The model overhead of "Yu-Gi-Oh!" is mainly placed on the client, and the server only transmits basic data, such as who hit whom, how much damage was caused, and what the settlement rewards are.

Whether the model is called locally depends on the performance of the game console or computer.

The official provides different adaptation modes. If you think your computer graphics card is not good, then use the low configuration. If you think the graphics card is good, then you can use the high configuration.

For high-end configurations, pokeni will use software technology to maximize the performance advantages of the graphics card and game console.

…

In fact, combat overhead in turn-based games isn't an issue at all.

Real-time games, such as "Warcraft 3" and StarCraft, are much more complicated than this.

Even if the game is guaranteed to be smooth, the information exchange for each operation per second will be more complicated than in "Yu-Gi-Oh!"

Therefore, players actually have nothing to worry about about game expenses and computer performance. Basically, after purchasing "Yu-Gi-Oh!", it can run smoothly on computers and Sega DC.

Of course, the accuracy of this model cannot be as high as it was 20 years later, but compared to other products of the same era, the in-game performance of Yu-Gi-Oh is definitely top-notch.

…

What is really worthy of thinking and discussion by Qing Zhiyuan and P Club’s game planners is actually more about the game’s system rules and commercialization.

At first, Qing Zhiyuan also thought about making the game free, and after discussing it with everyone, they all agreed that the [death match mode], where the winner can get a card from the loser, should be retained.

Not to mention this is an important setting in the animation, but one of the important reasons why Qing Zhiyuan was convinced by them was——

This mode is highly stimulating.

This is the same as playing mahjong. When you lose money, you want to win it back. Losing the cards itself is very exciting, and one of your cards has to be taken away by the opponent. This psychological stimulation is not A little bit stronger.

Moreover, generally speaking, opportunities and risks coexist. If you want to defeat your opponent, you must assemble a very tactical deck, which will contain some powerful cards. For example, legendary cards are more cost-effective. card.

Once you lose and the legendary card is taken away by the opponent, the excitement will be even higher.

Then the problems caused will be obvious.

First of all, the first plan given by Qing Zhiyuan is that the game must not adopt the free model of Border Online, but must be charged.

This money is not only the cost of the disc, but also a barrier to entry.

It is used to prevent players from unlimited access to alt accounts.

It is impossible for the government to restrict players from opening trumpet accounts. This matter will not happen even if it is more than 20 years later.

Therefore, opening a trumpet account is inevitable, but after charging, the cost of the trumpet account will become higher, and it will not be unlimited.

Another one, precisely because of this entry threshold and cost, players cannot use small accounts to swipe cards for large accounts.

Qing Zhiyuan is not afraid of players cheating at all.

Instead, they contributed to pokeni by playing alt accounts.

$19 for a small size.

If a player opens 10 trumpet accounts, he will contribute $190 in revenue to pokeni.

This kind of thing pokeni simply couldn't ask for.

In order to transfer cards to the large account by brushing the small account, pokeni has also made several settings.

First of all, the deathmatch mode is similar to the ranked matches of Hearthstone. Players cannot choose their opponents and must pass the matching process.

The matched objects are all opponents of the same level as you, which ensures the relative fairness of the battle.

In other words, just like a pyramid, the further up you go, the smaller the player group becomes, and the more powerful the opponents you match, the stronger their decks.

And if you want to be constantly matched with your own trumpet, you have to let the trumpet also come up. This is theoretically impossible.

Because when your trumpet number is called, it will no longer be called a trumpet number.

Another setting is——

The value of the legendary card itself is not high, so players can have enough affordability.

In pokeni's value setting, the value of a legendary card is 4,000 yen, which is equivalent to more than 30 US dollars and more than 250 soft sister coins based on the 2001 exchange rate.

But since each player needs to collect a large number of cards, the combined value is considerable.

There are currently more than 1,000 officially released cards, including more than 20 legendary cards, and they all have specific card combinations. If they are separated from this deck, the value will decrease if taken out individually, so the restrictions are quite good. Many.

First, collect these 1,000 cards. According to the numerical planning calculation of "Yu-Gi-Oh!", it will cost a total of 200,000 yen, which is equivalent to more than 1,500 US dollars and more than 12,000 soft money.

It's not cheap anymore either.

But it is certainly not expensive. This value is not even enough for a rich person’s daily pocket money.

Therefore, in order to deepen the depth of payment, the official also specially dug a skin pit.

The rarity value of the skin is much higher than the use value of the card itself, and can even be infinitely high in calculation terms.

This is easy to understand:

From the perspective of payment ability, what middle and low-level paying players need more is the right to use cards. If you have cards, you can combine them to defeat your opponents.

For players with strong paying ability, they need more of a sense of showing off, so they provide skins, various titles, avatar frames, combat actions and special effects...a series of purely cosmetic products that can be used to show off the players' unrelated card attributes.

What these goods provide is emotional value.

So in this case, if you think about it, the use value of a legendary card is not high. In addition, even if the player wins, he will randomly get one card from the opponent's 40 cards. This is purely a matter of viewing. Face thing.

If you want to use an alt account to farm, firstly, you must match it, and secondly, you must ensure that the proportion of cards you need in the alt account's deck is high enough, otherwise it will be difficult to draw.

Also, even if you draw it, the selling price of this card is limited in terms of use value.

So Qing Zhiyuan is not afraid of players cheating at all.

I even wish they could brush more.

But it doesn’t mean that you will lose money by playing alt accounts. People who work hard will always get some better cards, which will make the starting account more valuable. But if you want to go up, you have to spend money and improve your own account. The deck has an advantage.

…

Now that this problem is no longer a problem, the thing that Qing Zhiyuan and Mikami Shinji worry about the most is——

Will the launch of the game have any impact on trading cards?

On September 10, Operations Director Kazuma Takahashi initiated an operational analysis meeting for "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Qing Zhiyuan and a group of company executives attended the meeting.

Many people expressed that they were too curious. In fact, such a special IP as Yu-Gi-Oh has been working very well before. If the game development has a negative impact after it is launched, then the fun will be great and it will definitely be laughed at by peers.

You must know that Sony and Rentendao have been waiting to see pokeni's jokes for so many years, wanting to see them fail.

This time around Yu-Gi-Oh's game operation, except pokeni himself, everyone else was confused and didn't know whether the result was good or bad.

What's more, I wish they could just wipe out the income from trading cards.

Kazuma Takahashi was in the conference room, opening the PPT and showing the data curve chart to everyone:

“Judging from the first month’s operating data, the impact is actually inevitable.

Because before the game was launched, the only outlet for these Yu-Gi-Oh audiences was trading cards. They could get the characters they wanted by opening packs, and then use them to play against others offline, enjoying a game similar to that in cartoons. pleasure.

After the game appears, players will inevitably be diverted. "

Kazuma Takahashi explained:

Players who like to fight and enjoy the fun of fighting will flock to the game. This is very intuitive, and it is an official competition held in person.

The unified rules written by the machine will naturally provide players with a more comfortable battle environment.

So after this wave of impact, the sales of trading cards naturally fell a lot.

But from a global perspective, it is actually worth it.

Through data analysis, Operations Director Kazuma Takahashi compared the overall data of the same month and gave a very detailed report.

Although the sales of trading cards fell by more than 20%, it finally stabilized, and the downward trend has become flat. There is not much room for future decline.

On the game side, the number of players entering not only fills this 20%, but also more.

Even from the first month's revenue, the revenue data of Yu-Gi-Oh has reached the same result as the revenue of trading cards.

That is, the global revenue has reached an astonishing 200 million US dollars.

Seeing this data, everyone in the conference room couldn't help but take a breath, looking at each other, and couldn't quite understand this result.

Qing Zhiyuan just smiled calmly and motioned Operations Director Kazuma Takahashi to continue.

"This seems quite counterintuitive, just like [seizing] the opponent's cards can actually increase revenue and player stickiness."

Takahashi Kazuma was also very happy, and he touched his nose with his hand and laughed.

To be honest, if he hadn't seen the data, he would probably have the same expression as everyone else.

"Just think about it, how painful it would be for the party whose cards were seized?

Aren't we afraid of losing players?

I keep losing, and my cards are always seized by the opponent. The opponent keeps winning, and the advantage can be improved. Isn't it that the strong get stronger and the weak get weaker?

Then why should I continue to play this game? Right?"

Everyone nodded. Isn't it supposed to be like this?

If it were me, I would probably quit the game if the opponent drew a legendary card.

"In fact..."

Takahashi Kazuma pressed down a page, and a fast-growing curve appeared on the PPT.

"We found that players who have experienced the deathmatch mode have a higher retention rate than those who have not participated in the deathmatch mode.

The retention rate of ordinary players is about 5% per month.

And the players who have experienced the deathmatch mode have reached an astonishing 50%."

Wow...

When this was said, everyone was stunned.

This is...too counterintuitive, right?

"We analyzed and found that this is actually a very typical gambler's mentality." Kazuma Takahashi took out the data of the game Soul of the Night and compared it. "In fact, the data of this part of the players is quite similar to that of the players of Soul of the Night.

We expected that [Legendary Cards were drawn] and then lost, but this is not the case.

Once there are gains and losses, and this increase is within the tolerance range, the stickiness of the players will actually be higher."

This is actually a typical gambler's mentality.

In fact, an experiment on mice was done abroad to study the feeding method, and the mice were divided into three groups.

The first group had a timer feeder, which fed a certain amount of food at a fixed time every day.

The second group of feeders has a pedal, and as long as the mouse steps on it, food will be released.

The third group of feeders also has a pedal, and every time the mouse steps on it, a portion of food or even no food will be randomly released.

As a result, the researchers were surprised to find that the mice in the third group stepped on the pedal the most crazily, and sometimes they continued to step on it even when they were full.

In fact, this is a typical gambling mechanism, which stimulates the dopamine secretion in the animal brain.

And the [Duel Mode] is equivalent to a disguised gambling.

Many people actually find it difficult to understand why some people have already lost everything but still borrow money to gamble. In fact, it is for similar reasons.

There are wins and losses, and the viscosity will become higher.

After Kazuma Takahashi explained, everyone on the scene showed an expression of sudden enlightenment.

Except for some senior planners, such as the legendary producer Shinji Mikami, who may have already acquired this knowledge, others sounded quite fresh.

As for Qing Zhiyuan, he was just happy to observe the expressions of the people on the scene and had no interest in Kazuma Takahashi's explanation.

…

“After opening the game, the impact on trading cards was limited. On the contrary, the total number of users increased, and the revenue was higher, which was actually counterintuitive.”

Kazuma Takahashi returned to the topic.

“At the beginning, we also thought that this wave of impact would definitely cause a lot of losses.

But in fact, after research, we found that the original trading card users actually combined three different types of people:

The first type is pure animation enthusiasts. They like animation and are keen to collect their favorite cards in cartoons and imitate the battles in cartoons.

But in fact, they don’t like playing games very much. Many people even prefer to play some more popular family games such as Pokémon and Mario. In addition, they are not so interested in real card battles.

We call this part animation users.

The second type is game users. This part of users is users who are more inclined to battle and have a high willingness to play games. We call them battle users.

The third type is users who are purely collectors and have a desire to collect. This group of users may sound strange at first glance, because they may not even watch the entire animation, but just see that the cards are valuable, so they collect them.

Some are collectors, and some are card speculators waiting for the value to increase.

Don't underestimate this group of people. Although the proportion is not high, the number is actually not small. "

When Takahashi Kazuma said this, he brought up a pie chart.

The proportions of these three types of users are marked above.

Most of them, 62% of users are animation users and 21% are game users.

17% are card users.

Kazuma Takahashi pulled another picture, showing that many people may actually combine multiple user attributes at the same time.

“Then, this time our game attracted not only some pure battle users, but also other different types of users.

The data not only fills in the missing part.

At the same time, there are many players who have never played trading cards before and are not Yu-Gi-Oh fans.

This is converted through the Dandelion game platform and other publicity channels.

So we see that this situation has formed now. "

Takahashi turned to the next page and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.

"The payment rate of games is much higher than that of trading cards. Although the number of game users is far less than that of trading cards, it creates the same value."

Moreover, the popularity of the game has also turned some pure gamers into new users who collect trading cards.

The two promote each other and make the entire pool bigger.

In the end, Takahashi Kazuma concluded, “Our opening of the game this time is generally beneficial, and it is not generally beneficial.

It directly doubled our Yu-Gi-Oh!'s revenue. "

Oops!

Everyone gasped when they heard this.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, then turned their attention to Qing Zhiyuan.

The president is truly a god.

No one might have the courage to do this kind of thing.

But Qing Zhiyuan was determined to do it from the beginning.

Facts have proved that the president was so right! ! !

…

...(End of chapter)