This author is cultured; I've followed them.
The video was created by [I'm Really Not a Pigeon], a well-known gaming blogger on Bilibili's gaming section, and the entire video is over 20 minutes long.
"Hello everyone, this is Pigeon-kun. Recently, many fans have been sending me private messages asking to see content related to 'The Way of the Corporate Slave'."
"Don't think I don't know what kind of trouble you're hiding. I've seen quite a few streamers who were live streaming get dragged into playing this game by you, and they've been playing it until they're questioning their existence."
"But what am I? I'm a pro gamer, a hardcore player."
The pigeon was very confident.
"This level of difficulty is no challenge for me. I not only played this game but also made a gameplay video for you guys. I'll update it as soon as this video gets over 100,000 likes."
"Alright, enough with the chit-chat, let's get down to business."
"First, let's look at the background of the production of 'The Way of the Corporate Slave': Zhixing Games, a small company."
"It was just established this year, and only two and a half months later, it has produced such an amazing game."
"I have to say that this company is a good game company with sustainable development. I suggest that everyone get it as soon as possible and become a long-time fan."
"Our first work won two awards in the annual New Masterpiece competition. This speaks volumes about its quality. More importantly, the list of producers consists of ordinary people with only a little bit of fame in the game industry."
At this point, Pigeon paused for a moment, then habitually put on a layer of armor.
"The specific details are somewhat complicated, so I won't go into too much detail here. If you're interested, you can check out the official media reports."
"Let's look at this name first."
"The 'Way of the Corporate Slave' has a similar feel to 'The Way of the Animal' at first glance. Those who don't know it might think the planner is cursing. Let me explain a few concepts to you."
“Personally, I think this name is very good. Even if young people don’t believe in reincarnation, they must know about the concept of the six realms of reincarnation, of which the animal realm is one.”
"The reality of the animal realm is that the strong prey on the weak and survival of the fittest. This is very similar to our current society, except that human civilized society has a basic safety net."
"There is also a concept in the animal realm called the exhaustion of residual karma, the repayment of debts, and the cessation of creating evil causes before one can be reborn as a human."
"Among the six realms of reincarnation, three are extremely painful: hell, hungry ghosts, and animals. The first two only exist in concepts and imaginations, while only the animal realm is very close to human beings."
"As for the concept of the popular internet term 'corporate slave,' I'm sure everyone understands it. I won't go into details, but I believe that with the additional information I've provided, you can figure it out."
The pigeon didn't tell the whole story, perhaps because it was afraid of failing censorship, so it used this suggestive and leading language.
"It is precisely because of this name that many players feel a sense of fatalistic pessimism while playing the game, which we will discuss later."
"The second question is, why is 'The Way of the Corporate Slave' so captivating?"
"The thing that a game needs to capture players' hearts with is definitely its gameplay."
"But what's strange is that the trial period was completely insufficient to experience all the gameplay of 'The Way of the Corporate Slave'."
"But at the annual new outstanding works selection event, the vast majority of the audience gave it high marks—that was undoubtedly the story that caught people's attention at first glance."
“There are many subgenres of text adventure games. I feel that ‘The Way of the Corporate Slave’ is a combination of strategy, management, and story, and it touches on all of them to some extent.”
"But if you're not interested in the story at first glance, you might find the game a bit complicated and confusing."
"Just play around with it and it'll be over soon."
"Because this requires them to learn the new rules of the game in the same field, to think about how to operate, and to achieve a successful outcome. This process is very complex and has a learning cost."
"If you can't get into the story, you won't have any motivation to learn it."
"Besides the story, the most important thing about a game is its gameplay."
"Gameplay, or game design, still lacks a systematic theory to summarize or study its development, leading many game designers into a vicious cycle."
"For example, many mainstream game designers and developers no longer promote the gameplay of their games in such a high-profile way. Instead, they rely on nostalgia, story, visuals, and soundtracks to attract players' attention."
"Because gameplay is very repetitive, with a high degree of repetition, some players are no longer satisfied with the gameplay created by homogenized rules and gameplay."
"But investing in the development of new gameplay is not a simple matter."
"For game developers, especially those in China, you're not sure if they'll actually take a hit with this game. If it fails, there's no going back."
"Personally, I feel that the creators of this game have effectively combined gameplay and rules to form new gameplay and rules. Creativity is paramount, and the combination is both organic and reasonable."
"He deserves praise for his courage and talent."
"Now let's talk about why this game's gameplay design is so unique."
"Players who actually tried it probably didn't find the gameplay particularly unique, because isn't it just a traditional text adventure game where you interact by clicking? At most, there are some small interactive elements inserted throughout."
"Actually, the new gameplay features will only be unlocked automatically after you complete the game on your fifth playthrough. I've seen many players in the comments section who have completed the game on their third or fourth playthrough and then go on to trick others into getting into the game."
At this point, Pigeon couldn't help but complain, "You guys really don't miss out on any wicked thing."
"It's a traditional human skill, isn't it? Hahahaha."
"According to my incomplete statistics, the official design for the random events in the first three playthroughs is to have the highest probability of occurrence. If you are unlucky, you can encounter dozens of random events in one playthrough."
"In subsequent game runs, the probability will be normal."
"Random events are an interesting concept."
"Some games use random events, but none of them have as many as this game, with such a variety of formats and such a smooth transition in the subsequent plot."
"In the current sharing area, I haven't seen two players who are involved in the same random event."
"This game is designed in a rather unique way in terms of difficulty. Why? Usually, games put the easy parts first and the difficult parts later, in an effort to allow players to progress step by step."
"The Way of the Corporate Slave goes against the grain, but because it is a text adventure game, the difficulty is not actually very different, and people don't really feel it."
"After all, whose difficulty level is determined by the frequency of random events?"
"In my opinion, this game is basically two games' best ideas pieced together. The first three experiences combined make it a complete game, but the later ones..."
"Actually, once you complete the game on your fifth playthrough, you will unlock limited online features through a window, which means the content written on the paper by the character you control in the game."
"This design is very interesting, and it's the most amazing part of the whole game for me."
"After the fifth playthrough, what you receive are suggestions written by other players for other players. Some of these suggestions are good, while others are inhuman."
The pigeon became somewhat annoyed as it spoke.
"Who wrote this 'Beating Up Your Boss and Losing Your Job' guide? It made me believe it and even tried it, and I ended up having to pay medical bills."
"I don't know if you've ever heard of montage-style deception. It's all true, but when it's placed in different contexts and appears in different orders, it becomes a lie."
"For example, in this game—the care from relatives, the advice from parents, the training from superiors, the suggestions from peers, etc., those are their life experiences, but now it is your life, the times and backgrounds are different, so can you believe them or not?"
“We’ve written these kinds of slips of paper before. I even know some players who are really malicious and write those kinds of tricks to lure newbies into achieving the dehydration ending. They’re so mean.”
"But it's really fun doing it." Pigeon chuckled, then got back to the main topic.
"This is the limited online interaction in a single-player game. Maybe it's because the first version didn't want to disrupt the game's narrative, or maybe it was due to insufficient funding. I haven't seen any promotion for 'The Way of the Corporate Slave' outside of the game platform. It's all just players promoting it organically."
"Perhaps after we've made all the money from this wave, we'll add an online multiplayer version in future updates."
"After all, online play is much more expensive than single-player play."
We need to set up another cloud server.
"If there really is an online version, I'll probably be a well-known scammer. I'll definitely do a live stream and let everyone have a good time watching."
"Then many players were confused by the horror and stress relief label that 'The Way of the Corporate Slave' was given, and felt that the developers were just trying to cause trouble."
"This is more like a stress-relief game than a horror game."
"What? You guys really didn't realize this is new Chinese horror!" Pigeon exclaimed dramatically. "The old-fashioned Chinese horror that always relies on background music and visuals to scare people is outdated."
This is exactly the same argument made by those unscrupulous players who lure newbies into the game.
"When you play this game, don't you really feel any sense of oppression and despair about your current living conditions, or the terror that comes with it?"
"To be fair, everyone definitely felt that sense of terror, but because it's a game, the feeling of terror wasn't very real."
"In summary, the gameplay of this game is characterized by a strong storyline, limited interaction, mutual deception between players, and random events, resulting in diverse gameplay."
"I strongly suggest that the official team release the online version as soon as possible."
"I think the future development of this game is very stable. First of all, it can be played as a text adventure game, which can be played multiple times, making it highly playable. In addition, there are a lot of storylines and endings that we haven't unlocked yet, so the game's lifespan will naturally be very long."
"The official team should stop hesitating about the long-term potential of 'The Way of the Corporate Slave'. The new version is already in development, and it should be released soon."
"Get in now, so we can all scam newbies together!"
The pigeon chuckled, "The idol follows the fans."
"Next is our traditional cost-guessing segment. This game looks very large. How did a small company manage to create it?"
"How much money would it take to make a game like this?"
"Actually, that's not the case. During the game, we can see that the scene reuse rate is quite high. There are about 10 main scenes and other side scenes, which are then slightly modified and reused repeatedly."
"The plot is mostly based on social cases, and the workload is mainly on artistic processing, so I personally feel it's okay, but I can say for sure that the production team put in a lot of effort."
"I estimate that with labor costs included, it will be around three to four million."
After estimating the game's costs, the video moved on to its final segment.
"Finally! Let's move on to the interpretation of the final ending."
"Given the multiple endings in this game, there isn't actually a single standard ending that can be interpreted."
"Everyone's outcome is different."
"That is, the most criticized aspect of 'The Way of the Corporate Slave' is its 'fatalism'—no matter how much we struggle, we still can't get a happy ending because we are born as worthless grass."
"But if you think back to the name of this game, you can understand it now. It's not about being a corporate slave, nor is it about the path to liberation; it's about society."
"Whether in or out of the game, the social environment and culture make it difficult for us to live in a world where it is difficult to be happy."
"It's too difficult for you to find transcendence on your own."
"It's too stressful, too tiring. The over-maturity of East Asian culture is reflected in the fact that there are always people telling you how you should do things. The path you've taken is predetermined, and countless people are telling you that you must live your life this way."
"People like playing this game because there is no cost of trial and error. At most, it will waste a little of your time, and there will always be someone to tell you which way to go."
"But ultimately, the choice is yours."
"The Way of the Corporate Slave is not like the VR job simulator that was released before, but explores something much deeper."
"Furthermore, the low cost of text adventure games naturally allows for the inclusion of a large number of identities and professions, making the game's story itself diverse."
"We explore professions that are rarely heard on the internet, beyond what we already know."
"The term 'corporate slave' seems to be limited to office workers on the internet, but in reality there are many more painful professions that are not brought to the public eye."
"This is a unique humanistic concern from the art of games. It is telling us to understand and comprehend our social class. Perhaps it is time to say that."
The dove smiled and slowly typed on the screen: "Workers of the world, unite!"
"Workers of the world, unite!"
"Workers of the world, unite!"
"Workers of the world, unite!"
The comments section was also stirred up, with people flooding the screen with messages.
"That's all for today. There will be more live updates and broadcasts in the future, so please stay tuned. I'm the procrastinator who will definitely update next time. Thank you for watching!"
See you in the next video!
My chapter title seems to be hinting at something.
My hand just typed it out unconsciously; it's definitely not what I really thought.
One more update at midnight~
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