Are you cheating, kid?!
After the pigeons finished their live stream.
I don't know which evil person said this: "This game is interesting, brothers. Shouldn't we try to shut down the other streamers too?"
So after Pigeon, a top-tier gaming streamer, played two newly released VR games on his live stream, almost half of the gaming streamers in the gaming section were subsequently trapped inside the games.
Logically speaking, compared to the small-scale, limited-scene, and monotonous "Out-of-Body Simulator," "Town Mayor" should be even more popular.
But what's actually popular is... "Out-of-Body Simulator"?
Almost immediately after that live stream ended, the entire internet—and I'm not exaggerating—was talking about "Out-of-Body Simulator" in every discussion about VR games.
It's not that "The Town Mayor" flopped immediately; it's still going strong, but it's just really unpleasant.
Why do I feel so bad?
Out-of-Body Simulator was released several days later than Town Mayor, which had been heavily promoted before its release.
As a result, once this damn simulator game came out, the popularity of "The Town Mayor" inexplicably began to decline. Not only did its popularity drop, but its discussion also visibly disappeared.
As I said before, it's still fresh in everyone's minds, but it's completely different from what it was like before "Out-of-Body Simulator" was released.
The marketing data looks truly appalling in the backend.
The developers of "The Town Mayor" were quite bewildered, especially the publicity department. They were trying to explain why the data had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and they frantically searched for the cause, but they couldn't find the answer.
It's as if it's simply because there's nothing much to discuss about "The Town Mayor"—it's just an ordinary healing game, and the same old stories are being told over and over again.
It fails to attract the attention of casual players.
Unlike "Out-of-Body Simulator," which was unknown at the beginning but suddenly became a hot topic due to the pigeon's live stream as sales slowly increased.
Then sales began to increase exponentially.
This emulator is cheap! Other well-made emulator games are priced at 50 and up with no upper limit, only occasionally dropping below 50 when there's a discount.
For anyone with VR equipment, buying an "Out-of-Body Simulator" would be a piece of cake.
People have a herd mentality, and most gamers are young people. Whether consciously or unconsciously, they tend to follow trends.
However, many people are saying that this is a prison enlightenment simulator, and players who haven't played it yet will start to wonder how exactly prison life works.
It's like a terrible movie suddenly appearing out of nowhere, and everyone says it's awful. Those who haven't seen it become curious: "Let me see just how bad it is."
After all... those who have the money to buy VR equipment certainly won't care about 14 yuan, such a small amount of money.
Buying them to fill up your game library is fine too.
The head of the publicity department was increasingly disheartened. He had originally hoped that the marketing success of "Town Mayor" would boost the game's sales, earn him praise from the boss, and give him a bonus.
Now, the game "Out-of-Body Simulator" has easily captured the attention of a large number of players with only a tenth of their marketing budget.
They even got themselves trending on social media.
That's clearly not a man-made trending topic, but a genuine trending topic pushed up by netizens.
[This is weird, what kind of strange game is this?]
Is Zhixing Games cheating? We've spent a ton of money on the game, and you're cheating?!
Can you please show some respect for your opponent?
The person in charge now only feels that the boss made some empty promises back then, saying, "We want to make 'The Town Mayor' go all the way forward, while also causing 'Out-of-Body Simulator' to crash and burn along with it."
You thought it was just a small fishing boat, so you went up and kicked it a couple of times. Who knew there were several burly men inside?
Why doesn't this make sense?
No matter how bitter it is, the person in charge still has to report to the boss and decide on the next phase of the promotion plan—whether or not to invest more money.
This is a question comparable to "to be or not to be."
It is now clear that if we continue to promote "The Town Mayor" and get more people to see it, they will buy VR equipment and join the VR player community.
A significant portion of the population will likely purchase "Out-of-Body Simulator" at the same time, and will likely recommend it to others later on.
If we don't promote it, it'll seem like our game has been defeated.
In short, it's a dilemma that leaves people stuck and at a loss.
You should know that Zhixing and this game company are rivals. Who attacks the enemy's crystal tower while the enemy is healing themselves?!
To say it's a "recovery" is a nice way of putting it. The harsher way is that it's exploiting its own game for personal gain—a truly dirty tactic.
After much difficult deliberation, Zhang Xia decided to reduce the publicity budget and stop making such a big fuss.
I just can't keep up; the other team is cheating.
No wonder Zhixing Games is so fearless, insisting on causing a collision.
He was indignant, gritting his teeth, completely forgetting that it was he and his colleagues who initially decided to crash the Zhixing Game.
No matter how much Zhang Xia struggled internally, the popularity of "Out-of-Body Simulator" continued to increase exponentially.
Many players use this simple little game to look in the mirror, escaping the hustle and bustle of the world for a long time to examine themselves.
This game can be considered a meditation aid.
The importance of meditation for modern people is self-evident. Having time to quietly reflect on oneself is very important, but people often don't have the time or the habit of doing so.
Besides its meditation aid function, some people, like doves, quietly listen to the music coming from their headphones and recall the beauty of dusty memories.
Of course, according to the theory that everything can help with sleep, some people also use it to soothe their emotions and help them sleep.
—This is all in the context of art and literature, but if we only focus on art and literature, we will inevitably fail to achieve diversity.
These days, only outrageous and unconventional games can survive. As a player of Zhixing Games, you may not survive, but you can't be without a livelihood.
"It works great. I bought one for my talkative boyfriend, and now my world is much quieter."
"What nonsense! Not at all. I've decided to buy one for my hot-tempered dad to train his temper."
"I'm an accountant, and seeing this game felt like seeing new hope. I started playing it now, as practice for when I'll be in jail someday. On this path, I want to overtake others and reach new heights!"
"Hey buddy in front, don't go too far, hahaha, it's so flavorful, so very Chinese."
In fact, it wasn't just Zhang Xia who was completely baffled; Nan Linqing, who was part of the game development team, and Fang Qixiang, the game's lead planner, were also somewhat confused.
How did this become so popular? It's quite bizarre.
I vaguely remember that everyone who had tried it before had a "hard to evaluate" look on their face regarding "Out-of-Body Simulator".
I vaguely remember that at the beginning of the collaboration, the two parties had some disagreements about the three-hour refund period. Now it seems that it was completely unnecessary, and the refund rate is even lower than that of ordinary games.
It's at least less than "The Town Mayor".
"He truly has the bearing of a big shot."
As is customary, Nan Linqing engaged in mutual flattery. She resolved to thoroughly study "Out-of-Body Simulator" once she returned to her studio. She had a premonition that their studio's series of rhythm games was about to undergo a new gameplay revolution.
All of this was because of an outrageous game.
Fang Qixiang nodded affirmatively: "President Jiang's thinking is really hard to fathom. This collaboration has been very pleasant, Professor Nan."
If the first game, "The Way of the Corporate Slave," could be attributed to the luck of Zhixing Games, then the next game, "Out-of-Body Simulator," which was clearly just a small project made for fun (a genuinely small project), once again proved their strength.
Even if some people would say it was luck.
Luck is a kind of ability, isn't it?
During development, who hasn't doubted the game's actual playability?
Fortunately, with the success story of "The Way of the Corporate Slave" from the neighboring group, coupled with the benefits of Zhixing, everyone was in a state of blind confidence in President Jiang.
Fang Qixiang has extensive work experience, but this is the first time he has led such an uncertain project.
Furthermore, no real market research, user analysis, or comparison of similar products was conducted when the project was initiated.
Looking back now, it feels like a dream.
Jiang Chuan just stepped out of his VR headset and gave it a very positive review: "This simulator is even better than I imagined."
Perhaps it was because the team leader was Fang Qixiang, who had a wealth of experience, or perhaps it was because the partner was the talented Nanjing Forestry University.
His initial idea for making this game was very simple: to try it out, to create a space for reflection within the game, and to leave a blank space in the history of games.
As for gameplay, there's almost nothing in "Out-of-Body Simulator," which is why it's described as a pure experiment, a complete simulator with absolutely no other gameplay design.
One of the more innovative aspects is probably the accessory.
It has nothing to do with games either.
Another reason might be that the experience store has VR equipment installed, so they just use it as a side project.
In Jiang Chuan's mind, this should be a small project that doesn't make much of a splash. He even only approved 50,000 yuan for Fang Qixiang's publicity expenses. Compared to the generosity during the game development, this amount of money is practically a beggar's gift.
Now, a sudden fire...
It's easy to imagine that they will face a lot of criticism in the future.
Jiang Chuan had even already anticipated the angles from which netizens who disliked "Out-of-Body Simulator" would attack him.
However, it doesn't matter whether these criticisms exist or not, Jiang Chuan won't look at them anyway.
He turned to look at the count, who was unusually quiet now that he had locked him in the game, and once again affirmed his wise decision to persist in developing this game.
Players really know how to use things; otherwise, he wouldn't have even considered this kind of use.
Jiang Chuan was in high spirits and created a new game document.
The DLC for "The Way of the Corporate Slave" is not yet finished, but Fang Qixiang's team has some free time. What kind of games will they make next?
Jiang Chuan roughly searched for game genres and then randomly selected the simulation game EDU (education), a game he had never played before in his previous life.
Meanwhile, the first person on the entire internet to try out "Out-of-Body Simulator" finally made a move three days after the live stream ended.
As is her custom, she posted a video providing a comprehensive review of "Out-of-Body Simulator"...
As for "Town Mayor"... Well, this game, like "Double Happiness 2" back then, couldn't escape its destined fate and was temporarily forgotten by the internet.
It's truly a ridiculous game that has absolutely no meaning (gestures).
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com