signingbooks #479 - Colleagues were shocked: Mr. Lu, are you kidding me? (2 in 1 order required)
#479 - Colleagues were shocked: Mr. Lu, are you kidding me? (2 in 1 order required)
Soon, the three major studios of Taoyuan Village officially produced and released a promotional video for the game.
The promotional video showcased that in Taoyuan Village's new work, players would play the role of a NEET otaku who spends his days lying at home playing games. His main activity is constantly pouring money into the game, essentially abandoning social interactions in the real world, and continuously wallowing in a life of laziness and depravity.
The scene opens with a small, dark room, the only light source coming from a monitor in the corner. A young man is seen shirtless, staring blankly at the screen, fiddling with a game controller in his hand.
The camera zooms in, and we see a heated action game being played on the screen. The young man is controlling a character with extremely high combat power, engaged in a fierce battle with a menacing BOSS monster.
Just then, a small vortex clock appears faintly in the corner of the screen, next to which are the words 'Increase Combat Power' in large letters. As if bewitched, the young man mechanically clicks on it.
Immediately, a holographic projection pops up on the screen, detailing various game equipment and items available for purchase. From monster-slaying artifacts to life-recharging pods, there is a wide variety, and the prices are astronomical.
Without hesitation, the young man pulls out a credit card and swipes it wildly on the screen. In just a few minutes, the numbers on the screen rapidly decrease by hundreds of thousands. But at the same time, his game character also obtains several extremely rare top-tier equipment, and his combat power instantly skyrockets several times over.
The once-difficult BOSS battle instantly becomes a piece of cake with the support of the equipment. The young man's character effortlessly defeats the once-powerful monster, earning extremely high scores and rewards.
Throughout this process, the young man remains expressionless, focused like a machine issuing commands, never showing any sign of joy from beginning to end.
The following plot repeats the above cycle. The young man is either fighting monsters or frantically spending money to buy more game equipment. Day after day, year after year, his life seems to consist only of this endless cycle.
Occasionally, he seems to leave the computer, but only to open the refrigerator, hastily swallow some leftover food, or go into the bathroom for a quick shower. Besides that, he has no other life.
Thus, the young man spends almost all his time and energy on this game. To increase his character's combat power, he has spent all his savings and income, and even overdrawn a lot of loans. In the end, he is like a puppet stripped of his real life, his only purpose being to live for the virtual world.
The final scene is a close-up from behind the young man, showing his hunched back, with empty beer bottles, take-out boxes, and bills scattered on the floor, while on the screen, his game character is seizing glory and treasures one after another.
Then, the screen goes black, and the promotional video ends. We see no text or narration; the entire clip uses a short and vivid image to showcase the game's core gameplay of 'frantic spending for combat power'.
……
After seeing the poster, players expressed shock and confusion. They didn't understand how Taoyuan Village, whose previous games were full of striving, could think of making a game that seemed so boring.
"Taoyuan Village's games have always been challenging and rewarding. It's really unexpected that they're making a game that encourages players to do nothing this time."
"I don't understand the development team's intention. Isn't the point of a game to bring people joy? How can this kind of idle gameplay be fun?"
"After watching the promotional video, I don't feel good at all. This lifestyle is too颓废 (tuí fèi - decadent), completely contrary to the values I usually pursue."
"As a seasoned player, I certainly understand the importance of relaxation, but using 'idleness' as a selling point seems a bit much."
"I wonder if the development team has considered the market prospects of this kind of work? I really doubt how many people will favor it."
"People with money and free time might like this experience, but for most office workers, this kind of game will instead create resentment."
"Although the concept is a bit avant-garde, using 'lying flat' (bǎi làn - letting things rot/giving up) as the core selling point sounds too dangerous."
"Perhaps this is just an experimental attempt by the development team? I hope the next work won't be so 'extreme'."
"Speaking of which, I'm still very curious about what this strange game experience is like. Maybe it's worth a try?"
"Idleness is certainly comfortable, but if I really did nothing all day, I think I'd be bored to death."
……
Yokoi Gunpei sipped his Blue Mountain coffee while browsing the various online comments about Taoyuan Village's new work with great interest. A smug smile appeared on his face, and his eyes radiated a faint sense of pride.
"Hmph, as I expected, these guys still overestimated their 'bold innovation'." Yokoi muttered to himself, his tone full of contempt. "They should be grateful that their only competitor is Sony. If it were another company, this kind of game would have been ridiculed mercilessly."
He stretched lazily, sinking into the comfortable seat. On his desk, a laptop with the latest version of 'The Last of Us 3' project files was in standby mode. Yokoi glanced at the screen, and a smug smile appeared at the corner of his mouth again.
"If we had followed the original plan, these two products would have competed on the same stage this winter. But it seems that our 'The Last of Us 3' can avoid another opponent." Yokoi crossed his arms, his expression even more proud.
Then, he opened the laptop and clicked on the game production files. On the screen was a snowy mountain forest scene, a group of fully armed ruthless militants swarming up, surrounding a group of unarmed refugees, women and children trembling under their iron hooves, terrified.
"This is the real work, the experience that players really need." Yokoi grinned, revealing a confident smile. "Only by showing the ugliness and distortion of human nature to the fullest can they be immersed in it, experience that fear and despair, and make the game generate real shock and impact!"
Saying that, he mercilessly pressed the 'PLAY' button on the development tool. The screen immediately switched to a third-person perspective behind a fully armed ruthless militant. Yokoi controlled the character, picked up the rocket launcher in his hand, and aimed it at the group of trembling civilians.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!" he shouted excitedly. As soon as he finished speaking, the rocket launcher in the character's hand had already been fired, and the firelight split a dazzling arc in the air, smashing into the crowd. Horrifying explosions and screams echoed in the quiet office, but they could not cover up Yokoi's inner pride and joy.
"Hahaha, this is the ultimate in violent aesthetics! How can the Taoyuan Village guys compare to us?" He laughed gleefully, perched on the chair, proudly striking a habit pose. "As long as we have this 'The Last of Us 3', their kind of bland product poses no threat at all. I have the final say on this year's winter blockbuster, everything is under control!"
Thus, Yokoi Gunpei was immersed in his world of violence and conquest desires. For those unique games that explore new aesthetic power, he only had endless contempt and arrogance.
……
Pei Shengnan sat in the spacious and bright office of Longteng Group headquarters, overlooking the surging traffic outside the window from a high vantage point. His gaze passed through the floor-to-ceiling glass, over this steel jungle, over the distant skyline, seeming to gaze into the future.
This business tycoon, over half a century old, was particularly radiant today. He picked up the glass of red wine at hand, took a careful sip, and revealed a satisfied expression. This was a vintage wine from a famous Bordeaux winery in France, not some cheap stuff.
"Hmph, it seems we have completely surpassed those so-called peers." Pei Shengnan snorted contemptuously, his tone full of conceit. He picked up a magazine spread out on his desk, the magazine cover featuring the 'Taoyuan Village Lying Flat Game' that had been the subject of much discussion in the entertainment industry recently.
"What innovation and exploration? Just a bunch of pretentious guys." He flipped through the magazine content, and a smug smile gradually appeared on his face. "Look at the evaluations of these guys, they are useless and asking for humiliation!"
Pei Shengnan roughly threw the magazine aside, leaned back, and sank into the comfortable seat. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and a confident smile appeared at the corner of his lips.
Soon, he opened his eyes again, his gaze falling on a super-large curved monitor in the center of the desk. On the screen was a promotional video for Longteng Group's latest masterpiece, 'SimCity: Infinite World'.
In the lens, a gorgeous and colorful city scene unfolded slowly. High-rise buildings, neon lights, and bustling traffic. All the material wealth and functional crowding of a modern city were in full view. And above the high city, there was a superimposed new world. The once-developed metropolis buildings gradually became dilapidated, replaced by a virtual and majestic spectacle: undulating mountains, gurgling streams, and scattered ruins, a scene of idyllic ease like a paradise.
Two completely different worlds, one is the extravagant pre-modern urban luxury, and the other is the majestic pastoral poetry. They coexist and are juxtaposed in this game in a magical way, complementing each other, like a huge 'metaverse' painting slowly unfolding.
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"This is true game innovation, not that chicken-rib-like consumerism product." Pei Shengnan stared at the screen intently, his eyes radiating a confident look. "Perfectly merging two seemingly contradictory worlds, allowing players to gain endless fun in endless imagination and exploration, this is the ultimate value of the game."
He bent down and took out the latest Longteng-developed AR glasses from the drawer, carefully putting them on his head. Immediately, the scene of the entire office suddenly twisted and deformed, replaced by a flowing ocean of pixels. And in his eyes, the magnificent 'metaverse' city painting suddenly magnified and materialized, turning into a virtual behemoth composed of countless pixels, completely enveloping the entire person.
Pei Shengnan slowly raised his arm and gently clicked in the virtual space in front of him. Instantly, the virtual city behemoth produced subtle changes, and countless pixels began to recombine and flow, giving birth to a brand new landscape that players expected.
"This is the future," Pei Shengnan muttered to himself, a fanatical expression on his face. "An omnipotent, omnipresent metaverse world, it will open up a new era for players! And Longteng is the best power to lead this era!"
He waved his arm, and the pixel world changed dramatically. Everything seemed to be under his control, and everything was gradually changing towards the way he expected.
"Haha, listen up, those pedantic peers! You are just living in the past, and we, Longteng, have already seen the future!" Pei Shengnan laughed loudly, his voice echoing in the virtual pixel space, resounding through the clouds.
Thus, Pei Shengnan was completely immersed in the "metaverse" ideal he had constructed. For those who were engaged in traditional game creation, he only had disdain and endless conceit.
……
And Cai Yuhao of Mihoyo also dismissed Lu Yu's new game. He couldn't help but recall that at the EASTJOY exhibition the year before last, Lu Yu had confronted him back then, but now it doesn't matter, because Mihoyo's game 'Arknights' will definitely achieve great success.
Cai Yuhao sat bored in the boss's chair in his office, with his hands crossed behind his head and his feet tapping the floor in a haphazard manner. His gaze swept somewhat absentmindedly across the floor-to-ceiling windows in front of him. Below were the endless streams of traffic, and in the distance were the myriad lights of Mile City, this once small fishing village, now a game industry powerhouse.
This young man in his early thirties, although not the most famous figure among his peers, has now climbed to the ranks of industry leaders by virtue of his family's game company background and his consistent enthusiasm for game production. However, today, he seemed particularly irritable and restless.
"That stinky old man, really takes himself seriously!" Cai Yuhao suddenly muttered with dissatisfaction, recalling Lu Yu's rather contemptuous words to him at the EASTJOY exhibition two years ago.
He immediately became angry, slammed his hands on the armrests of the chair, and sat up straight. Just as he was about to continue complaining, his gaze inadvertently swept across a magazine on his desk.
It was a game magazine that had just been released this month, and the cover was the promotional image of Lu Yu's game company Taoyuan Village's newly released work. Seeing this cover, a malicious smile immediately appeared on Cai Yuhao's face.
"Oh, isn't this the game that old man you just released?" He picked up the magazine, and his hands were quite fondling the image of the scantily clad, skeletal female character on the cover. "How about it, this game is really 'bold'!"
Saying that, he opened the magazine and began to browse the introduction and reviews of this game page by page. During the reading process, Cai Yuhao's expression began to gradually change from the initial curiosity to a sneering, mocking look.
"Ha? This game's gameplay is just blindly taking stimulants, piling up troops, and fighting and killing? Just repeating this set? It's so boring!" He sneered, slammed the magazine hard on the table. "No wonder those宅 (zhái - otaku) give such terrible reviews. This kind of game isn't even as good as our 'Arknights' module gameplay!"
Speaking of this game, "Ape God," Cai Yuhao's expression became much more proud. His hands frantically pressed something on the keyboard, and immediately, the actual gameplay of "Ape God" appeared on the large screen in the office.
On the screen was a primitive tribe dressed in grass clothing. They wielded stone tools and spears, engaged in a desperate battle with a group of medieval knights clad in steel armor. The image settings of the two sides were completely different, as was the battlefield environment - the wild men were actually in a modern office landscape!
The screen suddenly switched, and a completely new scene appeared: a devastated Earth, filled with nuclear radiation zones and architectural ruins. A group of centaur-like monsters were fighting against an army of robots. Above them, several alien spaceships were bombing the ground!
"See? This is a truly open world that integrates infinite possibilities! As long as the player's imagination is rich enough, 'Ape God' allows you to create any fantasy scene in the game world!" Cai Yuhao said triumphantly, with a confident look on his face. "Every scene, every plot, can be freely combined, developed, and realized by players based on the game's module system! Unprecedented creative experience, this is our unique skill!"
He reached out and tapped a few more keys on the keyboard, and the game scene changed abruptly again: this time, what appeared on the screen was actually Cai Yuhao's own 3D model. He was holding a lightsaber while controlling a King Kong gorilla warrior, fighting against a group of AI robots from a future fortress!
"Haha, this is a module I personally developed for this game! A brand new plot starring me personally, the player will be invincible!" He laughed proudly, fiddling with the keyboard repeatedly.
On the screen, Cai Yuhao's model suddenly jumped up, greeted by a burst of gorgeous special effects, raised his lightsaber, and actually slashed at the row of AI enemies in front of him! None of those enemies escaped; they were all chopped into pieces by him, as if they were the most vulnerable little monsters in the game.
"Hahahaha! Who says Mileyou is no good? This is our ability! This is true game innovation!" Cai Yuhao said triumphantly, laughing wildly, venting all his previous worries and indignation. "Old man Lu Yu, what is your little thing? 'Ape God' will become the banner of a new generation of open-world games. Your 'bold innovation' is just this capable; it is vulnerable in front of us!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Cai Yuhao's model on the screen raised a victory gesture, and this scene was frozen in an impressive picture.