The young man dutifully created a QQ farm, planting it full of golden apples gifted by the system for his girlfriend to steal from. Afterward, he could casually click on the OO game center to see how it differed from the other one.
Then the young man discovered that the damned, annoying membership system was gone. Everyone was the same, and the quick seat selection in the game center didn't require membership; everyone could use this privilege. This immediately removed any resistance the young man had towards the QQ Lianzhong Game Center, and he even began to praise the OO game center.
As he continued to play games, the young man found that the OO game center was indeed far superior to the QQ Lianzhong Game Center. First, the interface UI. The OO game center's interface UI was inexplicably more high-end and attractive than QQ Lianzhong's.
The OO game center exuded a smooth, minimalist aesthetic, while QQ Lianzhong's was as rigid as a tin shed. This difference was also evident in the UIs of QQ and OO themselves.
Then came the actual gaming experience.
Firstly, the OO game center excelled in many details. For instance, in Dou Dizhu, if you intended to play a straight flush, in QQ Lianzhong Game Center, you had to select each card individually, needing at least five single cards to form a straight.
However, in OO, it was much simpler. You just needed to hold down the mouse button on the first card and slide it backward. The system would automatically select the cards that could form a sequence. The entire process took at most two seconds, greatly enhancing the gaming experience.
Similar details were reflected in playing planes and straights, where cards could be quickly played by dragging. The experience was significantly better than QQ's, so the young man directly discarded the QQ Lianzhong Game Center.
However, the young man was still a youth. Playing cards became monotonous after a few rounds, especially when he accidentally discovered that the OO game center even had Red Alert.
"Damn, this OO game platform can even play Red Alert!!" The young man was ecstatic. His favorite game was Red Alert. Unfortunately, he had memorized every mission in the campaign and could defeat the brutal AI. The PvE aspect had greatly diminished in appeal for him. He usually gathered a group of friends to play online in internet cafes.
It was just that today, he was alone to chat with his girlfriend, so naturally, no friends were there to accompany him for online play.
Frankly speaking, if his friends were with him for online play, why would he be chatting with his girlfriend!
So, the young man quickly clicked on the Red Alert button in the center, selected the thousand-player room he wanted to enter, and the game launched directly. When he opened the LAN interface, the previously empty LAN interface was filled with row upon row of room names. He scrolled through them briefly but couldn't see the end.
He found a map he was most familiar with and entered the room. Before long, the room was full, and they started playing immediately!
…
The young man couldn't remember how many rounds he had played, but by the time the internet cafe system prompted him for insufficient balance and requested a top-up, it was already dark outside.
After finishing a game, the young man reluctantly exited. Just as he was about to go to the counter to top up, he discovered that his girlfriend had sent over a dozen messages, and he hadn't replied. She had already directly stated she wanted to break up. After a few coaxing words, he claimed his mother had caught him at the internet cafe and dragged him home, not even letting him turn off the computer. He now finally had a chance to return to the internet cafe and asked his "wife" not to be angry.
Well, this explanation was flawless. Truly, a man's mouth, a devil's trick.
Afterward, the young man went back to QQ and found some friends he usually played Red Alert with. He frantically sent messages: "I'm at Blue Speed, all night tonight. Hurry up and download OO, then enter the OO game center, let's have a few matches!"
————————————
"I believe this is the reason for our recent decline in performance!" On the phone, Brother Ma said earnestly to Bao Yueqiao, "Brother Bao, can we temporarily lift some of the membership restrictions and add single-player game content? This way, we can retain the heart of QQ's past players!"
Brother Ma spent three days having everyone go to internet cafes to conduct research, which resulted in a report.
This report pointed out that QQ players had returned to Lianzhong Center from other platforms precisely because Lianzhong Center's membership mechanism had too many restrictions. QQ users generally didn't have much money to pay for membership, leading to a very poor gaming experience.
Simultaneously, young people generally preferred single-player games like Red Alert, StarCraft, and CS. Therefore, if the game center could add the functionality for single-player game online play, it could retain QQ users.
Brother Ma highly approved of this report, which led to the phone call above.
"I strongly object!" To Brother Ma's earnest words, Bao Yueqiao replied, "Chairman, do you know how much effort I put into designing this membership system to achieve the current number of members?"
"You want me to stop the members now, so how will we make money? What about the members we've already cultivated?"
"Most importantly, you asking me to stop members now is equivalent to me negating the membership system. All the members who have already paid will be enraged. Expecting them to pay for membership in the future would be wishful thinking. If you do this, then Lianzhong will be like your QQ, never able to turn a profit for its entire life!"
Bao Yueqiao's response made Brother Ma want to spit blood, but he had to admit that Bao Yueqiao was actually right. If they removed the membership system at this time, it would be impossible to reopen membership in the future. Lianzhong, which was finally able to turn a profit, would completely collapse.
"Then can we change the membership rules? Most importantly, the quick seat selection function and the rule against playing with negative points, can we be a little flexible?" Brother Ma suggested.
"No!" Bao Yueqiao once again refused majestically. "My members currently rely on these two selling points for charging. If you ask me to remove these two membership privileges now, what about the users who have already paid for membership? Wouldn't their money be wasted? Should I refund them instead?"
"If you do this, you might as well have me remove the entire membership system!" Brother Ma was once again speechless at Bao Yueqiao's retort.
For a full three hours, Brother Ma communicated with Bao Yueqiao, but without any effect. Bao Yueqiao's stubborn attitude was unimaginable. As a result, not a single one of the more than ten improvement suggestions proposed by Brother Ma was approved.
Even the request to add single-player games was rejected by Bao Yueqiao, with the reasoning that their users hated single-player games the most and would abandon Lianzhong World if they saw it had single-player games.
In the end, Bao Yueqiao even blurted out, "If you change it according to your request, then my Lianzhong World will completely become the OO game center. Then why would you still buy me? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just copy the QQ game center directly?"
Upon hearing this, Brother Ma was completely defeated. He directly hung up the phone, then angrily threw the phone away. The force was so great that it even left a pit in the solid wood floor.
Alas, ever since OO appeared, Brother Ma's temper had become increasingly volatile.
On the other side, Bao Yueqiao probably felt that he shouldn't have treated the new boss so dishearteningly, and that Lianzhong's user base was indeed declining, which was a very dangerous signal.
So, a few days later, Bao Yueqiao proactively called Brother Ma and happily told him that their R&D department had come up with a brand new profit point, guaranteed to make a fortune.
"What profit point?" Brother Ma asked curiously.
"I call it the Super Megaphone function!" Bao Yueqiao proudly introduced. "To match QQ's social attributes, we've decided to launch a world channel in the Lianzhong World update for all our users to chat.
"However, the world channel isn't free to use. You must purchase our Super Megaphone with real money. Each megaphone allows you to send a message of up to 50 characters in the world channel.
"I've done my research; once this function is launched, we'll sell at least 10,000 megaphones daily, which means 10,000 yuan per day, and 3.6 million yuan per year, which is equivalent to two months of server maintenance costs. What do you think of this plan, Chairman?" Bao Yueqiao smiled.
"Good, I have no objections. Implement it as soon as possible!" Brother Ma readily agreed.
The reason he agreed so readily was twofold. Firstly, Brother Ma knew that someone as autocratic as Bao Yueqiao was unstoppable. Since he had already informed Brother Ma, it meant he had decided to proceed. He was merely informing him.
Until he was confident he could replace Bao Yueqiao, it was better not to fall out with him.
And then, Brother Ma felt that this function was indeed quite good and could actually make money. Since that was the case, why not?
So, a few days later, Lianzhong World updated its version, and the world channel and megaphones were available for sale.
The results on the first day of its launch were encouraging. In one day, they sold 200,000 megaphones, earning nearly 200,000 in a single day. This made Brother Ma feel that his fleeting thought of replacing the disobedient Bao Yueqiao was sinful.
However, by the second day, when Brother Ma checked Lianzhong World's backend data again, he was horrified to find that in one day, the number of concurrent online users in Lianzhong World had decreased by about 10,000, which was more than all the previous decreases combined.
The third day was even more terrifying, with a decrease of about 20,000, double that of the previous day.
"What happened?" Brother Ma logged into Lianzhong World to check. As soon as the program opened, the world channel popped up, and continuous megaphones appeared in the world channel. Along with them was a message: OO Game Center, same service, no membership, more games, better experience, welcome to download OO and register to experience. Register now, and each person receives 100 Happy OO Bean seeds.
"Pfft..." Brother Ma was truly angered to the point of spitting blood.